TTL and expiry

Every channel carries an inactivity TTL; the manager’s sweep loop is what enforces it.

# Open with an explicit TTL
./bin/parsec channels open public:webapp.system.status --ttl 1h

# Inspect TTL + last_active
./bin/parsec channels get public:webapp.system.status

States

Three states, one transition diagram:

                 +-------+
                 | open  |
                 +-------+
                /         \
   sweep (public,         sweep (private,
    TTL exceeded)          TTL exceeded)
              |             |
              v             v
         +--------+    +---------+
         | closed |    | deleted |
         +--------+    +---------+
              \          ^
        reopen \        / explicit Delete
                v      /
             +-------+
             | open  |  (closed -> open via OpenPublic)
             +-------+

The constants live in channels/manager.go:

const MaxPrivateTTL    = 1 * time.Hour
const DefaultPublicTTL = 30 * time.Minute

Default private TTL is 15 minutes — see CreatePrivate in the same file.

Sweep behavior

Manager.Sweep(now) runs once per SweepInterval (default 30s). For every channel in StateOpen:

• If now.Sub(LastActive) < TTL — skip.
• Else, if the name is public: — flip to closed, emit EventClosed. Existing subscribers stay attached and continue to receive publications until they disconnect on their own.
• Else (private:) — remove the record entirely, emit EventDeleted. The broker bridge kicks every connected subscriber.

That asymmetry is intentional. Public channels are “broadcasts” — the broadcaster fading out should not look the same as a private per-tenant feed silently disappearing.

Touch

A channel resets its LastActive on three occasions:

• OpenPublic on a closed channel — reopens and resets.
• Publish — every publish path calls Touch on success.
• An explicit Manager.Touch call from library code.

There is no CLI touch subcommand because operator workflows do not need one. If you want to keep a channel alive without sending data, either republish heartbeat messages or extend the TTL by calling channels open again with a larger --ttl.

Public vs private at a glance

See public channels and private channels for the surface-by-surface details, and the architecture overview for how the manager-event bridge translates sweep events into broker actions.

Events

The manager emits typed events on every transition:

Subscribers register via Manager.Subscribe(chan<- Event); the manager sends non-blocking, so subscribers should buffer. See broker internals for the wire side.