Replace element-level opacity on banner fallback divs with rgba-based
gradient color stops via new mutedGradient() utility. This prevents
compositing layer artifacts that caused visible color seams at the
banner boundary in AccountPanel, UserProfilePopout, and UserProfileModal.
Move bg-surface-channel from info section to card wrapper in AccountPanel
so the avatar's negative margin overlaps into the banner correctly. Replace
accent color presets with 7×3 banner color palette, remove accent color
tinting from display names in popout/modal, and refactor gradient entries
to expose from/to hex stops.
Replace the hardcoded 16-color ACCENT_PRESETS array in AccountPanel with
a shared export from gradients.ts that extracts both hex stops from each
avatar gradient, producing 14 harmonized colors in a 7×2 grid.
Add avatarColor as a stored, user-selectable field (mint, sky, lavender,
coral, rose, teal, amber). Randomly assigned on registration, changeable
in profile settings. Existing users keep hash-based fallback until they
choose a color. Includes DB migration, API validation, gradient map,
live preview in settings, and banner fallback integration.
Friends/requests were only loaded when FriendsPage or ActivityPanel rendered,
so profile modals in space views always showed "Add Friend" even for existing
friends. Now loadFriends/loadRequests fire on every WS ready event.
Also adds canonicalUserMatch() with cascading ID/homeUserId/username+instance
fallback, replacing fragile homeUserId-only matching in getFriendshipStatus.
Space avatars in the mutual spaces tab now use getSpaceGradient() instead of
a flat grey background, matching the sidebar appearance. Mutual friends and
spaces from remote instances show a globe icon with the instance hostname.
Also wires up federated mutuals loading, correct API client routing for
remote user profiles, and the new mutuals utility.
Add banner image, accent color, and bio fields to user profiles with
full-stack support: schema migration, API validation (hex color format,
190-char bio limit), sanitizeUser propagation, and new GET /users/:id/mutuals
endpoint. Rewrite AccountPanel with live preview card, avatar/banner upload
via ImageCropModal, 16-preset accent color picker, and bio editor. Enhance
UserProfilePopout with banner display, accent-colored names, bio rendering,
and mutual counts. Add new UserProfileModal with About/Mutual Friends/Mutual
Spaces tabs and friend action buttons.
When a moderator lifted a server mute/deafen, the client was involuntarily
turning on the user's microphone because isMuted/isDeafened conflated user
intent with server enforcement. Now intent (isMuted/isDeafened) is never
mutated by server events. Effective state (intent || serverEnforcement) is
computed at broadcast and hardware time via centralized helpers.
- Redesign explore cards with banner images, overlapping icons, and frosted fade
- Extract dominant colors from space icons for dynamic banner gradients
- Add space description/banner fields to schema with migration
- Move origin label from banner overlay to content metadata row
- Support space descriptions in settings overview panel
Wire react-easy-crop into CreateSpace so users can crop and zoom before
uploading a space icon. Adds reusable ImageCropModal component and
canvas crop utility for future use in space settings and avatar editing.
Use origin-aware user ID resolution for optimistic voice add/remove
instead of always using the home instance ID. Adds getMyUserIdForOrigin
resolver (same pattern as getApiForOrigin) so joinVoiceChannel and
leaveVoice use the correct federated user ID. Also fixes WS reconnect
voice re-registration, invite URL for remote servers, and chatStore
early-load guard for unmapped channels.
The echo gate architecture bypassed the serialized mic management chain
and introduced race conditions. Chrome's AEC handles echo properly for
both headphone and speaker users without custom intervention.
Send voice_join to WS server only after LiveKit successfully connects,
not immediately on joinVoiceChannel() or WS reconnect. Background tabs
can reconnect WebSocket but not WebRTC, causing phantom voice users.
Previously, the voice channel sidebar only showed users after a server
round-trip (voice_state_update broadcast). After a deploy/reconnect,
this left the user invisible in the sidebar despite being connected.
Now joinVoiceChannel, leaveVoice, and the WS ready handler all
optimistically update voiceUsers for the local user immediately.
Send explicit voice_leave to the old instance when joining voice on a
different origin, preventing stale voice state from showing the user in
two channels. Also make WS reconnect voice re-registration origin-aware
so remote reconnects properly restore voice state.
- Fix DM welcome header avatar using home identity for correct gradient color
- Register DM channel IDs in channelOriginMap so federated DM operations
(reactions, messages, typing) route to the correct instance
- Pass origin when creating DM channels from friends list and WS events
- Add server discovery/explore page with public server listings
- Add server visibility and description fields
Add identity.ts with isSelf() and resolveDisplayIdentity() — pure
stateless functions that detect replicated-self using the immutable
(username, homeInstance) composite key. No store lookups, no data
mutation. Fixes wrong avatar gradient and missing edit/delete on
own messages in remote channels.
Also includes: optimistic message dedup fix for cross-instance
messages (content-only matching), federation toast notifications,
Username component with @domain display, invite parser, and
deploy script simplification.
Batch 1 — Bug fixes:
- Fix stale voice state on remote reconnect (clearVoiceUsersForOrigin)
- Fix logout not cleaning remote servers from store
- Fix reply-to asset normalization for remote messages
- Fix HTTPS hardcoded in autoConnectAll (store full origin, legacy fallback)
Batch 2 — Password enforcement + replication flow:
- Add connectToRemote() with home password verification before remote auth
- Auto-cascade: verify home password → register on remote → login fallback
- Replace Register/Login tabs with single password field in ConnectedInstances
- Add DifferentPasswordError for typed fallback-login UI transition
- Fallback login form shown only when remote has different password
Phase 5 of multi-instance federation. Adds a two-layer fix:
Layer 1 — Data ingestion normalization: Remote instance user avatars,
server icons, and attachment filenames are rewritten to absolute URLs
when entering the app (via WebSocket events or API responses), so all
downstream components render them correctly without changes.
Layer 2 — Outbound action routing: wsSend calls (voice join/leave/status,
typing) and file uploads in UI components now route through the correct
instance based on the active channel's origin.
Phase 5: Remove all 54 legacy Discord token definitions from tailwind.config.js,
migrate body classes in index.html to Aether Drift tokens, update ARCHITECTURE_AUDIT.md.
Phase 6: Replace flat purple fallback avatars with deterministic colorful gradients
(mint, sky, lavender, coral, rose, teal, amber) based on user/server ID hash.
Replace Discord logo SVG with Backspace "B" in server strip. Add per-server gradient
icons with hover glow. Update profile popout banner and incoming call modal to match.
- Add Backspace-design-prototype.html: finalized "Aether Drift" design
language with warm matte surfaces and subtle frosted glass accents
- Update CLAUDE.md with DESIGN SYSTEM section and remove Discord clone references
- Rename all Opencord references to Backspace across the full codebase
- Archive outdated design experiments and Discord-specific assets
- Add science-backed accessibility fallback (prefers-reduced-transparency)
Add a server-side instance_settings table (single-row, CHECK(id=1))
that stores admin-configurable streaming bounds: bitrate min/max/step,
allowed resolutions, and allowed framerates.
Backend:
- New instance_settings schema + migrations (is_admin on users, default
settings row, first-registered-user promoted to admin)
- GET/PATCH /api/settings/streaming endpoints with admin-only writes
and full input validation including cross-field checks
Frontend:
- settingsStore fetches limits on WebSocket ready, exposes isAdmin flag
- ScreenShareSettingsPopover reads bounds from store instead of
hardcoded constants, auto-clamps stale localStorage values
- buildScreenShareOptions() clamps bitrate to server limits at build
time as enforcement backstop
- ServerSettings modal gains a "Streaming" tab (admin-only) with
bitrate range sliders, resolution/framerate toggles, and save/reset
Camera was stuck at 180p because our custom <video> rendering bypassed
LiveKit's adaptive stream observer. Replaced manual srcObject binding
with track.attach()/detach() in VoiceUser, StreamTile, and PictureInPicture
so the SFU receives viewport dimensions and forwards the correct
H.264 simulcast layer.
Screen share VP9 SVC with L3T3 spatial layers failed because hardware
VP9 encoders (NVENC, QSV, VCE) don't support spatial scalability —
Chrome silently degrades to L1T1. Reverted to VP9 single-layer
(simulcast: false, no scalabilityMode). Also targets encodings[length-1]
in applyOverdrive() for correct simulcast layer targeting.
- Add customBitrateKbps to ScreenShareConfig (null = auto matrix lookup)
- Slider in Stream Settings popover: 500 kbps–20 Mbps, step 500 kbps
- "Reset to Auto" clears override back to preset-derived bitrate
- Live updates via existing applyOverdrive() pipeline on active streams
- Persist version 5 → 6 with migration
Replace string-based role checks (role === 'admin') with a bitwise BigInt
permission system. Adds computePermissions() resolution engine following
Discord's model: @everyone base → role union → admin shortcut → channel
overrides (role deny/allow → member deny/allow). Ready payload now filters
channels by VIEW_CHANNEL and attaches per-user myPermissions to each
server and channel. Includes channel_overrides table, @everyone role
auto-creation, migration for existing servers, and override CRUD API.
Wrap all multi-write DB operations in atomic transactions (server/channel
creation, message+attachment linking, DM creation, friend acceptance,
cascading deletes) to prevent partial-write corruption.
Batch N+1 queries in WS ready payload into O(1) bulk fetches with
chunked inArray() to respect SQLite's variable limit.
Fix chat history regression where background WS messages bypassed
channel load by switching the guard from messages.has() to hasMore.has().
Add LRU channel eviction (20 cached, evict to 15) and per-channel
message cap (200) to bound client memory growth.
Shorten WS heartbeat from 30s to 15s for aggressive proxy/NAT
environments. Clear all user-scoped stores on logout to prevent
cross-session data leaks.
Extract LiveKit internal accessors into shared livekitInternals utility.
Replace rigid SCREEN_QUALITY_MAP (6 hardcoded VideoPreset strings) with a
builder function that computes bitrate, degradation preference, and content
hint from three independent axes (height, fps, content mode). Camera is
decoupled onto a fixed 720p30 preset so screen share changes no longer
affect camera quality. New ScreenShareSettingsPopover replaces the old
VideoQualityPopover with pill-style selectors. Store migrated to v5 with
backwards-compatible migration from videoQuality string.
Camera and LIVE badges in the channel sidebar were only visible to users
who had joined the same LiveKit room. Widen the voice_status WS event
from {isMuted, isDeafened} to {isMuted, isDeafened, isCameraOn, isScreenSharing}
so all server members see camera/screenshare indicators without joining voice.
AudioManager.setScreenShareActive(true) was firing before the browser's screen
picker, killing the mic stream. The picker suspends getUserMedia while its secure
overlay is open, trapping the mic in a dead state for 5-30s. Now the AEC rebuild
fires after the track is acquired — mic stays alive during the picker.
Root cause: degradationPreference 'maintain-resolution' forced FPS drops under CPU
pressure during fast-motion gaming. Changed to 'maintain-framerate' so the encoder
drops resolution temporarily instead of stuttering. Added contentHint='motion' to
optimize for temporal prediction (more P-frames, fewer I-frames).
Screen sharing was publishing at h360 (640x360) and never ramping to target
resolution due to stale closure in setTimeout, wrong initial quality anchor,
and 5 competing code paths with inconsistent bitrates.
- Create utils/screenShare.ts as single source of truth for all screen share ops
- Publish at target resolution from the start (not h360 → ramp)
- Read store at call time in timers (eliminates stale closure bug)
- Use maintain-resolution for screen content, maintain-framerate for camera
- Fix OS-level "Stop sharing" not resetting store or restoring AEC
- Enable dynacast for SFU quality signaling
- Reconcile QUALITY_MAP to canonical bitrates across all 7 files
Jannis Braun