fix(dashboard): close SSE connections on outbound backpressure

The global SSE broadcast called res.write() without checking the return
value, so a paused or backgrounded client would silently accumulate
every store event for every entity (tasks, missions, plugins, agents,
chat, ...) into res.outputData until the dashboard process OOMed.
Add a 4 MB writableLength threshold; when exceeded, tear down the
connection so the OS releases the buffer.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.7 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>

packages/dashboard/src/__tests__/sse.test.ts

@@ -144,4 +144,41 @@ describe("createSSE client cleanup", () => {
     expect(connection.res.end).toHaveBeenCalledTimes(1);
     expect(getActiveSSEConnections()).toBe(baseline);
   });
+
+  it("closes the connection when the outbound buffer exceeds the backpressure threshold", () => {
+    // Capture the task:created listener so we can fire a send after the
+    // socket buffer has been bloated past the threshold.
+    let onCreated: ((task: unknown) => void) | undefined;
+    const store = {
+      on: vi.fn((event: string, handler: (task: unknown) => void) => {
+        if (event === "task:created") onCreated = handler;
+      }),
+      off: vi.fn(),
+    } as unknown as TaskStore;
+
+    const baseline = getActiveSSEConnections();
+    const socket = new MockSocket();
+    const req = new EventEmitter() as Request & { query: Record<string, string>; socket: MockSocket };
+    req.query = { clientId: "backpressure-client" };
+    req.socket = socket;
+    const res = new MockResponse(socket) as MockResponse & { writableLength: number };
+    res.writableLength = 0;
+
+    createSSE(store)(req, res as unknown as Response);
+    expect(getActiveSSEConnections()).toBe(baseline + 1);
+    expect(typeof onCreated).toBe("function");
+
+    // Simulate a stuck client: kernel + Node buffers full beyond 4 MB.
+    res.writableLength = 5 * 1024 * 1024;
+    const writeCountBefore = res.write.mock.calls.length;
+
+    onCreated?.({ id: "task-1" });
+
+    // Backpressure was detected before the write, so res.write must NOT have
+    // been called for this event, and the connection should be torn down.
+    expect(res.write.mock.calls.length).toBe(writeCountBefore);
+    expect(res.end).toHaveBeenCalledTimes(1);
+    expect(socket.destroy).toHaveBeenCalledTimes(1);
+    expect(getActiveSSEConnections()).toBe(baseline);
+  });
 });

packages/dashboard/src/sse.ts

@@ -19,8 +19,14 @@ let nextConnectionId = 1;
 
 const SSE_CLIENT_ID_MAX_LENGTH = 128;
 const SSE_CLIENT_STALE_MS = 5_000;
+// If a client's outbound buffer exceeds this, treat the connection as stuck
+// and close it. Without this, res.write() silently queues into res.outputData
+// for a paused/backgrounded client, and every store event for every entity
+// accumulates there until the process OOMs.
+const SSE_MAX_BUFFERED_BYTES = 4 * 1024 * 1024;
 
 type SSECloseReason =
+  | "backpressure"
   | "client-disconnect"
   | "close"
   | "error"
@@ -107,16 +113,23 @@ export function getSSEHighWaterMark(): number {
 
 /**
  * Safely write to an SSE response stream.
- * Returns `true` if the write succeeded, `false` if the connection is dead.
+ * Returns "ok" on success, "dead" if the socket is gone, or "backpressure" if
- * On failure the caller should clean up event listeners.
+ * the outbound buffer has grown past SSE_MAX_BUFFERED_BYTES (caller should
+ * tear down — Node will otherwise queue indefinitely into res.outputData).
  */
-function safeWrite(res: Response, data: string): boolean {
+type SafeWriteResult = "ok" | "dead" | "backpressure";
+
+function safeWrite(res: Response, data: string): SafeWriteResult {
   try {
-    if (res.writableEnded || res.destroyed) return false;
+    if (res.writableEnded || res.destroyed) return "dead";
+    // Pre-check: if the buffer is already full, refuse the write.
+    if (typeof res.writableLength === "number" && res.writableLength > SSE_MAX_BUFFERED_BYTES) {
+      return "backpressure";
+    }
     res.write(data);
-    return true;
+    return "ok";
   } catch {
-    return false;
+    return "dead";
   }
 }
 
@@ -299,9 +312,20 @@ export function createSSE(
     // Send initial heartbeat
     res.write(": connected\n\n");
 
-    /** Write an SSE message; clean up on failure. */
+    /** Write an SSE message; tear down on failure or backpressure. */
     const send = (data: string) => {
-      if (!safeWrite(res, data)) cleanup("send-failed");
+      const result = safeWrite(res, data);
+      if (result === "ok") return;
+      if (result === "backpressure") {
+        console.warn(
+          `[sse] connection ${connectionId} backpressure exceeded ` +
+            `(buffered=${res.writableLength}B, threshold=${SSE_MAX_BUFFERED_BYTES}B); closing`,
+        );
+        closeConnection("backpressure");
+        return;
+      }
+      // "dead" — socket already gone; cleanup is enough.
+      cleanup("send-failed");
     };
 
     // --- Event handler definitions ---