What is the 'Neural Link'?

The Neural Link is a bi-directional bridge that connects AI agents (like Gemini or Claude) directly to the Neo.mjs runtime. It allows agents to 'see' the application's Scene Graph, inspect component state, verify event listeners, and even mutate the running application in real-time. This turns the application into a 'glass box' for AI, enabling autonomous debugging and feature development.

Why is Neo.mjs called an 'Application Engine' instead of a framework?

Traditional frameworks are general-purpose libraries (like a Toyota) that help you organize code, but they compile away into ephemeral DOM nodes. Neo.mjs is a precision-engineered runtime (like an F1 car), similar to Unreal Engine for games. It maintains a persistent 'Scene Graph' of objects in a separate worker thread. These objects retain their identity, state, and relationships, allowing for advanced capabilities like multi-window orchestration, runtime permutation, and deep AI introspection that are impossible with 'melted plastic' DOM-based frameworks.

What is 'Context Engineering'?

Context Engineering is the practice of curating the environment and information flow for AI agents to maximize their autonomy. In Neo.mjs, this is implemented via three Model Context Protocol (MCP) servers: a Knowledge Base for semantic code understanding, a Memory Core for learning from past sessions, and a GitHub Workflow server for project management. This ecosystem allows agents to work as fully integrated members of the development team.

What is 'Object Permanence' in the context of Neo.mjs?

In Neo.mjs, UI components are persistent JavaScript objects living in the App Worker, not just transient rendering results. This 'Object Permanence' means a component (like a Dashboard) maintains its state (scroll position, user input, internal logic) even if it is detached from the DOM or moved to a different browser window. This is the 'Lego Technic' approach versus the 'Duplo' approach of traditional frameworks.

What is an 'Agent Operating System'?

Neo.mjs v11 introduced the concept of an Agent OS, where the platform itself provides the tools and interfaces for AI agents to operate. It combines a standalone, type-safe AI SDK for autonomous 'Code Execution' with the Neural Link for runtime control. This enables agents to monitor, debug, and heal the application autonomously, effectively acting as an operating system for synthetic intelligence.

How does Neo.mjs handle multi-window applications?

Neo.mjs uses shared web workers to run a single application instance across multiple browser windows. All windows share the same application state and data in real-time. Components can even move between windows while retaining their JavaScript instances. This enables desktop-class experiences like multi-window IDEs, browser-based email clients, and multi-screen control rooms.

What makes Neo.mjs different from React, Angular, or Vue?

Neo.mjs is fundamentally different in its architecture: (1) It uses True Multithreading via web workers to prevent UI jank, (2) It is an AI-Native Application Engine with built-in bridges for AI collaboration, and (3) It treats components as persistent objects in a Scene Graph, enabling native multi-window support and runtime permutation.

Frontmatter

id	9199
title	Benchmark Grid Horizontal Scroll Performance
state	Closed
labels	aitestingperformance
assignees	tobiu
createdAt	Feb 17, 2026, 3:33 PM
updatedAt	Feb 18, 2026, 12:47 PM
githubUrl	https://github.com/neomjs/neo/issues/9199
author	tobiu
commentsCount	1
parentIssue	9194
subIssues	[]
subIssuesCompleted	0
subIssuesTotal	0
blockedBy	[]
blocking	[]
closedAt	Feb 18, 2026, 12:47 PM

Benchmark Grid Horizontal Scroll Performance

Name: Neo.mjs Application Engine
Author: Neo.mjs

Closed v12.0.0 aitestingperformance

tobiu commented on Feb 17, 2026, 3:33 PM

Objective

Investigate and verify the performance impact of "Virtual Fields" and "Dynamic Column Updates" on horizontal scrolling in the Grid.

Motivation

Post-implementation of "Zero Overhead" records (#9193), there is a subjective perception that horizontal scrolling in DevIndex has become sluggish. We need objective data to confirm if this is a regression caused by the virtual getter overhead, the fix in Column.mjs, or an unrelated factor (e.g., dataset size).

Tasks

Create Benchmark Test: Develop a Playwright component test (test/playwright/component/benchmark/GridScroll.spec.mjs) that:
- Loads a Grid with the DevIndex column structure.
- Performs an automated horizontal scroll sequence.
- Measures Frame Rate (FPS) and/or Scripting Duration.
Profiling: Use Chrome DevTools Performance Trace (via Playwright) to pinpoint if the bottleneck is:
- Scripting: RecordFactory getters, Row.createVdom.
- Rendering: Style/Layout calculations.
Analysis: Compare metrics against a baseline (or theoretical expectations).

Outcome

Definitive confirmation of performance status and identification of any bottlenecks to address.

tobiu added the ai label on Feb 17, 2026, 3:33 PM

tobiu added the testing label on Feb 17, 2026, 3:33 PM

tobiu added the performance label on Feb 17, 2026, 3:33 PM

tobiu added parent issue #9194 on Feb 17, 2026, 3:33 PM

tobiu assigned to @tobiu on Feb 17, 2026, 4:27 PM

tobiu referenced in commit 9b94c52 - "feat: Add Playwright benchmark for Grid scrolling (#9199)" on Feb 18, 2026, 12:46 PM

tobiu Feb 18, 2026, 12:47 PM

Input from Gemini 3 Pro:

✦ I have completed the benchmark implementation and initial analysis.

Achievements

Infrastructure: Created test/playwright/e2e/ with necessary helpers and a custom system reporter.

Benchmark: Implemented GridScrollBenchmark.spec.mjs covering Horizontal, Vertical, and Diagonal scrolling across Mobile, Laptop, and Desktop viewports.

Data Collection: Verified that the benchmark captures FPS, Long Frames, and DOM Node counts.

Key Findings

The benchmark revealed a critical Scaling Bottleneck on the Desktop (1920x1080) viewport.

Viewport Resolution DOM Nodes FPS Status

Mobile 375x667 1,731 60 🟢

Laptop 1366x768 1,867 54 🟡

Desktop 1920x1080 2,285 30 🔴

Experiments & Analysis

I performed several experiments to isolate the cause of the Desktop performance drop:

Throttling: Increasing update throttling (48ms, 160ms) had negligible impact (~33 FPS).

Buffer Reduction: Reducing mountedColumns buffer helped slightly but didn't solve it.

Component Removal: Removing the heavy Sparkline column (OffscreenCanvas) also had negligible impact.

Conclusion: The bottleneck is the Composite/Paint cost of the large DOM tree (2,000+ nodes) on the 1080p surface. The Main Thread is saturated by the browser's rendering engine, not by Scripting or Worker communication.

Future Work

New tickets should be created to investigate:

CSS Containment: Applying contain: strict to Rows/Cells.

Layer Promotion: Optimizing will-change.

DOM Flattening: Reducing the nesting depth of cells.

Viewport	Resolution	DOM Nodes	FPS	Status
Mobile	375x667	1,731	60	🟢
Laptop	1366x768	1,867	54	🟡
Desktop	1920x1080	2,285	30	🔴

tobiu closed this issue on Feb 18, 2026, 12:47 PM

tobiu cross-referenced by #9202 on Feb 18, 2026, 12:52 PM

tobiu cross-referenced by #9203 on Feb 18, 2026, 1:07 PM