← @magmacomputing/tempo-plugin-ntp

Ticker Integration & Atomic Clocks

When combined with @magmacomputing/tempo-plugin-ticker, @magmacomputing/tempo-plugin-ntp enables continuous execution loops and scheduled intervals compensated for client-server network clock drift.

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1. NTP-Compensated Cadence (ntp: true)

The Ticker plugin supports the ntp: true option.

When ntp: true is configured, Ticker seeds unanchored start times from Tempo.ntp.now() and dynamically adjusts internal countdown delays to compensate for measured remote clock drift (Tempo.ntp.offset):

import { Tempo } from '@magmacomputing/tempo';
import { NtpPlugin } from '@magmacomputing/tempo-plugin-ntp';
import { TickerPlugin } from '@magmacomputing/tempo-plugin-ticker';

// 1. Install both plugins
Tempo.use(NtpPlugin, { server: '/api/time' });
Tempo.use(TickerPlugin);

// 2. Initial sync
await Tempo.ntp.sync();

// 3. Create an NTP-compensated 1-second continuous ticker
const ticker = Tempo.ticker({
  ntp: true,
  seconds: 1,
  timeZone: 'America/New_York'
}, (atomicTempo) => {
  console.log(`Atomic Wall Clock: ${atomicTempo.format('{yyyy}-{mm}-{dd} {hh}:{mi}:{ss}')}`);
  console.log(`Calibrated Drift: ${Tempo.ntp.offset}ms`);
});

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2. Distributed Wall-Clock Aligned Schedules

In collaborative web applications, multiplayer games, and distributed IoT fleets, multiple independent nodes often need to trigger a synchronized action on true atomic minute or hour boundaries.

By passing ntp: true alongside cron schedules or duration steps, all participating nodes align to true atomic epoch boundaries:

import { Tempo } from '@magmacomputing/tempo';

// Trigger on every 5-minute atomic boundary
const synchronizedJob = Tempo.ticker({
  ntp: true,
  cron: '*/5 * * * *'
}, (atomicTempo) => {
  console.log(`[SYNCHRONIZED PULSE] Distributed task at ${atomicTempo.format('{yyyy}-{mm}-{dd} {hh}:{mi}:{ss}')}`);
});

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3. Explicit Resource Management & Lifecycle

NTP-enabled tickers implement ECMAScript explicit resource management ([Symbol.dispose] / [Symbol.asyncDispose]):

{
  await using activeTicker = Tempo.ticker({
    ntp: true,
    seconds: 5,
    limit: 10
  }, (now, stop) => {
    updateDashboard(now);
  });
  
  // Do work...
} // 🧹 Automatically stopped and unmounted upon exiting scope!

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4. Fallback Behavior

If Tempo.ticker({ ntp: true, ... }) is invoked before an NTP sync has occurred, or if NtpPlugin has not yet been registered, the Ticker plugin gracefully falls back to local system time and calculates delays from instant().epochMilliseconds without throwing runtime errors.