import { useEffect, useState, type ImgHTMLAttributes, type ReactNode } from "react";
// Every picture the app loads over the network goes through here (lint-enforced: a bare
is
// refused everywhere else), because a picture that fails left the browser's broken-image mark on a
// card, and each component that noticed had hand-rolled its own cure. What they learned, in one place:
//
// - No Referer. Google's image CDNs (yt3.ggpht.com, lh3.googleusercontent.com) refuse a request that
// carries one from our origin — not only in a burst (measured 2026-09-26). Our own endpoints never
// read it, so it is dropped for every picture rather than guessed per host.
// - A failed load is retried, with a cache-buster: the browser NEGATIVE-CACHES the miss, so asking for
// the same URL again would only replay the failure. Both Google CDNs and our API ignore the extra
// `r` parameter (measured 2026-10-14). A 429 from a burst of cards heals this way.
// - While there is no picture — none given, a retry still waiting, every retry spent — the caller's
// `fallback` stands in (nothing by default: the card's own empty frame, which is what a card with no
// thumbnail has always shown), or its `pending` while a retry waits when the fallback says the
// picture failed. Never the broken-image mark.
// - The failure is remembered BY URL, in render: these sit in virtualized grids whose slots are recycled,
// and a failure stored as a flag an effect resets painted one item's fallback over the next one's
// picture for a frame (ui/Avatar had that defect).
/** How many times a failed picture is asked for again, and the wait before the first retry (it
* doubles each time): 1 s, 2 s, 4 s, then the fallback for good. */
const IMAGE_RETRIES = 3;
const FIRST_RETRY_MS = 1000;
/** `url` with a cache-buster for retry `attempt` (0 = the URL as given). An inline `data:`/`blob:` URL
* is not fetched, so it has no cache to bust. */
function bustImageUrl(url: string, attempt: number): string {
if (attempt === 0 || /^(data|blob):/.test(url)) return url;
return `${url}${url.includes("?") ? "&" : "?"}r=${attempt}`;
}
/** The same for every candidate of a `srcset` ("url 200w, url2 400w"). */
function bustSrcSet(srcSet: string, attempt: number): string {
if (attempt === 0) return srcSet;
return srcSet
.split(",")
.map((part) => {
const [url = "", ...descriptor] = part.trim().split(/\s+/);
return [bustImageUrl(url, attempt), ...descriptor].join(" ");
})
.join(", ");
}
type Miss = { src: string; attempt: number; waiting: boolean };
export default function RemoteImage({
src,
srcSet,
fallback = null,
pending = fallback,
retries = IMAGE_RETRIES,
...img
}: Omit, "src" | "srcSet" | "onError" | "referrerPolicy"> & {
src: string | null | undefined;
srcSet?: string;
/** What stands in while there is no picture. */
fallback?: ReactNode;
/** What stands in while a retry waits, when that is not the fallback: a fallback that says the
* picture failed would say it of one that may still come. */
pending?: ReactNode;
/** Fewer retries for a picture whose failure is an answer, not a hiccup — a file that is not there
* yet is better shown as its fallback now than after seven seconds of retries. */
retries?: number;
}) {
const [miss, setMiss] = useState(null);
// Forgotten once `src` moves off it — convergent, so it belongs in render (see above).
if (miss !== null && miss.src !== src) setMiss(null);
const current = miss !== null && miss.src === src ? miss : null;
const attempt = current?.attempt ?? 0;
const waiting = current?.waiting === true;
useEffect(() => {
if (!waiting) return;
const timer = window.setTimeout(
() => setMiss((m) => (m !== null && m.src === src ? { ...m, waiting: false } : m)),
FIRST_RETRY_MS * 2 ** (attempt - 1),
);
return () => window.clearTimeout(timer);
}, [waiting, attempt, src]);
const spent = current !== null && !current.waiting && current.attempt > retries;
if (waiting && src) return <>{pending}>;
if (!src || spent) return <>{fallback}>;
return (
// eslint-disable-next-line no-restricted-syntax -- the one
the rest of the app goes through
setMiss({ src, attempt: attempt + 1, waiting: attempt < retries })}
/>
);
}