BulwarkFrame v0.2.0

BulwarkFrame.toc

@@ -2,7 +2,7 @@
 ## Title: BulwarkFrame
 ## Notes: Compact real-time readout for the shaman Earthen Bulwark. Requires SuperWoW.
 ## Author: ShempError
-## Version: 0.2.0-dev
+## Version: 0.2.0
 ## SavedVariables: BulwarkFrameDB
 
 core\env.lua

CHANGELOG.md

@@ -0,0 +1,54 @@
+# Changelog
+
+All notable changes to BulwarkFrame are documented here.
+
+## v0.2.0 — 2026-08-15
+
+### Fixed
+- **Max health readout stays accurate through stamina buffs and level-ups.**
+  It was previously only re-read on zone-in and gear changes, so a Fortitude,
+  Gift of the Wild, food buff, or world buff picked up mid-raid left every
+  number on the readout roughly 10% low until the next zone change. It now
+  refreshes on any player max-health change and on level-up.
+- **"Combat only" no longer gets stuck off after a mid-fight reload.** The
+  combat flag was only ever set by entering or leaving combat, so a `/reload`
+  taken during a fight left it false for the rest of the encounter and hid the
+  frame outright for anyone using the "Combat only" option. It is now seeded
+  from the live combat state on login and on entering the world.
+- **The frame can no longer get stranded off-screen.** `/bulwark reset` and
+  the options panel's Reset button wrote the default position into the saved
+  settings but never moved the on-screen frame, so a frame dragged to the
+  edge stayed there until the next login. Reset now actually re-anchors the
+  frame, which is also clamped so it cannot be dragged off-screen in the
+  first place.
+- **Right-clicking the minimap button now reliably hides the "SuperWoW
+  required" hint.** The manual-hide flag was checked after that hint, so
+  without SuperWoW installed the hint frame could never be dismissed, even
+  though the minimap toggle reported it as hidden.
+- **`/bulwark show` and `/bulwark demo` now actually bring the frame back.**
+  Both commands cleared "hide when idle" and "combat only" but left a manual
+  minimap-toggle hide in place, so the frame stayed off-screen and demo mode
+  ran invisibly. Both commands now clear the manual hide as well, and say so
+  in their chat confirmation.
+- **The options panel no longer shows stale values after a slash command.**
+  `/bulwark reset`, `/bulwark lock`, `/bulwark show`, and `/bulwark demo`
+  changed settings without refreshing an already-open options panel, so its
+  checkboxes, sliders, and buttons kept showing the pre-command state —
+  nudging a stale slider could even silently undo what the command had just
+  done. The panel now re-syncs itself after every one of these commands.
+- **The absorb-rate readout no longer shows a number for an unlearned
+  talent.** A talent rank of zero was treated as "no value set" rather than
+  "rank 0", so an additive set-bonus reading could produce a plausible-looking
+  absorb rate for a talent the character never trained. It now correctly
+  shows `--` in that case.
+
+### Changed
+- **Lower CPU usage while the buffer is inactive.** The update loop now
+  detaches itself once there is nothing left to animate — no active buffer,
+  no swing in progress — instead of redrawing five times a second regardless,
+  and re-attaches automatically the moment a swing lands or the buffer
+  refills.
+- **Removed the addon's remaining per-tick and per-swing memory
+  allocation.** The colour-threshold lookup and the aura scan that runs on
+  every incoming swing no longer build and discard temporary tables and
+  closures, avoiding needless garbage-collector churn during combat.

README.md

@@ -81,10 +81,10 @@ a `git pull`.
 | Command | Does |
 |---|---|
 | `/bulwark` or `/bulwark options` | opens the options panel (also: left-click the minimap button) |
-| `/bulwark demo` | runs the display off a synthetic 12 s cycle — judge colours and sizes without a fight |
+| `/bulwark demo` | runs the display off a synthetic 12 s cycle — judge colours and sizes without a fight (clears the manual hide, so the frame is actually on screen) |
 | `/bulwark probe` | dumps the live aura / weapon / talent data to chat **and**, with SuperWoW, to `imports\bulwark_probe.txt` |
 | `/bulwark lock` | locks or unlocks dragging |
-| `/bulwark show` | pins the frame visible (turns off hide-when-idle and combat-only) |
+| `/bulwark show` | pins the frame visible (clears the manual hide and turns off hide-when-idle and combat-only) |
 | `/bulwark reset` | restores every setting to its default |
 
 `/bf` works as a short form of all of them. Right-clicking the minimap button shows or hides the
@@ -139,8 +139,15 @@ lua50 tools/luatests/test_calc.lua
 lua50 tools/luatests/test_swing.lua
 lua50 tools/luatests/test_env.lua
 lua50 tools/luatests/test_config.lua
+lua50 tools/luatests/test_slash.lua
 ```
 
+`test_slash.lua` is the exception to "no WoW API offline": it drives the real slash commands and
+the real options panel against a small widget stub. The questions it asks — which of the three
+suppressors wins, and whether a command re-syncs an open panel — are pure control flow, and that
+is reproducible without a client. Rendering, templates and event ordering are not, and stay
+in-game work.
+
 **Looking at the UI without the game:** `node tools/uipreview/render.js` draws the frame as a PNG
 across six states (full → empty, including both colour steps) at 3× into `tools/uipreview/out/`.
 Same geometry and colour buckets as the addon, so the look can be iterated without a client

core/calc.lua

@@ -168,7 +168,10 @@ C.RANK_RATE = { [0] = 0, [1] = 0.05, [2] = 0.10, [3] = 0.15 }
 -- neither is assumed; the caller decides once measurement settles it.
 function C.rateForRank(rank, addBonus, multBonus)
     local base = C.RANK_RATE[rank or -1]
-    if not base then return 0 end
+    -- `<= 0` and not just `not base`: rank 0 maps to a rate of 0, and 0 is truthy in Lua, so a
+    -- bare nil check would let an additive set bonus resurrect a rate for a talent the character
+    -- has not learned -- exactly the confidently wrong number this guard exists to prevent.
+    if not base or base <= 0 then return 0 end
     if type(addBonus) == "number" then base = base + addBonus end
     if type(multBonus) == "number" then base = base * multBonus end
     return base

data.lua

@@ -32,6 +32,43 @@ BF.state = {
 
 -- ---- buff scan --------------------------------------------------------------------------
 
+-- Walks one of the 64-slot unit aura enumerations looking for the buffer, and returns the
+-- (possibly raised) stack count plus the found flag.
+--
+-- Deliberately a file-scope function taking its inputs as arguments rather than a closure built
+-- inside ScanAuras: as a closure it allocated one object per CALL plus one more per aura SLOT (the
+-- per-slot pcall wrapper), and ScanAuras is the PLAYER_AURAS_CHANGED handler -- an event that
+-- fires on every stack change of the buffer, i.e. on every absorbed hit. Roughly two dozen
+-- throwaway closures per incoming melee swing is exactly the GC churn the rest of this addon
+-- takes care to avoid.
+--
+-- The per-slot pcall went with it. It was never per-slot error recovery either: the old code
+-- aborted the WHOLE walk as soon as one slot failed, so a single pcall around the walk (see the
+-- call sites) covers the same ground -- and UnitBuff/UnitDebuff on "player" with an integer index
+-- does not throw to begin with. The one behavioural difference is that a walk which errors part
+-- way through now contributes nothing instead of its partial count, which is the safer of the two.
+--
+-- Note the id position differs between the two calls -- an easy trap: reading return 4 from
+-- UnitBuff (or 3 from UnitDebuff) silently yields nil and the aura is never matched.
+local function scanStacks(st, fn, idPos, poolId, timeId, stacks, found)
+    local i = 1
+    while i <= 64 do
+        local r1, r2, r3, r4 = fn("player", i)
+        if r1 == nil then break end
+        local id = (idPos == 4) and tonumber(r4) or tonumber(r3)
+        if id == poolId or id == timeId then
+            local n = tonumber(r2)
+            if n and n > stacks then
+                stacks = n
+                found = true
+                st.hasPool = true
+            end
+        end
+        i = i + 1
+    end
+    return stacks, found
+end
+
 -- Scans the player's buffs once and writes pool/time into BF.state.
 -- GetPlayerBuff walks HELPFUL slots; GetPlayerBuffID (SuperWoW) gives the spell id, which is the
 -- whole reason SuperWoW is a hard requirement -- matching the icon texture instead would collide
@@ -83,28 +120,17 @@ function BF.ScanAuras()
     -- The durability aura runs as a DEBUFF, and the HELPFUL player-buff enumeration above never
     -- lists it. Reading only that API is why a full buffer reported a single stack -- and one stack
     -- renders as 61 against a maximum of 6117: a plausible number, wrong by a factor of a hundred.
-    -- Note the id position differs between the two calls -- an easy trap: reading return 4 from
+    --
-    -- UnitBuff (or 3 from UnitDebuff) silently yields nil and the aura is never matched.
+    -- The walk itself lives at file scope (see scanStacks above). pcall is handed the arguments
-    local scanStacks = function(fn, idPos)
+    -- directly instead of a wrapper closure, so this path allocates nothing at all.
-        local i = 1
+    if UnitDebuff then
-        while i <= 64 do
+        local ok, s, f = pcall(scanStacks, st, UnitDebuff, 4, poolId, timeId, stacks, found)
-            local r1, r2, r3, r4
+        if ok then stacks, found = s, f end
-            local ok = pcall(function() r1, r2, r3, r4 = fn("player", i) end)
+    end
-            if not ok or r1 == nil then break end
+    if UnitBuff then
-            local id = (idPos == 4) and tonumber(r4) or tonumber(r3)
+        local ok, s, f = pcall(scanStacks, st, UnitBuff, 3, poolId, timeId, stacks, found)
-            if id == poolId or id == timeId then
+        if ok then stacks, found = s, f end
-                local n = tonumber(r2)
-                if n and n > stacks then
-                    stacks = n
-                    found = true
-                    st.hasPool = true
-                end
-            end
-            i = i + 1
-        end
     end
-    if UnitDebuff then pcall(function() scanStacks(UnitDebuff, 4) end) end
-    if UnitBuff then pcall(function() scanStacks(UnitBuff, 3) end) end
 
     -- A buffer aura with no applications at all still means "buffer up": 1.12 reports a
     -- single-stack aura without a count, and treating that as 0 would blank the bar while it is
@@ -179,6 +205,15 @@ driver:RegisterEvent("PLAYER_REGEN_DISABLED")
 driver:RegisterEvent("PLAYER_REGEN_ENABLED")
 driver:RegisterEvent("UNIT_INVENTORY_CHANGED")
 
+-- Max health is the base of EVERY number on screen (maxPool = maxHP/5), so it must not be read
+-- only on zone-in and gear swaps. A stamina buff landing at the raid entrance -- Fortitude, Gift
+-- of the Wild, food, a world buff -- moves max health without either of those events, and the
+-- readout would then be ~10% low for the whole encounter. UNIT_MAXHEALTH carries a unit token in
+-- arg1 and fires for every group member, so it has to be filtered; PLAYER_LEVEL_UP carries the
+-- new level in arg1 and must NOT go through that filter.
+driver:RegisterEvent("UNIT_MAXHEALTH")
+driver:RegisterEvent("PLAYER_LEVEL_UP")
+
 -- SuperWoW's UNIT_CASTEVENT is the swing source: arg3 is "MAINHAND"/"OFFHAND" for auto-attacks.
 -- It is language independent and fires on misses too, unlike parsing combat-log text -- which is
 -- how the third-party swing timers get it wrong on a dodge.
@@ -192,15 +227,32 @@ driver:SetScript("OnEvent", function()
         if arg3 == "MAINHAND" and arg1 == BF.playerGuid then
             BF.state.lastSwingAt = GetTime()
             BF.RefreshSwingInputs()
+            -- Redraw explicitly, because this branch returns before the shared RequestUpdate at
+            -- the end of the handler. Without it a swing landing while idle and out of combat
+            -- never re-attaches the update loop and the marker simply does not move -- the one
+            -- wakeup path that is neither an aura nor a combat event. The call stays INSIDE the
+            -- main-hand test on purpose: UNIT_CASTEVENT fires for every cast of every unit in
+            -- range, and redrawing on all of them is exactly the churn this addon avoids.
+            if BF.RequestUpdate then BF.RequestUpdate() end
         end
         return
     end
-    if event == "PLAYER_REGEN_DISABLED" then
+    if event == "UNIT_MAXHEALTH" then
+        -- Health only: no GUID re-capture, no swing re-read. This fires for party and raid
+        -- members too, hence the filter.
+        if arg1 == "player" then BF.state.maxHP = UnitHealthMax("player") or 0 end
+    elseif event == "PLAYER_LEVEL_UP" then
+        BF.state.maxHP = UnitHealthMax("player") or 0
+    elseif event == "PLAYER_REGEN_DISABLED" then
         BF.state.inCombat = true
     elseif event == "PLAYER_REGEN_ENABLED" then
         BF.state.inCombat = false
     elseif event == "PLAYER_ENTERING_WORLD" or event == "UNIT_INVENTORY_CHANGED" then
         BF.state.maxHP = UnitHealthMax("player") or 0
+        -- Seeded from the live API, not only from the REGEN transitions: those fire on ENTERING
+        -- combat, never on login, so a /reload taken mid-fight would leave the flag false for the
+        -- rest of the encounter and strand anyone running "Combat only".
+        BF.state.inCombat = UnitAffectingCombat("player") and true or false
         BF.CapturePlayerGuid()
         BF.RefreshSwingInputs()
     end

main.lua

@@ -23,29 +23,58 @@ SLASH_BULWARKFRAME2 = "/bf"
 SlashCmdList["BULWARKFRAME"] = function(input)
     local cmd = string.lower(input or "")
     -- No string.match / no ':' string methods -- Lua 5.0.
+    --
+    -- Set by every branch that writes BulwarkFrameDB. The options panel is built once and its
+    -- widgets then hold their own state, so a slash command that changes a setting behind an open
+    -- panel left every checkbox, slider and cycle button showing the pre-command values -- and the
+    -- first nudge of a stale slider writes the discarded value straight back over the change. The
+    -- panel's own Reset button already calls BF.RefreshOptions for exactly this reason; collecting
+    -- it here gives the slash side the same treatment, and keeps a future command from silently
+    -- drifting out of sync again.
+    local dirty = false
     if cmd == "" or cmd == "options" or cmd == "config" then
         BF.ToggleOptions()
     elseif cmd == "demo" then
+        -- Read before the toggle: BF.ToggleDemo clears the manual hide so the frame it promises
+        -- actually appears, and that is worth saying rather than leaving the user to wonder why
+        -- an unrelated setting moved.
+        local wasHidden = BulwarkFrameDB.hidden and true or false
         local on = BF.ToggleDemo()
-        msg("demo " .. (on and "on" or "off"))
+        if on and wasHidden then
+            msg("demo on (manual hide cleared)")
+        else
+            msg("demo " .. (on and "on" or "off"))
+        end
+        dirty = true
     elseif cmd == "probe" then
         BF.RunProbe()
     elseif cmd == "lock" then
         BulwarkFrameDB.locked = not BulwarkFrameDB.locked
         BF.ApplyLayout()
         msg(BulwarkFrameDB.locked and "frame locked" or "frame unlocked")
+        dirty = true
     elseif cmd == "reset" then
         BF.resetConfig()
         BF.ApplyLayout()
         BF.RequestUpdate()
         BF.UpdateMinimapButton()
         msg("settings reset to defaults")
+        dirty = true
     elseif cmd == "show" then
+        -- All THREE suppressors, not just the two automatic ones. The manual hide (minimap
+        -- right-click) is a SavedVariable and overrides both of them in RequestUpdate, so leaving
+        -- it set meant '/bulwark show' reported success while the frame stayed off screen -- and
+        -- no other command except a full reset could clear it.
+        BulwarkFrameDB.hidden = false
         BulwarkFrameDB.hideWhenInactive = false
         BulwarkFrameDB.hideOutOfCombat = false
         BF.RequestUpdate()
-        msg("frame pinned visible (hide-when-idle and combat-only turned off)")
+        msg("frame pinned visible (manual hide, hide-when-idle and combat-only turned off)")
+        dirty = true
     else
         msg("commands: options | demo | probe | lock | show | reset")
     end
+    -- Safe unconditionally: the refresher list is empty until the panel has been built, so this is
+    -- a no-op for anyone who never opened it.
+    if dirty and BF.RefreshOptions then BF.RefreshOptions() end
 end

options.lua

@@ -434,6 +434,12 @@ local function BuildPanel()
         this:SetText(on and "Demo: on" or "Demo")
     end)
     demoBtn:SetPoint("BOTTOMLEFT", panel, "BOTTOMLEFT", 24, 20)
+    -- The one stateful widget that had no refresher, unlike modeBtn and setBtn above: demo mode can
+    -- also be toggled from '/bulwark demo', and without this the button kept whatever label it last
+    -- set itself -- reading "Demo" over a running demo, or "Demo: on" over a live readout.
+    table.insert(refreshers, function()
+        demoBtn:SetText(BF.IsDemo() and "Demo: on" or "Demo")
+    end)
 
     local probeBtn = CreateButton(panel, "Probe", "Dump the live aura/weapon data we still need "
         .. "(also /bulwark probe).", function() BF.RunProbe() end)

ui.lua

@@ -7,7 +7,7 @@
 --   * nothing is allocated per OnUpdate frame -- no string building, no tables. Text is only
 --     pushed when it actually changed, and the loop returns early when there is nothing to draw;
 --   * when the buffer is down and we are out of combat the OnUpdate script is detached entirely
---     rather than left spinning on a hidden frame.
+--     rather than left spinning -- whether the frame is hidden or merely idle on screen.
 
 BulwarkFrame = BulwarkFrame or {}
 local BF = BulwarkFrame
@@ -23,6 +23,13 @@ local demo = nil          -- demo mode state, nil when off
 local UPDATE_INTERVAL = 0.05
 local sinceUpdate = 0
 
+-- Colour-threshold configs, allocated once and refilled in place. Built as table literals inside
+-- the update loop they were the only per-tick allocation left in this file: two tables every
+-- 50 ms, created purely to be read twice and thrown away. calc.lua reads .red/.yellow and never
+-- retains the table, so reusing one instance is safe.
+local poolCfg = { red = 0, yellow = 0 }
+local timeCfg = { red = 0, yellow = 0 }
+
 -- ---- helpers ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
 
 local function db() return BulwarkFrameDB end
@@ -70,9 +77,14 @@ local function BuildFrame()
     frame = CreateFrame("Frame", "BulwarkFrameMain", UIParent)
     frame:SetWidth(d.width)
     frame:SetHeight(60)
-    frame:SetPoint(d.point, UIParent, d.relPoint, d.x, d.y)
+    -- The anchor is applied by ApplyLayout (called at the end of this function), so that reset and
+    -- the options panel go through the SAME code path a fresh login does. Anchoring here as well
+    -- would leave two placement sites and let them disagree.
     frame:SetScale(d.scale)
     frame:SetMovable(true)
+    -- Without this the frame can be dragged until only a sliver is left on screen, and the
+    -- documented rescue ('/bulwark reset') then has to be able to fetch it back.
+    frame:SetClampedToScreen(true)
     frame:EnableMouse(not d.locked)
     frame:RegisterForDrag("LeftButton")
     frame:SetScript("OnDragStart", function() if not db().locked then this:StartMoving() end end)
@@ -153,6 +165,12 @@ function BF.ApplyLayout()
     frame:SetWidth(w)
     frame:SetScale(d.scale)
     frame:EnableMouse(not d.locked)
+    -- Re-anchor from the saved placement. Without this, '/bulwark reset' (and the panel's Reset
+    -- button) put CENTER/0/-120 back into the config while the frame itself stayed wherever it was
+    -- dragged -- so the documented way to rescue a frame from the screen edge did nothing until
+    -- the next login.
+    frame:ClearAllPoints()
+    frame:SetPoint(d.point or "CENTER", UIParent, d.relPoint or "CENTER", d.x or 0, d.y or 0)
 
     if d.showThreshold then
         poolBar:ClearAllPoints()
@@ -273,7 +291,8 @@ local function updateDisplay()
     if d.showThreshold then
         local frac = C.barFraction(stacks)
         poolBar:SetValue(frac)
-        local r, g, b = bucketRGB(C.poolColorName(frac, { red = d.poolRed, yellow = d.poolYellow }))
+        poolCfg.red, poolCfg.yellow = d.poolRed, d.poolYellow
+        local r, g, b = bucketRGB(C.poolColorName(frac, poolCfg))
         poolBar:SetStatusBarColor(r, g, b)
         if d.showThresholdText then
             local points = C.poolPoints(stacks, maxHP)
@@ -291,7 +310,8 @@ local function updateDisplay()
     if d.showExpiry then
         local tf = C.timeFraction(timeLeft, BF.BUFFER_DURATION)
         timeBar:SetValue(tf)
-        local r, g, b = bucketRGB(C.timeColorName(timeLeft, { red = d.timeRed, yellow = d.timeYellow }))
+        timeCfg.red, timeCfg.yellow = d.timeRed, d.timeYellow
+        local r, g, b = bucketRGB(C.timeColorName(timeLeft, timeCfg))
         -- Dimmed on purpose: same buckets, lower alpha, so the threshold bar stays the primary
         -- readout instead of two equally loud bars sitting on top of each other.
         timeBar:SetStatusBarColor(r, g, b, d.expiryAlpha or 0.65)
@@ -339,6 +359,16 @@ function BF.RequestUpdate()
     local d = db()
     local st = BF.state
 
+    -- The deliberate hide is honoured FIRST, ahead of demo mode and ahead of the environment
+    -- hint. Checked further down it was unreachable whenever SuperWoW was missing, so the
+    -- "SuperWoW required" frame could not be dismissed at all: right-clicking the minimap button
+    -- flipped the flag and announced "hidden" while the frame stayed on screen.
+    if d.hidden then
+        frame:Hide()
+        frame:SetScript("OnUpdate", nil)
+        return
+    end
+
     if demo then
         frame:Show()
         if not frame:GetScript("OnUpdate") then frame:SetScript("OnUpdate", BF.OnUpdate) end
@@ -355,12 +385,34 @@ function BF.RequestUpdate()
 
     local shouldShow = st.active or st.inCombat or not d.hideWhenInactive
     if d.hideOutOfCombat and not st.inCombat then shouldShow = false end
-    if d.hidden then shouldShow = false end        -- explicitly hidden via the minimap button
 
     if shouldShow then
         hintText:Hide()
         frame:Show()
-        if not frame:GetScript("OnUpdate") then frame:SetScript("OnUpdate", BF.OnUpdate) end
+        -- "On screen" and "has work to do" are different questions. With hideWhenInactive off
+        -- (the default) the frame stays visible while idle -- but once the buffer is down and
+        -- combat has ended there is nothing left to animate, so the OnUpdate script is still
+        -- detached: it was otherwise left spinning from login to logout, redrawing a saturated
+        -- swing marker every rendered frame and walking the whole buff list five times a second
+        -- for a readout that cannot change. The aura, combat and swing handlers in data.lua each
+        -- end in a RequestUpdate call and re-attach it, so nothing has to poll for the wakeup.
+        --
+        -- A swing still in flight counts as work even with the buffer down and combat over:
+        -- auto-attacking out of combat is ordinary play, and parking on it would freeze the
+        -- marker where it stood. Once progress saturates this stops being true and the loop's
+        -- own RequestUpdate call parks it.
+        local swinging = d.showSwing and st.swingSpeed and st.swingSpeed > 0
+            and S.hasSwung(st.lastSwingAt)
+            and S.progress(st.lastSwingAt, GetTime(), st.swingSpeed, st.swingOffset) < 1
+        if st.active or st.inCombat or swinging then
+            if not frame:GetScript("OnUpdate") then frame:SetScript("OnUpdate", BF.OnUpdate) end
+        else
+            frame:SetScript("OnUpdate", nil)
+            -- One last pass, unconditionally: the frame is visible and nothing will tick it, so
+            -- it has to be left parked on the correct final state rather than on empty text.
+            updateDisplay()
+            updateSwingMarker()
+        end
     else
         frame:Hide()
         frame:SetScript("OnUpdate", nil)     -- idle costs nothing at all
@@ -373,7 +425,10 @@ function BF.OnUpdate()
     if sinceUpdate < UPDATE_INTERVAL then return end
     sinceUpdate = 0
     local active = updateDisplay()
-    if not demo and not active and not BF.state.inCombat and db().hideWhenInactive then
+    -- Re-evaluated whatever hideWhenInactive says: with it off the frame stays on screen, but the
+    -- loop still has nothing left to do, and RequestUpdate is what parks it. Gating this on the
+    -- setting is why the handler used to run for the whole session in the default configuration.
+    if not demo and not active and not BF.state.inCombat then
         BF.RequestUpdate()
     end
 end
@@ -388,6 +443,13 @@ function BF.ToggleDemo(on)
     if on then
         demo = { start = GetTime(), maxHP = (UnitHealthMax("player") or 4588) }
         if demo.maxHP <= 0 then demo.maxHP = 4588 end
+        -- Turning demo on is an explicit "show me the frame", so it clears the manual hide.
+        -- RequestUpdate honours that hide FIRST (it has to -- otherwise the "SuperWoW required"
+        -- frame cannot be dismissed), which meant '/bulwark demo' over a minimap-hidden frame
+        -- reported "demo on", drew nothing, ticked nothing, and left the user silently parked in
+        -- demo mode until they un-hid the frame. Clearing the flag here keeps the precedence
+        -- where it belongs and still makes the command deliver what it announces.
+        db().hidden = false
         -- Synthetic numbers MUST be labelled as such. Unlabelled demo data is indistinguishable
         -- from a live readout that happens to be wrong, and that is the one failure this addon
         -- exists to avoid.
@@ -421,6 +483,11 @@ function BF.InitUI()
     local ok = BulwarkFrameEnv.check(SUPERWOW_VERSION)
     BF.envOk = ok
     BF.state.maxHP = UnitHealthMax("player") or 0
+    -- Seeded here as well as in the PLAYER_ENTERING_WORLD handler: this runs off PLAYER_LOGIN and
+    -- the order of the two is not guaranteed. PLAYER_REGEN_DISABLED only fires on ENTERING combat,
+    -- so without a live read a /reload taken mid-fight leaves "Combat only" users with no frame
+    -- for the rest of the encounter.
+    BF.state.inCombat = UnitAffectingCombat("player") and true or false
     BF.CapturePlayerGuid()
     if ok then
         BF.RefreshSwingInputs()