[Core] Decoupled Rendering Loop (Fixed-FPS Render Thread)

[yashksaini-coder]

Goal

Keep the UI smooth at a fixed frame rate even during heavy I/O operations.

Description

Currently the TUI redraws on every event (keypress, channel message, etc.), which means the frame rate is tied to event frequency. During heavy I/O (large searches, installs), the UI can appear to stutter.

Decouple rendering from event handling with a dedicated render thread:

1. Move the draw_ui call to a separate thread that targets a fixed FPS (e.g., 60 FPS = 16ms sleep between frames)
2. The render thread reads from a shared Arc<RwLock<AppState>> (or similar snapshot) rather than mutable App
3. The event/logic thread continues updating App state and writing to the shared snapshot
4. Use double-buffering or dirty flags to skip renders when nothing has changed

This is a significant architectural refactor. Discuss the design — particularly around terminal ownership and Ratatui's DefaultTerminal — before starting.

Tech

Rust, Concurrency (Arc, RwLock), Ratatui

Difficulty

Level 3 – Advanced

[sohika-sharma20]

Hi @yashksaini-coder,

This looks like an interesting architectural improvement. Before considering implementation, I wanted to understand whether there is already a preferred design approach for handling terminal ownership and shared application state between the event thread and render thread.

Could you share any additional guidance or design considerations contributors should be aware of before working on this issue?

Thanks!

[Pcmhacker-piro]

Hi @pie-314

I’m interested in contributing to this project and would love to work on this issue. I have experience working on open-source contributions and would be happy to implement the required changes.

Could you please assign this issue to me? Thanks!

[sanudking]

Hi @pie-314, I'd like to contribute to this! I'm familiar with Frontend and this seems like a good fit for my skill set. Please assign it to me — I'll post a plan before opening a PR.

[garima-agarwall]

Hi @pie-314
I would like to work on this issue. Please assign this to me if possible.