Fix NewHelpMenu: restore [p]help, close memory leak, parallelize perm checks

Loading this cog called bot.remove_command("help") with no replacement
command ever defined and no restore on unload — simply loading it broke
[p]help bot-wide, permanently, until process restart. Traced through Red's
own source (redbot/core/commands/help.py) and confirmed the default help
command already routes through bot.send_help_for(), which is exactly what
this cog hooks to render CV2 output — so the fix is to just not remove the
command at all; the CV2 conversion now actually works as intended too,
since its hook point is reachable again.

_active_views leaked one permanent dict entry (holding the whole rendered
page/embed list) per help/menu invocation — every on_timeout and "close"
button already called view.stop(), but nothing was popping the matching
entry except one specific code path. Added a single _track_view() helper
that wraps stop() for automatic eviction and applied it at all 5 insertion
points instead of just the one.

Parallelized the per-command can_run() permission checks in
gather_bot_help_data/gather_cog_help_data (previously one await at a time
for every bot/cog command on every single [p]help call). Also added the
admin_or_permissions check to `cv2 version`, the one subcommand missing it.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Sonnet 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>

newhelpmenu/__init__.py

@@ -2,11 +2,14 @@ from .newhelpmenu import NewHelpMenu
 
 
 async def setup(bot):
-    # Remove Red's built-in help command BEFORE adding the cog,
+    # Red's own default help command (and any cog's ctx.send_help()) already
-    # so our cog's @commands.command(name="help") doesn't conflict.
+    # routes through bot.send_help_for() internally — see
-    original_help = bot.remove_command("help")
+    # redbot/core/commands/help.py. That's exactly the method this cog hooks
-
+    # to render CV2 output, so the built-in help command must stay in place
+    # for that hook to ever fire. Removing it here used to just delete
+    # [p]help bot-wide with nothing to replace it (there was never an actual
+    # replacement `help` command defined), and cog_unload never restored it
+    # either — simplest correct fix is to not remove it at all.
     cog = NewHelpMenu(bot)
-    cog._original_help_command = original_help  # store for restore on unload
     await bot.add_cog(cog)
     await cog.initialize()

newhelpmenu/formatter.py

@@ -73,14 +73,20 @@ async def gather_bot_help_data(
 
         pending_checks.append((cmd, cog_name))
 
-    # Run permission checks (this is the slow part)
+    # Run permission checks concurrently — each is an independent await (often
-    for cmd, cog_name in pending_checks:
+    # a Config lookup via Red's permission system), and with a few hundred
+    # bot commands doing them one at a time made every single [p]help call
+    # pay for that latency serially.
+    async def _safe_can_run(cmd: commands.Command) -> bool:
         try:
-            if await cmd.can_run(ctx):
+            return await cmd.can_run(ctx)
-                cog_commands[cog_name].append(cmd)
         except Exception:
-            # Permission check failed, skip this command
+            return False
-            pass
+
+    allowed_flags = await asyncio.gather(*(_safe_can_run(cmd) for cmd, _ in pending_checks))
+    for (cmd, cog_name), allowed in zip(pending_checks, allowed_flags):
+        if allowed:
+            cog_commands[cog_name].append(cmd)
 
     cog_to_category: Dict[str, str] = {}
     for cat_name, cog_list in categories.items():
@@ -124,14 +130,22 @@ async def gather_cog_help_data(
     if not cog_doc:
         cog_doc = cog.help or cog.__doc__ or "No description."
 
-    cmds = []
+    candidates = [
-    for cmd in sorted(cog.get_commands(), key=lambda c: c.qualified_name):
+        c for c in sorted(cog.get_commands(), key=lambda c: c.qualified_name)
-        if cmd.hidden and not show_hidden:
+        if not (c.hidden and not show_hidden)
-            continue
+    ]
+
+    async def _safe_can_run(cmd: commands.Command) -> bool:
         try:
-            if not await cmd.can_run(ctx):
+            return await cmd.can_run(ctx)
-                continue
         except Exception:
+            return False
+
+    allowed_flags = await asyncio.gather(*(_safe_can_run(c) for c in candidates))
+
+    cmds = []
+    for cmd, allowed in zip(candidates, allowed_flags):
+        if not allowed:
             continue
         sig = cmd.signature or ""
         short = cmd.format_shortdoc_for_context(ctx) if hasattr(cmd, "format_shortdoc_for_context") else (cmd.short_doc or "No description")

newhelpmenu/newhelpmenu.py

@@ -104,6 +104,24 @@ class NewHelpMenu(commands.Cog):
         self._settings_cache: Dict[int, Tuple[Dict, float]] = {}
         self._cache_ttl = 60.0  # Cache for 60 seconds
 
+    def _track_view(self, msg_id: int, view: "ui.LayoutView") -> None:
+        """Register a view in _active_views with automatic eviction on stop.
+
+        Every view stored here previously stayed forever: on_timeout and every
+        "close" button already call view.stop(), but nothing popped the
+        matching entry, so every single help/menu send permanently retained
+        one dict entry (holding the whole rendered page/embed list) — an
+        unbounded memory leak on any active server.
+        """
+        self._active_views[msg_id] = view
+        original_stop = view.stop
+
+        def cleanup_stop():
+            original_stop()
+            self._active_views.pop(msg_id, None)
+
+        view.stop = cleanup_stop
+
     async def cog_load(self) -> None:
         """Called when cog is loaded — set up monkey patches and replace help."""
         await self._apply_patches()
@@ -286,13 +304,7 @@ class NewHelpMenu(commands.Cog):
 
                 # Track for cleanup with automatic removal on stop
                 if msg:
-                    cog_ref._active_views[msg.id] = layout
+                    cog_ref._track_view(msg.id, layout)
-                    # Add cleanup callback
-                    original_stop = layout.stop
-                    def cleanup_stop():
-                        original_stop()
-                        cog_ref._active_views.pop(msg.id, None)
-                    layout.stop = cleanup_stop
 
                 return msg
 
@@ -373,7 +385,7 @@ class NewHelpMenu(commands.Cog):
                 )
                 msg = await destination.send(view=view)
                 view.message = msg
-                self._active_views[msg.id] = view
+                self._track_view(msg.id, view)
             else:
                 embeds, select_opts = build_bot_help_embeds(
                     ctx, self.bot, cat_data, total, accent_color=accent
@@ -399,7 +411,7 @@ class NewHelpMenu(commands.Cog):
                     for comp in components:
                         layout.add_item(comp)
                     msg = await destination.send(view=layout)
-                    self._active_views[msg.id] = layout
+                    self._track_view(msg.id, layout)
                 else:
                     embed = build_command_help_embed(ctx, data, accent_color=accent)
                     await destination.send(embed=embed)
@@ -414,7 +426,7 @@ class NewHelpMenu(commands.Cog):
                     for comp in components:
                         layout.add_item(comp)
                     msg = await destination.send(view=layout)
-                    self._active_views[msg.id] = layout
+                    self._track_view(msg.id, layout)
                 else:
                     embed = build_cog_help_embed(ctx, cog_name, cog_doc, cmds, accent_color=accent)
                     await destination.send(embed=embed)
@@ -445,7 +457,7 @@ class NewHelpMenu(commands.Cog):
                         layout = ui.LayoutView()
                         layout.add_item(container)
                         msg = await destination.send(view=layout)
-                        self._active_views[msg.id] = layout
+                        self._track_view(msg.id, layout)
                     else:
                         bot_avatar = self.bot.user.display_avatar.url if self.bot.user else None
                         embed = discord.Embed(color=discord.Colour(accent))
@@ -1024,6 +1036,7 @@ class NewHelpMenu(commands.Cog):
         await ctx.send("✅ All Components V2 settings reset to defaults (disabled).")
 
     @cv2.command(name="version")
+    @checks.admin_or_permissions(manage_guild=True)
     async def cv2_version(self, ctx: commands.Context):
         """Show the cog version."""
         await ctx.send(f"**NewHelpMenu** v{self.__version__} by {self.__author__}")
@@ -1073,5 +1086,5 @@ class NewHelpMenu(commands.Cog):
         )
         msg = await ctx.send(view=view)
         view.message = msg
-        self._active_views[msg.id] = view
+        self._track_view(msg.id, view)
         return msg