Skip AdvantageKit mirror of Property values from NetworkTables (-459 entries for 2026 code in sim)

[aschokking]

This PR was written by Claude Opus 4.8 with my direction and manual verification of changes.

Why are we doing this?

Each Property currently costs two NetworkTables entries:

1. /Preferences/<prefix>/<suffix> — the WPILib Preferences-backed editable/savable dashboard surface.
2. /AdvantageKit/<prefix>/<suffix> — a mirror created by Logger.processInputs(...) in Property.refreshDataFrame(), which records the value as a LoggableInputs so replay sees what the robot used.

The AKit mirror has to exist for replay correctness, but it doesn't need to be published over NetworkTables — dashboards already see the value via /Preferences/.... With well over a thousand Properties on the bot, the redundant mirrors are a meaningful chunk of the NT load that's been stressing the rio.

This PR drops the AKit mirror's path to NT, keeps it on disk for replay, and leaves /Preferences/... untouched.

Whats changing?

New: xbot.common.advantage.PropertySkippingNT4Publisher — a LogDataReceiver that wraps NT4Publisher. On each putTable, it builds a filtered copy of the incoming LogTable that omits any entry under the PropertyMirror/ namespace, then forwards to the real NT4Publisher. The WPILOGWriter data receiver is untouched — disk capture (and therefore replay) is unaffected.

Property base class — added public static final String AKIT_LOG_NAMESPACE = "PropertyMirror/" and a protected akitLogPrefix() helper that returns PropertyMirror/<prefix>. Subclasses use it when calling Logger.processInputs(...).

Property subclasses — DoubleProperty, BooleanProperty, StringProperty, MeasureProperty all change Logger.processInputs(prefix, inputs) → Logger.processInputs(akitLogPrefix(), inputs). One-line each.

BaseRobot.robotInit() — new NT4Publisher() → new PropertySkippingNT4Publisher().

Measured impact

Counted live against the TeamXbot2026 sim using a small ntcore-based Python script (connect as an NT4 client, subscribe "" with the topics-only flag, wait for announcements, group by path).

Top-level NT tables

Top-level table	Before	After	Δ
/AdvantageKit	937	478	−459
/Preferences	459	459	0
/SmartDashboard	184	184	0
/photonvision	85	85	0
/CameraPublisher	48	48	0
/.schema	16	16	0
/FMSInfo	9	9	0
/PathPlanner	4	4	0
/Shuffleboard	3	3	0
/LiveWindow	1	1	0
Total	1746	1287	−459 (−26%)

Drop is exactly the number of /Preferences/... entries — every WPILib Preference that had an AKit mirror has lost the mirror. Nothing else moved.

Per-subsystem matching: AKit mirror is decoupled, Preferences is intact

Subsystem	/Preferences/<X> before → after	/AdvantageKit/<X> before → after
ShooterSubsystem	82 → 82	82 → 0
AprilTagVisionSubsystemExtended	40 → 40	60 → 20
ClimberSubsystem	36 → 36	37 → 1
IntakeDeploySubsystem	36 → 36	36 → 0
HopperRollerSubsystem	34 → 34	34 → 0
CollectorSubsystem	30 → 30	30 → 0
ShooterFeederSubsystem	30 → 30	30 → 0
SwerveDriveSubsystem	28 → 28	28 → 0
SwerveSteeringSubsystem	27 → 27	27 → 0
DriveSubsystem	22 → 22	74 → 52
Simulator	16 → 16	16 → 0
TrajectoriesCalculation	14 → 14	14 → 0
HoodSubsystem	7 → 7	(not in top-40)
IntakeDeployAdaptiveCloseWhileFiringCommand	7 → 7	(not in top-40)

The /Preferences/<X> column is unchanged everywhere (dashboards still see and edit the values). The /AdvantageKit/<X> column drops to 0 wherever everything under that subtable was a property mirror, and drops by exactly the Preferences count where the subsystem also has real telemetry going through aKitLog.record(...) (e.g. DriveSubsystem keeps 52 telemetry keys, AprilTagVisionSubsystemExtended keeps 20).

Questions/notes for reviewers

• Naming. I picked PropertyMirror/ (rather than Properties/) deliberately so the deny prefix in the wrapper reads less ambiguously next to WPILib's Preferences table. They sit close together conceptually and the original name kept tripping me up when re-reading the code.

How this was tested

• unit tests added (8 new tests in PropertySkippingNT4PublisherTest; full suite: 294 tests, 0 failures, 10 skipped)
• tested on robot (sim) — TeamXbot2026 sim, NT topic count and per-subsystem breakdown captured above

🤖 Generated with Claude Code