T10.6: drop RGBA payload from the wire when the hardware path publishes a surface

crates/ely_app/src/shell/gpui_harness_tests.rs

@@ -1085,16 +1085,24 @@ fn identical_live_frames_share_render_image_arc() {
     )
     .expect("second frame builds from identical bytes");
 
+    let first_image = first
+        .image
+        .as_ref()
+        .expect("software path always produces an Arc<RenderImage>");
+    let second_image = second
+        .image
+        .as_ref()
+        .expect("software path always produces an Arc<RenderImage>");
     assert!(
-        Arc::ptr_eq(&first.image, &second.image),
+        Arc::ptr_eq(first_image, second_image),
         "TDD red: two ServoLiveFrames with byte-identical RGBA produced \
          distinct Arc<RenderImage> instances (first={:p}, second={:p}). \
          WebSurfaceFrame::from_parts must dedup the upload against the \
          previous frame's bytes, or the rendering pipeline must switch \
          to a GPU-side source of truth (IOSurface) so per-frame host \
          allocations stop entirely.",
-        Arc::as_ptr(&first.image),
-        Arc::as_ptr(&second.image),
+        Arc::as_ptr(first_image),
+        Arc::as_ptr(second_image),
     );
 }
 

crates/ely_app/src/shell/web_surface_frame.rs

@@ -57,12 +57,15 @@ pub(super) struct WebSurfaceFrame {
     content_pixel_count: u64,
     #[cfg(all(test, feature = "live-site-smoke"))]
     sample_hash: u64,
-    pub(super) image: Arc<RenderImage>,
+    /// Software-path image. `None` whenever the sidecar took the
+    /// hardware shortcut and dropped the RGBA payload from the
+    /// wire — the IOSurface in `pixel_buffer` is the source of truth
+    /// for that frame.
+    pub(super) image: Option<Arc<RenderImage>>,
     /// Hardware-path companion: when present, the view samples the
     /// IOSurface through GPUI's Metal pipeline via `gpui::surface(...)`
     /// instead of uploading the RGBA bytes again. Always `None` on
-    /// the software path; the RGBA copy in `image` is the source of
-    /// truth in that case.
+    /// the software path; `image` is the source of truth there.
     #[cfg(target_os = "macos")]
     pub(super) pixel_buffer: Option<CVPixelBuffer>,
 }
@@ -100,8 +103,21 @@ impl WebSurfaceFrame {
     }
 
     fn from_parts(parts: WebSurfaceFrameParts) -> Result<Self, WebSurfaceError> {
-        let bytes_hash = rgba_hash(&parts.rgba_bytes);
-        let image = resolve_render_image(parts.width, parts.height, parts.rgba_bytes, bytes_hash)?;
+        // Hardware path frames arrive with `rgba_bytes` empty — the
+        // sidecar dropped the 8 MB payload from the wire and the
+        // receiver samples the IOSurface directly. In that case the
+        // RGBA hash + LAST_FRAME_IMAGE dedup are skipped entirely.
+        let image = if parts.rgba_bytes.is_empty() {
+            None
+        } else {
+            let bytes_hash = rgba_hash(&parts.rgba_bytes);
+            Some(resolve_render_image(
+                parts.width,
+                parts.height,
+                parts.rgba_bytes,
+                bytes_hash,
+            )?)
+        };
 
         Ok(Self {
             requested_url: parts.requested_url,

crates/ely_app/src/shell/web_surface_view.rs

@@ -18,9 +18,10 @@ pub(super) fn render_ready_web_surface(
     // IOSurface and we successfully imported it into a CVPixelBuffer.
     // GPUI's `surface(...)` hands the buffer to its Blade Metal
     // renderer, which samples the IOSurface directly — no
-    // RGBA→texture upload, no LAST_FRAME_IMAGE dedup needed. Falls
-    // back to the software RGBA image when the buffer is missing
-    // (software webview, import failure, non-macOS host).
+    // RGBA→texture upload, no LAST_FRAME_IMAGE dedup needed. The
+    // sidecar drops the RGBA payload from the wire whenever it
+    // populates `pixel_buffer`, so `image` is `None` on this branch
+    // and there's no software memcpy to fall back on.
     #[cfg(target_os = "macos")]
     if let Some(pixel_buffer) = frame.pixel_buffer.as_ref() {
         return render_web_surface(
@@ -29,11 +30,20 @@ pub(super) fn render_ready_web_surface(
             surface(pixel_buffer.clone()).size_full().object_fit(ObjectFit::Fill),
         );
     }
-    render_web_surface(
-        tab,
-        state_entity,
-        img(ImageSource::Render(frame.image.clone())).size_full().object_fit(ObjectFit::Fill),
-    )
+    // Software path: the sidecar streamed the RGBA payload and the
+    // receiver decoded it into an Arc<RenderImage>.
+    if let Some(image) = frame.image.as_ref() {
+        return render_web_surface(
+            tab,
+            state_entity,
+            img(ImageSource::Render(image.clone())).size_full().object_fit(ObjectFit::Fill),
+        );
+    }
+    // Both image variants empty: shouldn't happen because the sidecar
+    // only drops RGBA when it has a hardware surface to publish, but
+    // a blank canvas is the honest user-facing fallback if it ever
+    // does.
+    render_web_surface(tab, state_entity, div().size_full())
 }
 
 pub(super) fn render_loading_web_surface(