perf(object): remove the derivable object_type and field_count header words — 56 B -> 48 B #8113

Summary

Remove ObjectHeader::object_type and field_count, shrinking a common two-slot object from 56 B to 48 B and the eight-slot case from 104 B to 96 B. This is an independent rung of #8047 that needs none of the GC descriptor-rooting work in #8112.

Why this is a separate, landable rung

Measured with rustc -O on the exact #[repr(C)] shapes (LP64):

Neither field alone buys anything — the struct re-pads. Together they are a clean 8 bytes, exactly half of #8047's measured prize, and they do not touch the keys edge that #8112 has to redesign.

Work

1. Replace the seven raw-offset-0 Error discriminators

ObjectHeader.object_type is prefix-punned against error::ErrorHeader, whose own first u32 is also object_type. These read raw offset 0 on an untyped pointer:

• error.rs:750 (js_error_is_error), error.rs:1542 (gates (*error).errors)
• exception.rs:452, exception.rs:492 (print_uncaught)
• value/dynamic_object.rs:531,548 and :728,731

Delete the word and offset 0 becomes class_id; an ordinary object whose class_id equals OBJECT_TYPE_ERROR is then read at ErrorHeader's offsets. ErrorHeader is already allocated GC_TYPE_ERROR (error.rs:198-203), so GcHeader.obj_type is the replacement — the same move #8086 made for object_is_regular.

2. proxy.rs:1523 needs the descriptor kind, not object_is_regular

&& (*(addr as *const crate::ObjectHeader)).object_type == crate::error::OBJECT_TYPE_REGULAR

gates plan_eligible. It deliberately excludes OBJECT_TYPE_CLASS, and the comment above it records what breaks otherwise (#6595 — bundled zod's ZodX.create vanishing from ClassRef static dispatch). object_is_regular is true for class objects, so it is not a valid substitution. Use object_kind == ShapeObjectKind::Ordinary.

3. Make the live-slot publication atomic

object/mod.rs:1909 set_object_live_slot_count clears the stamp, writes the header word, then re-mints. Consumers falling back to the already-widened header word is what makes that window safe today, and synchronize_object_shape_descriptor_from allocates (HashMap insert), so a collection can land inside it. With no header word, a collection there sees the old live bound and the newly exposed slot is invisible to tracing and rewriting — a fresh #7154/#7164. Restructure to mint-then-stamp.

4. Give the two capacity consumers a real fact

field_get_set/field_ops.rs:127 computes alloc_limit = max((*obj).field_count, INLINE_SLOT_FLOOR) for its OOB bound and says so ("a generous limit … to avoid false positives"). dyn_eval/env.rs uses the same idiom. Both want physical capacity, which field_count only approximates.

5. Codegen

• lower_call/new_alloc.rs — the inline new writes object_type at raw+8 and field_count packed at raw+16; collapse to one class_id ‖ shape_id store. Also fix the three stale comments there (:250-254 says the header is 24 bytes without meta; :606 says slots start at raw+32 when it is raw+40; :380-383 says the ILP32 header is 20 when it is 24).
• Renumber the 11 hard-coded IR offsets from class_id @+4 / ShapeId @+8 to +0/+4: class_field_inline_guard.rs:279,283,400,495,499; element_shape_guard.rs:359; generic_dispatch.rs:389; proxy_reflect.rs:550,557,867,872. GcHeader-relative offsets (-8/-7/-6) are unaffected.
• The ~21 opaque object_header_size_bytes header-skip geps need no edit.
• ILP32: expr/proxy_reflect.rs:922 and stmt/loops.rs:3207 divide the header size by 8 for a word index. 24 / 8 is exact; the new ILP32 header is 16 (see below) so 16 / 8 stays exact — but convert them to byte geps anyway, since perf(object/GC): finish the common-object header shrink from 56 B to 40 B after shape-transition migration #8047 makes the value 12 and 12 / 8 == 1 silently. Note a {u32, u32, *mut} ILP32 header is 12 bytes with align 4, which would put 8-byte JSValue slots at a 4-aligned offset and violate the i64:64 arm64_32 ABI new_alloc.rs:588-591 warns about; this rung keeps keys_array, so ILP32 stays 16 and the hazard is deferred to perf(object/GC): finish the common-object header shrink from 56 B to 40 B after shape-transition migration #8047.

6. FFI and out-of-runtime

• perry-ffi/src/types.rs:37-53 mirror + the offset_of! asserts at :149-175.
• perry-ext-ws/src/lib.rs:847 (let n = (*ptr).field_count;) — needs a C accessor or js_object_keys + js_array_length.
• perry-stdlib/src/worker_threads.rs:677-683 — structured-clone walk. worker_options.rs:114 already models the replacement, but the keys_array.is_null() branch is deliberate (class instances take the field_count arm); verify js_object_keys returns the same set for class_id != 0 before collapsing, since it filters private #x keys.
• perry-ui-android/src/json.rs:487,490,496,598 — likely just delete the module: every function is private with no callers and its own trailing comment says js_json_* now lives in perry-runtime/json.rs.

7. Gates

• Update scripts/shape_descriptor_census.py's FIELDS tuple, self-test fixture, sabotage fixture, and the baseline JSON. (ci(object): make the ObjectHeader shape-descriptor census a real gate #8110 wires this script into lint; land that first.)
• scripts/raw_handle_debt_files.txt:115 and scripts/addr_class_ratchet_baseline.txt:138,257 — an entry matching nothing fails, and addr_class_inventory.py is a required lint step.
• perry-ffi's object_header_matches_runtime has never executed — it is #[cfg(all(test, feature = "runtime-link"))] and runtime-link is enabled nowhere in .github/. Field deletion still goes red via rustc-warnings, but a size/padding divergence is invisible. Wire it up as part of this change.
• perry-ffi is published to crates.io — an out-of-tree wrapper on the old mirror linked against a new runtime reads class_id out of the deleted object_type slot with no compile error. Needs a deliberate semver decision.
• Docs: docs/src/platforms/watchos.md:35,106-111 is the only user-facing statement of the LP64/ILP32 pair. Four codegen doc comments already say "24 on 64-bit, 20 on ILP32" and have been wrong since meta landed (property_get.rs:1724, generic_dispatch.rs:435, property_set.rs:1443, lower_call/new.rs:693).

Acceptance

• size_of::<ObjectHeader>() == 24 (LP64); {a,b} totals 48 B including GcHeader and two slots; the wide case reaches 96 B. Report both.
• GcHeader stays 8 bytes.
• Delete / defineProperty / prototype / cross-module / realm adversarial tests pass.
• Forced evacuation, evacuation verification and protect-fromspace canaries pass with the moving collector demonstrably live — assert copied_objects > 0 or promoted_objects > 0, not merely that nothing threw.
• The 19-program corpus is byte-exact and exit-checked; report instructions / cycles / RSS / copying-minor counts rather than extrapolating from the padding probe.
• No version bump in the implementation PR.

Refs #8047, #8067, #8086, #8110, #8112, #6595, #7154, #7164, #7916.