S13 — Feed Timeline

Earlier docs (and the file name s14-feed-timeline.md) called this S14. The screen is now the 13th tab — the file name is kept for stable links.

A scrollable history walk of a Swarm feed. Where v1.5's :feed-probe returns the latest update only, S14 walks backward from the latest index and shows each historical entry side-by-side: index, age, payload size, and (when reference-shaped) the embedded Swarm reference.

How to load

The screen has no auto-poll — it loads exactly when an operator issues the verb:

:feed-timeline <owner> <topic> [N]

<owner> and <topic> accept the same forms as :feed-probe: 20-byte hex address (0x-prefixed or bare) and either 64-hex literal or arbitrary string (keccak256-hashed via Topic::from_string).

[N] is optional — defaults to 50, hard-capped at 1000. For larger walks, drive :feed-probe from a shell loop instead; the cockpit's in-memory tar / mpsc plumbing isn't sized for multi-thousand-entry walks.

The first lookup hits Bee's /feeds/{owner}/{topic} to find the latest index — this can take 30-60 s on a fresh feed. The screen shows a spinner until that completes; the historical chunks then fetch in parallel (8-way bounded concurrency) so a 50-entry walk finishes in seconds once the latest-index probe returns.

Layout

┌ FEED TIMELINE  owner=0x12345678…  topic=ab12cd34…  latest=idx42  · 50 entries ─┐
│                                                                                │
│  INDEX     AGE      SIZE   TYPE      REF / ERROR                               │
│      42        3m     40   ref       e7f3a201cd…                               │
│      41       12m     40   ref       9b1c8a72f4…                               │
│      40       18m     20   raw       payload 12B                               │
│      39       28m      0   miss      [lost: 404 Not Found]                     │
│      38       45m     40   ref       12abcdef34…                               │
│      …                                                                         │
│  selected: ref=e7f3a201cd1f0e9b…                                               │
│  ↑↓/jk select   Tab switch screen   : command   q quit                         │
└────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

The cursor row is reverse-styled. Miss rows (chunk fetch failed or didn't unmarshal as a SOC) render dim, so gaps in the history are visible at a glance.

The selected-line detail at the bottom shows the full reference of the cursored row when present, or the raw payload size + Unix timestamp when the entry isn't reference-shaped.

Keymap

CI mode (--once feed-timeline)

bee-tui --once --json feed-timeline 0x1234… my-app/notifications 100

Emits structured JSON with owner, topic, latest_index, index_next, reached_requested, and an entries array of { index, timestamp_unix, payload_bytes, reference, error }. A snapshot-publish workflow can fetch 100 historical entries and gate on entries[0].index strictly advancing across runs, or on the error count not crossing a threshold.

What it doesn't do

• No epoch-feed walk. v1.6 walks sequential feeds (indexes 0, 1, 2, …). Epoch feeds (Swarm's older lookup scheme) are not yet supported in the walker.
• No live refresh. The walk is one-shot per verb invocation; there's no auto-poll. Re-run the verb to get a fresh snapshot.
• No payload preview. Raw-feed entries surface their byte size only; if you want the contents, pass the entry's index back through :feed-probe or feed it to :inspect when reference-shaped.
• No write side. :feed-timeline is read-only; updating a feed requires a private key + a stamp, both outside the cockpit's current write surface.