refresh() previously opened + parsed each conversation's newest message file (load_message_metadata) on every list refresh, which dominated list-load time on SPI LittleFS. It now reads the per-conversation last-message preview + timestamp from the store's in-memory index (O(1), zero I/O) and falls back to load_message_metadata only when the index has no cached preview — the first refresh after a firmware upgrade or after a corrupt-tail drop — then writes the preview back through so the fallback happens at most once per conversation per firmware generation. The write-through is skipped when drops were queued (the drained deletes move the tail, so a preview written for the old tail would be stale for one refresh). Host benchmark (x86 + POSIX fs, 24 msgs/conv): the per-conversation store-load work drops from ~0.149ms (9 convs) / ~0.342ms (20 convs) to ~0.002ms / ~0.005ms, and the cold-boot path (store reconstructed from disk) matches the warm path because the preview now persists in the index. Bumps the microLXMF pin to c8d3156 (feat/conversation-preview-cache) in platformio.ini, the release audit, and the native reference test. Adds tests/microlxmf/bench_conversation_list_load.cpp (baseline vs index warm/cold) and the bench target in tests/microlxmf/CMakeLists.txt.
Pyxis Tests
Three test surfaces, each runnable independently.
1. Pyxis-unique pytest suite
Native C++ tests of pyxis-unique code (BLE fragmenter, HDLC, etc.) and Python tests of build scripts.
/usr/bin/python3 -m pytest tests/build_scripts tests/native -v
System Python 3.9 has pytest pre-installed; Homebrew Python does not.
build_scripts/test_patch_nimble.py— verifiespatch_nimble.pyidempotency, drift detection, missing-file handlingbuild_scripts/test_patch_littlefs_paths.py— verifies non-destructive LittleFS mounting, patch idempotency/drift handling, and persistent-partition isolationnative/test_hdlc.{cpp,py}— HDLC escape/unescape/frame round-trip + golden vector against Python RNSnative/test_ble_fragmenter.{cpp,py}— BLEFragmenter ↔ BLEReassembler: in-order, out-of-order, duplicate, dropped+timeout, per-peer isolation, MTU changenative/test_ble_peer_manager.{cpp,py}— connection-map state machine: discover, identity promotion, blacklist, handle map cleanup, MAC rotation, pool exhaustionnative/test_ble_operation_queue.{cpp,py}— GATT op queue: FIFO, busy-state, timeout, clearForConnection, buildernative/test_ring_buffers.{cpp,py}— PCM + encoded SPSC ring buffers, including 100k-frame multithreaded producer/consumer stressnative/test_audio_filters.{cpp,py}— VoiceFilterChain frequency response, peak limiting, multichannelnative/test_call_command_mailbox.{cpp,py}— generation-scoped LXST hangup/mute command handoff and producer/consumer stressnative/test_call_start_mailbox.{cpp,py}— exact 16-byte LXST outgoing-call handoff, duplicate rejection, and reusable producer/consumer stressnative/test_call_generation_guard.{cpp,py}— atomic, generation-scoped call admission, stale-owner protection, and repeated two-thread reservation racesnative/test_call_link_ownership.{cpp,py}— exact 128-bit LXST link ownership publication, mixed-ID publication stress, and generation-bound deferred-close concurrencynative/test_lxst_signal_parser.{cpp,py}— bounded MessagePack parsing for legacy one-signal and current LXST profile+duplex signalling arrays
Adding a new native C++ test
Pattern: pure C++ unit + thin pytest wrapper.
- Write
tests/native/test_<thing>.cpp— include from../../{src,lib/...}for the unit under test, use the existingEXPECT_EQ/EXPECT_TRUE/RUN(name)framework, return non-zero on any failure. - If the unit pulls in microReticulum types, the shims in
tests/native/cover what's been needed so far:Bytes.h→bytes_shim.h(minimalRNS::Bytes— append/data/size/writable/resize/mid)Log.h(no-opTRACE/WARNING/INFO/ERRORmacros)Utilities/OS.h(OS::time()withset_fake_time()/clear_fake_time())
- Write
tests/native/test_<thing>.py— copy thetest_hdlc.pytemplate, swap source/include paths, run. - Confirm:
/usr/bin/python3 -m pytest tests/native/test_<thing>.py -v
2. LXST audio interop tests
Python tests verifying wire format and codec compatibility between pyxis (C++), Python LXST, and LXST-kt (Kotlin).
/usr/bin/python3 -m pytest tests/interop -v
Requires pycodec2 and access to $HOME/repos/public/LXST.
3. microReticulum native unit tests (PlatformIO)
The fork's microReticulum tests live under deps/microReticulum/test/ and run via PlatformIO Unity.
cd deps/microReticulum && pio test -e native17
Use native17, not native — the C++11 env is broken (static-constexpr ODR-use). Baseline as of 2026-05-02: 94/114 PASS, 7 FAIL, 5 SKIPPED, 7 suites ERRORED. The clean suites are
test_os, test_bytes, test_msgpack, test_crypto, test_filesystem, test_objects, test_interop, test_general, test_reference, test_example, test_collections.