fix: reduce reconnect backoff to 1s flat

Exponential backoff up to 300s made no sense with rotating Tor exits
where each reconnect gets a fresh IP. Single 1s delay is sufficient.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.6 <noreply@anthropic.com>

docs/CHEATSHEET.md

@@ -156,7 +156,7 @@ SASL EXTERNAL (cert + creds) > SASL PLAIN (creds) > NickServ IDENTIFY
 ## Reconnect Backoff
 
 ```
-5s -> 10s -> 30s -> 60s -> 120s -> 300s (cap)
+1s (flat, no escalation)
 ```
 
 ## PING Watchdog

docs/USAGE.md

@@ -57,14 +57,8 @@ Once probation passes without incident:
 On any disconnection, the bouncer reconnects with exponential backoff
 (configurable via `backoff_steps`):
 
-| Attempt | Default Delay |
-|---------|---------------|
-| 1 | 5s |
-| 2 | 10s |
-| 3 | 30s |
-| 4 | 60s |
-| 5 | 120s |
-| 6+ | 300s |
+Reconnection delay is **1 second** (flat, no escalation). Each attempt gets a
+fresh random identity and potentially a different exit IP.
 
 Each reconnection uses a fresh random identity.
 
@@ -321,7 +315,7 @@ captcha_poll_timeout = 120 # max seconds to wait for solve
 
 # Connection tuning
 probation_seconds = 45     # post-connect watch period for k-lines
-backoff_steps = [5, 10, 30, 60, 120, 300]  # reconnect delays
+backoff_steps = [1]                # reconnect delay (seconds)
 nick_timeout = 10          # seconds to wait for nick change
 rejoin_delay = 3           # seconds before rejoin after kick
 http_timeout = 15          # per-request HTTP timeout

src/bouncer/config.py

@@ -67,7 +67,7 @@ class BouncerConfig:
 
     # Connection tuning
     probation_seconds: int = 45
-    backoff_steps: list[int] = field(default_factory=lambda: [5, 10, 30, 60, 120, 300])
+    backoff_steps: list[int] = field(default_factory=lambda: [1])
     nick_timeout: int = 10
     rejoin_delay: int = 3
     http_timeout: int = 15
@@ -128,7 +128,7 @@ def load(path: Path) -> Config:
         captcha_poll_interval=bouncer_raw.get("captcha_poll_interval", 3),
         captcha_poll_timeout=bouncer_raw.get("captcha_poll_timeout", 120),
         probation_seconds=bouncer_raw.get("probation_seconds", 45),
-        backoff_steps=bouncer_raw.get("backoff_steps", [5, 10, 30, 60, 120, 300]),
+        backoff_steps=bouncer_raw.get("backoff_steps", [1]),
         nick_timeout=bouncer_raw.get("nick_timeout", 10),
         rejoin_delay=bouncer_raw.get("rejoin_delay", 3),
         http_timeout=bouncer_raw.get("http_timeout", 15),

tests/test_config.py

@@ -151,7 +151,7 @@ channel_keys = { "#secret" = "hunter2" }
         cfg = load(_write_config(MINIMAL_CONFIG))
         b = cfg.bouncer
         assert b.probation_seconds == 45
-        assert b.backoff_steps == [5, 10, 30, 60, 120, 300]
+        assert b.backoff_steps == [1]
         assert b.nick_timeout == 10
         assert b.rejoin_delay == 3
         assert b.http_timeout == 15