---
id: TASK-158
title: Current match realtime transport
status: pending
type: backend
team: Backend Senior
supporting_teams: [Frontend Senior]
roadmap_item: foundation
priority: high
---

# TASK-158 - Current match realtime transport

## Goal

Implement a real-time or near-real-time update strategy for the current-match page, prioritizing the kill feed and then current match metadata/player stats.

## Background

The current-match page currently refreshes through polling. In `frontend/assets/js/partida-actual.js`, the current interval is:

`CURRENT_MATCH_POLL_INTERVAL_MS = 30 * 1000`

The user explicitly rejected this behavior:

- "He dicho que se actualice en vivo y no cada 20 segundos"

The page should behave much closer to real time, especially for the kill feed. A 20/30-second refresh is too slow for a live combat screen.

Current endpoints:

- `GET /api/current-match?server=...`
- `GET /api/current-match/kills?server=...`
- `GET /api/current-match/players?server=...`

## Files to Read First

- `AGENTS.md`
- `ai/repo-context.md`
- `ai/architecture-index.md`
- `frontend/assets/js/partida-actual.js`
- `backend/app/routes.py`
- `backend/app/rcon_admin_log_storage.py`

Inspect the current frontend refresh flow, current-match route payloads, kill feed read model, trusted server validation, and recent AdminLog materialization cadence before changing code.

## Expected Files to Modify

Allowed changes:

- `backend/app/routes.py`
- `backend/app/payloads.py`
- `backend/app/rcon_admin_log_storage.py`
- backend helper/read-model files if needed
- `frontend/assets/js/partida-actual.js`
- `frontend/partida-actual.html` if needed
- focused tests

## Constraints - DO NOT BREAK

- Do not query RCON directly from the frontend.
- Do not expose raw AdminLog lines.
- Do not fabricate events.
- Do not show stale kills as live kills.
- Do not depend on server #03.
- Do not break existing REST endpoints.
- Do not break historical pages or historical match detail pages.
- Keep trusted server validation.
- Keep current public scoreboard URLs without `/games`.
- Avoid overloading the backend/RCON/AdminLog pipeline.
- Commit and push after implementation.

## Implementation Requirements

### 1. RCA first

- Document current update flow in TASK done notes.
- Confirm which parts are safe to update at high frequency:
  - kill feed
  - player stats
  - match metadata/scoreboard
- Identify whether the backend has access to sufficiently fresh AdminLog data without calling RCON per browser poll.

### 2. Preferred transport

Evaluate and implement the safest available option:

- Server-Sent Events (SSE) endpoint for live kill events, OR
- short polling for killfeed every 1-2 seconds with ETag/since cursor/last_event_id, OR
- another minimal transport that gives near-real-time updates without duplicating events.

Prefer SSE if it is simple and safe in the current backend stack.

If SSE is not appropriate, implement short polling with cursor semantics.

### 3. Kill feed endpoint behavior

Add support for incremental fetching:

- `since_event_id` or since timestamp/server_time
- `limit`
- server slug
- trusted server validation

The endpoint must return only new events where possible.

### 4. Frontend behavior

- Remove dependency on a 20/30-second interval for kill feed updates.
- Kill feed should update in near-real-time.
- Avoid overlapping requests.
- Preserve `event_id` deduplication.
- Do not re-render the whole panel if no new events arrived.
- Keep a capped event buffer.

### 5. Match metadata and player stats

- These do not need to update every second.
- Keep a slower safe refresh for scoreboard/player stats if needed, for example 10-30 seconds.
- The kill feed must be faster than metadata refresh.

### 6. Failure/reconnect

- If SSE is used, implement reconnect behavior.
- If short polling is used, handle transient errors without breaking the page.
- Show a small stale/error state only when needed.

### 7. Backend load

- Do not query expensive RCON calls per browser every second.
- Prefer reading already persisted/recent AdminLog materialized data.
- If a live AdminLog ingestion cadence is insufficient, document it instead of hiding the limitation.

## Validation

Run:

- `python -m compileall backend/app`
- focused backend tests if added/updated
- `node --check frontend/assets/js/partida-actual.js`
- `git diff --check`

Before completing the task also confirm that `git diff --name-only` matches the expected scope.

## Manual Verification Steps

- Rebuild backend and frontend.
- Open `http://localhost:8080/partida-actual.html?server=comunidad-hispana-01`.
- Open `http://localhost:8080/partida-actual.html?server=comunidad-hispana-02`.
- During an active match, verify new kill events appear without waiting 20/30 seconds.
- Verify repeated updates do not duplicate events.
- Verify no raw AdminLog lines appear.
- Verify stale events are not displayed as live.
- Verify metadata/scoreboard remains stable and does not flicker.
- Verify backend logs do not show excessive RCON/API pressure.

## Expected Outcome

The current-match kill feed updates in near-real-time, without depending on the existing 30-second page refresh cycle.

## Outcome

Document the RCA, transport decision, validation performed, load/freshness limitations, and any follow-up task that should be created instead of expanding this task.

## Change Budget

- Prefer fewer than 5 modified files.
- Prefer changes under 200 lines when feasible.
- Split the work into follow-up tasks if limits are exceeded.