# Refactor: one file, one entry — merging duplicate sources in the Search view

> Status: **complete** (2026-09-02) — all nine phases landed. This stays as
> the decision record.
> Branch `feat/search-source-merge`. Videos, Music and Photos are merged,
> failover is in, and a card with several sources says `N sources` instead of a
> group name. Confirmed live for Videos on 2026-09-02: one card per film,
> playback and download work from a merged entry.
> Scope: the cross-group Search page (`static/search-page.js`) and the three
> media applications it reuses (Videos, Music, Photos). The Files **explorer**
> inside Search is explicitly out of scope and must not change.
>
> **The bug, in one sentence:** a file shared by two groups is two entries in the
> Search view, so a film shows twice in the poster grid, an episode twice in a
> show's list, and a track twice in an album.
>
> The convention from draft-v6 is carried forward: **a claim in this document
> must name the adversary it holds against.**

---

## 1. What was observed

A single node hosts two groups, `demo35` and `media`. Both were given the *same*
directory as their video root — that is the whole point of having two groups:
different people are invited to different libraries, and one library may be in
several of them.

Everything works per group. In **Search files**, which walks every group the
account belongs to and merges their indexes into one view, every file of that
shared directory is listed twice:

| View | Symptom |
|---|---|
| Videos — Posters | Two identical cards for the same film, one badged `demo35`, one badged `media` |
| Videos — Flat list | Same, and a show folder that expands to each episode twice |
| Videos — detail modal | The season/episode list under the synopsis lists every episode twice |
| Music (not reported, same by construction) | Every track twice inside one album |
| Photos (not reported, same by construction) | Every photo twice inside one album |

**Files (the explorer) is not affected and must stay that way.** There, each
group is a top-level folder and the two copies live in two different folders —
which is correct and is how a member navigates *per group*. Confirmed in
`search-page.js`'s `fileEntries`, which prefixes every path with the group name
precisely so that navigation works.

**Within a single group this cannot happen.** `GroupIndex` is keyed by blake3
(`group_index.py`, `_entries: dict  # id → IndexEntry`), so the same bytes at two
paths inside one group are already one entry — the lesson recorded in `CLAUDE.md`
("a content-addressed index cannot represent the same bytes at two paths"). The
duplication is created by the Search page, which concatenates *N* independently
keyed indexes into one list, and by nothing else.

---

## 2. Decision

1. **Identity is the content hash.** `IndexEntry.id` is blake3 of the file
   (`protocol.py:182`). Two entries with the same `id` are the same file, whatever
   group announced them, whatever their path.
2. In the three media views, entries sharing an `id` are **merged into one
   entry** carrying a list of sources.
3. **One source is chosen per logical unit**, not per file — a movie, a whole
   show, a whole album, a whole photo album. Streaming, thumbnails, TMDB /
   MusicBrainz metadata and the download link all use that one source.
4. The choice is: **a group hosted by the local node wins**; otherwise a
   deterministic pseudo-random pick, stable for one user, spread across users.
5. If the chosen source turns out to be unreachable, the unit **fails over** to
   another source that has the file.
6. The badge that today names the group becomes: the group name when there is
   exactly one source, `N sources` when there is more than one. **Which** source
   was picked is never shown.
7. **The Files explorer is untouched.** Not "mostly untouched" — the merge code
   is never called on that path.

---

## 3. Answers to the questions this raised

Recorded here because each of them changed the plan.

### 3.1 Merge across nodes, or only within one node?

**Decided: across all groups**, whatever node hosts them. Merging only groups
that share a `node_id` would fix the reported case with no trust question at all
(same process, same file on disk), but it would deliver nothing else: two
different operators hosting the same film would stay two entries, and the
failover in §2.5 would have nothing to fail over to.

**The adversary this names.** Chunks are encrypted and authenticated with the
group's GEK (`crypto.js` `deriveChunkKey(gek, fileHashHex, chunkIndex)`), and the
client does **not** re-hash the plaintext against `file_id`. So the GCM tag proves
"encrypted by someone holding this group's GEK for this file id", not "these bytes
hash to this id". After the merge, opening a file the Search view shows may fetch
bytes from a group the reader did not name.

Bounded by three things, which is why it is accepted rather than blocking:

- only groups the reader is **already a member of** are ever candidates — the
  Search page indexes nothing else;
- an operator of such a group can already serve that reader arbitrary content
  *inside their own group*, so no new capability is granted, only a new occasion
  to use it;
- the local node wins whenever it is a candidate, which is the reported case and
  the common one.

Not accepted silently: the merged entry shows `N sources`, so a reader can see
that more than one group is involved. Re-hashing the plaintext client-side would
close it properly and is **not** proposed here — blake3 is not in WebCrypto, and
a streamed film is exactly the case where it cannot be done before playback.
Recorded in §9 as still open.

### 3.2 What does "random" mean, concretely?

**Decided: deterministic per user.** `Math.random()` re-evaluated during a render
would flip the source mid-stream and re-fetch every thumbnail on each re-render;
re-evaluated once per session it changes on every reload, and any index refetch
has to be careful to preserve it.

The pick is `sourceIndex = hash(unitKey + userId) % sources.length` over the
sources sorted by group id. Stable for one reader across renders and reloads;
different readers land on different sources, which is what "random" was for.

### 3.3 What if the chosen source is unreachable?

**Decided: fail over.** A group whose index could not be fetched at all
contributes no entries and is already excluded (`fetchAllIndexes`'s `unreachable`).
What is new is a group that indexed fine and whose WebRTC connection later fails:
the pick must skip it and the unit must re-resolve. Without this, merging could
make a file *less* available than it is today, which would be a regression
dressed as a feature.

### 3.4 Which views?

Videos, Music and Photos. **Not** Files: the explorer stays navigable per group,
as it is today.

---

## 4. Where the duplication actually comes from

`search-page.js` builds four independent entry lists. Each walks
`indexedGroups` (a `Map` of groupId → `{entries, roots, groupName, groupOwner}`),
filters by that group's own root, and pushes a *copy* of the entry annotated with
its group's connection:

```js
result.push({
  ...e,
  path: SEARCH_VIDEO_ROOT + '/' + e.path,
  groupId, groupName, groupOwner,
  _tRef: conn ? conn.tRef : null,     // which transport fetches this file
  _gRef: conn ? conn.gRef : null,     // which GEK decrypts it
  _connGen: conn ? conn.gen : 0,      // refetch key when that transport reconnects
});
```

Everything downstream reads the source off the entry and nothing else:

| Consumer | Reads |
|---|---|
| `MediaThumb`, `PosterCard`, `FlatMovieRow` | `_tRef` / `_gRef` / `_connGen` |
| `useMediaMeta` (TMDB), `useMusicMeta` | `_tRef`, `entry.id` |
| `VideoPlayer` (streaming) | the modal's transport, set from `connectGroup(entry.groupId)` |
| `music-player.js` | `getConnection(entry.groupId)` (`music-player.js:288`) |
| `downloadEntry` | the modal's transport, same origin |

**This is the good news, and it decides the shape of the fix.** "The source" is
already one triple of fields on one entry. Producing *one* merged entry with one
source is therefore the whole change on the consumer side — the players, the
downloader and the metadata hooks need no modification at all.

---

## 5. The shape of the fix

### 5.1 A new module, `static/source-merge.js`

Pure functions, no Preact, no transport — testable by reading them out of the
file and running them under node, the idiom `test_video_default_season.py`
already uses.

```
mergeUnitEntries(units, opts) → merged entries
pickSource(sources, unitKey, opts) → source | null
sourceLabel(entries | entry) → { count, name, groupId }
```

- `units` is a list of `{ key, entries }`. **The unit lists are produced by the
  applications' own grouping functions**, never by a second copy of them (§5.2).
- `opts` carries `salt` (the user id), `isLocal(groupId)` and `isDown(groupId)`.
- `sourceLabel` returns a shape, not a string: the module imports nothing (its
  test executes it standalone), so it holds no reference to `i18n.js`.
- Each output entry is one merged `IndexEntry` plus `_sources` (every group that
  has it, sorted by group id) and the resolved `groupId` / `_tRef` / `_gRef` /
  `_connGen` of its effective source.

**Field provenance rule: every displayed field comes from the chosen source's
entry, and no field is back-filled from another source.** A `thumb_hash` or a
`display_title` that only one node computed is only fetchable over *that* node's
connection, so borrowing it would produce a poster request the chosen transport
cannot answer. Stated here because "merge two records field by field" is the
obvious thing to write and it is wrong.

### 5.2 Units come from the real grouping functions

The unit key must agree with how each application groups, or a show would get one
source and its episodes another. Rather than re-deriving the keys in
`search-page.js` — a copy that keeps passing after the original changes, the trap
`test_video_default_season.py`'s docstring names — the page calls the exported
grouping functions on the **un-merged** list purely to learn the units, merges
within each unit, and hands the merged flat list to the application, which groups
it again exactly as it does today.

| View | Grouping function | Unit key |
|---|---|---|
| Videos | `groupVideoEntries` (exported) | show: `show:<title>`; movie: `movie:<id>` |
| Music | `groupMusicEntries` (exported) | album: `album:<artist>/<album>`; loose track: `track:<id>` |
| Photos | `groupPhotoAlbums` (**must be exported**, `photos-app.js:29`) | `album:<dir>` |

Grouping therefore runs twice per recompute. It is a linear pass over an index
already held in memory and already re-run on every keystroke of the filter; the
cost is not worth a duplicated implementation.

**Consequence to accept for Photos.** Photo albums are keyed by directory. Two
groups whose roots have different basenames put the same photo in two
differently-named albums, and the merge — scoped to a unit — will leave it in
both. That is correct: they *are* two albums. Only same-named albums collapse,
which is the reported shape.

**Consequence to accept for Videos.** `PosterGrid.mergedShows` merges two
differently-parsed show titles once both resolve to the same TMDB id
(`video-app.js:845`). That happens after metadata arrives, inside the component,
and the two constituents may hold different chosen sources. Left alone: they were
two units when the source was picked, the episode lists are already disjoint, and
re-picking a source under a card the reader is looking at is worse than a mixed
one.

### 5.3 Choosing the source

```
candidates = sources of every file in the unit, minus the ones marked down
local     = candidates whose group is hosted by the local node
pool      = local.length ? local : candidates
chosen    = pool[ hash(unitKey + salt) % pool.length ]           // pool sorted by group id
```

Then per file in the unit: use `chosen` if that file has it, otherwise re-run the
same rule over that file's own sources. An episode present in only one of the two
groups still plays.

**"Hosted by the local node" is read from the handshake, not from the hub.**
`handshake_ack` already carries `is_node_admin`, computed by the node from its own
record of who it belongs to and never from a hub claim
(`webrtc_server.py:3916`). `fetchGroupIndex` has the ack in hand and today keeps
only the three root fields from it; it will keep `is_node_admin` too. A hub that
lied about it would only change which of the reader's own groups is preferred, and
the reader is a member of all of them.

This is a proxy, not the literal question: it says "the operator of the node
serving this group is me", which for a person browsing their own libraries is the
same set. A browser has no other way to know — only the desktop client reaches
the daemon's loopback API. If the node id is wanted later, `fetchGroupIndex`
already knows which one it connected to and can record it at no cost.

### 5.4 Failover

`ConnectionPool` gains nothing; `search-page.js` gains a `downGroups` set:

- `connectGroup(groupId)` records a failure and bumps `connectionGen`, which is
  already the signal every entry list recomputes on;
- a later successful connect clears the mark;
- `pickSource` skips marked groups, and falls back to the full candidate list if
  every one of them is marked (better a broken tile than a vanished film).

Two properties this must have and must be tested for: a unit whose chosen source
goes down **re-resolves to another source without a page reload**, and a unit with
one source behaves exactly as it does today.

### 5.5 The badge

One component, `SourceTag`, four call sites:

| File | Today | After | Counts over |
|---|---|---|---|
| `video-app.js` `PosterCard` | `repEntry.groupName` | group name, or `N sources` | the movie, or the show's episodes |
| `video-app.js` `FlatMovieRow` | group-name link badge | same, non-clickable when `N > 1` | the one entry |
| `music-app.js` `AlbumCard` | `repTrack.groupName` | same rule | the album's tracks |
| `photos-app.js` `AlbumCard` | `cover.groupName` | same rule | the album's photos |

**`SourceTag` lives in `group-name.js`**, not in `source-merge.js` (which must
keep importing nothing) and not in each of the three apps (a copy apiece is
three chances to disagree about what a merged card says). It renders a `div` by
default — the three card badges rely on `text-overflow: ellipsis`, which does
nothing on an inline box — and the flat row's inline pill on `link`.

`files-app.js:446` is **not** in this list: the Files explorer is not merged and
its group column keeps naming exactly one group.

New i18n key `search.n_sources` (`{ one: '{n} source', other: '{n} sources' }`)
in `en.js` and the nine other catalogues — `test_locales.py` holds them to `en`'s
key set and will fail otherwise.

---

## 6. What must not change

A checklist for the review, not prose. Each of these is a regression that would
be easy to ship and hard to notice.

1. **The Files explorer.** Same folder tree, same per-group top level, same
   badges, same navigation. `fileEntries` keeps building one entry per
   (group, file).
2. **The single-group Group page.** `VideoApp`, `MusicApp`, `PhotosApp` are
   rendered there with entries that carry no `_sources` and no `_tRef`. Every
   changed component must behave identically when those fields are absent —
   `entry._tRef || transportRef` is the existing idiom and stays.
3. **Streaming and download.** `VideoPlayer` and `downloadEntry` read the modal's
   transport, set from `connectGroup(entry.groupId)`. With one `groupId` per
   merged entry this is unchanged by construction — but a merged entry with a
   *null* `groupId` would silently break both, so the merge must never emit one.
4. **The music queue.** ~~`onPreview`'s audio branch must be rebuilt over the
   merged entries or a queue will contain each track twice.~~ **Wrong, checked
   2026-09-02 and left alone.** That branch builds siblings over the un-merged
   `allEntries` but filters `e.groupId === groupId`, so a queue only ever holds
   one group's copies. It is also reachable only from `FilesPanel`, which is not
   merged — the Music view never goes through `onPreview`, it calls `onPlayQueue`
   with its own (merged) tracks. Both facts had to be false for the bug to
   exist; neither is.
5. **The connection pool's eviction path.** `_onEvict` drops `groupConns` and
   bumps `connectionGen`. Eviction is not failure and must not mark a group down.
6. **TMDB / MusicBrainz overrides.** An operator's "Fix match" and "Rematch" go
   to the chosen source's node (`transportRef.current.rematchTmdbMatch`). With the
   local node preferred, that is the operator's own node — correct. Worth a line
   in `mediacenter.md` §10 all the same: on a file the operator does not host, the
   override lands on whichever node was picked.
7. **`cacheGroupIndex`.** The IndexedDB cache is per group and stores raw index
   entries. Merged entries must never be written to it.
8. **`webapp.py`'s `_ASSETS`.** A new static file missing from it changes
   without moving the asset URL, so a browser that cached the page keeps the
   old copy — and nothing errors. `source-merge.js` shipped missing from it;
   caught afterwards, and `test_every_static_script_participates_in_the_fingerprint`
   now holds the list to every `.js` in `static/` so the next one cannot.

---

## 7. Execution order

Each phase is independently testable and leaves the tree working.

| # | Phase | Files |
|---|---|---|
| 1 ✅ | Export `groupPhotoAlbums`; record `is_node_admin` in `fetchGroupIndex`'s result | `photos-app.js`, `search-page.js` |
| 2 ✅ | `source-merge.js` — `pickSource`, `mergeUnitEntries`, `sourceLabel`. No caller yet | new file |
| 3 ✅ | Tests for phase 2, read out of the source | `test_search_source_merge.py`, `test_search_video_merge.py` |
| 4 ✅ | Wire the Videos list through the merge | `search-page.js` |
| 5 ✅ | Same for Music (`foldKey` exported — an album's display strings are the first-seen spelling, so keying a unit on them would let the source change between page loads) | `search-page.js`, `music-app.js` |
| 6 ✅ | Same for Photos | `search-page.js` |
| 7 ✅ | `downGroups` and failover | `search-page.js` |
| 8 ✅ | `SourceTag` at the four display sites; `search.n_sources` in ten catalogues | `group-name.js`, `video-app.js`, `music-app.js`, `photos-app.js`, `locales/*.js` |
| 9 ✅ | Docs: `mediacenter.md` §10.6, `musicbay.md` §9b, `photos.md` §10b, `apps.md` §2b + checklist step 5 | `docs/` |

Phase 4 alone was enough to confirm the reported bug is gone; phases 5–8 are the
same mechanism applied outward.

**One thing phase 8 changed about the design.** `sourceLabel` was specified to
take one entry. A card stands for a *unit*, and the entry it is drawn from is
picked for its thumbnail — `episodes.find((e) => e.thumb_hash)` — so a show in
two groups whose cover episode sits in only one of them would have said one
source. It takes the whole unit now, and unions.

---

## 8. Tests

The SPA has no runtime test harness beyond "read the source and run it under
node", so that is what these are. Source-reading tests are weak evidence and are
the only evidence available here — which is why every one below **re-derives** a
value from the real source rather than restating a constant.

| Test | Holds |
|---|---|
| `test_search_source_merge.py` ✅ | The whole of `source-merge.js` executed standalone — it has no imports precisely so that it can be, and the test refuses a build where it gains one. A file in two groups yields one entry with two sources; a local source always wins, over every salt; the pick is stable across calls, varies with the salt, and spreads one reader across units; source order does not decide it; a unit's files share the unit's source; a file the unit's source lacks falls back with its siblings; a down group is skipped, a down *local* group yields to a live remote, all-down still returns an entry; no field is back-filled from another source |
| `test_search_video_merge.py` ✅ | The reported symptom end to end. `groupVideoEntries` + `buildSeasons` (video-app.js) and `videoUnits` (search-page.js) are lifted from their real sources, the pipeline is assembled as the page assembles it, and the result is re-grouped the way `VideoApp` re-groups it — so what is counted is what the grid renders. Two groups sharing one library give one film card and one show whose seasons hold three episodes, not six; one group is unchanged; an episode only one group has survives |
| extend `test_locales.py` | already fails on a key present in `en.js` and missing elsewhere — no change needed, listed so the ten-catalogue edit is not forgotten |
| `test_search_files_unmerged.py` ✅ | reads `search-page.js` and refuses a build where `fileEntries` is fed through the merge — the one guarantee §6.1 makes, and the one a later refactor is most likely to break by tidying the four lists into one. It also asserts the other three lists *are* merged, or deleting the merge outright would leave it passing and saying nothing |
| extend `test_transport_contracts.py` | the existing "declared vs. called setters" check covers the new state in `search-page.js` for free |
| `test_search_media_merge.py` ✅ | the same end-to-end shape for Music (an album's tracks listed once; a differently-cased tag not splitting the unit; a bonus track only one group has; an untagged track kept as its own unit) and Photos (one album, each photo once; two differently-named albums each keeping the photo) |

**Every one of these was checked against the fix removed**, which is where the
first version of "a unit's files share its source" turned out to prove nothing:
with every episode in every group, picking per file and picking per unit give
the same answer — the same key over the same set — so the test passed against a
per-file implementation. It now uses a unit whose files have *unequal* sources,
which is the only shape where the two rules come apart. Five mutations are
caught: dropping the local preference, picking per file, not de-duplicating a
group announcing a file twice, dropping the group-id sort, and hashing the salt
without the unit key.

Beyond the suite, this needs a person: two groups sharing one directory, one
film and one multi-season show, checked in Posters, Flat list, the detail modal,
Music and Photos, plus one playback and one download from a merged entry. The
standing rule from `CLAUDE.md` applies — a stylesheet does not tell you where
anything lands, and neither does a source-reading test tell you what a poster
grid renders.

---

## 9. Still open

| Item | Status |
|---|---|
| Client-side content verification | **Open.** The merge lets bytes arrive from a group the reader did not name (§3.1). Closing it means re-hashing plaintext against `file_id`, which needs blake3 in the browser and is impossible before playback for a stream. Not attempted here |
| Showing *which* source was picked | Deliberately not shown, per the request. `_sources` is on the entry, so a debug affordance is cheap if it is ever wanted |
| Merging across nodes for *availability* | The failover in §5.4 is per unit and reactive. Preferring a node that is already connected, or one that answered faster, is a further step and is not planned |
| Preferring the local node by `node_id` rather than `is_node_admin` | §5.3. The exact signal exists and costs nothing to record; the proxy is used because it needs no new field on the wire |