From 2584f94828c45b1d7a0bf10cc96ea4561c458f49 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Thales Maciel <thales@thalesmaciel.com>
Date: Sat, 18 Apr 2026 17:08:30 -0300
Subject: [PATCH] image/kernel pull: heartbeat dots so slow pulls look alive
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit

Bundle downloads can take 20–60s on a typical connection and the
CLI was going silent between "resolving daemon" and the final image
summary. Users wondered whether banger had wedged.

New `withHeartbeat` helper wraps an RPC call with a dot-every-2s
ticker on stderr. No-op when stderr isn't a terminal, so piped or
scripted invocations stay quiet. Wired into `image pull` and `kernel
pull`, the two commands that actually download bytes.

Example:

    $ banger image pull debian-bookworm
    [image pull] ..........
    id  name             managed  ...

Tests cover the non-TTY short-circuit and error propagation.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.7 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
---
 internal/cli/banger.go   | 45 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++--
 internal/cli/cli_test.go | 27 ++++++++++++++++++++++++
 2 files changed, 70 insertions(+), 2 deletions(-)

diff --git a/internal/cli/banger.go b/internal/cli/banger.go
index 393acbd..3e41337 100644
--- a/internal/cli/banger.go
+++ b/internal/cli/banger.go
@@ -1795,7 +1795,12 @@ subcommand lands).
 			if err != nil {
 				return err
 			}
-			result, err := rpc.Call[api.ImageShowResult](cmd.Context(), layout.SocketPath, "image.pull", params)
+			var result api.ImageShowResult
+			err = withHeartbeat(cmd.ErrOrStderr(), "image pull", func() error {
+				var callErr error
+				result, callErr = rpc.Call[api.ImageShowResult](cmd.Context(), layout.SocketPath, "image.pull", params)
+				return callErr
+			})
 			if err != nil {
 				return err
 			}
@@ -1920,7 +1925,12 @@ func newKernelPullCommand() *cobra.Command {
 			if err != nil {
 				return err
 			}
-			result, err := rpc.Call[api.KernelShowResult](cmd.Context(), layout.SocketPath, "kernel.pull", api.KernelPullParams{Name: args[0], Force: force})
+			var result api.KernelShowResult
+			err = withHeartbeat(cmd.ErrOrStderr(), "kernel pull", func() error {
+				var callErr error
+				result, callErr = rpc.Call[api.KernelShowResult](cmd.Context(), layout.SocketPath, "kernel.pull", api.KernelPullParams{Name: args[0], Force: force})
+				return callErr
+			})
 			if err != nil {
 				return err
 			}
@@ -3416,6 +3426,37 @@ func writerSupportsProgress(out io.Writer) bool {
 	return info.Mode()&os.ModeCharDevice != 0
 }
 
+// withHeartbeat runs fn while emitting a dot to stderr every 2
+// seconds so the user sees long-running RPCs (bundle downloads, etc.)
+// aren't wedged. No-op when stderr isn't a terminal, so piped or
+// logged output stays clean.
+func withHeartbeat(stderr io.Writer, label string, fn func() error) error {
+	if !writerSupportsProgress(stderr) {
+		return fn()
+	}
+	fmt.Fprintf(stderr, "[%s] ", label)
+	stop := make(chan struct{})
+	done := make(chan struct{})
+	go func() {
+		defer close(done)
+		ticker := time.NewTicker(2 * time.Second)
+		defer ticker.Stop()
+		for {
+			select {
+			case <-stop:
+				return
+			case <-ticker.C:
+				fmt.Fprint(stderr, ".")
+			}
+		}
+	}()
+	err := fn()
+	close(stop)
+	<-done
+	fmt.Fprintln(stderr)
+	return err
+}
+
 func formatVMCreateProgress(op api.VMCreateOperation) string {
 	stage := strings.TrimSpace(op.Stage)
 	detail := strings.TrimSpace(op.Detail)
diff --git a/internal/cli/cli_test.go b/internal/cli/cli_test.go
index aed211e..2795049 100644
--- a/internal/cli/cli_test.go
+++ b/internal/cli/cli_test.go
@@ -574,6 +574,33 @@ func TestVMRunProgressRendererSuppressesDuplicateLines(t *testing.T) {
 	}
 }
 
+func TestWithHeartbeatNoOpForNonTTY(t *testing.T) {
+	var buf bytes.Buffer
+	called := false
+	err := withHeartbeat(&buf, "image pull", func() error {
+		called = true
+		return nil
+	})
+	if err != nil {
+		t.Fatalf("withHeartbeat: %v", err)
+	}
+	if !called {
+		t.Fatal("fn should have been called")
+	}
+	if buf.Len() != 0 {
+		t.Fatalf("stderr = %q, want empty for non-TTY", buf.String())
+	}
+}
+
+func TestWithHeartbeatPropagatesError(t *testing.T) {
+	sentinel := errors.New("boom")
+	var buf bytes.Buffer
+	err := withHeartbeat(&buf, "image pull", func() error { return sentinel })
+	if !errors.Is(err, sentinel) {
+		t.Fatalf("withHeartbeat error = %v, want %v", err, sentinel)
+	}
+}
+
 func TestVMSetParamsFromFlagsConflict(t *testing.T) {
 	if _, err := vmSetParamsFromFlags("devbox", -1, -1, "", true, true); err == nil {
 		t.Fatal("expected nat conflict error")