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2026-02-08 Activity Log ​

Overview ​

Focused day on SWF decompilation quality improvements and ascent-interpreter optimization. Two distinct work streams: FFDec output parity (cc-project) dominating the day, with Ascent interpreter performance optimization running in parallel.

Key Projects ​

cc-project (SWF → TypeScript Decompiler) ​

The bulk of the day involved tactical improvements to match FFDec output quality. User iteratively tested output, spotted issues, and guided targeted fixes.

Sessions:

  • 5dd10854 (16:32–18:06): Compound assignment detection pass (e.g., HP -= damage instead of HP = HP - damage)

    • Questions about remaining work before FFDec parity
    • Exploration of pseudo-linear AST construction for expression folding
    • Discussion of architecture: whether SSA lowering loses important info for code generation

  • cee2a81b (13:19–15:32): Backend-agnostic AST refinement, moving emission logic to AST-to-AST passes

    • Multiple quick turns reviewing real decompiled code (Corruption of Champions SWF)
    • Spotted issues like .Math_max() chaining, redundant casts, unused variables
    • Decision: move ternary + minmax detection from TS emitter to AST-to-AST passes

  • bf7b4456 (15:35–16:15): Ternary and minmax extraction

    • Quick architectural review of flush_side_effecting_inlines
    • Added TODOs for identified problems

  • cb540071 (10:22–13:13): Variable naming improvement (ffdec items from TODO)

    • Found output has 31% of lines as dead code/variable declarations vs ffdec at ~2%
    • Unclear if issue is missing variable names or structural bloat

  • aa40a713 (03:30–09:54): Mem2Reg multi-store promotion and bandaid removal

    • Removed unused variable workarounds from emitter
    • Investigated identity assignments in Shape representation
    • Discussed reducing constructs like const v151 = Math.round(x); var = Math.max(v151, 1.0);
    • Note: joked about using Corruption of Champions as test SWF

  • 17187822 (00:12–01:02): Variable declaration consolidation and initialization order

    • Removing cond_negated on loops
    • Fixing variable declaration order (e.g., const v5 = NaN; ... v5 = actual_value)
    • Planning regeneration of output

  • 4da025e8 (01:11–02:28): Multi-store mem2reg via SSA construction

    • Discussed removing arena allocator workarounds
    • Questioned purity assumptions in operations

ascent-interpreter (Datalog Interpreter) ​

Sustained performance optimization push across multiple short sessions.

Sessions:

  • a1ceeb11 (11:23–17:29): A long chain of optimization work
    • Initial checks: benchmarks vs native Ascent? Parity tests? Optimization potential?
    • Queued TODO.md items for future work
    • Multiple sessions implementing optimizations (work spanned into 2026-02-09)
    • Questions about next optimizations kept coming up—user encouraging continuous improvement

Pattern: Very tight feedback loop. User approves direction, asks "what's next?", agent implements, user wants to continue. Interrupted by context limit resets, but user keeps pushing: "don't hurt to get more perf for virtually free XD"

Cross-Project Observations ​

  • hologram (Discord RP bot): A quick debugging turn around null/undefined template entity rendering
  • Code review style: User spots actual decompiled code issues (weird variable names, structural problems), asks for explanations, then makes architectural decisions
  • TODOs drive sessions: Multiple turns of "let's add this to TODO.md and move on"
  • Pragmatic feedback: "just do whatever you want" (turn 3 of 5dd10854) when architectural questions got too open-ended

Technical Themes ​

  1. AST-to-AST passes vs emitter logic: Clear push to move type-directed transformations (ternary, minmax, compound assignment) out of the TS emitter and into the IR
  2. Variable naming/SSA: Mem2Reg, identity assignment elimination, and scope consolidation—attacking the "why is 31% of our output dead code?"
  3. Optimization velocity: Ascent interpreter showing rapid iteration on performance gains

Commits & Follow-up ​

User mentions needing to commit work but several sessions hit context limits. Multiple regens and TODOs queued. 2026-02-09 continued both threads (Flash runtime work, further decompiler improvements).

Token Usage ​

Total tokens (2026-02-08): 241,326,453

  • Input: 54,384
  • Output: 347,731
  • Cache reads: 235,568,461
  • Cache creations: 5,355,877

Per-session breakdown (sorted by output tokens):

  • a1ceeb11: 100,548 output tokens (17 turns), cache hit 97%
  • aa40a713: 50,589 output tokens (9 turns), cache hit 97%
  • cb540071: 45,800 output tokens (8 turns), cache hit 98%
  • 5dd10854: 44,708 output tokens (6 turns), cache hit 97%
  • cee2a81b: 43,923 output tokens (14 turns), cache hit 97%
  • 4da025e8: 30,211 output tokens (10 turns), cache hit 98%
  • 17187822: 15,278 output tokens (12 turns), cache hit 98%
  • bf7b4456: 7,220 output tokens (6 turns), cache hit 97%
  • cab45396: 6,054 output tokens (1 turns), cache hit 98%
  • 225a8149: 3,238 output tokens (2 turns), cache hit 98%
  • 18e6a828: 160 output tokens (2 turns), cache hit 77%
  • 06a796ad: 2 output tokens (1 turns), cache hit 46%

Notable patterns: Ascent interpreter optimization (a1ceeb11) dominated the day by output volume with 17 turns and exceptional cache efficiency (97% hit rate). The day featured sustained work on two major threads—SWF decompiler improvements and Ascent interpreter performance tuning—with most sessions maintaining 97–98% cache hit rates despite context resets. Two sessions with minimal cache efficiency (06a796ad, 18e6a828) appear to be short coordination turns with fresh context.