community list: default (non-quiet) is 2-30s slower than -q because the 'started' column spins up every community

[Rinse12]

Summary

bitsocial community list (default, non-quiet) is much slower than bitsocial community list -q, and the gap is highly variable — from ~2s to ~30s on a slower host with ~17 communities. The extra time is entirely the started column, which spins up every community over RPC just to read one boolean that the daemon already knows.

Measurements (slower 8-core host, ~17 communities)

Real CLI, 3 runs each:

Run	list -q	list (default)	started-column delta
1	10.4s	40.5s	+30s
2	10.6s	12.2s	+1.6s
3	11.9s	15.4s	+3.5s

(The ~10s floor is a separate pkc-js import-cost problem — see pkcprotocol/pkc-js#120. This issue is only about the delta the started column adds on top.)

Where the time goes

src/cli/commands/community/list.ts (non-quiet branch):

const communitiesWithStarted = await Promise.all(
    communities.map(async (address: string) => {
        const community = await pkc.createCommunity({ address }); // <-- expensive, per community
        return { address: community.address, started: community.started };
    })
);

For each local community, pkc.createCommunity({ address }) runs a full subscribe → update() → wait-for-first-update → stop() cycle on the daemon (pkc-js pkc-with-rpc-client.ts, the isCommunityRpcLocal branch). Profiling that call directly:

• When the daemon's communities are warm (recently updated): all ~17 createCommunity in parallel ≈ 1.6s, destroy() ≈ 60ms.
• When cold / the daemon is busy: each call blocks waiting for the first update (the daemon loading / fetching the community record), pushing the total to ~30s.

So the cost is O(N) blocking update round-trips, purely to populate started. -q skips all of it and is stable.

Impact

The default invocation is the slow one — users hit the worst case unless they know to pass -q. On a node with more (or colder) communities this scales linearly and makes a routine list feel broken.

Suggested directions

1. Don't instantiate each community to read started. The daemon already tracks which local communities are started. Ideally expose started-state in the communities listing/subscription so the CLI can render the column with no per-community RPC. (May need a small pkc-js/daemon addition — relates to pkc-js takes ~9s just to import on slower hardware (local-node runtime eagerly loaded on the RPC-client path) pkcprotocol/pkc-js#120.)
2. Short term, if a per-community lookup is unavoidable: avoid the full update()/wait cycle just for a boolean, and/or make the started column opt-in (e.g. --status) so the default list is fast like -q.
3. At minimum, document that -q is dramatically faster for scripting.

Repro

time bitsocial community list -q
time bitsocial community list

on a daemon with a non-trivial number of communities; compare the delta across cold/warm runs.

[Rinse12]

Profiling update + decision.

Re-measured on the slow prod host (~17 communities, Node v22.22.2, pkc-js 0.0.47): list -q floor ~3.1s; default list ~5.1s median with a spike to ~15.6s in one of three runs — consistent with this issue (the started column's per-community subscribe→update→stop cycle is the variable cost).

For now we're taking the minimal/documentation route (no behavior change, no --status flag, no daemon change): the -q flag summary in src/cli/commands/community/list.ts now states it's much faster because it skips the per-community started lookup. The structural fix (expose started-state in the daemon listing so the column can stay default and fast) remains open here / relates to pkcprotocol/pkc-js#120.

[Rinse12]

Re-scope note: only the documentation half of this landed — commit c04145f (docs(community/list): note -q is much faster than the default) tells users to prefer -q. The actual perf fix is still open: the non-quiet branch in src/cli/commands/community/list.ts still calls pkc.createCommunity({ address }) per community just to read the started boolean, which is what adds the +2–30s. Keeping this issue open to track the real fix (have the daemon report started in the list response, or batch it, instead of spinning up every community over RPC).