@@ -0,0 +1,14 @@
+---
+"@objectstack/core": minor
+"@objectstack/service-queue": minor
+"@objectstack/service-messaging": patch
+---
+
+`DbQueueAdapter` backs off while `sys_job_queue` is idle instead of polling flat at 1 s, and the loop that does it is now published from `@objectstack/core` as `DispatchLoop` (#17612).
+
+A registered-but-idle queue issued **3600 candidate reads an hour, per queue**, whatever was in the table — on a remote driver, 3600 HTTP round trips an hour of pure idle cost. Measured over one simulated idle hour on the engine boundary the adapter really talks to: **3601 reads before, 124 after**, with the flat-poll number re-measured on the same harness as a control so the new one is a reading about the backoff rather than about a loop that stopped ticking.
+
+- **One mechanism, not a third copy.** The idle-backoff loop was written for `NotificationDispatcher` (#17610), shared with `HttpDispatcher` (#17623), and lived unexported inside `@objectstack/service-messaging`. `DbQueueAdapter` was the third polling worker needing it. It moves to `@objectstack/core` — the package all three already depend on — because it is a timing primitive owned by neither the messaging domain nor the queue domain, and having `service-queue` depend on `service-messaging` to reach it would invert the dependency direction. **New export from `@objectstack/core`: `DispatchLoop`, `DispatchLoopOptions`, `DEFAULT_MAX_IDLE_INTERVAL_MS`.**
+- **Nothing published moved.** `@objectstack/service-messaging` exports only its `index`, which never carried the loop; its two dispatchers now import it from `@objectstack/core` and its own surface is byte-unchanged.
+- **New option `DbQueueAdapterOptions.maxIdleIntervalMs`** (default 30 s). Each tick that claims nothing doubles the delay to the next from `pollIntervalMs` up to this ceiling; anything claimed, and every wake, snaps it straight back. **Setting it at or below `pollIntervalMs` restores the flat poll exactly.**
+- ⚠️ **What the backoff costs, and what it does not.** Work published through this adapter now wakes the loop, so a due `publish()` and `replay()` are picked up at the base interval as before — the ceiling is never on their latency path. What it does cost is up to `maxIdleIntervalMs` of extra latency on work this process was never told about: a row another node wrote, a deferred row coming due, a crashed worker's lease expiring. A deferred `publish()` deliberately does **not** wake the loop, since that tick would claim nothing and would throw the backoff away.
@@ -1,13 +1,22 @@
 // Copyright (c) 2026 ObjectStack. Licensed under the Apache-2.0 license.
 
 /**
- * The timer loop both outbox dispatchers run — `NotificationDispatcher` over
- * `sys_notification_delivery` and `HttpDispatcher` over `sys_http_delivery`.
+ * The timer loop every polling worker in the platform runs —
+ * `NotificationDispatcher` over `sys_notification_delivery`, `HttpDispatcher`
+ * over `sys_http_delivery`, and `DbQueueAdapter` over `sys_job_queue`.
  *
  * #17610 wrote this loop inside `NotificationDispatcher`. #17623 found
  * `HttpDispatcher` still on the fixed 500 ms `setInterval` the notification side
- * had just left, and moved the loop here, so the two dispatchers run one
- * implementation of these rules instead of two copies that can drift:
+ * had just left, and pulled the loop out into one implementation of these rules
+ * instead of two copies that can drift. #17612 found the third copy —
+ * `DbQueueAdapter` on a flat 1 s `setInterval` — and that is why the loop
+ * lives HERE, in `@objectstack/core`, rather than in either service: it is a
+ * timing primitive, owned by neither the messaging domain nor the queue
+ * domain, and a service-to-service dependency between them to share it would
+ * invert the direction (a queue service depending on a messaging service).
+ * `@objectstack/core` is the package all three already depend on.
+ *
+ * The rules, one implementation:
  *
  *  - **Never two ticks at once.** A tick asked for while one is running (a
  *    {@link DispatchLoop.wake}, typically) becomes ONE follow-up tick, run the
 
@@ -128,6 +128,12 @@ export * from './dependency-resolver.js';
 // Export Phase 3 components - Package lifecycle management
 export * from './namespace-resolver.js';
 
+// [#17612] The one polling-worker timer loop — tick coalescing, idle backoff
+// and a final stop() — shared by every worker that drains a table
+// (service-messaging's two outbox dispatchers, service-queue's DbQueueAdapter).
+// It lives here because it is a timing primitive belonging to neither domain.
+export * from './dispatch-loop.js';
+
 // Re-export contracts from @objectstack/spec for backward compatibility
 export type { 
     Logger,
 
@@ -4,7 +4,7 @@ import type { MessagingChannel, MessagingChannelContext, Notification, SendResul
 import type { AckResult, ClaimedDeliveryRecord, INotificationOutbox, NotificationDeliveryRecord } from './outbox.js';
 import { classifyDeliveryAttempt } from './backoff.js';
 import { renderDigest } from './digest-render.js';
-import { DispatchLoop } from './dispatch-loop.js';
+import { DispatchLoop } from '@objectstack/core';
 
 /** Minimal channel-registry surface the dispatcher needs (MessagingService satisfies it). */
 export interface ChannelRegistry {
@@ -49,7 +49,7 @@ export interface NotificationDispatcherLogger {
  * {@link NotificationDispatcherOptions.maxIdleIntervalMs}. It lives with the
  * loop both dispatchers run (#17623) and stays exported from here.
  */
-export { DEFAULT_MAX_IDLE_INTERVAL_MS } from './dispatch-loop.js';
+export { DEFAULT_MAX_IDLE_INTERVAL_MS } from '@objectstack/core';
 
 export interface NotificationDispatcherOptions {
     nodeId: string;
 
@@ -6,7 +6,7 @@
  *
  * The loop used to tick every `intervalMs` (500 ms) forever, whatever it found —
  * the shape #17610 removed from `NotificationDispatcher`. Both dispatchers now
- * run the one `DispatchLoop` (`dispatch-loop.ts`), whose mechanics are pinned in
+ * run the one `DispatchLoop` (`@objectstack/core`), whose mechanics are pinned in
  * full through the notification side in `dispatcher-idle-backoff.test.ts`. This
  * file pins the same behaviour through `HttpDispatcher`, plus what only the HTTP
  * side has: a retry schedule the backoff must not starve, and its own ingress —
 
@@ -1,7 +1,7 @@
 // Copyright (c) 2026 ObjectStack. Licensed under the Apache-2.0 license.
 
 import type { DispatchCluster, DispatchLockHandle } from './dispatcher.js';
-import { DispatchLoop } from './dispatch-loop.js';
+import { DispatchLoop } from '@objectstack/core';
 import { classifyAttempt, sendOnce, type FetchImpl } from './http-sender.js';
 import type { HttpAckResult, HttpClaimCredential, HttpDelivery, IHttpOutbox } from './http-outbox.js';
 
 
@@ -8,6 +8,7 @@ import type {
   QueueHandler,
 } from '@objectstack/spec/contracts';
 import { SysJobQueue } from '@objectstack/platform-objects/audit';
+import { DispatchLoop, DEFAULT_MAX_IDLE_INTERVAL_MS } from '@objectstack/core';
 import {
   SYSTEM_CTX,
   uid,
@@ -135,6 +136,21 @@ export interface LifecycleFloorRegistrar {
 export interface DbQueueAdapterOptions {
   /** Polling interval for the worker loop (ms, default 1000) */
   pollIntervalMs?: number;
+  /**
+   * [#17612] Ceiling of the IDLE backoff, in ms (default
+   * {@link DEFAULT_MAX_IDLE_INTERVAL_MS}, 30 s). Each tick that claims nothing
+   * doubles the delay to the next from `pollIntervalMs` up to this value; any
+   * tick that claims work, and every {@link DbQueueAdapter.wake}, snaps it
+   * straight back to `pollIntervalMs`.
+   *
+   * A value at or below `pollIntervalMs` disables the backoff and restores the
+   * flat poll. What the backoff costs is latency on work this process was not
+   * told about — a row another node wrote, a deferred row coming due, a
+   * crashed worker's lease expiring: never noticed more than this long after it
+   * became claimable. Work published through THIS adapter wakes the loop, so it
+   * is unaffected.
+   */
+  maxIdleIntervalMs?: number;
   /** Max messages claimed per poll tick (default 10) */
   batchSize?: number;
   /** Lease duration before another worker may reclaim (ms, default 30000) */
@@ -192,8 +208,7 @@ export class DbQueueAdapter implements IQueueService {
   private readonly opts: Required<Omit<DbQueueAdapterOptions, 'workerId'>> & { workerId: string };
 
   private readonly handlers = new Map<string, RegisteredHandler[]>();
-  private timer?: ReturnType<typeof setInterval>;
-  private running = false;
+  private loop?: DispatchLoop;
 
   constructor(args: {
     engine: JobEngine;
@@ -207,6 +222,7 @@ export class DbQueueAdapter implements IQueueService {
     const o = args.options ?? {};
     this.opts = {
       pollIntervalMs: o.pollIntervalMs ?? 1000,
+      maxIdleIntervalMs: o.maxIdleIntervalMs ?? DEFAULT_MAX_IDLE_INTERVAL_MS,
       batchSize: o.batchSize ?? 10,
       leaseMs: o.leaseMs ?? 30_000,
       idempotencyWindowMs: o.idempotencyWindowMs ?? 24 * 60 * 60 * 1000,
@@ -353,6 +369,13 @@ export class DbQueueAdapter implements IQueueService {
       updated_at: now.toISOString(),
     }, { context: SYSTEM_CTX });
 
+    // [#17612] Tick now rather than wait out the idle backoff — but only for a
+    // row that is claimable THIS instant. A deferred row is exactly the case
+    // the loop's contract already covers (noticed within one backed-off
+    // interval of coming due), and waking for it would reset the backoff to
+    // `pollIntervalMs` for a tick guaranteed to claim nothing.
+    if (Date.parse(scheduledFor) <= now.getTime()) this.wake();
+
     return id;
   }
 
@@ -426,6 +449,9 @@ export class DbQueueAdapter implements IQueueService {
       scheduled_for: now.toISOString(),
       updated_at: now.toISOString(),
     }, { context: SYSTEM_CTX });
+    // [#17612] `replay` re-arms the row for RIGHT NOW, so it wakes the loop
+    // unconditionally — there is no deferred case here to discriminate.
+    this.wake();
   }
 
   async purgeFailed(messageId: string): Promise<void> {
@@ -440,19 +466,38 @@ export class DbQueueAdapter implements IQueueService {
   // ── Worker lifecycle ─────────────────────────────────────────────
 
   start(): void {
-    if (this.timer) return;
-    this.timer = setInterval(() => {
-      if (this.running) return;
-      this.running = true;
-      this.pollOnce()
-        .catch((err) => { this.logger?.warn?.('DbQueueAdapter: poll tick failed', err); })
-        .finally(() => { this.running = false; });
-    }, this.opts.pollIntervalMs);
-    (this.timer as any)?.unref?.();
+    if (this.loop) return;
+    // [#17612] The shared polling loop (`@objectstack/core`), not a bare
+    // `setInterval`: it coalesces overlapping ticks — the job the `running`
+    // flag here used to do — AND backs off while the queue is idle. A flat 1 s
+    // poll cost 3600 candidate SELECTs an hour per registered queue whatever
+    // was in the table; on a remote driver every one of those is an HTTP round
+    // trip. The same shape #17610 removed from `NotificationDispatcher` and
+    // #17623 from `HttpDispatcher`; this was the third copy.
+    this.loop = new DispatchLoop({
+      intervalMs: this.opts.pollIntervalMs,
+      maxIdleIntervalMs: this.opts.maxIdleIntervalMs,
+      runTick: () => this.pollOnce(),
+      onTickError: (err) => { this.logger?.warn?.('DbQueueAdapter: poll tick failed', err); },
+    });
+    this.loop.start();
   }
 
   async stop(): Promise<void> {
-    if (this.timer) { clearInterval(this.timer); this.timer = undefined; }
+    if (!this.loop) return;
+    const loop = this.loop;
+    this.loop = undefined;
+    await loop.stop();
+  }
+
+  /**
+   * [#17612] Work is claimable now: run a tick at once and reset the idle
+   * backoff. A no-op while the worker is stopped — `start()` ticks immediately
+   * anyway. This is what keeps {@link DbQueueAdapterOptions.maxIdleIntervalMs}
+   * off the latency path for anything published through this process.
+   */
+  wake(): void {
+    this.loop?.wake();
   }
 
   /** Test-friendly synchronous poll. */
Original file line number	Diff line number	Diff line change
`@@ -6,7 +6,7 @@`
`6`	`6`	`*`
`7`	`7`	* The loop used to tick every `intervalMs` (500 ms) forever, whatever it found —
`8`	`8`	* the shape #17610 removed from `NotificationDispatcher`. Both dispatchers now
`9`		- * run the one `DispatchLoop` (`dispatch-loop.ts`), whose mechanics are pinned in
	`9`	+ * run the one `DispatchLoop` (`@objectstack/core`), whose mechanics are pinned in
`10`	`10`	* full through the notification side in `dispatcher-idle-backoff.test.ts`. This
`11`	`11`	* file pins the same behaviour through `HttpDispatcher`, plus what only the HTTP
`12`	`12`	`* side has: a retry schedule the backoff must not starve, and its own ingress —`