strat-gameplay-webapp/.claude/plans/003-idle-game-eviction.md

Plan 003: Idle Game Eviction

Priority: CRITICAL Effort: 1-2 hours Status: NOT STARTED Risk Level: HIGH - Memory leak / OOM

---

Problem Statement

The StateManager tracks _last_access[game_id] for each game but never uses it for eviction. Games remain in memory indefinitely, causing unbounded memory growth.

# backend/app/core/state_manager.py
self._last_access[game_id] = pendulum.now("UTC")  # Tracked but never used!

Impact

• Memory: ~50KB per game × 1000 games = 50MB+ after a month
• Stability: OOM crash after days/weeks of operation
• Performance: Degraded performance as dictionaries grow

Files to Modify

File	Changes
backend/app/core/state_manager.py	Add eviction logic
backend/app/main.py	Start background eviction task
backend/app/config.py	Add eviction configuration

Implementation Steps

Step 1: Add Configuration (10 min)

Update backend/app/config.py:

class Settings(BaseSettings):
    # ... existing settings ...

    # Game eviction settings
    game_idle_timeout_hours: int = 24  # Evict games idle > 24 hours
    game_eviction_interval_minutes: int = 60  # Check every hour
    game_max_in_memory: int = 500  # Hard limit on in-memory games

Step 2: Implement Eviction Logic (30 min)

Update backend/app/core/state_manager.py:

import pendulum
from app.config import settings

class StateManager:
    # ... existing code ...

    async def evict_idle_games(self) -> list[UUID]:
        """
        Remove games that have been idle beyond the timeout threshold.
        Returns list of evicted game IDs.
        """
        now = pendulum.now("UTC")
        timeout_seconds = settings.game_idle_timeout_hours * 3600
        evicted = []

        # Find idle games
        for game_id, last_access in list(self._last_access.items()):
            idle_seconds = (now - last_access).total_seconds()
            if idle_seconds > timeout_seconds:
                evicted.append(game_id)

        # Evict them
        for game_id in evicted:
            await self._evict_game(game_id)
            logger.info(f"Evicted idle game {game_id} (idle {idle_seconds/3600:.1f} hours)")

        if evicted:
            logger.info(f"Evicted {len(evicted)} idle games. Active: {len(self._games)}")

        return evicted

    async def _evict_game(self, game_id: UUID) -> None:
        """
        Remove a single game from memory.
        Persists final state to database before removal.
        """
        # Persist final state
        if game_id in self._games:
            game_state = self._games[game_id]
            try:
                await db_ops.save_game_state(game_id, game_state)
                logger.debug(f"Persisted game {game_id} before eviction")
            except Exception as e:
                logger.error(f"Failed to persist game {game_id}: {e}")

        # Remove from all tracking dictionaries
        self._games.pop(game_id, None)
        self._lineups.pop(game_id, None)
        self._last_access.pop(game_id, None)
        self._game_locks.pop(game_id, None)

    async def enforce_memory_limit(self) -> list[UUID]:
        """
        Enforce hard limit on in-memory games.
        Evicts oldest games if limit exceeded.
        """
        if len(self._games) <= settings.game_max_in_memory:
            return []

        # Sort by last access time (oldest first)
        sorted_games = sorted(
            self._last_access.items(),
            key=lambda x: x[1]
        )

        # Evict oldest until under limit
        to_evict = len(self._games) - settings.game_max_in_memory
        evicted = []

        for game_id, _ in sorted_games[:to_evict]:
            await self._evict_game(game_id)
            evicted.append(game_id)
            logger.warning(f"Force-evicted game {game_id} (memory limit)")

        return evicted

    def get_memory_stats(self) -> dict:
        """Return memory usage statistics."""
        return {
            "active_games": len(self._games),
            "max_games": settings.game_max_in_memory,
            "oldest_game_hours": self._get_oldest_game_age_hours(),
            "total_lineups_cached": sum(len(l) for l in self._lineups.values())
        }

    def _get_oldest_game_age_hours(self) -> float:
        if not self._last_access:
            return 0.0
        oldest = min(self._last_access.values())
        return (pendulum.now("UTC") - oldest).total_seconds() / 3600

Step 3: Create Background Task (30 min)

Update backend/app/main.py:

import asyncio
from contextlib import asynccontextmanager
from app.core.state_manager import state_manager
from app.config import settings

# Background task handle
eviction_task: asyncio.Task | None = None

async def periodic_eviction():
    """Background task to periodically evict idle games."""
    interval = settings.game_eviction_interval_minutes * 60

    while True:
        try:
            await asyncio.sleep(interval)

            # Run eviction
            evicted = await state_manager.evict_idle_games()

            # Enforce memory limit
            force_evicted = await state_manager.enforce_memory_limit()

            # Log stats
            stats = state_manager.get_memory_stats()
            logger.info(f"Memory stats: {stats}")

        except asyncio.CancelledError:
            logger.info("Eviction task cancelled")
            break
        except Exception as e:
            logger.error(f"Eviction task error: {e}")
            # Continue running despite errors

@asynccontextmanager
async def lifespan(app: FastAPI):
    """Application lifespan handler."""
    global eviction_task

    # Startup
    logger.info("Starting background eviction task")
    eviction_task = asyncio.create_task(periodic_eviction())

    yield

    # Shutdown
    logger.info("Stopping background eviction task")
    if eviction_task:
        eviction_task.cancel()
        try:
            await eviction_task
        except asyncio.CancelledError:
            pass

app = FastAPI(lifespan=lifespan)

Step 4: Add Health Endpoint (15 min)

Add to backend/app/api/routes.py:

@router.get("/health/memory")
async def memory_health():
    """Return memory usage statistics."""
    stats = state_manager.get_memory_stats()

    # Determine health status
    usage_pct = stats["active_games"] / stats["max_games"] * 100
    if usage_pct > 90:
        status = "critical"
    elif usage_pct > 75:
        status = "warning"
    else:
        status = "healthy"

    return {
        "status": status,
        "usage_percent": round(usage_pct, 1),
        **stats
    }

Step 5: Write Tests (30 min)

Create backend/tests/unit/core/test_game_eviction.py:

import pytest
import pendulum
from uuid import uuid4
from unittest.mock import patch, AsyncMock

class TestGameEviction:
    """Tests for idle game eviction."""

    @pytest.fixture
    def state_manager(self):
        from app.core.state_manager import StateManager
        return StateManager()

    @pytest.mark.asyncio
    async def test_evict_idle_games_removes_old_games(self, state_manager):
        """Games idle beyond threshold are evicted."""
        game_id = uuid4()

        # Create game with old timestamp
        state_manager._games[game_id] = MockGameState()
        state_manager._last_access[game_id] = pendulum.now("UTC").subtract(hours=25)

        with patch.object(state_manager, '_evict_game', new_callable=AsyncMock) as mock:
            evicted = await state_manager.evict_idle_games()

        assert game_id in evicted
        mock.assert_called_once_with(game_id)

    @pytest.mark.asyncio
    async def test_evict_idle_games_keeps_active_games(self, state_manager):
        """Recently accessed games are not evicted."""
        game_id = uuid4()

        state_manager._games[game_id] = MockGameState()
        state_manager._last_access[game_id] = pendulum.now("UTC").subtract(hours=1)

        evicted = await state_manager.evict_idle_games()

        assert game_id not in evicted
        assert game_id in state_manager._games

    @pytest.mark.asyncio
    async def test_enforce_memory_limit_evicts_oldest(self, state_manager):
        """Oldest games evicted when memory limit exceeded."""
        # Create games at different times
        for i in range(10):
            game_id = uuid4()
            state_manager._games[game_id] = MockGameState()
            state_manager._last_access[game_id] = pendulum.now("UTC").subtract(hours=i)

        with patch.object(settings, 'game_max_in_memory', 5):
            evicted = await state_manager.enforce_memory_limit()

        assert len(evicted) == 5
        assert len(state_manager._games) == 5

    @pytest.mark.asyncio
    async def test_evict_game_persists_state(self, state_manager):
        """Game state is persisted before eviction."""
        game_id = uuid4()
        game_state = MockGameState()
        state_manager._games[game_id] = game_state

        with patch('app.database.operations.db_ops.save_game_state', new_callable=AsyncMock) as mock:
            await state_manager._evict_game(game_id)

        mock.assert_called_once_with(game_id, game_state)

Verification Checklist

• Idle games are evicted after 24 hours
• Memory limit is enforced
• Game state is persisted before eviction
• Background task runs without errors
• Health endpoint shows accurate stats
• Tests pass

Monitoring

After deployment, monitor:

• /health/memory endpoint
• Log messages for eviction events
• Memory usage of the process

Rollback Plan

If issues arise:

1. Increase game_idle_timeout_hours to reduce evictions
2. Increase game_max_in_memory limit
3. Disable eviction task (comment out in lifespan)

Dependencies

• None (can be implemented independently)

Notes

• Consider adding WebSocket notification before eviction
• May want to add "extend session" API for active users
• Future: Add Redis-backed state for horizontal scaling