fix(hub): an open application looks for new notifications when you come back

The page asked for the notification list at sign-in and at a token renewal,
and at no other time. A notification created after the application started,
such as a chat line the hub wrote 20 ms after the message, stayed unseen until
the next launch.

The hub has no channel to the page and is not polled on a timer, so the list
is asked for again on a gesture: the application returning to the foreground
(an Android phone included) and the home page, where the list is shown. Two
requests less than 30 s apart count as one.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5.5 <noreply@anthropic.com>

1 files changed, 48 insertions, 0 deletions

diff --git a/packages/meshbay-hub/tests/test_notification_refresh.py b/packages/meshbay-hub/tests/test_notification_refresh.py
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..9e41f0c
--- /dev/null
+++ b/packages/meshbay-hub/tests/test_notification_refresh.py
@@ -0,0 +1,48 @@
+"""
+An open application asks for the notification list again when somebody comes back.
+
+Reported live on 2026-10-09: a member posted in a group, the hub wrote the
+owner's notification 20 ms later, and the owner, whose application was open,
+never saw it. Nothing was broken on the hub or the node. The page asked for the
+list at sign-in (and at a token renewal, every few hours) and at no other time,
+so a notification created after the application started waited for the next
+launch.
+
+The hub has no channel to the page and is deliberately not polled on a timer,
+so the list is asked for again on a gesture: the application returning to the
+foreground, or the home page, where the list is shown. Two in a row are one
+question. These read the source; there is no browser for the SPA's state here.
+"""
+
+import re
+from pathlib import Path
+
+APP = (Path(__file__).resolve().parents[1] / "src" / "meshbay_hub" / "static"
+       / "app.js").read_text()
+
+
+def _block(start: str) -> str:
+    i = APP.index(start)
+    return APP[i:APP.index("\n  }, [", i)]
+
+
+def test_coming_back_to_the_application_asks_again():
+    listeners = [m.start() for m in re.finditer(r"addEventListener\('visibilitychange'", APP)]
+    bodies = [APP[APP.rfind("useEffect(", 0, i):i] for i in listeners]
+    assert any("refreshNotifications()" in b and "'visible'" in b for b in bodies), \
+        "no visibilitychange listener asks for the notification list"
+
+
+def test_the_home_page_asks_again():
+    assert re.search(r"if \(user && route === '/'\) refreshNotifications\(\);", APP)
+
+
+def test_two_askings_in_a_row_are_one_and_no_timer_asks():
+    refresh = _block("const refreshNotifications = useCallback(")
+    assert "NOTIF_REFRESH_MS" in refresh and "fetchNotifications()" in refresh
+    # The stamp is taken where the request leaves, so the sign-in fetch counts
+    # and the home page right after it does not ask a second time.
+    fetch = _block("const fetchNotifications = useCallback(")
+    assert "notifAskedAtRef.current = Date.now()" in fetch
+    for timer in re.finditer(r"setInterval\(([^,]+),", APP):
+        assert "otif" not in timer.group(1), "the notification list is polled on a timer"