On iOS, Buzz stores verified profile and channel information for the
notification extension. The extension uses this cache to show sender and
channel names. Loading profiles or channels also updates the cache.
Cache updates currently check event signatures on the UI thread, even
when the caller does not wait for the update. This can delay taps and
screen updates. This change moves those checks to a background worker.
Signature checks, event selection, community boundaries, and the order
of native writes are preserved.
The worker accepts up to eight batches. When it is busy, later profile
requests stay coalesced before fetching; profiles already loaded remain
available immediately. Overlapping channel updates trigger a fresh
joined-channel cache snapshot after the current export finishes, without
delaying or restarting the channel screen. Queue saturation gets up to
five retries per operation. Pending updates get their own recovery
attempt even if the preceding export fails. Recovery fetches
joined-channel data once and retries cache admission without repeating
relay reads. It does not fetch the open-channel directory. Verified
payloads are split into native-sized writes (256 profiles or 512 paired
channels), keeping the same export ordering. Native profile/channel
write failures retry the same verified chunk while retaining the
export's queue position. All chunks share five retries with 7.75 seconds
total backoff; other native errors fail immediately. Terminal failures
are recorded, and later successful writes do not hide them. Captured
batches keep their original community. Pending channel refetches are
retired on a community switch and refreshed when the user returns. The
cache remains best effort; prolonged failures can still prevent
delivery.
Tests through the production APIs reduced UI delay from 27–31 ms to
below 0.3 ms for four profiles, and from 59–60 ms to below 0.3 ms for
four channel and membership pairs. The native payloads were identical.
This does not measure overall screen speed.
Validation: 2,225 mobile tests passed (one skipped), along with 18
focused export tests, 12 recovery tests, 39 native Swift tests, 35
focused profile tests, and static analysis. Production regressions cover
13-entity bursts, invalid newer events, community rebuilds, reentrant
refreshes, and terminal failures. Regression tests fail when producer
recovery controls, terminal-failure draining, or member-only recovery
scope are removed.
---------
Signed-off-by: Tom Brow <tomb@block.xyz>
This PR implements MVP, iOS-only,
[NIP-PL](8d2d0ff5ad/docs/nips/NIP-PL.md)-compliant
push notifications.
A relay with `BUZZ_PUSH_ENABLED` will send a push notification for any
message that appears in the in-app Notifications tab.
## Enrollment flow
The first time the client first connects to a relay with
`BUZZ_PUSH_ENABLED`:
```mermaid
sequenceDiagram
autonumber
participant App as Buzz iOS app
participant iOS
participant Relay as Buzz relay
participant Attest as Apple App Attest
participant Gateway as Push gateway
App->>Relay: Fetch NIP-11 push capability
Relay-->>App: Push profile, current relay public key, and limits
par
App->>iOS: Request notification permission
iOS-->>App: Permission result
and
App->>iOS: Register for remote notifications
iOS-->>App: Device token
end
App->>Gateway: Request installation challenge
Gateway-->>App: Single-use challenge
App->>Attest: Attest installation transcript
Attest-->>App: Attestation proof
App->>Gateway: Enroll device token and proof
Gateway-->>App: Installation handle
App->>Gateway: Request delegation challenge
Gateway-->>App: Single-use challenge
App->>Attest: Assert relay-key delegation
Attest-->>App: Assertion
App->>Gateway: Create delegation
Gateway-->>App: Opaque endpoint grant
App->>Relay: Publish encrypted push lease and filters
Relay-->>App: Lease acknowledged
```
## Push-time flow
When a notification-eligible event is received by the relay:
```mermaid
%%{init: {
"sequence": {
"actorMargin": 20,
"width": 110,
"messageMargin": 18,
"diagramMarginX": 8,
"wrap": true
}
}}%%
sequenceDiagram
autonumber
participant Relay as Buzz relay
participant Gateway as Push gateway
participant APNs as Apple Push<br/>Notification service
participant iOS
participant NSE as Notification service<br/>extension
Relay->>Gateway: POST /v1/deliveries/apns<br/>opaque endpoint grant, request ID, expiry, NIP-98 authorization
Gateway->>APNs: POST /3/device/{device-token}<br/>topic, request ID, expiry, constant mutable-content payload
APNs-->>Gateway: 200 OK: request accepted
Gateway-->>Relay: 200 OK: accepted status
APNs-->>iOS: Notification: constant reconnect alert<br/>mutable-content = 1
iOS->>NSE: Invoke extension<br/>original notification content
NSE->>Relay: POST /query: subscription filters, limit 10<br/>NIP-98 authorization
Relay-->>NSE: 200 OK: signed Nostr events<br/>kinds 9, 40002, 45001, or 45003
NSE->>iOS: Complete notification: title, body, subtitle<br/>thread ID, exact-message target
```
relay → push gateway → APNs -> NSE -> Notification Center
## Known limitations
The APNs wake payload is intentionally constant and opaque: it contains
no originating community or message identifier, in keeping with the
implemented NIP-PL privacy design.
The Notification Service Extension must therefore reconnect to the relay
and resolve eligible messages after each wake. Around overlapping wakes,
timing boundaries, or resolution windows, notification presentation may
occasionally omit an expected message or display a message more than
once.
This best-effort behavior is deliberately accepted for the current
implementation and will be measured during the internal rollout to
determine whether the user experience is acceptable before any broader
deployment; the implementation does not claim exactly-once presentation.
## Validation
Live end-to-end hardware validation used an internal remotely hosted
development relay and push gateway, the APNs sandbox, and a physical
iPhone 12 mini:
- A second real Buzz client published a uniquely marked message through
the hosted relay.
- The relay matched the message and sent the constant opaque wake
through the hosted gateway. The gateway made an actual APNs request; no
`simctl push` or simulated notification was used.
- The iPhone received the notification on its lock screen. The
Notification Service Extension reconnected to the relay, fetched the
event, verified its ID and signature, and replaced the placeholder
content with the real notification title and body.
- After the app populated its shared presentation cache, a final marked
notification visibly showed the sender display name, sender avatar, and
hashtag-prefixed channel name.
- Tapping a lock-screen notification opened Buzz and exercised the
notification-response path and navigated to the corresponding message.
Final validation with a dogfood-signed artifact and production App
Attest/APNs configuration remains a release step.
## Independent pre-reviews
- **First pass:**
[Carl](buzz://message?channel=18882f4c-289f-41db-942f-81f6f8066da1&id=74ab9a93bb227f3e762568f1cf9fee66d7495b0edc3918735ff787238b9cc585)
found missing transient retries, executor-key rotation suppression,
duplicate installation renewal, and an unauthenticated challenge write
amplifier. These were resolved by [retry-safe
bootstrap](https://github.com/block/buzz/pull/6269/changes/12c66ea62)
and [authenticated renewal plus a cross-replica
quota](https://github.com/block/buzz/pull/6269/changes/8e5ece0bd).
[sol-max](buzz://message?channel=ad83385f-8e9e-4461-9a35-c1bf2e208532&id=d26d53daa4684669e2ed354638241f13f36c3a97027fe8b4dd738aff09038962)
found delegation generation burning and an edited applied migration,
resolved by [exact-generation
revocation](https://github.com/block/buzz/pull/6269/changes/c26d2159d)
and a [forward-only
migration](https://github.com/block/buzz/pull/6269/changes/956c1d099).
[k3-max](buzz://message?channel=5e46055d-a766-4065-ae25-05d1e4aaa6b2&id=d43139138a0b15f806cbdbeeedd8f69d992cadf2e805876db6fdde6a34c7eda1)
found no blockers.
- **Exact-head re-review:**
[Carl](buzz://message?channel=18882f4c-289f-41db-942f-81f6f8066da1&id=a897721673459301b0cf26e8b85a1478d7ebbb56a4621f93d774c98d395b8f68),
[sol-max](buzz://message?channel=ad83385f-8e9e-4461-9a35-c1bf2e208532&id=fb2159f709ec68f74f7b21459acd76da0e8a7c5c0f3d469f99826b0cc2380849),
and
[k3-max](buzz://message?channel=5e46055d-a766-4065-ae25-05d1e4aaa6b2&id=2ce2842910435f562e9d9cc718595848f281b122c94605e523a4b964254b8bfb)
independently returned **NO BLOCKERS** at `7eb3a650b`; k3-max also
revalidated every remediation and the endpoint-specific App Attest
enrollment bound.
---------
Signed-off-by: Tom Brow <tomb@squareup.com>
Signed-off-by: Tom Brow <tomb@block.xyz>
Co-authored-by: Tom Brow <tomb@squareup.com>
Co-authored-by: Codex <noreply@openai.com>
Co-authored-by: Jordan Mecom <jm@squareup.com>
Tom Brow