iris: redrawing one widget cost O(its own primitives squared)

Iris's report was that expanding a tool card holding a long,
horizontally-scrolling edit lags on her phone. The cause is not text
layout: shaping and rasterising a 51,200-glyph block is 20ms, and the
frame that drew it took 1.37 seconds.

A widget redrawn in place frees every primitive it owned and writes
fresh ones. Freeing compacts each layer's draw order with swap_remove,
so ~N primitives are renumbered, and finding the handle to renumber was
a linear scan of everything that widget drew -- O(N^2) in the widget's
own primitive count. A paragraph never notices; one text widget holding
a whole old_string and new_string is every glyph in the card.

The arena now records, per slot, where that slot's handle sits in its
owner's ActiveData::primitives, written at the one place a handle is
taken (Painter::own), and apply_free indexes straight to it.

    50,000 glyphs, redrawn:  before 636ms   after 2.4ms
    per glyph:               before 12.7us  after 0.043us, flat in N

benches/message_list.rs gains scenario (g) for it, reporting per-glyph
because flat is the pass condition and a total hides it. That file had
also stopped running entirely: scenarios (a) and (e) built a LazySpan
with no mask around it, which the span now asserts against, so the
benchmark panicked on its second line. Fixed here too.

Also, on Iris's instruction: the copied report no longer inlines a tail
of the app log. Dev Updater's Runtime tab reads the same ring through
devlog's provider, so it was the same lines twice; the diagnostics pane
still names the provider's authority to read them from.

client-core/src/log_ring.rs

@@ -9,14 +9,18 @@
 //! of whichever platform logger was already installed (`android_logger`,
 //! `env_logger`) rather than instead of it -- see [`RingLogger`].
 //!
-//! Two consumers, both reading the same ring rather than each keeping
+//! Three consumers, all reading the same ring rather than each keeping
-//! their own: the bench app's `Copy report`/`Diagnostics` (which reads
+//! their own: whatever hands the log out of the process -- on Android, the
-//! [`LogRing::tail_text`] and [`LogRing::summary`]) and whatever hands the
+//! `DevLogProvider` Dev Updater queries, which reads [`LogRing::since`]
-//! log out of the process -- on Android, the `DevLogProvider` Dev Updater
+//! and [`LogRing::newest_seq`] -- the bench app's diagnostics pane, which
-//! queries, which reads [`LogRing::since`] and [`LogRing::newest_seq`].
+//! only counts it ([`LogRing::summary`]), and the panic hook
-//! That is why reading does not consume: a line already handed over must
+//! ([`LogRing::try_tail_text`]). That is why reading does not consume: a
-//! still be in the report, and a report taken twice must say the same
+//! line already handed over must still be readable, and a report taken
-//! thing.
+//! twice must say the same thing.
+//!
+//! Nothing inlines the log into a copied report any more (2026-09-08):
+//! Dev Updater reads it directly, so a second copy on the clipboard was
+//! the same lines twice.
 
 use std::collections::VecDeque;
 use std::sync::{Arc, Mutex, OnceLock};
@@ -32,15 +36,6 @@ use std::time::{SystemTime, UNIX_EPOCH};
 pub const DEFAULT_MAX_LINES: usize = 2000;
 pub const DEFAULT_MAX_BYTES: usize = 256 * 1024;
 
-/// How many of the ring's newest lines [`LogRing::tail_text`] includes.
-/// Sized for a phone's share sheet rather than for the ring itself: 150
-/// lines of `HH:MM:SS.mmm LEVEL target: message` is a few KiB, comfortably
-/// short of whatever made pasting the full (up to 2000-line) ring into a
-/// chat's message box laggy on Iris's phone. The full ring is still
-/// reachable through `devlog`'s provider, so this only bounds what a
-/// report inlines.
-pub const COPY_REPORT_TAIL_LINES: usize = 150;
-
 /// One recorded line. `seq` is assigned by the ring and only ever
 /// increases, so a reader that remembers where it got to can ask for what
 /// came after -- and a gap in the sequence is exactly the lines the bound
@@ -249,35 +244,6 @@ impl LogRing {
             .join("\n")
     }
 
-    /// The newest `max_lines` lines, formatted, with a first line naming
-    /// how many older ones were left out of *this* text when the ring held
-    /// more than that -- what `Copy report` appends instead of
-    /// [`Self::to_text`].
-    ///
-    /// Iris's own report: pasting the full ring (over a thousand lines on
-    /// a session that ran with tracing on) into a phone's message box was
-    /// what "causes a lot of lag" meant (docs/IRIS_TODO.md, 2026-09-07
-    /// night) -- nothing is actually lost, since `devlog`'s provider still
-    /// hands Dev Updater's Runtime tab the whole ring; this only caps what
-    /// gets inlined into a share.
-    pub fn tail_text(&self, max_lines: usize) -> String {
-        let lines = self.snapshot();
-        if lines.len() <= max_lines {
-            return lines
-                .iter()
-                .map(LogLine::format)
-                .collect::<Vec<_>>()
-                .join("\n");
-        }
-        let omitted = lines.len() - max_lines;
-        let tail = lines[lines.len() - max_lines..]
-            .iter()
-            .map(LogLine::format)
-            .collect::<Vec<_>>()
-            .join("\n");
-        format!("{omitted} earlier lines omitted; full log in Dev Updater's Runtime tab\n{tail}")
-    }
-
     /// The newest `max_lines` lines, formatted, or `None` if the ring is
     /// locked at this instant.
     ///
@@ -591,33 +557,6 @@ mod tests {
         assert_eq!(ring.to_text().lines().count(), 2);
     }
 
-    #[test]
-    fn tail_text_is_the_whole_ring_untouched_when_under_the_cap() {
-        let ring = LogRing::new(100, 1 << 20);
-        fill(&ring, 5);
-        assert_eq!(ring.tail_text(150), ring.to_text());
-    }
-
-    #[test]
-    fn tail_text_trims_to_the_newest_lines_and_says_how_many_were_left_out() {
-        let ring = LogRing::new(1000, 1 << 20);
-        fill(&ring, 200);
-        let tail = ring.tail_text(150);
-        let mut lines = tail.lines();
-        assert_eq!(
-            lines.next().unwrap(),
-            "50 earlier lines omitted; full log in Dev Updater's Runtime tab"
-        );
-        let rest: Vec<&str> = lines.collect();
-        assert_eq!(rest.len(), 150, "exactly the cap, after the header line");
-        assert!(
-            rest[0].ends_with("line 50"),
-            "the oldest line kept is the 50th, not line 0: {}",
-            rest[0]
-        );
-        assert!(rest.last().unwrap().ends_with("line 199"));
-    }
-
     #[test]
     fn try_tail_text_gives_the_newest_lines_with_no_header() {
         let ring = LogRing::new(1000, 1 << 20);

docs/IRIS.md

@@ -12,7 +12,50 @@ things still stay out.
 An entry gives the date, what changed, why, and a short before/after where
 it helps judge the change without the session that made it. Newest first.
 
-## 2026-09-08 (newest): one `ScrollController`, a `Scrollable` trait, and `Pin`
+## 2026-09-08 (newest): redrawing one widget cost O(its own primitives squared)
+
+Your report -- expanding a tool card with a long horizontally-scrolling
+edit in it lags -- is a framework defect, not a text-layout one, and the
+size of it is not close: **a 51,200-glyph block took 1.37 seconds to
+redraw, of which shaping and rasterising the text was 20ms.** It is 29ms
+now, and the cost is linear in the glyph count rather than quadratic.
+
+What happened. A widget redrawn in place frees every primitive it owned
+and writes fresh ones. Freeing compacts each layer's draw order with
+`swap_remove`, and every primitive that gets swapped into a hole has to be
+told its new position -- so a widget with N primitives generates ~N
+renumberings. Finding the handle to renumber was a **linear scan of
+everything that widget drew**, which made the pass N^2. For a paragraph
+that is nothing. For one text widget holding a whole `old_string` and
+`new_string`, N is every glyph in the card.
+
+The fix is a back-pointer: the primitive arena now records, per slot,
+where that slot's handle sits in its owner's `ActiveData::primitives`
+(`Primitives::handle_index`), written at the one place a handle is taken
+(`Painter::own`). `apply_free` indexes straight to it.
+
+    50,000 glyphs, redrawn:   before 636ms/redraw   after 2.4ms/redraw
+    per glyph:                before 12.7us         after 0.043us (flat in N)
+
+`benches/message_list.rs` grew scenario **(g)** for it, and the number to
+read is per-glyph: flat as N grows is the pass condition, and a total
+hides it. Two things about that file: it also caught the quadratic in
+`--phone`-sized text, and it had stopped running at all -- scenarios (a)
+and (e) built a `LazySpan` with no mask around it, which the span now
+asserts against, so the whole benchmark panicked on its second line.
+Fixed in the same change.
+
+**What this does not fix, and what I would do next.** An open card still
+shapes, rasterises and submits *every* glyph of its input and output, not
+the screenful you can see -- iris does not cull within a widget, and a
+tool card is the one place that bites, because an `Edit`'s `old_string`
+and `new_string` go onto the card whole. The output half is already capped
+(`OUTPUT_LINES`/`OUTPUT_BYTES` in `tool.rs`, 80 lines or 4 KiB behind a
+"Show all"); the *input* half has no cap at all, and that is the
+asymmetry to close. Wrapping the block, which you asked for, changes the
+shape but not this cost: the same glyphs are laid out either way.
+
+## 2026-09-08: one `ScrollController`, a `Scrollable` trait, and `Pin`
 
 Your three points on `docs/SCROLL.md`, in one change. The shape is the one
 you proposed: **a controller both scrolling widgets contain**, rather than

docs/IRIS_TODO.md

@@ -944,6 +944,21 @@ diagnosis and what building it actually costs.
   the shaped-mask work (`.masked_by`, 38bf630) is the likeliest, since the
   old chain was `.masked()` *inside* the padding. Left ticked with the
   original symptom recorded rather than deleted, in case it comes back.
+- [ ] **An open tool card lays out every glyph of its input, however
+  long.** iris does not cull within a widget -- a `Text` shapes,
+  rasterises and submits the whole string whether or not the box it sits
+  in can show it -- and a tool card is where that bites, because an
+  `Edit`'s `old_string` and `new_string` go onto the card whole. The
+  *output* half is already capped at 80 lines or 4 KiB behind a "Show
+  all" (`tool.rs`'s `OUTPUT_LINES`/`OUTPUT_BYTES`); the input half has no
+  cap at all, which is the asymmetry to close, and the cheaper fix of the
+  two. Culling inside a `Text` is the other, and is a real design
+  question: the shaped layout knows where each glyph is, so a viewport
+  test is possible, but nothing else in iris cares where the screen is.
+  Found 2026-09-08 chasing Iris's "expanding the edit card lags" report,
+  whose actual cause was the quadratic `apply_free` (fixed; docs/IRIS.md).
+  Wrapping the block does not change this cost -- the same glyphs are laid
+  out either way.
 - [ ] **No overflow ellipsis.** `TextAttrs` can wrap or not wrap; there is
   no "one line, ellipsised" the way `maxLines = 1` + `TextOverflow.
   Ellipsis` gives Compose. A tool card's summary is clipped instead, so

iris/android-app/src/bench_client.rs

@@ -699,6 +699,13 @@ impl BenchClient {
     /// it copies the diagnostics pane's own text instead, with a first
     /// line saying so -- `diagnostics_text` needs no prior button press
     /// either, so this is never actually empty-handed.
+    /// The report carries **no copy of the app log** (removed 2026-09-08,
+    /// Iris: "please remove the app log from the diagnostics. Those can be
+    /// obtained through dev updater now"). Dev Updater's Runtime tab reads
+    /// the same ring through `devlog`'s provider, and the diagnostics
+    /// pane's own `devlog provider:` line names the authority to read it
+    /// from -- so what is left here is the measurement, not a second copy
+    /// of something already reachable.
     fn copy_report(&mut self, rsc: &mut Rsc) {
         let Some(platform) = &self.platform else {
             log::info!("iris bench report: no platform handle, can't reach the clipboard");
@@ -711,18 +718,6 @@ impl BenchClient {
                 self.diagnostics_text(rsc)
             ),
         };
-        // The ring's tail goes on the clipboard, not the full ring, and
-        // not into the on-screen pane either: the full ring can be over a
-        // thousand lines with tracing on, and pasting that into a phone's
-        // message box was Iris's own "causes a lot of lag" report. The
-        // full ring is still reachable through Dev Updater's Runtime tab
-        // (`devlog`'s provider reads the same ring) -- this only bounds
-        // what gets inlined here.
-        let report = format!(
-            "{report}\n\n=== app log ({}) ===\n{}",
-            crate::app_log::ring().summary(),
-            crate::app_log::ring().tail_text(client_core::log_ring::COPY_REPORT_TAIL_LINES)
-        );
         if platform.copy_to_clipboard("iris bench report", &report) {
             log::info!("iris bench report: copied to clipboard");
         } else {

iris/benches/message_list.rs

@@ -49,6 +49,13 @@
 //!   only the rows on the far side of it, never redraw the ones already
 //!   correctly placed.
 //!
+//! - (g) redraw-one-big-text: a single text widget of N glyphs redrawn in
+//!   place, which is what a tool card rebuilt on a tap costs. Every one of
+//!   its primitives is freed and rewritten, and so renumbered in the
+//!   layer's draw order -- the pass that used to be O(N^2) there
+//!   (`UiRenderState::apply_free`, fixed 2026-09-08). The number to watch
+//!   is per-glyph: it must stay flat as N grows, not grow with it.
+//!
 //! (f), many images with zero steady-state bind-group creation, needs a
 //! real `wgpu` device and lives in `iris/examples/bench_images.rs` instead,
 //! driven through `run-headless.sh` -- see that file's header.
@@ -120,10 +127,19 @@ fn build_message_list(
         list.push_back(LazyItem::new(i as u64, row));
     }
     let list = rsc.ui.widgets.add_strong(list);
+    let weak = list.weak();
+    // Masked because a `LazySpan` requires it -- it draws a row straddling
+    // an edge in full and relies on the clip to cut it off, and asserts as
+    // much rather than letting the overhang reach the screen. The app's
+    // own transcript screen puts the same mask around the same widget.
+    let root = rsc.ui.widgets.add_strong(Masked {
+        shape: None,
+        inner: list.any(),
+    });
     // Driven through the span's own `ScrollController`, like every other
     // scroll area in iris: what this measures has to be the path the app
     // actually takes.
-    (list.weak(), list.any())
+    (weak, root.any())
 }
 
 fn report(label: &str, elapsed: std::time::Duration, draws: u64, rewrites: u64, moves: u64) {
@@ -360,7 +376,15 @@ fn bench_expand_holds_edge(n: usize, growths: usize) {
     }
     let list = rsc.ui.widgets.add_strong(list);
     let list_weak = list.weak();
-    let root = list.any();
+    // Masked for `build_message_list`'s reason -- a `LazySpan` requires it.
+    let root = rsc
+        .ui
+        .widgets
+        .add_strong(Masked {
+            shape: None,
+            inner: list.any(),
+        })
+        .any();
     let growable = growable.unwrap();
 
     let mut render = UiRenderState::new();
@@ -408,6 +432,61 @@ fn bench_expand_holds_edge(n: usize, growths: usize) {
     );
 }
 
+/// (g) One text widget of `chars` characters, redrawn in place `redraws`
+/// times -- an open tool card whose content is rebuilt, or any widget
+/// holding a lot of text that a tap changes.
+///
+/// A redraw frees every primitive the widget owned and writes fresh ones,
+/// so every glyph is renumbered in its layer's draw order. Finding the
+/// handle to renumber used to be a scan of everything the same widget
+/// drew, which made one redraw quadratic in its own glyph count: 1.37s for
+/// 51,200 glyphs on this machine, against 20ms to shape and rasterise the
+/// same text. Print per-glyph rather than per-redraw, since flat is the
+/// pass condition and a total says nothing without dividing it.
+fn bench_redraw_big_text(chars: usize, redraws: usize) {
+    let mut rsc = BenchRsc {
+        ui: UiData::default(),
+    };
+    // One character per glyph, and varied so nothing can collapse the
+    // string into a repeat.
+    let content: String = (0..chars)
+        .map(|i| char::from(b'a' + (i % 26) as u8))
+        .collect();
+    let mut text = Text::new(content);
+    text.wrap = true;
+    let text = rsc.ui.widgets.add_strong(text);
+    let handle = text.weak();
+    let root = text.any();
+
+    let mut render = UiRenderState::new();
+    render.resize((1080.0, 2000.0));
+    render.update(&root, &mut rsc);
+    render.take_counters();
+
+    let mut total = std::time::Duration::ZERO;
+    for _ in 0..redraws {
+        // Asking for the widget mutably is what marks it for redraw --
+        // the same path a caller changing its content takes.
+        rsc.ui.widgets.get_mut(&handle).unwrap();
+        let start = Instant::now();
+        render.update(&root, &mut rsc);
+        total += start.elapsed();
+    }
+    let (draws, rewrites, moves, _shapes) = render.take_counters();
+    report(
+        &format!("(g) redraw one {chars}-glyph text, {redraws}x (totals)"),
+        total,
+        draws,
+        rewrites,
+        moves,
+    );
+    println!(
+        "    per redraw: {:.3}ms, per glyph: {:.4}us",
+        total.as_secs_f64() * 1000.0 / redraws as f64,
+        total.as_secs_f64() * 1_000_000.0 / (redraws * chars) as f64,
+    );
+}
+
 fn main() {
     println!("iris message-list benchmark -- release build, this machine's CPU");
     for &n in &[100usize, 1_000, 10_000] {
@@ -425,4 +504,7 @@ fn main() {
     for &n in &[100usize, 1_000, 10_000] {
         bench_expand_holds_edge(n, 40);
     }
+    for &chars in &[1_000usize, 10_000, 50_000] {
+        bench_redraw_big_text(chars, 10);
+    }
 }

iris/core/src/render/primitive.rs

@@ -124,6 +124,20 @@ macro_rules! primitives {
 pub struct Primitives {
     instances: Vec<PrimitiveInstance>,
     assoc: Vec<WidgetId>,
+    /// Where each slot's [`PrimitiveHandle`] sits in its owner's
+    /// `ActiveData::primitives` -- the index that makes
+    /// `UiRenderState::apply_free` O(1) per renumbered primitive instead
+    /// of a scan of everything the owner drew. Written by
+    /// [`Self::set_handle_index`] from the one place a handle is taken
+    /// into that vec (`Painter::own`), and dead alongside its `assoc`
+    /// entry, which is what keeps the two in step.
+    ///
+    /// Without it a text widget that is freed and redrawn in one frame
+    /// costs O(glyphs^2): every one of its glyphs is renumbered, and each
+    /// renumbering scanned all of them. Measured 2026-09-08 at 1.37s for a
+    /// 51,200-glyph block on this machine, against 20ms for the shaping
+    /// and rasterising of the same text.
+    handle_idx: Vec<u32>,
     /// Slots freed since the last [`Self::apply_free`]. Deliberately not
     /// reusable yet: the layer that drew one still names it in its draw
     /// order until that call compacts the order, so handing it out again
@@ -145,6 +159,7 @@ impl Default for Primitives {
         Self {
             instances: Default::default(),
             assoc: Default::default(),
+            handle_idx: Default::default(),
             freed: Vec::new(),
             reusable: Vec::new(),
             data: Default::default(),
@@ -154,6 +169,11 @@ impl Default for Primitives {
 }
 
 impl Primitives {
+    /// A slot whose handle has not been recorded yet -- see
+    /// [`Self::handle_idx`]. No owner draws four billion primitives, so
+    /// the sentinel cannot collide with a real index.
+    const NO_HANDLE: u32 = u32::MAX;
+
     /// Writes a primitive into the arena and hands back its slot and its
     /// entry in the per-primitive data. The caller (`UiRenderState`) puts
     /// the slot into a layer's draw order -- an instance that no layer
@@ -212,10 +232,12 @@ impl Primitives {
         let slot = if let Some(i) = self.reusable.pop() {
             self.instances[i] = inst;
             self.assoc[i] = id;
+            self.handle_idx[i] = Self::NO_HANDLE;
             i
         } else {
             self.instances.push(inst);
             self.assoc.push(id);
+            self.handle_idx.push(Self::NO_HANDLE);
             self.instances.len() - 1
         };
         slot as u32
@@ -248,10 +270,28 @@ impl Primitives {
         self.assoc[slot as usize]
     }
 
+    /// Records that `slot`'s handle is `idx` entries into its owner's
+    /// `ActiveData::primitives`. Called once per primitive, by the one
+    /// place that puts a handle into that vec.
+    pub fn set_handle_index(&mut self, slot: u32, idx: u32) {
+        self.handle_idx[slot as usize] = idx;
+    }
+
+    /// Where `slot`'s handle sits in its owner's `ActiveData::primitives`
+    /// -- see [`Self::handle_idx`]. `None` only for a slot whose owner
+    /// never took the handle, which nothing in this crate does.
+    pub fn handle_index(&self, slot: u32) -> Option<usize> {
+        match self.handle_idx[slot as usize] {
+            Self::NO_HANDLE => None,
+            idx => Some(idx as usize),
+        }
+    }
+
     pub fn clear(&mut self) {
         self.updated = true;
         self.instances.clear();
         self.assoc.clear();
+        self.handle_idx.clear();
         self.freed.clear();
         self.reusable.clear();
         self.data.clear();

iris/core/src/ui/painter.rs

@@ -56,10 +56,25 @@ impl<'a> Painter<'a> {
             self.rsc.ui_mut().masks.push_ref(self.mask);
         }
         let slot = h.slot;
-        self.primitives.push(h);
+        self.own(h);
         slot
     }
 
+    /// Take ownership of a handle this widget just wrote.
+    ///
+    /// The one place a `PrimitiveHandle` enters `self.primitives`, and so
+    /// the one place that can keep `Primitives::handle_index` in step with
+    /// where it lands -- which is what `UiRenderState::apply_free` reads
+    /// instead of scanning this vec. Anything that writes a primitive
+    /// without coming through here leaves that index unset, and its
+    /// position in a layer's draw order stops being renumbered.
+    fn own(&mut self, h: PrimitiveHandle) {
+        self.state
+            .primitives
+            .set_handle_index(h.slot, self.primitives.len() as u32);
+        self.primitives.push(h);
+    }
+
     /// Writes a primitive to be rendered
     pub fn primitive<P: Primitive>(&mut self, primitive: P) {
         self.primitive_at(primitive, self.region)
@@ -276,7 +291,7 @@ impl<'a> Painter<'a> {
         if self.mask != MaskIdx::NONE {
             self.rsc.ui_mut().masks.push_ref(self.mask);
         }
-        self.primitives.push(h);
+        self.own(h);
     }
 
     pub fn render_text(

iris/core/src/ui/render_state.rs

@@ -207,14 +207,29 @@ impl UiRenderState {
     fn apply_free(&mut self) {
         for (layer, order) in self.layers.iter_mut() {
             for change in order.apply_free() {
+                // Straight to the handle, never a scan of everything the
+                // owner drew: a widget freed and redrawn in one frame has
+                // *every* one of its primitives renumbered here, so a scan
+                // makes this pass quadratic in that widget's primitive
+                // count -- 1.37s for one 51,200-glyph text block, against
+                // 20ms to shape and rasterise the same text (measured
+                // 2026-09-08). `Primitives::handle_index` is written where
+                // the handle is taken, in `Painter::own`.
                 let owner = self.primitives.owner(change.slot);
-                if let Some(active) = self.active.get_mut(&owner) {
+                let Some(idx) = self.primitives.handle_index(change.slot) else {
-                    for h in &mut active.primitives {
+                    continue;
-                        if h.layer == layer && h.slot == change.slot {
+                };
+                if let Some(active) = self.active.get_mut(&owner)
+                    && let Some(h) = active.primitives.get_mut(idx)
+                {
+                    debug_assert!(
+                        h.layer == layer && h.slot == change.slot,
+                        "slot {} says it is handle {idx} of {owner:?}, which is slot {} in                          layer {}",
+                        change.slot,
+                        h.slot,
+                        h.layer,
+                    );
                     h.pos = change.pos;
-                            break;
-                        }
-                    }
                 }
             }
         }