fix(ops): the hourly backup never ran, and an unset POSTGRES_USER crash-loops silently

**The backup that did not exist.**
`.env.example` ships `EVENT_NAME=Max & Maria's Wedding` and the runbook tells you
to `cp .env.example .env`. Compose's env_file parser reads that fine. POSIX `sh`
does not: `. ./.env` aborts with "Unterminated quoted string" (verified, rc=2),
and every variable defined after that line is left unset.

The §10.2 cron script is `#!/bin/sh` + `set -eu` + `. ./.env`, so it exited
before `pg_dump` — every hour, into a log nobody reads. The only automated backup
of the one thing the runbook calls irreconstructible produced nothing, and §10.2's
own "prove it works NOW" only catches it if `.env` is already final at that
moment.

The script reads NOTHING from `.env` — `POSTGRES_USER`/`POSTGRES_DB` are expanded
inside the db container by the single-quoted `sh -c`. The source line was pure
liability and is gone. `EVENT_NAME` is now double-quoted in `.env.example`, which
both parsers read identically (verified), and the three interactive sourcing
sites now read just `$DOMAIN` instead of sourcing the whole file. The verify step
also proves the dump is a non-empty valid gzip containing tables, rather than
that a file exists.

Also fixes the script's `cd /root/eventsnap`, which contradicts §5's non-root
deploy and §13's `~/eventsnap` — under a non-root deploy it failed the same way,
silently.

**The crash loop with no message.**
`docker-compose.yml` interpolated `POSTGRES_USER`/`POSTGRES_DB` with no default
and no `:?` guard, into `environment:`, which OVERRIDES `env_file`. Unset does
not fall back — it resolves to the empty string, initdb creates a role and
database named "", `DATABASE_URL` still says `eventsnap`, and the app hits
`FATAL: role "eventsnap" does not exist` forever. `pg_isready -U "" -d ""` never
passes, so `app` never turns healthy and Caddy — gated on `service_healthy` —
never starts: port 443 dead for the whole event, exit only via `down -v`.

Both now carry `:?` guards (verified they fire), and §3's ".env template — ALL of
them" list, which omitted both, now includes them.

Other runbook corrections: the backup/restore pointer named a line range that had
drifted into an unrelated section and stopped mid-restore, before the media
restore and the mandatory `chown` — now referenced by heading, which cannot go
stale. §7.3 told you to verify that `EXPORT_PATH` is not pinned when §3 correctly
says it is. Stale counts: rev-list 196 -> 217, "versions 007–022" -> 007–031,
`frontend/Dockerfile:9` -> :8, and the low-disk description now matches the code
(the 10 GB absolute floor was removed as unreachable).

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

.env.example

@@ -1,7 +1,28 @@
 # ── Domain ────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
 # Public domain Caddy will serve and obtain a TLS certificate for.
+#
+# The DNS A record must already point at this server BEFORE the first `up -d`: Caddy
+# requests a certificate on boot, and Let's Encrypt allows only 5 failed validations per
+# hostname per hour. Never delete the caddy_data volume — it holds the certificate and
+# the ACME account key.
 DOMAIN=my-event.example.com
 
+# ── Image version ─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
+# Tag pulled for the `app` and `frontend` services (docker-compose.yml). Production runs
+# prebuilt images from the registry and never compiles — see DEPLOYMENT_RUNBOOK.md.
+# Always an immutable tag, never `latest`: rollback is `EVENTSNAP_VERSION=<previous>`
+# + `docker compose up -d`, which works offline if that image is still resident locally.
+#
+# ⚠ THIS TAG DOES NOT EXIST YET. The newest git tag is v0.12.0; v0.13.0 is the release you
+# cut for the event. Build and push it (plus its identical rollback twin v0.13.0-a) BEFORE
+# the first `docker compose up -d` — see DEPLOYMENT_RUNBOOK.md §6 (build) and §9 (rollback).
+# Copying this file and starting the stack without that step fails with `manifest unknown`.
+#
+# Do NOT "fix" this by dropping back to v0.12.0: no image was ever built for it, and a
+# 6-migration tree booting against a 31-migration database returns VersionMissing and
+# crash-loops forever behind a live Caddy. §9 covers this in full.
+EVENTSNAP_VERSION=v0.13.0
+
 # ── App server ────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
 APP_PORT=3000
 # Set to `production` in real deployments. This activates the secret guard that
@@ -24,13 +45,31 @@ DATABASE_URL=postgres://eventsnap:CHANGE_ME_use_a_strong_password@db:5432/events
 POSTGRES_USER=eventsnap
 POSTGRES_PASSWORD=CHANGE_ME_use_a_strong_password
 POSTGRES_DB=eventsnap
-# Connection pool size. Default 10. For a busy event (~100 guests polling the feed
-# + SSE + uploads at once) raise to ~30 so requests don't queue on a pool permit.
-# PAIRED WITH THE DB CONTAINER'S MEMORY LIMIT: 30 backends plus Postgres 16's default
-# shared_buffers is already snug in the 1G that docker-compose.yml allots the `db`
-# service. If you raise this, raise `db.deploy.resources.limits.memory` with it — an
-# OOM in Postgres doesn't degrade one feature, it takes the whole event down.
-DATABASE_MAX_CONNECTIONS=30
+# Connection pool size. The code default is 15 (DEFAULT_MAX_CONNECTIONS in backend/src/db.rs),
+# and docker-compose.yml pins this value in `app.environment` so an edit here cannot reach the
+# container. That pin is deliberate: since the value became boot-FATAL when unparseable — so an
+# operator tuning a knob that never took effect gets told, instead of silently staying on the
+# default — a stray quote or a trailing inline comment in `.env` would crash-loop the app behind
+# a live Caddy. Change the pin in compose, not this line.
+#
+# SIZE IT TO THE CORES, NOT TO THE GUESTS. The earlier advice here was ~30, reasoned from
+# "~100 guests polling the feed at once" back when a feed page cost ~449 ms and connections
+# were spent waiting. Migration 024 replaced the feed view's GROUP BY with scalar subqueries
+# and a page now costs well under a millisecond, so concurrency is no longer where the time
+# goes. On a 2 vCPU box 30 simultaneous queries cannot run — they queue on the CPU instead of
+# on the pool, which is the same wait wearing a different hat, and 30 Postgres backends plus
+# shared_buffers is snug in the 1G that docker-compose.yml allots `db`.
+#
+# 15 on 2 vCPU / 4 GB. Raise toward 30 only alongside more cores AND a bigger `db` memory
+# limit — an OOM in Postgres doesn't degrade one feature, it takes the whole event down.
+DATABASE_MAX_CONNECTIONS=15
+
+# Log level: see the "Logging" section near the bottom of this file.
+#
+# Defined THERE and nowhere else, deliberately. This file used to assign RUST_LOG twice —
+# once here and once there — and Compose takes the LAST assignment, so editing this line to
+# `debug` to chase a problem during the event changed nothing at all, silently. A key that
+# appears twice in a .env is a trap regardless of which value is better.
 
 # ── Authentication ────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
 # Generate with: openssl rand -hex 64
@@ -48,7 +87,15 @@ SESSION_EXPIRY_DAYS=30
 ADMIN_PASSWORD_HASH='$2y$12$placeholder_replace_me'
 
 # ── Event ─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
-EVENT_NAME=Max & Maria's Wedding
+# DOUBLE-QUOTED, and it matters. Compose's env_file parser reads `Max & Maria's Wedding`
+# unquoted just fine — but the runbook also tells you to `set -a; . ./.env; set +a` in a plain
+# shell, and POSIX `sh` aborts on the apostrophe with "Unterminated quoted string" (rc=2).
+# Everything defined BELOW this line is then left unset, silently: the hourly pg_dump cron in
+# §10.2 does exactly this, so it would exit before ever writing a backup, every hour, into a log
+# nobody reads. Double quotes are read identically by both parsers (verified) — keep them, and
+# keep them double, since single quotes would make a literal `$` in a name survive but are what
+# `ADMIN_PASSWORD_HASH` above needs for the opposite reason.
+EVENT_NAME="Max & Maria's Wedding"
 EVENT_SLUG=max-maria-2026
 
 # ── Storage ───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
@@ -74,26 +121,96 @@ EXPORT_PATH=/exports
 # quota_tolerance is the MULTIPLIER IN THE PER-USER QUOTA FORMULA, not the point at
 # which anything warns you:
 #
-#     per_user_limit = floor(free_disk * quota_tolerance / active_uploaders)
+#     divisor        = max(active_uploaders, estimated_guest_count, 1)
+#     per_user_limit = max(floor(free_disk * quota_tolerance / divisor), 500 MiB)
 #
-# It is recomputed against LIVE free space on every upload, so it self-throttles: guests
-# converge on a fixed point at tolerance/(1+tolerance) of the free space you started
-# with — 43% at 0.75, i.e. ~30 GB of a fresh 70 GB.
+# estimated_guest_count is a FLOOR ON THE DIVISOR, not decoration — it is a live knob
+# (upload::quota_limit_bytes). Earlier drafts of this file and the runbook both omitted
+# it and told operators it was inert; it is not.
 #
-# Raising it therefore AUTHORISES GUESTS TO FILL MORE OF THE DISK. Setting 0.95 in the
-# belief that it means "warn me later" moves the fixed point to ~49% and eats the
-# headroom the keepsake needs — and the keepsake needs a lot, because Gallery.zip and
-# Memories.zip are each roughly a second copy of every original (both store media
-# uncompressed). Budget for media + 2x media, or move exports to their own volume.
+# It is recomputed against LIVE free space on every upload, so in principle it self-
+# throttles: guests converge on a fixed point at tolerance/(1+tolerance) of the free space
+# you started with — 43% at 0.75.
+#
+# ON THIS BOX THAT FIXED POINT NEVER BINDS, and it is worth knowing which knob actually
+# stops the disk filling. The arithmetic above used to be quoted as "~30 GB of a fresh
+# 70 GB", which is an 80 GB CX33; this deploys to a CX22 with 40 GB. At ~28 GB free and
+# estimated_guest_count = 100 flooring the divisor, the formula yields ~210 MB per guest —
+# BELOW the 500 MiB floor — so every guest is granted the floor and the per-user quota
+# stops bounding aggregate growth at all.
+#
+# What actually bounds it is the keepsake preflight in upload.rs: uploads are refused once
+# free < media x 1.1 x 2 + 10 GB, which on 40 GB lands at ~8 GB of media (README, "Sizing
+# the disk"). So if a guest reports being blocked, the number to look at is total media,
+# not this one.
+#
+# Raising this still AUTHORISES GUESTS TO FILL MORE OF THE DISK on a larger box, and it
+# still eats the headroom the keepsake needs — Gallery.zip and Memories.zip are each
+# roughly a second copy of every original (both store media uncompressed). Budget for
+# media + 2x media, or move exports to their own volume.
 #
 # 0.75 is the tested default. Lower it if the box is tight; raise it only if you have
 # provisioned export headroom separately.
 
 # ── Workers ───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
-# Number of parallel image/video compression workers. Default 2. This is the main
-# throughput bottleneck: with 2 workers a burst of uploads can take ~5s to appear.
-# For a large event (100+ guests) 4 is a good target — but each worker can run an
-# ffmpeg transcode, so if you raise this ALSO raise the app container's memory limit
-# in docker-compose.yml (`app.deploy.resources.limits.memory`) from 1G to ~2G, or a
-# burst of large videos can OOM the box and take Postgres down with it.
+# Number of parallel media compression workers. Default 2. Boot-time only.
+#
+# CORRECTION TO EARLIER GUIDANCE: this used to say "each worker can run an ffmpeg
+# transcode, so raise the app memory limit to ~2G if you set 4". There is NO video
+# transcode anywhere in this codebase — services/video.rs runs
+# `ffmpeg -ss <t> -i <src> -vframes 1 -vf scale=...`, a single poster frame, and video
+# originals are stored and served byte-for-byte. Poster extraction costs ~150-250 MB
+# for a moment; it is not the constraint.
+#
+# The real memory consumer is the IMAGE path. `image` 0.25's resize builds an Rgba32F
+# intermediate at 16 BYTES PER PIXEL, sized (source_width x target_height) — which the
+# 256 MiB decode guard in imaging.rs does NOT cover. Peak per photo, decode + the 2048px
+# display resize: ~145 MB at 12 MP, ~223 MB at 24 MP, ~354 MB at 48 MP.
+#
+# So on a 2 vCPU / 4 GB box (e.g. Hetzner CX22) KEEP THIS AT 2:
+#   * concurrency 4 would put two giants at ~1.5 GB against the 1G app limit — OOM.
+#   * and app=2G + db=1G + frontend/caddy 256M each + ~370 MB of OS/Docker exceeds the
+#     ~3910 MiB a "4 GB" VM actually reports. Raising the limit oversubscribes the host.
+# 4 is only reasonable on the 4 vCPU / 8 GB box README.md documents.
+#
+# The "two 48 MP photos at once" worst case this number used to be sized against is no
+# longer reachable: compression.rs takes an EXCLUSIVE `heavy` permit for any job whose
+# estimated peak exceeds HEAVY_IMAGE_BYTES (150 MiB), so two giants serialise no matter what
+# this is set to. What concurrency 2 now buys is two ORDINARY phone photos in parallel
+# (~145 MB peak each), which is both memory-safe and short enough not to starve the two
+# tokio worker threads a 2 vCPU box gets.
+#
+# Do NOT drop this to 1 hoping to protect the CPU. It halves throughput on the common light
+# path for a heavy path that is already serialised, and a longer compression backlog means
+# more feed tiles served from full-size originals (VirtualFeed falls back to /original while
+# derivatives are pending) — trading a little CPU for a lot of venue-wifi bandwidth.
+#
+# Throughput at 2 is not the bottleneck anyone thinks it is: ~2.5s per 12 MP photo, so
+# 100 photos is ~250 CPU-seconds spread over an entire evening.
 COMPRESSION_WORKER_CONCURRENCY=2
+
+# ── Comments ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
+# Master switch for the comment feature. Boot-time only (NOT in the admin UI), so it
+# needs a `docker compose up -d` to apply. Anything other than false/0/no/off is on.
+#
+# When false the backend rejects NEW comments with 403 and the frontend hides the whole
+# comment UI, including in the offline keepsake viewer. Likes and captions are entirely
+# separate features and are unaffected. Existing comments stay in the database (hidden),
+# so flipping it back restores them.
+#
+# Note it gates POSTING only: GET /upload/{id}/comments still serves already-existing
+# comments, and the keepsake's data.json still embeds their text. Irrelevant if the flag
+# is off from the first boot, since no comment can ever have been written.
+# NOTE for the current deployment: `docker-compose.yml` PINS this to "false" on the app
+# service, and `environment` overrides `env_file` — so changing it here has no effect in
+# production. Remove that line from the compose file first if you want comments back.
+COMMENTS_ENABLED=true
+
+# ── Logging ───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
+# SET THIS IN PRODUCTION. Without it the app falls back to
+# `eventsnap_backend=debug,tower_http=debug` (see main.rs), and with TraceLayer that is a
+# debug line per HTTP request — including every preview and thumbnail fetch. Combined with
+# Docker's json-file driver it writes to the same filesystem as the database and the media.
+# docker-compose.yml caps each service's logs at 30 MB; this keeps the volume sane in the
+# first place. The e2e stack has always used exactly this value.
+RUST_LOG=eventsnap_backend=info,tower_http=warn

.github/workflows/checks.yml

@@ -102,6 +102,44 @@ jobs:
         working-directory: ./frontend
         run: npm run format:check
 
+  export-viewer:
+    name: Keepsake viewer — builds, self-contained, committed artifact in sync
+    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
+    timeout-minutes: 15
+    steps:
+      - uses: actions/checkout@v4
+      - uses: actions/setup-node@v4
+        with:
+          node-version: '22'
+          cache: 'npm'
+          cache-dependency-path: 'frontend/export-viewer/package-lock.json'
+
+      - name: Install deps
+        working-directory: ./frontend/export-viewer
+        run: npm ci || npm install
+
+      # Two things nothing else in CI covered, both of which ship a broken keepsake silently.
+      #
+      # 1. The build's own self-contained guard (`inlineThemeFonts`) is the only thing standing
+      #    between an added theme asset and a viewer that reaches for files on the guest's disk.
+      #    It is a build-time `this.error`, so it only fires when somebody runs this build — and
+      #    no workflow, Dockerfile or script did. It could sit disarmed indefinitely.
+      #
+      # 2. `backend/static/export-viewer/index.html` is COMMITTED and compiled into the binary with
+      #    `include_dir!`. A viewer source change merged without a manual rebuild ships the stale
+      #    artifact, and nothing anywhere would say so. `git diff --exit-code` is the check.
+      - name: Build the standalone viewer
+        working-directory: ./frontend/export-viewer
+        run: npm run build
+
+      - name: Committed artifact matches a clean rebuild
+        run: |
+          if ! git diff --exit-code -- backend/static/export-viewer/; then
+            echo "::error::backend/static/export-viewer/ is out of date with frontend/export-viewer/."
+            echo "Run 'npm run build' in frontend/export-viewer and commit the result."
+            exit 1
+          fi
+
   e2e-typecheck:
     name: E2E — typecheck + lint
     runs-on: ubuntu-latest

Caddyfile

@@ -1,3 +1,33 @@
+{
+	servers {
+		timeouts {
+			# Slowloris defence, at the layer that can actually apply it.
+			#
+			# There was no read or write timeout anywhere, so a client could open a POST, send one
+			# byte a minute, and hold a connection, a tokio task and a `.tmp` file indefinitely —
+			# and the upload sweeper is keyed on mtime precisely so a live upload never ages out,
+			# so ten such connections consumed disk the upload gate could not see.
+			#
+			# read_header is tight: a legitimate client sends its headers in one go.
+			read_header 10s
+			# read_body is GENEROUS but present. It was omitted on the reasoning that "a slow body
+			# still has to actually send bytes" — which is an argument about disk, and disk is not
+			# the scarce resource here. `upload_admission` budgets concurrent bodies at 4096 MiB and
+			# reserves the DECLARED cap, so a `video/*` upload reserves 500 MiB: eight connections
+			# that stall mid-body hold the entire budget, every other guest waits 20s and gets a
+			# 503, and it never recovers on its own because the permit is held until the handler
+			# returns. That needs no attacker — eight guests starting real videos and then walking
+			# out of AP range does it, and TCP will not reap those sockets for hours.
+			#
+			# 30m carries a 500 MB video at ~2.2 Mbit/s sustained, which is well under venue wifi
+			# and under most cellular, so it does not fail the uploads this product exists to
+			# collect. It does bound the leak to something that drains.
+			read_body 30m
+			idle 5m
+		}
+	}
+}
+
 {$DOMAIN} {
 	# Compress everything EXCEPT the SSE stream — gzip buffering delays
 	# "real-time" likes/comments until the ~30s keep-alive tick.
@@ -31,20 +61,27 @@
 	@hashed_assets path_regexp hashed /_app/immutable/.*\.[a-f0-9]{8,}\.(js|css|woff2)$
 	header @hashed_assets Cache-Control "public, max-age=31536000, immutable"
 
-	# Preview/thumbnail images. These are served by the app through a visibility-checked
-	# alias (/api/v1/upload/{id}/{preview,thumbnail}) so moderation can revoke access;
-	# the app serves no /media route at all, so there is no direct path to the bytes.
-	# Privately cacheable for a short window (the app sets the same header; this is the
-	# edge carve-out from the blanket no-store below). Kept short so a moderated image
-	# stops being served to a direct-URL holder promptly.
-	@media_api path /api/v1/upload/*/preview /api/v1/upload/*/thumbnail
+	# Preview/thumbnail/display images. These are served by the app through a
+	# visibility-checked alias (/api/v1/upload/{id}/{preview,thumbnail,display}) so
+	# moderation can revoke access; the app serves no /media route at all, so there is no
+	# direct path to the bytes. Privately cacheable for a short window (the app sets the
+	# same header; this is the edge carve-out from the blanket no-store below). Kept short
+	# so a moderated image stops being served to a direct-URL holder promptly.
+	#
+	# `display` was missing here while the backend set `private, max-age=300` on it, and
+	# because `header` REPLACES, the blanket no-store below silently won. That route is the
+	# ~2048px derivative the diashow uses exclusively, so a projector left running all
+	# evening re-fetched a full-size JPEG for every slide — roughly 2-4 GB pulled through
+	# the app over 8 hours, on the same venue uplink 100 guests are uploading over, and a
+	# blank frame on every network hiccup.
+	@media_api path /api/v1/upload/*/preview /api/v1/upload/*/thumbnail /api/v1/upload/*/display
 	header @media_api Cache-Control "private, max-age=300"
 
 	# API and health — never cache, EXCEPT the gated image routes above. A cached health
 	# response would report the last known state rather than the current one.
 	@api {
 		path /api/* /health
-		not path /api/v1/upload/*/preview /api/v1/upload/*/thumbnail
+		not path /api/v1/upload/*/preview /api/v1/upload/*/thumbnail /api/v1/upload/*/display
 	}
 	header @api Cache-Control "no-store"
 
@@ -68,4 +105,59 @@
 
 	# Everything else goes to SvelteKit frontend
 	reverse_proxy frontend:3001
+
+	# Last-resort page for when Caddy itself cannot reach an upstream — the app or frontend
+	# container down, restarting, or still warming up after a host reboot. Without it a guest
+	# gets Caddy's bodiless 502: a completely blank page, which reads as "the whole thing is
+	# gone" rather than "try again in a moment".
+	#
+	# THIS DOES NOT TOUCH APPLICATION ERRORS. `handle_errors` fires only on errors CADDY
+	# generates; a status the app returns through `reverse_proxy` is written back verbatim and
+	# never reaches here. That distinction is load-bearing rather than incidental: the keepsake
+	# download navigates a HIDDEN IFRAME and depends on a real 404/429 arriving from the app
+	# (frontend/src/routes/export/+page.svelte), and every API route answers 403/404/429 as
+	# ordinary JSON that the client parses. Swallowing those into an HTML page would be a far
+	# worse regression than the blank 502 this fixes. Verified against this exact config: an
+	# upstream 404 through `reverse_proxy` still arrives as `Content-Type: application/json`
+	# with its body intact, while only a dial failure renders the page below.
+	#
+	# Scoped to 5xx so a hypothetical future Caddy-generated 4xx (there is none today) still
+	# returns plainly instead of claiming the server is restarting.
+	#
+	# The body is inline because the caddy service mounts ONLY ./Caddyfile and caddy_data —
+	# there is no volume to ship an HTML file through and the image has no build step, so a
+	# static file would mean changing the deployed stack's compose definition. No external
+	# font, stylesheet or image is referenced: the app may be exactly what is down.
+	#
+	# `handle_errors` has NO position in the directive order — Caddy hoists it into a separate
+	# `errors` route list — so it cannot disturb the "first `header` directive wins" hazard
+	# documented at the top of this file. The site-wide security headers still apply to it.
+	handle_errors 5xx {
+		header Content-Type "text/html; charset=utf-8"
+		header Cache-Control "no-store"
+		# {err.status_code} preserves the real status. Hardcoding 503 would mislabel a genuine
+		# 502 for anything watching from outside.
+		respond `<!doctype html>
+<html lang="de">
+<head>
+<meta charset="utf-8">
+<meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1">
+<title>Gleich zurück</title>
+<style>
+html{background:#faf9f7;color:#1a1918;font-family:system-ui,-apple-system,"Segoe UI",Roboto,sans-serif}
+body{margin:0;min-height:100vh;display:flex;align-items:center;justify-content:center;padding:2rem;text-align:center}
+h1{font-family:Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;font-weight:600;font-size:1.5rem;margin:0 0 .75rem}
+p{margin:0;color:#545350;line-height:1.5}
+@media (prefers-color-scheme:dark){html{background:#100f0f;color:#f5f4f2}p{color:#a6a4a1}}
+</style>
+</head>
+<body>
+<main>
+<h1>Wir sind gleich zurück</h1>
+<p>Die Seite wird gerade neu gestartet.<br>Bitte lade in einem Moment neu — deine Fotos bleiben gespeichert.</p>
+</main>
+</body>
+</html>
+` {err.status_code}
+	}
 }

DEPLOYMENT_RUNBOOK.md

@@ -0,0 +1,974 @@
+# EventSnap — Production Deployment Runbook
+
+Target: **Hetzner CX22** (2 vCPU, 4 GB RAM, 40 GB disk), single host, docker compose.
+Event profile: ~100 guests, ~100 photos + a few videos, one evening, **operator attending and unavailable to troubleshoot**.
+
+Everything here is written for that last constraint. Where a choice trades throughput for
+"cannot need attention on the night", it takes the stable option.
+
+> **Note on this repo's own docs.** `README.md:62` and `PROJECT.md:359` specify a **CX33
+> (4 vCPU / 8 GB / 80 GB)**. You are deploying to half of that on every axis. Two pieces of
+> tuning advice in `.env.example` are calibrated for the CX33 and are actively wrong for a
+> CX22 — they are called out in §3. Trust this file over `.env.example` for sizing.
+
+---
+
+## 0. Timeline — the single most important control
+
+### Step zero: verify the deployment files are committed, before you build anything
+
+Everything the server clones must be in git — §7 tells you to `git clone` onto the box, so
+anything living only in your working tree is not part of the deployment. Two failure modes if it
+is not:
+
+- If the committed `docker-compose.yml` still carried `build:` keys and no `image:` keys, then on
+  that clone `docker compose pull` would skip both services and `docker compose up -d` would start
+  **a fat-LTO release build of 427 crates on the CX22** — the exact scenario §1 rules out as an
+  expected OOM.
+- `sqlx::migrate!()` embeds `./migrations` **at compile time**. An image built from a working tree
+  with uncommitted migrations bakes them in and applies them on first boot; any later rebuild from
+  a clean clone produces an image that lacks them and crash-loops with `VersionMissing` against its
+  own database.
+
+**As of this writing all of these are committed and the check below passes.** Run it anyway — it
+costs a second and it is the difference between finding this now and finding it at T‑5.
+
+```bash
+# Every deployment file must be tracked. Prints nothing and exits 0 when correct;
+# names the offender and exits non-zero otherwise.
+git ls-files --error-unmatch \
+  docker-compose.yml docker-compose.dev.yml docker-compose.build.yml .env.example \
+  backend/.dockerignore frontend/.dockerignore frontend/Dockerfile \
+  DEPLOYMENT_RUNBOOK.md Caddyfile >/dev/null
+
+# No uncommitted edits to them.
+git status --porcelain -- docker-compose.yml .env.example Caddyfile DEPLOYMENT_RUNBOOK.md
+
+# The COMMITTED compose must pull, not build: 4 `image:` lines, zero `build:` lines.
+git show HEAD:docker-compose.yml | grep -cE '^[[:space:]]*image:'   # must be 4
+git show HEAD:docker-compose.yml | grep -cE '^[[:space:]]*build:'   # must be 0
+
+# Every migration in the tree is committed — a build from a dirty tree bakes in extras.
+git status --porcelain -- backend/migrations/                       # must print nothing
+
+# The Caddyfile PARSES. Nothing else checks it: the e2e stack mounts `e2e/Caddyfile.test`,
+# so the production file is never executed until the real deploy — and a syntax error there
+# is total. Caddy exits, `restart: unless-stopped` loops, 443 is dead for the whole event,
+# and `docker compose up -d --force-recreate caddy` still exits 0 while it crash-loops.
+docker run --rm -v "$PWD/Caddyfile:/etc/caddy/Caddyfile:ro" -e DOMAIN=example.com \
+  caddy:2-alpine caddy validate --config /etc/caddy/Caddyfile   # must end "Valid configuration"
+```
+
+| When | What |
+|---|---|
+| **T‑7 days** | Commit and push everything above. Registry + DNS pre-flight (§5). Build and push images (§6). |
+| **T‑5 days** | First deploy to the server (§7). Verify admin login. Leave it running. |
+| **T‑5 days** | ⚠ **Enable Hetzner automated snapshots** (§10.1) and **point an uptime monitor at `/health`** (§10.4). Two console checkboxes, ~10 minutes total. Without them a failure during the event is both total and unnoticed. |
+| **T‑3 days** | **Freeze migrations.** No further code deploys unless something is broken. |
+| **T‑2 days** | Pre-pull current *and* previous image tags (§9). Install the hourly DB dump and prove it runs (§10.2). Run the backup rehearsal (§10.3). |
+| **Event day** | Change nothing. Configuration tweaks via the admin dashboard only (§4). |
+
+**Why the freeze matters more than anything else here.** Migrations run automatically at boot
+(`backend/src/db.rs`, `create_pool`) and `sqlx::migrate!()` is used *without* `set_ignore_missing`. An older
+image booted against a newer schema does not degrade — it **crash-loops** with `VersionMissing`.
+The repo documents this itself in `backend/migrations/014_export_epoch.up.sql:3-8`. Once the
+migration set is frozen, rollback is a one-line `.env` edit; before it is frozen, rollback means
+hand-running down-SQL under pressure.
+
+---
+
+## 1. Deployment strategy — build on the Mac, push, pull
+
+**Decision: build `linux/amd64` images on the M3 Pro, push to `registry.mc02.dev`, pull on the server.**
+
+Rejected alternatives, with the reason each loses:
+
+| Option | Why not |
+|---|---|
+| **Build on the CX22** | `backend/Cargo.toml` sets `lto = true` + `codegen-units = 1` over **427 crates**. Fat LTO links the whole program in one single-threaded process; peak RSS is estimated at 2.5–4 GB against ~1.5–2.5 GB free with the stack running. OOM is the expected outcome, not a tail risk. And *rollback would also be a build* — 35–60 min under pressure. |
+| **CI (Gitea on Pi 5)** | Ruled out by you, and correct: a Pi 5 is strictly worse than the CX22 for a fat-LTO link. |
+| **True cross-compilation** (`--target x86_64-unknown-linux-musl`) | The dependency graph has **four C-compiling crates** — `ring` (per-arch assembly), `zstd-sys`, `libdeflate-sys`, `libsqlite3-sys` — so it needs a real musl cross-toolchain. Alpine has no such package for an arm64 host; the working answer is `cargo-zigbuild`, which means a new base image and a new toolchain days before an unrepeatable event. **Slow but certain beats fast but novel.** |
+
+Emulated build is the right call because the cost lands where it is free: on your laptop, days
+early, with nothing depending on it. Estimated wall-clock for the backend is **25–60 min with
+Rosetta enabled** (hours without it) — start it and walk away.
+
+> **Escape hatch if emulation is unbearable:** spin up a temporary Hetzner CPX41 (8 vCPU/16 GB) in
+> the same account, build natively, push, destroy it. Costs cents, same commands, no repo change.
+
+---
+
+## 2. Repo changes — ALREADY APPLIED
+
+> **Status: these are done, in the working tree.** They are documented here so you know what
+> changed and why, not as work to repeat. Run `git diff` to review before committing.
+
+### 2.1 `.dockerignore` files (were absent)
+
+`backend/.dockerignore`:
+```
+target/
+```
+
+`frontend/.dockerignore`:
+```
+node_modules/
+.svelte-kit/
+build/
+```
+
+Without these, the first time you run `cargo build` or `npm install` locally, every image build
+ships a multi-GB context to an *emulated* builder. Worse: `frontend/Dockerfile:8` does `COPY . .`
+**after** `npm ci`, so a macOS `node_modules/` would be merged over the container's Linux one.
+
+### 2.2 Switch compose from `build:` to `image:`
+
+In `docker-compose.yml`, replace the `build:` block on `app` and `frontend`:
+
+```yaml
+  app:
+    image: registry.mc02.dev/eventsnap/app:${EVENTSNAP_VERSION:?set EVENTSNAP_VERSION in .env}
+```
+```yaml
+  frontend:
+    image: registry.mc02.dev/eventsnap/frontend:${EVENTSNAP_VERSION:?set EVENTSNAP_VERSION in .env}
+```
+
+Two deliberate properties:
+- The `:?` form **fails loudly** on an unset variable instead of resolving to an empty tag.
+- **Removing `build:` entirely is a safety feature.** With no `build:` key on the server, a wrong
+  tag is an instant `manifest unknown` — never a surprise 45-minute compile on the production box.
+
+New `docker-compose.build.yml` (opt-in, Mac only — follows the convention stated in
+the header of `docker-compose.dev.yml` that overlays are never auto-loaded):
+
+```yaml
+# Build overlay. NOT loaded automatically. Used only where images are BUILT — never on the
+# production server, which pulls.
+#   docker compose -f docker-compose.yml -f docker-compose.build.yml build
+services:
+  app:
+    build: { context: ./backend, dockerfile: Dockerfile }
+  frontend:
+    build: { context: ./frontend, dockerfile: Dockerfile }
+```
+
+`e2e/docker-compose.test.yml` keeps its own `build:` blocks, so the e2e gate is unaffected.
+
+### 2.3 Add log rotation to every service
+
+`docker-compose.yml` currently sets **no logging config**, so the default `json-file` driver keeps
+logs forever, on the same filesystem as Postgres and the media. Add to each of the four services:
+
+```yaml
+    logging:
+      driver: json-file
+      options: { max-size: "10m", max-file: "3" }
+```
+
+(Equivalently, set it once in `/etc/docker/daemon.json` — but that restarts the Docker daemon,
+so do it *before* the stack is live, not after.)
+
+---
+
+## 3. `.env` — production values
+
+```bash
+# ── Identity ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
+DOMAIN=<your domain>
+EVENT_NAME=<...>
+EVENT_SLUG=<...>
+
+# ── Image version (NEW — drives the image: tags in docker-compose.yml) ────
+EVENTSNAP_VERSION=v0.13.0
+
+# ── Secrets — ALL of them, before the first `up -d` ───────────────────────
+JWT_SECRET=<openssl rand -hex 64>
+# These two are NOT optional and have no defaults. docker-compose.yml interpolates them into
+# `environment:`, which overrides `env_file`, so leaving them out does not fall back — it creates
+# a Postgres role and database named "" while DATABASE_URL still says `eventsnap`. The result is
+# a permanent crash loop whose only clean exit is `down -v`. Compose now refuses to start without
+# them, but write them here anyway: the three values below must agree with each other.
+POSTGRES_USER=eventsnap
+POSTGRES_DB=eventsnap
+POSTGRES_PASSWORD=<openssl rand -hex 24>
+DATABASE_URL=postgres://eventsnap:<SAME PASSWORD>@db:5432/eventsnap
+ADMIN_PASSWORD_HASH='<docker run --rm caddy:2-alpine caddy hash-password --plaintext "pw">'
+
+# ── Paths — must match the volume mounts ──────────────────────────────────
+# All four of these are PINNED in docker-compose.yml under `app.environment`, which overrides
+# `env_file`. Keep them consistent here for readability, but understand that editing them in
+# `.env` changes nothing — the pin is what the container gets. Change the pin.
+MEDIA_PATH=/media
+EXPORT_PATH=/exports
+APP_PORT=3000
+
+# ── Sizing (see the two corrections below) ────────────────────────────────
+# 15, matching .env.example, the `db` sizing comment in docker-compose.yml and the code
+# default. An earlier draft of this runbook said 30: that does not fit the 1G memory limit
+# compose allots `db`, and 30 simultaneous queries cannot run on 2 vCPU anyway — they queue
+# on the CPU instead of on the pool. Raise it only alongside more cores AND a bigger limit.
+#
+# ALSO PINNED IN COMPOSE (see above), and pinned for a sharper reason than the paths: an
+# unparseable value here is boot-FATAL rather than falling back to the default, so a stray
+# quote or a trailing inline comment in `.env` would crash-loop the app behind a live Caddy.
+DATABASE_MAX_CONNECTIONS=15
+COMPRESSION_WORKER_CONCURRENCY=2
+
+# ── Comments off, likes + captions on ─────────────────────────────────────
+COMMENTS_ENABLED=false
+
+# ── Logging (NEW — production currently defaults to DEBUG) ────────────────
+RUST_LOG=eventsnap_backend=info,tower_http=warn
+```
+
+### Two sizing decisions worth understanding before you touch them
+
+`.env.example` now agrees with this section on both — it carries the same reasoning inline and
+self-corrects the old advice. Kept here because these are the two knobs an operator is most
+tempted to raise under pressure.
+
+**`COMPRESSION_WORKER_CONCURRENCY`: keep `2`. Do NOT raise to 4, and do NOT raise the app memory
+limit to 2G.** An earlier draft justified both on the premise that "each worker can run an
+ffmpeg transcode". **There is no transcode anywhere in this codebase.** `services/video.rs::run_ffmpeg`
+runs `ffmpeg -ss <t> -i <src> -vframes 1 -vf scale=…` — a single poster frame. Video originals are
+stored and served byte-for-byte.
+
+The real memory consumer is the **image** path: `image` 0.25's `resize` builds an `Rgba32F`
+intermediate at **16 bytes/px**, sized `source_width × target_height`, which the 256 MiB decode
+guard in `imaging::decode_limits` does not cover. Estimated peak per photo:
+
+| Source | Peak (decode + display resize) |
+|---|---|
+| 12 MP (typical phone) | ~145 MB |
+| 24 MP (iPhone Pro default) | ~223 MB |
+| 48 MP ("Max" mode) | ~354 MB |
+
+Those are per-photo peaks, and the "two 48 MP photos at once" pair this limit used to be sized
+against **is no longer reachable**: `compression.rs` takes an EXCLUSIVE `heavy` permit for a large
+decode, so two giants serialise no matter what `COMPRESSION_WORKER_CONCURRENCY` is set to (see
+`.env.example`, which makes the same point). The binding case is now one giant (~354 MB) plus the
+ordinary working set against the 1 GiB cap, which is comfortable.
+
+What has not changed is the reason to keep concurrency at 2 and `app` at 1G: at concurrency 4 the
+memory arithmetic stops working (app=2G + db=1G + 256M + 256M + ~370 MB OS/Docker ≈ 3954 MiB
+against ~3910 MiB MemTotal — oversubscribed before a single photo arrives).
+
+**`quota_tolerance`: keep `0.75`. Raising it does not make anything more generous for a real guest.**
+See §4.
+
+---
+
+## 4. Admin dashboard configuration
+
+These live in the DB `config` table, not `.env`. Changes take effect on the **next request** —
+`patch_config` invalidates the cache synchronously (`admin::patch_config`). No restart needed. Set them
+after the first deploy, before the event.
+
+| Key | Default | **Set to** | Why |
+|---|---|---|---|
+| `upload_rate_per_hour` | 100 | **1000** | A guest multi-selecting 100 photos hits exactly 100. Client backs off and resumes, but this makes it a non-issue. |
+| `feed_rate_per_min` | 60 | **240** | Headroom for reconnect bursts. |
+| `social_rate_per_min` | 120 | **600** | This is the **likes** limiter — the interaction you're keeping. |
+| `export_rate_per_day` | 3 | **20** | **One shared bucket across both archives** — `enforce_export_rate` keys on `export:{user_id}` regardless of which archive is being fetched. Downloading Gallery.zip + Memories.zip costs 2 of 3; one retry locks a guest out for 24 h. The limit is now charged when the download *ticket* is minted, so being over it produces a visible German error instead of a tap that silently does nothing. |
+| `max_video_size_mb` | 500 | **leave at 500** | See below. |
+| `quota_tolerance` | 0.75 | **leave at 0.75** | See below. |
+| `quota_enabled`, `storage_quota_enabled`, `rate_limits_enabled` | true | **leave on** | This is the only disk-full safety net. |
+
+> **Correction (was wrong in an earlier draft).** This section used to say "**Ignore
+> `estimated_guest_count`** … read by no code at all". That is **false** — it is a live tuning
+> knob and it is the dominant term in the quota divisor for a normal event. An operator who
+> believed the old text and changed it would have moved every guest's ceiling. `upload_count_quota_enabled`
+> genuinely is inert.
+
+### Why quotas are already as generous as you want
+
+```
+divisor        = max(active_uploaders, estimated_guest_count, 1)
+per_user_limit = max(floor(free_disk × quota_tolerance / divisor), 500 MiB)
+```
+(`upload::quota_limit_bytes`. The 500 MiB floor applies only when the whole budget can back it —
+below that the divided value stands, so the quota cannot promise space the disk does not have.)
+
+`active_uploaders` is `SELECT COUNT(DISTINCT user_id) FROM upload WHERE deleted_at IS NULL` —
+**people who actually uploaded**, not guests who joined. But it is a `max`, not the sole divisor:
+`estimated_guest_count` (default **100**) acts as a **floor on the divisor**, so the ceiling settles
+at its final value early instead of sliding down all evening as guests arrive. It also blunts the
+abuse case where the divisor was attacker-controlled — ~1000 throwaway accounts once drove every
+real guest's ceiling to ~52 MB.
+
+With ~28 GB free, `quota_tolerance` 0.75 and a realistic 30 people actually uploading, the divisor
+is **100** (not 30, because `estimated_guest_count` floors it), giving 28 GB × 0.75 / 100 ≈ 210 MB —
+which is below the floor, so **every guest is granted the 500 MiB minimum**. Against an expected
+~1.25 GB for the *entire event*, nobody will be blocked. An earlier draft computed "~700 MB each"
+by dividing by 30; that ignored the floor on the divisor and was wrong.
+
+Raising `quota_tolerance` would only raise the **saturation ceiling** (media converges to
+`t/(1+t)` of free space: 43% at 0.75, 50% at 1.0). It does nothing for a real guest at your volume,
+and it eats the headroom the keepsake needs — the export preflight reserves `media × 1.10 × 2`
+because `Gallery.zip` and `Memories.zip` each store media **uncompressed** (`export.rs` — both archives store media uncompressed).
+
+**Why `max_video_size_mb` stays at 500.** An earlier draft of this runbook said to lower it to 250,
+on the grounds that there is no client-side size check. That was wrong on both halves:
+
+- A client guard **does** exist — `frontend/src/routes/upload/+page.svelte` rejects anything over
+  `HARD_MAX_UPLOAD_BYTES` (576 MiB) before a byte leaves the phone, alongside the HEIC reject.
+- That guard is a **compile-time constant**, not the DB value. Lowering `max_video_size_mb` therefore
+  changes nothing on the client: the picker still accepts the clip, the phone still starts sending
+  it, and the *server* aborts it partway (`stream_field_to_file` does stop at the cap, so the AP is
+  not saturated for the full file — but the guest still gets a mid-upload failure where 500 MB would
+  simply have worked).
+
+So lowering it is a pure capacity decision with no UX upside, and at your volume there is no capacity
+problem to solve. Leave it. If you ever do want a smaller ceiling to bite on the phone, the constant
+above has to move with it.
+
+---
+
+## 5. Pre-flight — T‑7 days (do NOT leave this to event week)
+
+### Registry
+
+From **both** the Mac and the server, as **the user who will deploy** (root's `docker login` does
+not help a non-root deploy — credentials go to `~/.docker/config.json`):
+
+```bash
+getent hosts registry.mc02.dev                 # DNS resolves from the server
+curl -fsSI https://registry.mc02.dev/v2/       # TLS must be PUBLICLY trusted; Docker rejects
+                                               # self-signed without extra daemon config
+docker login registry.mc02.dev
+```
+
+Also confirm: the `eventsnap` repository/namespace exists if your registry requires pre-creation
+(Harbor does; plain `registry:2` does not), and the registry host has ~500 MB free per release.
+
+### DNS and TLS — get this wrong and you are locked out for an hour
+
+The DNS **A record must point at the CX22 before the first `docker compose up -d`**, because Caddy
+attempts certificate issuance on boot. Let's Encrypt allows only **5 failed validations per hostname
+per hour** (refilling 1 per 12 min). A misconfigured DNS record plus a few impatient restarts will
+rate-limit you out of getting a certificate at all.
+
+- Deploy days early so issuance happens with no time pressure.
+- **Never delete the `caddy_data` volume** — it holds the certificate and the ACME account key.
+- Never run `docker compose down -v`. It destroys `postgres_data`, `media_data`, `exports_data`
+  *and* `caddy_data`.
+
+### Host preparation
+
+```bash
+docker compose version          # must be v2.x — see below, this one is not optional
+free -h && swapon --show        # Hetzner images ship no swap
+df -h /var/lib/docker           # want ≥ 25 GB free
+```
+
+> **If `docker compose version` reports v1 (or `docker-compose` is a separate Python binary), STOP
+> and install the v2 plugin before deploying.** This check previously had no failure action, which
+> made it decorative — and it is the single check that the whole sizing argument rests on.
+>
+> On Compose v1, `deploy.resources.limits` is **silently ignored** outside Swarm: no warning, no
+> error, `up -d` exits 0. Every memory and CPU limit in `docker-compose.yml` evaporates, and §1's
+> arithmetic (`app` 1G + `db` 1G + 256M + 256M inside ~3910 MiB) becomes fiction — the first 48 MP
+> photo takes the box out via the OOM killer instead of being bounded. On v2 the limits are real
+> (verified empirically: `memory: 1G` produces `HostConfig.Memory=1073741824`).
+>
+> ```bash
+> # Debian/Ubuntu, with Docker's official repo already configured:
+> apt-get update && apt-get install -y docker-compose-plugin
+> docker compose version   # must now print v2.x
+> ```
+>
+> Verify the limits actually landed, once the stack is up — this is the check that matters, not the
+> version string:
+>
+> ```bash
+> docker inspect eventsnap-app-1 --format '{{.HostConfig.Memory}} {{.HostConfig.NanoCpus}}'
+> # Must print two NON-ZERO numbers. `0 0` means the limits were dropped.
+> ```
+
+**Add 2 GB of swap** as an OOM cushion — a compression spike that would otherwise kill the container
+instead swaps out cold pages and merely runs slowly:
+
+```bash
+fallocate -l 2G /swapfile && chmod 600 /swapfile && mkswap /swapfile && swapon /swapfile
+echo '/swapfile none swap sw 0 0' >> /etc/fstab
+sysctl -w vm.swappiness=10 && echo 'vm.swappiness=10' > /etc/sysctl.d/99-swap.conf
+```
+
+> **Already handled — do not hand-edit compose.** Compose sets each container's `Memory` limit but
+> leaves `MemorySwap` unset, and Docker then allows swap equal to the memory limit, so adding host
+> swap would silently **double** every container ceiling (to ~5 GiB of ceilings on a 3.82 GiB box).
+> `docker-compose.yml` now ships `memswap_limit` on all four services — 1152m on `app` and `db`,
+> 320m on `frontend` and `caddy` — so this step is safe as written.
+>
+> This used to say "add it yourself", which also broke §0's own gate that
+> `git status --porcelain -- docker-compose.yml` must print nothing. Confirm it is still there:
+>
+> ```bash
+> docker inspect eventsnap-app-1 --format '{{.HostConfig.Memory}} {{.HostConfig.MemorySwap}}'
+> # 1073741824 1207959552 — the second number MUST be larger than the first but not double it.
+> ```
+
+---
+
+## 6. Build and push — on the Mac
+
+Enable **Docker Desktop → Settings → General → "Use Rosetta for x86_64/amd64 emulation"**, and set
+**Resources → Memory ≥ 8 GB** (the fat-LTO step will OOM inside the VM otherwise, even with 18 GB on
+the host).
+
+```bash
+docker run --rm --platform linux/amd64 alpine uname -m     # must print x86_64
+
+cd /Users/fabianhammprivat/Projects/EventSnap
+VERSION=v0.13.0                          # latest existing tag is v0.12.0 — see §9 before reusing it
+ROLLBACK=v0.13.0-a                       # the SAME source, tagged twice; §9 explains why
+SHA=$(git rev-parse --short HEAD)
+
+docker buildx create --name eventsnap --use 2>/dev/null || docker buildx use eventsnap
+
+docker buildx build --platform linux/amd64 \
+  -t registry.mc02.dev/eventsnap/app:$VERSION \
+  -t registry.mc02.dev/eventsnap/app:$ROLLBACK \
+  -t registry.mc02.dev/eventsnap/app:$SHA \
+  --push ./backend
+
+docker buildx build --platform linux/amd64 \
+  -t registry.mc02.dev/eventsnap/frontend:$VERSION \
+  -t registry.mc02.dev/eventsnap/frontend:$ROLLBACK \
+  -t registry.mc02.dev/eventsnap/frontend:$SHA \
+  --push ./frontend
+```
+
+### Verify the architecture — never skip this
+
+An arm64 image pulls fine and then dies with `exec format error`. Catch it here, not on the server:
+
+```bash
+docker buildx imagetools inspect registry.mc02.dev/eventsnap/app:$VERSION
+docker buildx imagetools inspect registry.mc02.dev/eventsnap/frontend:$VERSION
+# Both MUST report  Platform: linux/amd64
+```
+
+Then prove the binary actually executes. `AppConfig::from_env()` runs before any DB connection
+(`main.rs` builds `AppConfig` before touching the pool), so this needs no database:
+
+```bash
+docker run --rm --platform linux/amd64 \
+  -e APP_ENV=production -e JWT_SECRET=x -e DATABASE_URL=x -e EVENT_SLUG=x \
+  registry.mc02.dev/eventsnap/app:$VERSION
+```
+Expect the "Refusing to start in production … placeholder" message. **That message means the amd64
+binary ran.** `exec format error` means the architecture is wrong.
+
+**Tag policy: never `latest` in production.** With `latest` you cannot tell what is running,
+rollback becomes a registry re-push (impossible if the registry is down — exactly when you need it),
+and `restart: unless-stopped` after a reboot is ambiguous. Two immutable tags per build: semver and
+short SHA. Deploy by semver.
+
+---
+
+## 7. First deploy — on the server
+
+```bash
+# Directory name matters: volumes are prefixed with it, and README's backup commands
+# hardcode the `eventsnap_` prefix.
+git clone <repo> eventsnap && cd eventsnap
+cp .env.example .env && nano .env          # every value from §3
+docker login registry.mc02.dev
+docker compose pull                        # must fully succeed before anything starts
+```
+
+### 7.1 The secret pre-flight — run this before the first `up -d`, always
+
+```bash
+docker compose run --rm --no-deps app
+```
+
+`--no-deps` means `db` never starts, so **no Postgres data directory is initialised**.
+`AppConfig::from_env()` runs first and reports *every* placeholder at once (`config::validate_secrets`).
+When the only remaining complaint is a database *connection* failure, the secrets are good.
+
+**Why this step exists.** `POSTGRES_PASSWORD` is applied **only at initdb**. `docker-compose.yml`
+starts `db` in the same command as `app`, so a single `up -d` with a placeholder bakes the wrong
+password in permanently — the app then loops on `password authentication failed`, and the only exits
+are `ALTER ROLE` or `down -v`, which deletes the database, the media and the exports. The repo
+describes this trap at `backend/src/db.rs` (`explain_auth_failure`); this command is what avoids it.
+
+### 7.2 Bring it up
+
+```bash
+# `.env` is consumed by docker compose, not by your shell — read $DOMAIN out of it first.
+# Reads that ONE variable rather than sourcing the file: `.env` legitimately holds values with
+# apostrophes (EVENT_NAME), and `. ./.env` aborts on one with "Unterminated quoted string".
+DOMAIN=$(sed -n 's/^DOMAIN=//p' .env | tr -d "\"'")
+
+docker compose up -d
+docker compose logs -f app          # wait for "database connected and migrations applied"
+curl -fsS https://$DOMAIN/health    # → ok  (503 means the app is up but the DB is not)
+```
+
+### 7.3 Verify what the container actually received
+
+`MEDIA_PATH`, `EXPORT_PATH` and `APP_PORT` are all **pinned** on the `app` service in
+`docker-compose.yml`, exactly as §3 says — editing them in `.env` changes nothing. This step is
+not about whether they are pinned; it is about confirming the container got the values you think
+it did, including the two that genuinely do come from `.env`:
+
+```bash
+docker compose exec app printenv DATABASE_URL EXPORT_PATH ADMIN_PASSWORD_HASH
+```
+
+1. **`DATABASE_URL`** (from `.env`) must contain `@db:5432`. A dev `.env` points it at
+   `@localhost`, which inside the container is the app itself.
+2. **`EXPORT_PATH`** (pinned) must read `/exports`. If it does not, the pin has been edited —
+   anywhere else and the keepsake archives are written to the container's writable layer and
+   **vanish on the next `up -d`**, including on a rollback.
+3. **`ADMIN_PASSWORD_HASH`** (from `.env`) must match `.env` **byte for byte.**
+
+**Then actually log in to `/admin` with the real password.** This is not optional politeness:
+
+- The production secret guard only rejects *placeholders* (`config::looks_placeholder`). A hash **corrupted**
+  by shell or Compose escaping is not a placeholder — the app boots green, `/health` says `ok`, and
+  every admin login 401s.
+- The Admin user row is created **by a successful admin login** (`auth::handlers::admin_login`), and
+  promoting anyone to Host requires an Admin or Host (`auth::middleware`'s role guard). **No admin login
+  ⇒ no host, ever** ⇒ you cannot close the event, release the gallery, ban anyone, reset a PIN, or
+  change any limit — for the whole event.
+
+Per the Compose spec, single-quoted `env_file` values *are* used literally and the quotes are
+stripped, so the single-quote form in `.env.example` is correct. The comment in
+`docker-compose.dev.yml` claiming production has the same bug is **stale**. Verify anyway —
+the cost of checking is 10 seconds; the cost of being wrong is the whole event.
+
+**Promote a second person to Host** once you are in, so a single lost session is not fatal.
+
+---
+
+## 8. Post-deploy verification
+
+```bash
+DOMAIN=$(sed -n 's/^DOMAIN=//p' .env | tr -d "\"'")          # $DOMAIN comes from .env, not your shell
+
+docker compose ps                                            # db, app, frontend healthy; caddy has
+                                                             # no healthcheck and shows only "running"
+docker inspect -f '{{.HostConfig.Memory}}' eventsnap-app-1   # must be 1073741824, not 0
+curl -fsS https://$DOMAIN/health                             # ok — now a real DB check, not a constant
+docker compose exec app printenv COMMENTS_ENABLED RUST_LOG
+docker builder prune -af && docker image prune -f            # reclaim build cache
+df -h /var/lib/docker
+```
+
+Then, from a phone on cellular (not the office wifi):
+
+- [ ] Join as a guest with a PIN
+- [ ] Upload a photo → appears in the feed within a few seconds
+- [ ] Upload a video → plays back (iOS Safari range requests)
+- [ ] Add a caption, add a like — **no comment UI anywhere**
+- [ ] Admin login works; host dashboard reachable
+- [ ] Release the gallery on a test event and download both archives
+
+---
+
+## 9. Rollback
+
+### There is no older image you can roll back to. Build the rollback target yourself.
+
+Read this before the event, not during it. The obvious move — drop `EVENTSNAP_VERSION` back to the
+previous released tag — **takes the app down permanently** and looks like a crash loop with no
+explanation:
+
+```
+$ git ls-tree --name-only v0.12.0 backend/migrations/ | wc -l
+12          # 6 migrations. HEAD has 31.
+$ git rev-list --count v0.12.0..HEAD
+217
+```
+
+`db.rs` runs `sqlx::migrate!()` with no `set_ignore_missing`, so an image built from a 6-migration
+tree, booting against a database that already carries versions 007–031, returns `VersionMissing`.
+`create_pool` errors, `main` exits 1, and `restart: unless-stopped` restarts it forever — with Caddy
+still routing traffic to it. (`014_export_epoch.up.sql` documents this failure mode; §0 restates it.)
+No `v0.12.0` image was ever built or pushed either, so the pre-pull would fail with
+`manifest unknown` before you ever got that far.
+
+**So: at build time, tag the SAME frozen commit twice.** Two identical images, two names. The
+rollback then swaps to a binary that is bit-for-bit what you tested and carries the identical
+migration set, which makes it a genuine no-op rather than a gamble:
+
+```bash
+# In §6, push both tags from the one build:
+VERSION=v0.13.0
+ROLLBACK=v0.13.0-a          # same source, different name — the rollback target
+
+docker buildx build --platform linux/amd64 \
+  -t registry.mc02.dev/eventsnap/app:$VERSION \
+  -t registry.mc02.dev/eventsnap/app:$ROLLBACK \
+  --push ./backend
+# ...and the same two tags for ./frontend
+```
+
+**Rolling back — ~30 seconds, no network:**
+
+```bash
+sed -i 's/^EVENTSNAP_VERSION=.*/EVENTSNAP_VERSION=v0.13.0-a/' .env
+docker compose up -d app frontend
+```
+
+This only works offline if both are already resident. **Pre-pull all four at T‑2:**
+
+```bash
+docker pull registry.mc02.dev/eventsnap/app:v0.13.0
+docker pull registry.mc02.dev/eventsnap/frontend:v0.13.0
+docker pull registry.mc02.dev/eventsnap/app:v0.13.0-a
+docker pull registry.mc02.dev/eventsnap/frontend:v0.13.0-a
+docker image ls | grep eventsnap        # confirm all four
+```
+
+Once resident, `up -d`, reboots, restarts and rollbacks need **zero** registry contact. That single
+step makes a registry outage on event day irrelevant.
+
+Be clear-eyed about what this buys you: an identical image cannot undo a bad *release*, only an
+image that got corrupted or a container that wedged — and `docker compose restart app` already
+covers both. It exists so that the rollback line in the emergency card is safe to run rather than
+catastrophic. **If you genuinely need to undo a code change during the event, you cannot; freeze
+early enough that you never have to.**
+
+**Across a migration boundary — avoid by freezing.** If you must: all 31 migrations have paired
+`.down.sql` files, but **none of them removes its own `_sqlx_migrations` row**, so that second step
+is mandatory and undocumented:
+
+```bash
+docker compose stop app
+# `sh -c` so the CONTAINER expands the credentials. They live in the container's environment
+# and in .env — not in your shell — so an unwrapped `-U "$POSTGRES_USER"` sends `-U ""` and
+# psql answers `FATAL: role "" does not exist`.
+docker compose exec -T db sh -c \
+  'psql -U "$POSTGRES_USER" -d "$POSTGRES_DB" -v ON_ERROR_STOP=1' \
+  < backend/migrations/0NN_x.down.sql
+docker compose exec -T db sh -c \
+  'psql -U "$POSTGRES_USER" -d "$POSTGRES_DB" -c "DELETE FROM _sqlx_migrations WHERE version = NN;"'
+```
+
+> **A down migration is only valid PAIRED WITH A CODE ROLLBACK — it is not a standalone repair.**
+> `Upload::create` sends an `ON CONFLICT ... WHERE` predicate that must match the live partial
+> index exactly, and these queries are not compile-checked. Run **026**'s or **031**'s down against
+> the current binary and every upload carrying a `client_upload_id` — i.e. every upload from the
+> shipped client — becomes a runtime 500. Roll the image back first, then the migration.
+>
+> **026's down can also fail outright, and that is expected.** It restores a wider unique index, so
+> it aborts with `could not create unique index ... is duplicated` on any database where a guest
+> ever deleted a photo and re-uploaded it. The transaction rolls back cleanly and the narrow index
+> survives intact — no half-state — but you cannot go below 026 on a database that has seen real
+> use. Verified against a live Postgres.
+
+Migration **014** is the only destructive one on the way up, and the only one with a rehearsal
+harness — `backend/scripts/rehearse-014.sh`. Run it once against a real dump before the event.
+
+**Registry-down transport fallback** (layers are already compressed — do not add gzip):
+
+```bash
+docker save registry.mc02.dev/eventsnap/app:v0.13.0 \
+            registry.mc02.dev/eventsnap/frontend:v0.13.0 | ssh root@SERVER 'docker load'
+```
+
+---
+
+## 10. Backup
+
+Full commands are in README's **`## Backup`** and **`## Restore`** sections — read `## Restore` to
+its END (through the media *and* exports restore, and the `chown` that follows), not just the
+database step. Referenced by heading, not by line number: the previous pointer named a line range
+that had drifted to the middle of an unrelated section and stopped mid-way through restore step 2,
+which would have restored the database and no media. They are correct — `pg_dump --clean --if-exists`, plus
+`alpine tar` out of `eventsnap_media_data` and `eventsnap_exports_data`, mounted at `/src` (not
+`/media`), with `chown -R 100:101` on restore because the app runs non-root and BusyBox tar has no
+`--same-owner`. There is deliberately no script.
+
+Three gaps the README does not cover:
+
+1. **Nothing backs up `.env`**, which holds the only copy of `POSTGRES_PASSWORD`. A dump you cannot
+   authenticate against is not a backup. Copy `.env` off the box, encrypted, once it is final.
+2. **The final dump is not a backup — it is an archive.** Taking it *after* locking uploads gives
+   you a consistent pair, and that is the right way to archive the finished event. But it means
+   that until the host locks uploads there is **no copy of anything anywhere**. All four volumes
+   sit on the same 40 GB filesystem, on one VPS, with no redundancy. A disk or host failure at
+   23:00 — the fullest the gallery will ever be — loses **100% of the event**, permanently, with
+   the guests still in the room. Both of the mitigations below are required.
+3. **Nothing is watching.** See §10.2.
+
+### 10.1 Snapshots — do this once, before the event
+
+> ⚠ **ACTION REQUIRED — Hetzner Cloud console, ~5 minutes, one checkbox.**
+> Server → **Backups** → enable. Costs ~20% of the server price and needs no operator action
+> ever again.
+
+This is the single highest-value item in this runbook. It converts "total, permanent loss" into
+"lose at most the hours since the last snapshot", automatically, with nobody awake. It covers the
+whole volume set at once — database, media, exports and `.env` — which the `pg_dump` path does not.
+
+It does **not** replace §10's archive: snapshots are whole-disk and crash-consistent, so restoring
+one gives you the box back, not a portable copy of the photos. Do both.
+
+### 10.2 A mid-event database dump — cheap, and the only thing cron should do
+
+The database is small (a few MB — it holds rows, not pixels) and it is the part that cannot be
+reconstructed: media files on disk without their `upload` rows are anonymous UUIDs with no
+uploader, caption, hashtag or timestamp. Dumping it hourly costs essentially nothing and is safe
+while uploads are live, because a `pg_dump` is transactionally consistent on its own.
+
+Media is the bulk and *is* recoverable from guests' phones in the worst case, so it stays on the
+event-night schedule below.
+
+Install this as **the same user you deployed as** (§5) — not root. `docker compose` needs that
+user's docker group membership and its compose project, and a root crontab has neither.
+
+```bash
+# On the server, before the event. Hourly DB-only dump, keeping the last 48.
+mkdir -p ~/eventsnap-dumps
+cat >~/eventsnap-dump.sh <<'SH'
+#!/bin/sh
+set -eu
+# Must match your deploy directory from §5. cron starts in $HOME, so this cannot be relative.
+cd "$HOME/eventsnap"
+# NOTE: deliberately does NOT source .env. Nothing here reads it — POSTGRES_USER and POSTGRES_DB
+# are expanded INSIDE the db container by the single-quoted sh -c below, using the values compose
+# already injected. Sourcing it was actively harmful: `.env` legitimately contains values with
+# apostrophes (EVENT_NAME="Max & Maria's Wedding"), and POSIX sh aborts on one with
+# "Unterminated quoted string". Under `set -eu` this script would exit before pg_dump — every
+# hour, silently, leaving the only automated backup of the irreplaceable table permanently empty.
+OUT="$HOME/eventsnap-dumps/db-$(date -u +%Y%m%dT%H%M%SZ).sql.gz"
+docker compose exec -T db sh -c \
+  'pg_dump --clean --if-exists -U "$POSTGRES_USER" "$POSTGRES_DB"' | gzip >"$OUT.tmp"
+mv "$OUT.tmp" "$OUT"          # atomic: never leave a truncated dump looking complete
+ls -1t "$HOME"/eventsnap-dumps/db-*.sql.gz | tail -n +49 | xargs -r rm
+SH
+chmod +x ~/eventsnap-dump.sh
+( crontab -l 2>/dev/null; echo "17 * * * * $HOME/eventsnap-dump.sh >>$HOME/eventsnap-dumps/dump.log 2>&1" ) | crontab -
+
+# Prove it works NOW, not at 23:00 — and prove it produced a NON-EMPTY dump, since the failure
+# this replaces produced a zero-byte file and a clean exit code.
+~/eventsnap-dump.sh && ls -lh ~/eventsnap-dumps/
+gzip -t ~/eventsnap-dumps/db-*.sql.gz && echo "dump is a valid gzip"
+zcat ~/eventsnap-dumps/db-*.sql.gz | grep -c 'CREATE TABLE' # must be > 0, not just "a file exists"
+```
+
+These land on the same filesystem, so they do **not** survive a disk loss — that is what §10.1 is
+for. They protect against the far more likely failure: a bad migration, an accidental host action,
+or a corrupted table.
+
+### 10.3 The event-night archive — unchanged
+
+Take the dump and the media tarball back-to-back **the night of the event, after locking uploads
+from the host dashboard**, so the pair is consistent. Copy both off the box before you sleep.
+
+### 10.4 Monitoring — something has to be able to wake you
+
+> ⚠ **ACTION REQUIRED — external uptime monitor, ~5 minutes.**
+> Point any free monitor (UptimeRobot, Better Stack, Healthchecks.io — all have free tiers with
+> SMS or push) at `https://$DOMAIN/health`, 1–5 minute interval, **alerting to a phone that will
+> be on you during the event.**
+
+There is otherwise **no** metrics collection, no alerting, no log shipping and no external check
+anywhere in this deployment. Without this step, none of the following reaches a human: a crash
+loop, a full disk, a dead database, an expired certificate, or the box being off. The host is at
+a party and is not watching a dashboard.
+
+`/health` is already built for exactly this and nothing currently consumes it:
+
+| Response | Meaning | Action |
+|---|---|---|
+| `200 ok` | App **and** database are answering | — |
+| `503 database timeout` / `database unavailable` | App is up, Postgres is not | §13 emergency card |
+| Connection refused / TLS error | App container or Caddy is down | `docker compose ps`, then §13 |
+| Timeout | Box is gone, or the disk is full enough to wedge it | §10.1 snapshot restore |
+
+It runs a real `SELECT 1` against the pool with a 2 s timeout — a green check means the request
+path guests use is genuinely working, not merely that a process is listening.
+
+**The one signal this does not give you is disk.** The low-disk banner on `/host` requires the
+host to open a dashboard during their own party and does not refresh without a manual reload, so
+treat it as a pre-event check, not an alert. Before the event, confirm headroom with §11's
+numbers; the export preflight and the upload quota are the automated backstops.
+
+---
+
+## 11. Disk — the numbers for 40 GB
+
+Expected event (100 photos @ ~4 MB, 5 videos @ ~150 MB). Originals are **always kept** and never
+lossily recompressed; derivatives are a ≤800 px preview and a ≤2048 px display JPEG.
+
+```
+media (originals + derivatives)                    ~1.25 GB
+peak during keepsake build (+ Gallery + Memories)  ~3.5 GB
+OS + Docker images + Postgres + logs               ~4.5 GB
+────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
+total                             ~11–13 GB of ~36 GB usable
+```
+
+**40 GB fits with roughly 3× headroom**, provided you build elsewhere (a server-side build adds
+3–5 GB of cache that permanently shrinks the guest quota, because the quota is recomputed against
+*live* free space on every upload).
+
+The "ENOSPC" projection in README's **`### Sizing the disk`** discussion models guests
+**saturating the quota** (~12 GB of media), not 100 photos. That scenario needs ~10× your expected
+volume — and it degrades gracefully: the export preflight refuses up front rather than hitting
+ENOSPC mid-write, and the host dashboard warns while free space is still **1.25× above the level at
+which uploads stop** (`handlers::host::disk_is_low`). Note that is the only trigger: the separate
+10 GB absolute floor this used to describe was removed as unreachable, because the derived
+threshold is always higher.
+
+---
+
+## 12. Known issues you are shipping with
+
+None of these has a fix in this runbook; they are listed so nothing is a surprise. Severity is
+scored purely by "would this interrupt you during the event".
+
+### Fixed in this pass
+
+| Was | Fix |
+|---|---|
+| **Queued uploads never rehydrated** — `loadQueue()` had one call site, so a guest whose PWA was evicted mid-upload and reopened onto `/feed` had pending photos in IndexedDB that nothing ever read. Silent photo loss. | `loadQueue()` now runs on every authenticated boot in `+layout.svelte`. |
+| **A corrupted `ADMIN_PASSWORD_HASH` booted green** and only failed at admin login — unrecoverable mid-event. | `config.rs` now validates the bcrypt *shape*, not just placeholder-ness, and refuses to start. |
+| **SSE reconnect thundering herd** — flat 500 ms jitter regardless of backoff. | Jitter now scales with the delay; the feed's in-place refresh is spread over 800–2800 ms. |
+| **No client-side size/HEIC pre-check** — a doomed 600 MB upload saturated the venue AP before being rejected. | Certain-rejects are refused before any bytes leave the phone. |
+| **Upload-queue UI unreachable** — the badged FAB opened the picker, not the queue, so a failed upload had no retry button. | The upload sheet now shows a queue entry whenever the badge is non-zero. |
+| **A mid-event 401 left a dead screen** with no nav and no URL bar. | `api.ts` now returns the guest to `/join` (skipping the auth routes themselves). |
+| **Rate limiter could panic while holding its mutex** (`timestamps[0]` with `max == 0`), poisoning it process-wide. | Uses `first()` with a fail-open guard. |
+| **Hashtag deadlock** — `edit_upload` and `add_comment` upserted tags in client/text order. | Both now sort + dedup on the normalised key, matching the upload path. |
+| **Unbounded Docker logs + debug-level app logging.** | `logging:` caps every service at 30 MB; `RUST_LOG` documented in `.env.example`. |
+
+### Fixed in the readiness pass — behaviour you should know about
+
+These change what you will observe on the night, so they are listed separately from the table above.
+
+| Was | Now |
+|---|---|
+| **Any ffmpeg-level failure DESTROYED the video.** A poster-frame error — ffmpeg hanging on a truncated `.mov`, an ENOSPC on `thumbnails/`, a DB blip — propagated into the give-up path, which soft-deleted the upload. Reproduced live: on a host with no ffmpeg the clip was gone ~6 s after its `201 Created`. | No failure in the video branch can fail the upload. The clip stays in the feed and plays from its original; only the poster is missing. |
+| **A lost response duplicated the photo.** Every retry minted a fresh upload id, so a phone that lost the reply and re-sent — manually, or automatically on reconnect — stored the same photo two or three times and paid quota for each. | The client sends a `client_upload_id`; migration 022 makes it unique. A retry returns `200` with the original row. Verified live: three sends → one row, quota charged once. |
+| **`/health` returned a constant `"ok"`.** The container reported healthy while every request 500'd. | Runs `SELECT 1` with a 2 s timeout: `200 ok` / `503`. Verified live: 200 → stop Postgres → 503 → start Postgres → 200, **with no app restart** (the pool revalidates on acquire). Note that Compose does not restart on an unhealthy probe — this is a diagnostic, deliberately not wired to automatic recovery, because a restart would truncate in-flight uploads to "fix" an outage that clears on its own. |
+| **Abandoned `.tmp` uploads were never reclaimed** (see the old issue #2 below — it is now fixed, not deferred). | Swept at boot and hourly, keyed on modification time so a live upload can never age into it. |
+| **A full disk made itself worse.** ENOSPC was retried three times, then refunded the quota, soft-deleted the row and *kept* the bytes — freeing nothing and inviting an immediate re-upload into the same full disk. | ENOSPC is classified separately: no retry, no refund, no delete. The row stays live and the photo is served from its original until there is room to compress it. |
+| **The keepsake download failed invisibly.** The rate limit was enforced inside the iframe navigation, so an over-limit guest tapped and *nothing happened*, forever. | Charged when the ticket is minted — a normal `fetch` — so it surfaces as a German message naming the daily window. Raise `export_rate_per_day` per §4 anyway. |
+| **`/host` and `/admin` subscribed to SSE but never opened the connection**, so the keepsake progress bar froze after a release. | Both connect on mount and disconnect on destroy, as `/export` already did. |
+| **`?limit=-5` on the feed returned a 500.** | Clamped at both ends. |
+| **All recurring hygiene lived in one unsupervised task** — one panic silently stopped session pruning, media reclamation and the temp sweep for the rest of the event. | Supervised and re-spawned, with an error log. |
+| **No pool acquire or statement timeout.** A DB blip parked every request for 30 s. | 5 s acquire, `statement_timeout=15s`, `lock_timeout=5s`. |
+
+### Still open — accepted for this event
+
+| # | Issue | Impact |
+|---|---|---|
+| 1 | **Guest delete/caption-edit after release invalidates both keepsake archives** (`upload.rs`), forcing a rebuild with a 20 s debounce. **No-op before release**, so it cannot bite during the event. | Post-event only. Left alone because blocking guest deletes has real privacy downsides — that is a product call, not a bug fix. |
+| 2 | **Video poster frames do not regenerate after a restart** mid-compression (the backfill filters `mime_type LIKE 'image/%'`). | Cosmetic — the video still plays; only its poster is missing. |
+| 3 | **SSE keep-alives are sent as SSE comments** (`:ping`), which the browser's EventSource parser discards without dispatching. A client therefore cannot implement a pure silence timer to detect a half-open socket. | Worked around client-side: the feed runs a jittered 60–120 s `/feed/delta` backstop and reconnects when a poll returns content the stream never delivered. A cleaner fix is to emit keep-alives as a *named* event; that is a coordinated backend+frontend change, not worth making during a freeze. |
+| 4 | **The lightbox stops at the end of the loaded page** — stepping past the last loaded photo does not fetch the next one. | The guest scrolls the feed (which does page) and re-opens. |
+
+### Migration checksum mismatch — `VersionMissing` / "previously applied but has been modified"
+
+`sqlx` compares **checksums**, so renaming or renumbering a migration file is indistinguishable
+from editing one. If a box ever booted an image built from a branch that numbered migrations
+differently, the next boot aborts with *"migration 21 was previously applied but has been
+modified"*, `main` exits non-zero, and `restart: unless-stopped` makes it **permanent** — with
+Caddy still routing traffic to the dead container.
+
+Every main-line migration is byte-identical to what shipped, so a box that only ever ran tagged
+releases is unaffected. **Verify rather than assume** — run this against the server before any
+deploy.
+
+Note the `sh -c` wrapping, for the same reason as §9: `POSTGRES_USER` and `POSTGRES_DB` live in
+`.env`, which Compose reads and **your shell does not**. Unwrapped, `-U "$POSTGRES_USER"` sends
+`-U ""` and psql answers `FATAL: role "" does not exist` — at 11pm, with the app crash-looping.
+
+```bash
+docker compose exec -T db sh -c \
+  'psql -U "$POSTGRES_USER" -d "$POSTGRES_DB" -c "SELECT version, description, success FROM _sqlx_migrations ORDER BY version;"'
+```
+
+If the app is already crash-looping on a renumbered migration, and **only** if you have confirmed
+the SQL in the new file is equivalent to what was actually applied. Take the version numbers from
+the crash message and the query above — do **not** copy the ones below, which are an example:
+
+```bash
+docker compose stop app
+# Replace 21,22,23 with the versions the boot error actually named.
+docker compose exec -T db sh -c \
+  'psql -U "$POSTGRES_USER" -d "$POSTGRES_DB" -c "DELETE FROM _sqlx_migrations WHERE version IN (21,22,23);"'
+docker compose start app     # re-applies exactly those, then continues
+```
+
+This re-runs those migrations. They must be idempotent (`IF NOT EXISTS` / `IF EXISTS`) or this
+fails differently. Take a `pg_dump` first — see §10.
+
+### Schema changes are **not** compile-time checked
+
+All ~120 queries use the runtime `sqlx::query()` API. There are no `query!` macros and no `.sqlx`
+cache, and the backend **compiles with no `DATABASE_URL` at all**. Consequences:
+
+- A migration that renames or drops a column **compiles clean** and fails in production as a
+  runtime 500 on whichever request path touches it first.
+- `cargo build` succeeding tells you nothing about schema/query agreement. Only `cargo test`
+  (which runs against a real Postgres) and manual exercise of the affected route do.
+
+So: after any migration that touches an existing column, exercise the routes that read it before
+you consider the deploy done. README and PROJECT previously claimed compile-time checking; they
+have been corrected.
+
+---
+
+## 13. Event-day emergency card
+
+Assume you have a phone and two minutes.
+
+```bash
+cd ~/eventsnap
+
+# FIRST LINE, ALWAYS. `.env` is read by docker compose, NOT by your shell — without this,
+# every `$DOMAIN` below expands to nothing and `curl https:///health` reads like an outage
+# when the site is fine. Reads the one variable instead of sourcing the file, because `.env`
+# legitimately contains an apostrophe (EVENT_NAME) and `. ./.env` dies on it — which at 11pm
+# looks exactly like the outage you came here to diagnose.
+DOMAIN=$(sed -n 's/^DOMAIN=//p' .env | tr -d "\"'")
+
+# Is it alive? (200 = app AND database are answering; 503 = the app is up, the DB is not)
+curl -fsS https://$DOMAIN/health
+
+# What is broken?
+docker compose ps
+docker compose logs --tail=100 app
+
+# Nuclear option that is SAFE (keeps all data):
+docker compose restart app
+
+# Roll back to the identically-built sibling image — see §9 for what this can and cannot fix.
+# Do NOT substitute an older release tag here; it will crash-loop on the migration set.
+sed -i 's/^EVENTSNAP_VERSION=.*/EVENTSNAP_VERSION=v0.13.0-a/' .env && docker compose up -d app frontend
+
+# Disk check
+df -h /var/lib/docker
+```
+
+### "Der Speicher des Events ist fast voll" — guests cannot upload
+
+**`df -h` will look fine, and that is not a contradiction.** The upload gate refuses long before the
+disk fills: it reserves room for the keepsake, which is roughly a second copy of every original, plus
+a 10 GB floor. Uploads stop at **~8 GB of media** on a 40 GB box, when `df` still shows ~20 GB free.
+
+Check the number that actually binds, not free space:
+
+```bash
+docker compose exec -T db sh -c \
+  'psql -U "$POSTGRES_USER" -d "$POSTGRES_DB" -tAc "SELECT pg_size_pretty(sum(original_size_bytes)) FROM upload WHERE deleted_at IS NULL;"'
+```
+
+Mid-event, in order of preference: delete the largest videos from the host dashboard (each frees its
+own bytes immediately), or move `exports_data` to a separate volume. Raising `quota_tolerance` will
+**not** help — on this box every guest is already on the 500 MiB floor, so that knob is not what is
+refusing them (see §4 and `.env.example`).
+
+**NEVER** run `docker compose down -v`. It deletes the database, all media, all exports and the TLS
+certificate. There is no undo.
+
+Most limits are changeable from the **admin dashboard without a restart** — reach for that before
+touching the shell.

PROJECT.md

@@ -344,7 +344,7 @@ COMPRESSION_WORKER_CONCURRENCY=2
 | Styling | Tailwind CSS | Utility-first, mobile-first; zero runtime CSS overhead |
 | Backend | Rust + Axum | Developer preference; memory safety, single-binary deploy |
 | Async Runtime | Tokio | De-facto Rust async runtime; Axum is built on it |
-| Database Driver | SQLx | Async PostgreSQL with compile-time query checking; automatic prepared statements |
+| Database Driver | SQLx | Async PostgreSQL; automatic prepared statements. **Queries use the runtime `sqlx::query()` API, not the checked macros** — see the note under "Schema changes" |
 | Database | PostgreSQL 16 | Robust, relational; straightforward to back up |
 | Auth | Custom JWT (`jsonwebtoken` crate) | No external service needed; name + PIN is the full auth model |
 | Image Compression | `image` crate + `oxipng` | Lossless PNG compression; JPEG preview generation |
@@ -1206,7 +1206,7 @@ of the media volume alone silently loses every generated keepsake.
 |-------|---------|
 | `axum` | Web framework |
 | `tokio` | Async runtime |
-| `sqlx` | Async PostgreSQL driver; compile-time query checking; prepared statements; migrations |
+| `sqlx` | Async PostgreSQL driver; prepared statements; migrations embedded at compile time. Queries are runtime-checked (`sqlx::query()`), **not** macro-checked |
 | `jsonwebtoken` | JWT sign / verify |
 | `bcrypt` | PIN + admin password hashing |
 | `uuid` | UUID v7 (time-sortable) |

README.md

@@ -49,7 +49,7 @@ A guest scans the QR code on their way in, types their name, and is immediately
 | Styling | Tailwind CSS v4 |
 | Backend | Rust + Axum |
 | Async | Tokio |
-| Database | PostgreSQL 16 via SQLx (compile-time query checking) |
+| Database | PostgreSQL 16 via SQLx (runtime query API; migrations embedded at compile time) |
 | Auth | Custom JWT (`jsonwebtoken`) + bcrypt PINs |
 | Image processing | `image` crate + `oxipng` (lossless compression) |
 | Video processing | ffmpeg via `tokio::process::Command` |
@@ -150,45 +150,63 @@ Caddy automatically obtains a Let's Encrypt certificate on first start. The app
 
 ### Updating an existing deployment
 
-> **`docker compose up -d` alone will NOT deploy your changes.** `app` and `frontend` are
-> `build:` services with no published image tag, and Compose has no source-change detection:
-> if an image with that name already exists it is reused. After a `git pull` the command
-> reports `Container … Running`, changes nothing, and **exits 0** — so a deploy that shipped
-> nothing looks exactly like a successful one. `--build` is what makes it real.
+> **The event server never compiles.** `app` and `frontend` have **no `build:` key** — they
+> pull an immutable tag from the registry (the `app` service in `docker-compose.yml` says so explicitly, so that
+> a wrong tag fails instantly with `manifest unknown` instead of silently starting a 45-minute
+> compile on the box guests are using). A `git pull` therefore deploys **nothing** on its own,
+> and `docker compose up -d --build` **errors** — there is nothing to build. Deploying means
+> pushing a new tag from a workstation and pointing `EVENTSNAP_VERSION` at it.
 
 ```bash
+# ── On your workstation: build and push the new tag ───────────────────────────
+# Push the rollback twin at the same time, from the same source — see
+# DEPLOYMENT_RUNBOOK.md §9 for why an identical second tag is the rollback target.
+VERSION=v0.13.1
+docker buildx build --platform linux/amd64 \
+  -t registry.mc02.dev/eventsnap/app:$VERSION \
+  -t registry.mc02.dev/eventsnap/app:$VERSION-a --push ./backend
+docker buildx build --platform linux/amd64 \
+  -t registry.mc02.dev/eventsnap/frontend:$VERSION \
+  -t registry.mc02.dev/eventsnap/frontend:$VERSION-a --push ./frontend
+
+# ── On the server ─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
 cd /path/to/eventsnap
 
 # 1. Back up first — migrations run automatically on boot and are not reversible in place.
 #    (See "Backup" below; the database dump is the one that matters here.)
 
-# 2. Fetch the new code.
+# 2. Fetch the new compose/Caddyfile. This does NOT change which image runs.
 git pull
 
-# 3. Rebuild and restart the application services. --build is NOT optional.
-docker compose up -d --build
+# 3. Point the stack at the new tag.
+sed -i 's/^EVENTSNAP_VERSION=.*/EVENTSNAP_VERSION=v0.13.1/' .env
 
-# 4. Apply any Caddyfile change. Step 3 does NOT do this — see the warning below.
+# 4. Pull explicitly, BEFORE restarting. A failure here (bad tag, registry down) leaves the
+#    running stack untouched; letting `up -d` discover it takes the app down first.
+docker compose pull app frontend
+
+# 5. Restart onto the new images.
+docker compose up -d app frontend
+
+# 6. Apply any Caddyfile change. Step 5 does NOT do this — see the warning below.
 docker compose up -d --force-recreate caddy
 
-# 5. Confirm the app came back up. Anything other than "ok" means check the logs.
+# 7. Confirm the app came back up. Anything other than "ok" means check the logs.
 curl -fsS https://DOMAIN/health && echo
 
-# 6. Confirm a NEW image was actually built. Note the IMAGE ID before you start and
-#    compare — it must have changed. (Ignore the CREATED column; it reports the base
-#    layer's age, not this build's.) An unchanged ID means step 3 ran without --build
-#    and you are still serving the old code.
+# 8. Confirm the running containers are actually on the new tag.
 docker compose images app frontend
 ```
 
-Migrations are applied by the backend on startup, so step 3 covers them. If `app` stays
+Migrations are applied by the backend on startup, so step 5 covers them. If `app` stays
 unhealthy afterwards, `docker compose logs app` will name the failing migration — and note
-that a migration applied by a *newer* build is not removed by checking out an older commit,
-so rolling back code without restoring the database snapshot from step 1 leaves the schema
-ahead of the binary and the app refusing to boot.
+that a migration applied by a *newer* build is not removed by rolling the tag back, so
+reverting `EVENTSNAP_VERSION` without restoring the database snapshot from step 1 leaves the
+schema ahead of the binary and the app refusing to boot. **This is why the rollback target is
+an identical twin tag rather than an older release** — see `DEPLOYMENT_RUNBOOK.md` §9.
 
-> **Why step 4 exists.** `--build` only rebuilds services that have a `build:` section, and
-> `caddy` is a pinned upstream image. Compose decides whether to recreate a container from its
+> **Why step 6 exists.** Steps 4–5 only touch `app` and `frontend`; `caddy` is a separate
+> pinned upstream image. Compose decides whether to recreate a container from its
 > *config hash*, which covers the mount **specification** (`./Caddyfile:/etc/caddy/Caddyfile:ro`)
 > but **not the file's contents** — so a `git pull` that changes `./Caddyfile` produces no
 > delta, Compose reports `Running`, and Caddy keeps serving its old config indefinitely. Exit
@@ -196,7 +214,7 @@ ahead of the binary and the app refusing to boot.
 >
 > That is not hypothetical: the fix that made the keepsake download work on iOS
 > (`137c4ee`) touched the Caddyfile and four e2e files and nothing else, so **all** of its
-> production effect lives in that one file. Without step 4 you deploy it, watch both image IDs
+> production effect lives in that one file. Without step 6 you deploy it, watch both image IDs
 > change, and iOS downloads stay broken.
 >
 > `--force-recreate` rather than `restart` or `caddy reload`: the bind mount is resolved to an
@@ -280,35 +298,59 @@ so a host takedown or a ban actually revokes access to the bytes.
 degrade one subsystem — Postgres stops being able to write and the whole event goes
 down.
 
-Uploads are self-limiting. `per_user_limit = free_disk × quota_tolerance ÷
-active_uploaders` is recomputed against live free space on every upload, so guests
-converge on a fixed point at `tolerance / (1 + tolerance)` of the free space you
-started with — **43%** at the default 0.75. On an 80 GB box with ~70 GB free after
-the OS and images, media settles at ~30 GB and stops.
+**`Gallery.zip` and `Memories.zip` are each roughly a second copy of every original.**
+Both write their media `Compression::Stored`, and `Memories.zip` streams the untouched
+original for every video and for every image at or under 5 MB. So a release wants room
+for **two more copies of the gallery** on top of the gallery itself — which is what
+`required_free_bytes` encodes as `media × 1.1 × 2`.
 
-**The keepsake is what the 80 GB baseline does not cover.** `Gallery.zip` and
-`Memories.zip` are built concurrently and each is roughly a second copy of every
-original: both write their media `Compression::Stored`, and `Memories.zip` streams the
-untouched original for every video and for every image at or under 5 MB. So a release
-wants room for **two more copies of the gallery** on top of the gallery itself.
+The per-user quota does **not** bound this. It is a fairness mechanism that divides
+free space between guests, and since it carries a floor (`MIN_QUOTA_LIMIT_BYTES`, so a
+guest's allowance stops shrinking as the party fills up) the aggregate ceiling it used
+to imply is gone. What bounds the disk is the **global gate in the upload handler**,
+which refuses any upload that would leave too little room to build the keepsake:
 
-| Stage | Used | Free (80 GB box) |
-|---|---|---|
-| Fresh box (OS + images) | ~10 GB | ~70 GB |
-| Guests reach the quota fixed point | ~40 GB | ~40 GB |
-| Host releases → both archives | ~100 GB | **ENOSPC** |
+```
+free_after_upload  <  media_after × 1.1 × 2  +  DISK_RESERVE_BYTES
+                                             +  UPLOAD_GATE_HEADROOM_BYTES   →   refused
+```
 
-Two ways to size for it:
+That last term is what separates this gate from the export preflight, which bails at
+`media × 1.1 × 2 + DISK_RESERVE_BYTES` — the same expression **minus** the headroom. The
+two used to be identical, which meant the preflight was already sitting on its limit at
+the exact moment uploads stopped: every byte written between the last refused upload and
+the host tapping *Galerie freigeben* (Postgres WAL, container logs, the compression
+backlog draining at precisely that hour) pushed it under, and the release commits before
+the workers fail. The headroom buys 1.5 GB of slack so that cannot happen.
+
+Solving the gate for the gallery size gives the real ceiling — the gate's equilibrium is
+`3.2 × media`, so each GB of reserve or headroom costs ~0.31 GB of gallery. On the
+**40 GB box this runs on**, with ~5 GB for the OS, Docker images (the runbook pre-pulls
+the rollback tag too) and Postgres:
+
+| Volume | Usable after baseline | Media ceiling | Free at release | Preflight needs |
+|---|---|---|---|---|
+| 40 GB | ~35 GB | **~7.3 GB** | ~27.7 GB | ~26.2 GB → fits, 1.5 GB spare |
+| 80 GB | ~70 GB | ~18.3 GB | ~51.7 GB | ~50.2 GB → fits, 1.5 GB spare |
+
+**Uploads therefore stop at roughly 7 GB of media on a 40 GB box, not when the disk is
+full.** That is deliberate. 1000 photos at ~3.5 MB is ~3.5 GB and fits comfortably;
+video is what consumes the budget, so lower `max_video_size_mb` (seeded at 500) if you
+expect a lot of it. Refusing the 1001st upload is a far better outcome than accepting it
+and discovering at 01:00 that the archive can never be built.
+
+Two ways to buy headroom:
 
 - **Provision ~3× your expected media** on one volume (media + two archives), or
 - **give `exports_data` its own volume** so a full export cannot reach Postgres, and
   size that one at ~2× expected media.
 
-This is no longer silent. The export refuses up front with the two numbers rather than
-hitting ENOSPC halfway through a multi-GB write, a rebuild reclaims the superseded
-generation before it starts (so peak is one generation, not two), and the host
-dashboard warns as soon as the keepsake would not fit — which is the only point at
-which anyone can still do something about it.
+None of this is silent. The upload gate refuses with a German message naming the cause,
+the export preflight refuses up front with both numbers rather than hitting ENOSPC
+halfway through a multi-GB write, a rebuild only reclaims the superseded generation
+**after** the new one lands (so a failed rebuild can never leave you with no archive at
+all), and the host dashboard warns as soon as the keepsake would not fit — which is the
+only point at which anyone can still do something about it.
 
 ---
 

backend/.dockerignore

@@ -0,0 +1,12 @@
+# Build context exclusions.
+#
+# `target/` does not exist on a clean checkout, which is why builds have worked without this
+# file — but the moment anyone runs `cargo build` locally it becomes multi-GB, and every
+# `docker build` would ship all of it to the daemon for nothing (the Dockerfile only COPYs
+# Cargo.toml, Cargo.lock, src, static and migrations). On an EMULATED amd64 builder that
+# transfer is the slowest part of the build.
+target/
+
+# Never let a real .env reach an image layer.
+.env
+.env.*

backend/Cargo.lock

@@ -65,56 +65,6 @@ dependencies = [
  "libc",
 ]
 
-[[package]]
-name = "anstream"
-version = "1.0.0"
-source = "registry+https://github.com/rust-lang/crates.io-index"
-checksum = "824a212faf96e9acacdbd09febd34438f8f711fb84e09a8916013cd7815ca28d"
-dependencies = [
- "anstyle",
- "anstyle-parse",
- "anstyle-query",
- "anstyle-wincon",
- "colorchoice",
- "is_terminal_polyfill",
- "utf8parse",
-]
-
-[[package]]
-name = "anstyle"
-version = "1.0.14"
-source = "registry+https://github.com/rust-lang/crates.io-index"
-checksum = "940b3a0ca603d1eade50a4846a2afffd5ef57a9feac2c0e2ec2e14f9ead76000"
-
-[[package]]
-name = "anstyle-parse"
-version = "1.0.0"
-source = "registry+https://github.com/rust-lang/crates.io-index"
-checksum = "52ce7f38b242319f7cabaa6813055467063ecdc9d355bbb4ce0c68908cd8130e"
-dependencies = [
- "utf8parse",
-]
-
-[[package]]
-name = "anstyle-query"
-version = "1.1.5"
-source = "registry+https://github.com/rust-lang/crates.io-index"
-checksum = "40c48f72fd53cd289104fc64099abca73db4166ad86ea0b4341abe65af83dadc"
-dependencies = [
- "windows-sys 0.61.2",
-]
-
-[[package]]
-name = "anstyle-wincon"
-version = "3.0.11"
-source = "registry+https://github.com/rust-lang/crates.io-index"
-checksum = "291e6a250ff86cd4a820112fb8898808a366d8f9f58ce16d1f538353ad55747d"
-dependencies = [
- "anstyle",
- "once_cell_polyfill",
- "windows-sys 0.61.2",
-]
-
 [[package]]
 name = "anyhow"
 version = "1.0.102"
@@ -554,46 +504,12 @@ dependencies = [
  "inout",
 ]
 
-[[package]]
-name = "clap"
-version = "4.6.0"
-source = "registry+https://github.com/rust-lang/crates.io-index"
-checksum = "b193af5b67834b676abd72466a96c1024e6a6ad978a1f484bd90b85c94041351"
-dependencies = [
- "clap_builder",
-]
-
-[[package]]
-name = "clap_builder"
-version = "4.6.0"
-source = "registry+https://github.com/rust-lang/crates.io-index"
-checksum = "714a53001bf66416adb0e2ef5ac857140e7dc3a0c48fb28b2f10762fc4b5069f"
-dependencies = [
- "anstream",
- "anstyle",
- "clap_lex",
- "strsim",
- "terminal_size",
-]
-
-[[package]]
-name = "clap_lex"
-version = "1.1.0"
-source = "registry+https://github.com/rust-lang/crates.io-index"
-checksum = "c8d4a3bb8b1e0c1050499d1815f5ab16d04f0959b233085fb31653fbfc9d98f9"
-
 [[package]]
 name = "color_quant"
 version = "1.1.0"
 source = "registry+https://github.com/rust-lang/crates.io-index"
 checksum = "3d7b894f5411737b7867f4827955924d7c254fc9f4d91a6aad6b097804b1018b"
 
-[[package]]
-name = "colorchoice"
-version = "1.0.5"
-source = "registry+https://github.com/rust-lang/crates.io-index"
-checksum = "1d07550c9036bf2ae0c684c4297d503f838287c83c53686d05370d0e139ae570"
-
 [[package]]
 name = "compression-codecs"
 version = "0.4.37"
@@ -677,15 +593,6 @@ dependencies = [
  "cfg-if",
 ]
 
-[[package]]
-name = "crossbeam-channel"
-version = "0.5.15"
-source = "registry+https://github.com/rust-lang/crates.io-index"
-checksum = "82b8f8f868b36967f9606790d1903570de9ceaf870a7bf9fbbd3016d636a2cb2"
-dependencies = [
- "crossbeam-utils",
-]
-
 [[package]]
 name = "crossbeam-deque"
 version = "0.8.6"
@@ -698,9 +605,9 @@ dependencies = [
 
 [[package]]
 name = "crossbeam-epoch"
-version = "0.9.18"
+version = "0.9.20"
 source = "registry+https://github.com/rust-lang/crates.io-index"
-checksum = "5b82ac4a3c2ca9c3460964f020e1402edd5753411d7737aa39c3714ad1b5420e"
+checksum = "2d6914041f254d6e9176c01941b21115dcfb7089e55135a35411081bd106ef3f"
 dependencies = [
  "crossbeam-utils",
 ]
@@ -816,27 +723,6 @@ dependencies = [
  "cfg-if",
 ]
 
-[[package]]
-name = "env_filter"
-version = "1.0.1"
-source = "registry+https://github.com/rust-lang/crates.io-index"
-checksum = "32e90c2accc4b07a8456ea0debdc2e7587bdd890680d71173a15d4ae604f6eef"
-dependencies = [
- "log",
-]
-
-[[package]]
-name = "env_logger"
-version = "0.11.10"
-source = "registry+https://github.com/rust-lang/crates.io-index"
-checksum = "0621c04f2196ac3f488dd583365b9c09be011a4ab8b9f37248ffcc8f6198b56a"
-dependencies = [
- "anstream",
- "anstyle",
- "env_filter",
- "log",
-]
-
 [[package]]
 name = "equator"
 version = "0.4.2"
@@ -1229,12 +1115,6 @@ dependencies = [
  "weezl",
 ]
 
-[[package]]
-name = "glob"
-version = "0.3.3"
-source = "registry+https://github.com/rust-lang/crates.io-index"
-checksum = "0cc23270f6e1808e30a928bdc84dea0b9b4136a8bc82338574f23baf47bbd280"
-
 [[package]]
 name = "governor"
 version = "0.6.3"
@@ -1622,7 +1502,6 @@ checksum = "7714e70437a7dc3ac8eb7e6f8df75fd8eb422675fc7678aff7364301092b1017"
 dependencies = [
  "equivalent",
  "hashbrown 0.16.1",
- "rayon",
  "serde",
  "serde_core",
 ]
@@ -1656,12 +1535,6 @@ dependencies = [
  "syn",
 ]
 
-[[package]]
-name = "is_terminal_polyfill"
-version = "1.70.2"
-source = "registry+https://github.com/rust-lang/crates.io-index"
-checksum = "a6cb138bb79a146c1bd460005623e142ef0181e3d0219cb493e02f7d08a35695"
-
 [[package]]
 name = "itertools"
 version = "0.14.0"
@@ -1795,12 +1668,6 @@ dependencies = [
  "vcpkg",
 ]
 
-[[package]]
-name = "linux-raw-sys"
-version = "0.12.1"
-source = "registry+https://github.com/rust-lang/crates.io-index"
-checksum = "32a66949e030da00e8c7d4434b251670a91556f4144941d37452769c25d58a53"
-
 [[package]]
 name = "litemap"
 version = "0.8.1"
@@ -2089,12 +1956,6 @@ version = "1.21.4"
 source = "registry+https://github.com/rust-lang/crates.io-index"
 checksum = "9f7c3e4beb33f85d45ae3e3a1792185706c8e16d043238c593331cc7cd313b50"
 
-[[package]]
-name = "once_cell_polyfill"
-version = "1.70.2"
-source = "registry+https://github.com/rust-lang/crates.io-index"
-checksum = "384b8ab6d37215f3c5301a95a4accb5d64aa607f1fcb26a11b5303878451b4fe"
-
 [[package]]
 name = "oxipng"
 version = "9.1.5"
@@ -2102,18 +1963,12 @@ source = "registry+https://github.com/rust-lang/crates.io-index"
 checksum = "26c613f0f566526a647c7473f6a8556dbce22c91b13485ee4b4ec7ab648e4973"
 dependencies = [
  "bitvec",
- "clap",
- "crossbeam-channel",
- "env_logger",
  "filetime",
- "glob",
  "indexmap",
  "libdeflater",
  "log",
- "rayon",
  "rgb",
  "rustc-hash",
- "zopfli",
 ]
 
 [[package]]
@@ -2607,19 +2462,6 @@ version = "2.1.2"
 source = "registry+https://github.com/rust-lang/crates.io-index"
 checksum = "94300abf3f1ae2e2b8ffb7b58043de3d399c73fa6f4b73826402a5c457614dbe"
 
-[[package]]
-name = "rustix"
-version = "1.1.4"
-source = "registry+https://github.com/rust-lang/crates.io-index"
-checksum = "b6fe4565b9518b83ef4f91bb47ce29620ca828bd32cb7e408f0062e9930ba190"
-dependencies = [
- "bitflags",
- "errno",
- "libc",
- "linux-raw-sys",
- "windows-sys 0.61.2",
-]
-
 [[package]]
 name = "rustversion"
 version = "1.0.22"
@@ -3060,12 +2902,6 @@ dependencies = [
  "unicode-properties",
 ]
 
-[[package]]
-name = "strsim"
-version = "0.11.1"
-source = "registry+https://github.com/rust-lang/crates.io-index"
-checksum = "7da8b5736845d9f2fcb837ea5d9e2628564b3b043a70948a3f0b778838c5fb4f"
-
 [[package]]
 name = "subtle"
 version = "2.6.1"
@@ -3120,16 +2956,6 @@ version = "1.0.1"
 source = "registry+https://github.com/rust-lang/crates.io-index"
 checksum = "55937e1799185b12863d447f42597ed69d9928686b8d88a1df17376a097d8369"
 
-[[package]]
-name = "terminal_size"
-version = "0.4.4"
-source = "registry+https://github.com/rust-lang/crates.io-index"
-checksum = "230a1b821ccbd75b185820a1f1ff7b14d21da1e442e22c0863ea5f08771a8874"
-dependencies = [
- "rustix",
- "windows-sys 0.61.2",
-]
-
 [[package]]
 name = "thiserror"
 version = "1.0.69"
@@ -3505,12 +3331,6 @@ version = "1.0.4"
 source = "registry+https://github.com/rust-lang/crates.io-index"
 checksum = "b6c140620e7ffbb22c2dee59cafe6084a59b5ffc27a8859a5f0d494b5d52b6be"
 
-[[package]]
-name = "utf8parse"
-version = "0.2.2"
-source = "registry+https://github.com/rust-lang/crates.io-index"
-checksum = "06abde3611657adf66d383f00b093d7faecc7fa57071cce2578660c9f1010821"
-
 [[package]]
 name = "uuid"
 version = "1.23.0"
@@ -4187,18 +4007,6 @@ version = "1.0.21"
 source = "registry+https://github.com/rust-lang/crates.io-index"
 checksum = "b8848ee67ecc8aedbaf3e4122217aff892639231befc6a1b58d29fff4c2cabaa"
 
-[[package]]
-name = "zopfli"
-version = "0.8.3"
-source = "registry+https://github.com/rust-lang/crates.io-index"
-checksum = "f05cd8797d63865425ff89b5c4a48804f35ba0ce8d125800027ad6017d2b5249"
-dependencies = [
- "bumpalo",
- "crc32fast",
- "log",
- "simd-adler32",
-]
-
 [[package]]
 name = "zstd"
 version = "0.13.3"

backend/Cargo.toml

@@ -27,7 +27,17 @@ tracing-subscriber = { version = "0.3", features = ["env-filter"] }
 dotenvy = "0.15"
 sysinfo = "0.32"
 image = "0.25"
-oxipng = "9"
+# default-features = false drops "parallel", which is what actually bounds oxipng's memory:
+# with rayon it evaluates row filters concurrently, each trial holding its own full-size
+# buffer, and there is no Options knob to cap that. Without the feature, lib.rs swaps in a
+# sequential shim (oxipng's own supported path) so peak scales with ONE trial, not N.
+# PNG optimisation gets slower; it is a background, best-effort, lossless size saving.
+#
+# "filetime" must be KEPT: without it OutFile::Path { preserve_attrs: true } silently no-ops.
+# Dropping "binary" also removes clap/glob/env_logger — a CLI's dependencies that were being
+# compiled into a server image — and "zopfli", which preset 2 does not use (it selects
+# Deflaters::Libdeflater, which is not feature-gated).
+oxipng = { version = "9", default-features = false, features = ["filetime"] }
 async_zip = { version = "0.0.17", features = ["tokio", "deflate"] }
 include_dir = "0.7"
 infer = "0.15"

backend/Dockerfile

@@ -13,6 +13,13 @@ RUN mkdir src && echo "fn main(){}" > src/main.rs && \
 COPY src ./src
 COPY static ./static
 COPY migrations ./migrations
+# Copied WITH the sources, not with Cargo.toml above: cargo auto-detects `build.rs` by presence, so
+# putting it in the dependency-cache layer would make the dummy build run it too and invalidate a
+# layer that is otherwise stable. Copied at all because without it the image builds a subtly
+# DIFFERENT package from the one developers build — no build script, hence none of the
+# rerun-if-changed tracking for `static/export-viewer` and `migrations`. Harmless here (every image
+# build is clean, so there is no stale cache to reuse) and confusing everywhere else.
+COPY build.rs ./
 RUN touch src/main.rs && cargo build --release
 
 # --- Runtime stage ---

backend/build.rs

@@ -0,0 +1,25 @@
+//! Tell cargo which non-Rust inputs are baked into the binary.
+//!
+//! `include_dir!` and `sqlx::migrate!()` both embed directory contents at COMPILE time, and neither
+//! registers a rebuild dependency on its own. Cargo therefore reuses a cached binary when only
+//! those directories changed — the source files are untouched, so as far as cargo is concerned
+//! nothing happened.
+//!
+//! For the keepsake viewer that is a silent, shippable defect: run `npm run build` in
+//! `frontend/export-viewer`, then `cargo build`, and the resulting binary still carries the
+//! PREVIOUS `static/export-viewer/index.html`. The artifact on disk and the artifact in the binary
+//! disagree, `git status` is clean, and every check passes — while `Memories.zip` ships a stale
+//! viewer. Confirmed empirically: after replacing the file, the compiled-in copy did not change
+//! until a source file was touched.
+//!
+//! Production is mostly insulated because images are built from a clean context (no cache to
+//! reuse), but every incremental build — i.e. all local development and any test run that follows
+//! a viewer rebuild — hits it, and that includes the test that asserts the viewer is present.
+fn main() {
+    // The compiled-in keepsake viewer (services/export.rs: `include_dir!`).
+    println!("cargo:rerun-if-changed=static/export-viewer");
+    // The embedded migration set (db.rs: `sqlx::migrate!()`). Same mechanism, and the failure is
+    // worse: a binary built from a stale snapshot boots against a database that has already run a
+    // newer migration and crash-loops with VersionMissing.
+    println!("cargo:rerun-if-changed=migrations");
+}

backend/migrations/021_hashtag_counts_respect_bans.down.sql

@@ -0,0 +1,13 @@
+-- Restore the pre-021 definition (no ban/hide filtering) exactly as 004 created it.
+DROP VIEW IF EXISTS v_hashtag_counts;
+
+CREATE VIEW v_hashtag_counts AS
+SELECT
+    h.event_id,
+    h.tag,
+    COUNT(uh.upload_id) AS upload_count
+FROM hashtag h
+JOIN upload_hashtag uh ON uh.hashtag_id = h.id
+JOIN upload u          ON u.id = uh.upload_id AND u.deleted_at IS NULL
+GROUP BY h.event_id, h.id, h.tag
+ORDER BY upload_count DESC;

backend/migrations/021_hashtag_counts_respect_bans.up.sql

@@ -0,0 +1,31 @@
+-- v_hashtag_counts: apply the same visibility rules as v_feed.
+--
+-- The chip row and the grid's tag picker are both fed by this view, but it has only ever
+-- filtered `u.deleted_at IS NULL`. Migration 011 added ban/hide filtering to the feed and
+-- never reached here, so the two disagreed about which uploads exist:
+--
+--   * A host bans a guest who posted 3 of the 12 `#tanz` photos. The chip keeps reading
+--     "#tanz 12"; tapping it returns 9. The count is presented as authoritative and is not.
+--   * A tag used ONLY by a banned or hidden guest stays in the chip row and in the tag
+--     picker as a selectable option that leads to an empty feed — a ghost filter that
+--     cannot be cleared because there is nothing wrong with it to see.
+--
+-- Bans are exactly the moment a host is watching these numbers to confirm the moderation
+-- took effect, so a stale count reads as "the ban didn't work".
+--
+-- Same predicate as v_feed (see 016_display_derivative.up.sql), joined through `user`.
+DROP VIEW IF EXISTS v_hashtag_counts;
+
+CREATE VIEW v_hashtag_counts AS
+SELECT
+    h.event_id,
+    h.tag,
+    COUNT(uh.upload_id) AS upload_count
+FROM hashtag h
+JOIN upload_hashtag uh ON uh.hashtag_id = h.id
+JOIN upload u          ON u.id = uh.upload_id AND u.deleted_at IS NULL
+JOIN "user" usr        ON usr.id = u.user_id
+WHERE usr.uploads_hidden = FALSE
+  AND usr.is_banned = FALSE
+GROUP BY h.event_id, h.id, h.tag
+ORDER BY upload_count DESC;

backend/migrations/022_client_upload_idempotency.down.sql

@@ -0,0 +1,2 @@
+DROP INDEX IF EXISTS upload_client_upload_id_key;
+ALTER TABLE upload DROP COLUMN IF EXISTS client_upload_id;

backend/migrations/022_client_upload_idempotency.up.sql

@@ -0,0 +1,25 @@
+-- Idempotency key for uploads, supplied by the client.
+--
+-- The failure this closes is the ordinary one on a phone, not an exotic race: the server
+-- receives the body, validates it, commits the row, and the response is lost on the way back
+-- because the guest walked out of range or the AP dropped the connection. The client sees a
+-- network error with the blob still in hand, marks the item retryable, and re-sends it — both
+-- when the guest taps "Erneut" and automatically when the queue requeues on reconnect. Every
+-- attempt minted a fresh `Uuid::new_v4()` server-side, so the same photo landed in the gallery
+-- two or three times and was charged against the guest's storage quota each time.
+--
+-- The client already has a stable per-queue-item UUID, so it costs nothing to send. NULL is
+-- allowed and unconstrained: uploads that predate this column, and any client that doesn't send
+-- one, keep working exactly as before.
+ALTER TABLE upload ADD COLUMN client_upload_id UUID;
+
+-- Partial rather than a plain UNIQUE. Postgres would tolerate the NULLs either way, but indexing
+-- only the rows that carry a key keeps it small and states the rule exactly: uniqueness applies
+-- where a key exists, and nowhere else.
+--
+-- Scoped globally rather than per user or per event. The key is a client-generated v4 UUID, so a
+-- collision between two different photos is not a real possibility, and a single-column index
+-- means the uniqueness check cannot be wrong about which event or user a retry belongs to.
+CREATE UNIQUE INDEX upload_client_upload_id_key
+    ON upload (client_upload_id)
+    WHERE client_upload_id IS NOT NULL;

backend/migrations/023_derivative_attempts.down.sql

@@ -0,0 +1,3 @@
+DROP INDEX IF EXISTS idx_upload_derivative_backfill;
+ALTER TABLE upload DROP COLUMN IF EXISTS derivative_last_error;
+ALTER TABLE upload DROP COLUMN IF EXISTS derivative_attempts;

backend/migrations/023_derivative_attempts.up.sql

@@ -0,0 +1,23 @@
+-- Bound how many times a permanently-failing upload can be re-processed.
+--
+-- Without this, one poisoned row is an outage. The upload row is committed BEFORE compression
+-- starts, `derivatives_rev` defaults to 0, and `set_derivatives_rev` only runs on success — so
+-- a row whose processing kills the container survives at rev 0, the unconditional startup
+-- backfill re-selects it on the next boot, and `restart: unless-stopped` turns that into an
+-- infinite kill loop. Every restart also drops every SSE stream and truncates every in-flight
+-- upload. That was reachable via a single large PNG (see services/compression.rs), but the
+-- shape is general: any input that can kill or hang the worker repeats forever.
+--
+-- The counter is incremented WRITE-AHEAD, before the work is attempted, because the failure
+-- mode being defended against is a SIGKILL — no error is returned, no handler runs, no Drop
+-- fires. A counter bumped in an error path increments zero times per crash and changes nothing.
+ALTER TABLE upload ADD COLUMN IF NOT EXISTS derivative_attempts SMALLINT NOT NULL DEFAULT 0;
+
+-- Last failure text, so a row that has given up can be diagnosed without reproducing it.
+-- Nothing reads this in code; it exists for the operator.
+ALTER TABLE upload ADD COLUMN IF NOT EXISTS derivative_last_error TEXT;
+
+-- Serves the backfill selection, which now filters on both columns.
+CREATE INDEX IF NOT EXISTS idx_upload_derivative_backfill
+    ON upload (derivatives_rev, derivative_attempts)
+    WHERE deleted_at IS NULL;

backend/migrations/024_feed_scalar_counts.down.sql

@@ -0,0 +1,26 @@
+-- Restore the 016 definition verbatim.
+DROP VIEW IF EXISTS v_feed;
+CREATE VIEW v_feed AS
+SELECT
+    u.id,
+    u.event_id,
+    u.user_id,
+    usr.display_name             AS uploader_name,
+    usr.is_banned,
+    usr.uploads_hidden,
+    u.preview_path,
+    u.thumbnail_path,
+    u.display_path,
+    u.mime_type,
+    u.caption,
+    u.created_at,
+    COUNT(DISTINCT l.user_id)    AS like_count,
+    COUNT(DISTINCT c.id)         AS comment_count
+FROM upload u
+JOIN "user" usr ON u.user_id = usr.id
+LEFT JOIN "like" l  ON l.upload_id = u.id
+LEFT JOIN comment c ON c.upload_id = u.id AND c.deleted_at IS NULL
+WHERE u.deleted_at IS NULL
+  AND usr.uploads_hidden = FALSE
+  AND usr.is_banned = FALSE
+GROUP BY u.id, usr.display_name, usr.is_banned, usr.uploads_hidden;

backend/migrations/024_feed_scalar_counts.up.sql

@@ -0,0 +1,55 @@
+-- Make a feed page cost a page, not the whole event.
+--
+-- The previous definition (016) computed like_count/comment_count with LEFT JOINs and a
+-- GROUP BY. Postgres CAN push the `event_id = $1` qual and the keyset predicate through the
+-- view — verified with EXPLAIN, it uses idx_upload_event_created_id — but it CANNOT push
+-- ORDER BY ... LIMIT across a GroupAggregate. So every feed request aggregated every upload in
+-- the event (times its likes and comments) and only then sorted and took 21 rows. The cost
+-- grew with the event, not with the page, and page 1 — the most expensive one — is exactly
+-- what refreshFeedInPlace refetches on every completed upload, from every open feed in the
+-- venue.
+--
+-- Correlated scalar subqueries move the counts ABOVE the Limit in the plan: they are evaluated
+-- once per returned row, so 21 index lookups instead of a full aggregation.
+--
+-- The rewrite is EXACTLY equivalent, not merely close:
+--   * "like" is keyed (upload_id, user_id), so COUNT(DISTINCT l.user_id) == count(*).
+--   * comment.id is the primary key, so COUNT(DISTINCT c.id) == count(*).
+--   * one row per upload either way — the GROUP BY was on u.id.
+-- Column names, order and types are unchanged (count(*) and COUNT(DISTINCT ...) are both
+-- bigint), so no Rust code changes.
+--
+-- No new index needed: idx_like_upload plus the (upload_id, user_id) PK serve the like
+-- subquery, and idx_comment_upload ... WHERE deleted_at IS NULL matches the comment
+-- subquery's predicate exactly.
+--
+-- One thing a future editor needs to know: the hashtag-filtered feed joins upload_hashtag
+-- against this view. That was safe before only because the GROUP BY collapsed the join
+-- fan-out; it is safe now because the view is one row per upload and upload_hashtag is keyed
+-- (upload_id, hashtag_id) with a single tag filtered. Adding a second tag filter would need
+-- fresh thought.
+
+-- Not CASCADE: if something ever comes to depend on this view, the migration should fail
+-- loudly rather than silently drop it.
+DROP VIEW IF EXISTS v_feed;
+CREATE VIEW v_feed AS
+SELECT
+    u.id,
+    u.event_id,
+    u.user_id,
+    usr.display_name AS uploader_name,
+    usr.is_banned,
+    usr.uploads_hidden,
+    u.preview_path,
+    u.thumbnail_path,
+    u.display_path,
+    u.mime_type,
+    u.caption,
+    u.created_at,
+    (SELECT count(*) FROM "like" l WHERE l.upload_id = u.id)                           AS like_count,
+    (SELECT count(*) FROM comment c WHERE c.upload_id = u.id AND c.deleted_at IS NULL) AS comment_count
+FROM upload u
+JOIN "user" usr ON u.user_id = usr.id
+WHERE u.deleted_at IS NULL
+  AND usr.uploads_hidden = FALSE
+  AND usr.is_banned = FALSE;

backend/migrations/025_reserved_names_and_pin_decay.down.sql

@@ -0,0 +1,11 @@
+-- NOTE: the reserved-name rename in the up migration is NOT reversible. The original names
+-- are not recorded anywhere, and reversing it would in any case re-create the state that
+-- bricked admin login. Rolling back the schema does not roll back that data change.
+DELETE FROM config WHERE key IN (
+    'recover_name_rate_per_15min',
+    'pin_reset_ip_rate_per_min',
+    'upload_edit_rate_per_min',
+    'upload_edit_rate_enabled'
+);
+
+ALTER TABLE "user" DROP COLUMN IF EXISTS last_failed_pin_at;

backend/migrations/025_reserved_names_and_pin_decay.up.sql

@@ -0,0 +1,70 @@
+-- Two independent auth defects that share a migration because they share a table.
+
+-- 1. RESERVED NAMES — free any guest squatting on a name the admin path used to depend on.
+--
+-- Migration 007 made display_name unique per event case-insensitively, and `join` had no
+-- reserved-name guard. So any guest could join as "admin"/"Admin"/"ADMIN" before the operator's
+-- first admin login; admin_login then looked its user up BY NAME, missed (wrong role), fell
+-- through to creating "Admin", violated that unique index, and returned a 500 — permanently,
+-- with no in-app recovery. Moderation, config and gallery release all gone, fixed only by SQL.
+--
+-- The real fix is in code (look the admin up by role, never by name — see auth/handlers.rs).
+-- This clears the state an already-deployed database may be carrying.
+--
+-- RENAMED, NEVER DELETED: the guest keeps their uploads, their PIN and their session. Only
+-- non-admin rows are touched — a real admin row named "Admin" is the expected state.
+-- Two guards that are not optional, because this statement runs INSIDE the migration
+-- transaction on boot and a failure here exits the process — `restart: unless-stopped` then
+-- turns it into a crash loop with no in-app recovery. That is a strictly worse version of the
+-- lockout this migration exists to clean up after.
+--
+--   * role = 'guest', not role <> 'admin'. The enum also has 'host' (001), and hosts are
+--     promoted from guests at runtime — so <> 'admin' renamed a legitimately promoted staff
+--     member whose name happens to be "Host".
+--   * NOT EXISTS. The target name is derived, not unique: `idx_user_event_name_ci` (007) is a
+--     UNIQUE index on (event_id, lower(display_name)), and nothing stopped a second guest from
+--     having already joined as exactly "Admin (a1b2c3d4)" — the old code had no reserved-name
+--     guard and the join response hands each guest their own id. Rare, but the cost of losing
+--     that bet is the whole event.
+--
+-- A row that collides is simply left alone: `create_admin_user` already handles a name clash by
+-- falling back to `Admin-<8hex>`, and `admin_login` no longer resolves by name at all, so this
+-- cleanup is convenience rather than load-bearing.
+UPDATE "user" u
+   SET display_name = u.display_name || ' (' || left(u.id::text, 8) || ')'
+ WHERE u.role = 'guest'
+   AND lower(u.display_name) IN ('admin', 'administrator', 'host', 'eventsnap')
+   AND NOT EXISTS (
+        SELECT 1 FROM "user" x
+         WHERE x.event_id = u.event_id
+           AND lower(x.display_name) = lower(u.display_name || ' (' || left(u.id::text, 8) || ')')
+   );
+
+-- 2. PIN LOCKOUT DECAY.
+--
+-- failed_pin_attempts only ever cleared on a successful recovery or after a lockout expired, so
+-- honest typos accumulated across days: a guest who fat-fingered their PIN twice last night
+-- arrives today already two-thirds of the way to being locked out. With the threshold now
+-- raised (see below) a decay window is what keeps that raise safe rather than merely lenient.
+ALTER TABLE "user" ADD COLUMN IF NOT EXISTS last_failed_pin_at TIMESTAMPTZ;
+
+-- Rate-limit knobs introduced with this release.
+--
+-- recover_name_rate_per_15min (4, was a hardcoded 5): the per-(IP, name) ceiling. It MUST stay
+-- below the account-lock threshold, which is the whole defect — at 5-per-IP against a 3-strike
+-- lock, three requests from one IP locked any guest whose name is visible on the feed, every 15
+-- minutes, forever. The lock threshold moves to 12 in code, so locking a victim now needs at
+-- least three distinct sources while an honest guest never comes close.
+--
+-- pin_reset_ip_rate_per_min (30): /recover/request was the one unauthenticated endpoint with no
+-- per-IP ceiling at all — /join got one in 017 and /recover in 019, and this third one was
+-- simply missed. Its per-name key is attacker-chosen, so cycling names minted a fresh bucket
+-- every time and the per-IP cost was unbounded.
+--
+-- upload_edit_rate_per_min (30): PATCH /upload/{id} had no rate limit of any kind.
+INSERT INTO config (key, value) VALUES
+    ('recover_name_rate_per_15min', '4'),
+    ('pin_reset_ip_rate_per_min',   '30'),
+    ('upload_edit_rate_per_min',    '30'),
+    ('upload_edit_rate_enabled',    'true')
+ON CONFLICT (key) DO NOTHING;

backend/migrations/026_idempotency_excludes_deleted.down.sql

@@ -0,0 +1,13 @@
+-- Restore migration 022's wider index (which also covered soft-deleted rows).
+--
+-- Note this can FAIL where the up-migration succeeded: once retries-after-delete have been
+-- allowed, two rows may legitimately share a `client_upload_id` (one deleted, one live), and
+-- the wider unique index cannot be rebuilt over them. That is inherent to reverting this
+-- direction, not a defect in the down-migration. If it fails, the live-only index is still
+-- correct and should simply be kept.
+
+DROP INDEX IF EXISTS upload_client_upload_id_key;
+
+CREATE UNIQUE INDEX upload_client_upload_id_key
+    ON upload (client_upload_id)
+    WHERE client_upload_id IS NOT NULL;

backend/migrations/026_idempotency_excludes_deleted.up.sql

@@ -0,0 +1,35 @@
+-- Narrow the client-upload idempotency index so it stops covering soft-deleted rows.
+--
+-- The bug (H9). Migration 022 created the index partial on `client_upload_id IS NOT NULL`
+-- only, so a soft-deleted row kept occupying its key. But `find_by_client_upload_id` filters
+-- `deleted_at IS NULL` — deliberately, and its doc comment says so: "if the guest deleted the
+-- photo and their queue later retries, they should get a fresh upload rather than a
+-- resurrection of a deleted one." The index and the lookup therefore disagreed, and the
+-- disagreement is reachable by an ordinary guest:
+--
+--   1. guest uploads a photo, then deletes it (soft delete — the row stays, `deleted_at` set)
+--   2. their queue retries the same item (reconnect requeue, or they tap "Erneut")
+--   3. the whole body is re-streamed and re-validated, then `ON CONFLICT DO NOTHING` matches
+--      the DEAD row and inserts nothing
+--   4. the replay lookup filters that row out and finds nothing, so the handler returns 409
+--   5. the client classifies 409 as terminal and DELETES the blob from IndexedDB
+--
+-- The photo is now gone from the device with no row in the gallery, and there is no path back.
+-- Re-selecting the same file from the camera roll mints a new `client_upload_id`, so that does
+-- work — but the guest has no way to know that is what is required.
+--
+-- Adding `deleted_at IS NULL` makes the index agree with the lookup: a key is claimed only
+-- while a LIVE row holds it, so step 3 inserts a fresh row and the retry succeeds.
+--
+-- Uniqueness among live rows is what the feature actually needs. The property migration 022
+-- was protecting — "the same photo must not land in the gallery twice" — is about rows the
+-- guest can see, and a soft-deleted row is not one of those.
+
+DROP INDEX IF EXISTS upload_client_upload_id_key;
+
+-- CONCURRENTLY is deliberately NOT used: sqlx runs each migration inside a transaction, and
+-- CREATE INDEX CONCURRENTLY cannot run in one. The table is small (one event's uploads) and
+-- this runs at boot before the server accepts requests, so the brief lock costs nothing.
+CREATE UNIQUE INDEX upload_client_upload_id_key
+    ON upload (client_upload_id)
+    WHERE client_upload_id IS NOT NULL AND deleted_at IS NULL;

backend/migrations/027_join_idempotency.down.sql

@@ -0,0 +1,2 @@
+DROP INDEX IF EXISTS user_client_join_id_key;
+ALTER TABLE "user" DROP COLUMN IF EXISTS client_join_id;

backend/migrations/027_join_idempotency.up.sql

@@ -0,0 +1,34 @@
+-- Idempotency key for /join, supplied by the client.
+--
+-- The failure this closes (H16) is the single most likely failure of the evening, on step one
+-- of the product. `/join` commits the user row AND the bcrypt hash of the PIN, but the PLAINTEXT
+-- PIN exists nowhere except the HTTP response body. So:
+--
+--   1. guest scans the QR in the venue car park, taps "Beitreten"
+--   2. the server creates the account and hashes the PIN
+--   3. the response is lost on the way back — the 5G-to-nothing transition every wedding venue
+--      has, or the AP handing off
+--   4. the client retries; the name is now taken, so it 409s
+--   5. the client shows a PIN entry form for a PIN THAT WAS NEVER DISPLAYED
+--
+-- The guest is locked out of their own brand-new account, and the only recovery is finding a
+-- host with a dashboard open. `/upload` already solved exactly this with `client_upload_id`;
+-- join never got the same treatment.
+--
+-- With a key, a retry is recognised as the same join and answered with a usable PIN. We do NOT
+-- store the plaintext to replay it — see the handler: a retry ROTATES the PIN. That is sound
+-- precisely because the original was never shown to anybody, so there is nothing to preserve,
+-- and it keeps this table free of recoverable credentials.
+
+ALTER TABLE "user" ADD COLUMN client_join_id UUID;
+
+-- Partial, for the same reasons as `upload_client_upload_id_key`: index only the rows that
+-- carry a key, and state the rule exactly. NULL is allowed and unconstrained, so any client
+-- that does not send one (and every row that predates this column) behaves exactly as before.
+--
+-- Scoped per event as well as per key. The key is a client-generated v4 UUID so a cross-event
+-- collision is not realistic, but a reused install genuinely has two events in one table and
+-- "this join belongs to that event" is the property we actually mean.
+CREATE UNIQUE INDEX user_client_join_id_key
+    ON "user" (event_id, client_join_id)
+    WHERE client_join_id IS NOT NULL;

backend/migrations/028_feed_counts_exclude_banned.down.sql

@@ -0,0 +1,22 @@
+-- Restore migration 024's counts (which included banned users' likes and comments).
+CREATE OR REPLACE VIEW v_feed AS
+SELECT
+    u.id,
+    u.event_id,
+    u.user_id,
+    usr.display_name AS uploader_name,
+    usr.is_banned,
+    usr.uploads_hidden,
+    u.preview_path,
+    u.thumbnail_path,
+    u.display_path,
+    u.mime_type,
+    u.caption,
+    u.created_at,
+    (SELECT count(*) FROM "like" l WHERE l.upload_id = u.id)                           AS like_count,
+    (SELECT count(*) FROM comment c WHERE c.upload_id = u.id AND c.deleted_at IS NULL) AS comment_count
+FROM upload u
+JOIN "user" usr ON u.user_id = usr.id
+WHERE u.deleted_at IS NULL
+  AND usr.uploads_hidden = FALSE
+  AND usr.is_banned = FALSE;

backend/migrations/028_feed_counts_exclude_banned.up.sql

@@ -0,0 +1,44 @@
+-- Exclude banned users' likes and comments from the feed's scalar counts (H11).
+--
+-- `v_feed` already excludes banned UPLOADERS (`usr.is_banned = FALSE` on the join), but the two
+-- correlated subqueries added by migration 024 counted every like and every non-deleted comment
+-- regardless of who wrote it. So after a ban:
+--
+--   * the banned guest's own photos disappear from the feed (correct), but
+--   * their likes still inflate the counter on everyone else's photos, and
+--   * their comments still contribute to `comment_count` — and, until the change to
+--     `Comment::list_for_upload` that ships with this migration, were still RENDERED in the
+--     lightbox on the most-viewed photo of the evening.
+--
+-- The host's mental model of "ban" is "this person's contributions are gone". Photos honoured it;
+-- likes and comments did not. Migration 021 already applied exactly this reasoning to hashtag
+-- counts, and the export query filters `is_banned` too — this brings the last read path in line.
+--
+-- Derived at read time, so `unban_user` restores the counts with no extra work, exactly as it
+-- already restores the photos.
+
+CREATE OR REPLACE VIEW v_feed AS
+SELECT
+    u.id,
+    u.event_id,
+    u.user_id,
+    usr.display_name AS uploader_name,
+    usr.is_banned,
+    usr.uploads_hidden,
+    u.preview_path,
+    u.thumbnail_path,
+    u.display_path,
+    u.mime_type,
+    u.caption,
+    u.created_at,
+    (SELECT count(*) FROM "like" l
+       JOIN "user" lu ON lu.id = l.user_id
+      WHERE l.upload_id = u.id AND NOT lu.is_banned)                                   AS like_count,
+    (SELECT count(*) FROM comment c
+       JOIN "user" cu ON cu.id = c.user_id
+      WHERE c.upload_id = u.id AND c.deleted_at IS NULL AND NOT cu.is_banned)          AS comment_count
+FROM upload u
+JOIN "user" usr ON u.user_id = usr.id
+WHERE u.deleted_at IS NULL
+  AND usr.uploads_hidden = FALSE
+  AND usr.is_banned = FALSE;

backend/migrations/029_host_action_audit.down.sql

@@ -0,0 +1,2 @@
+DROP INDEX IF EXISTS host_action_audit_event_created_idx;
+DROP TABLE IF EXISTS host_action_audit;

backend/migrations/029_host_action_audit.up.sql

@@ -0,0 +1,41 @@
+-- An audit trail for privileged actions (H17).
+--
+-- What existed before: nothing. `grep -i audit` across `handlers/host.rs` and `handlers/admin.rs`
+-- returned no hits. Individual actions logged a `tracing::info!` line, but config changes, gallery
+-- release and event lock/unlock logged nothing at all — and the "audit trail" as a whole was a
+-- 30 MB rotating Docker log that the runbook's own retention settings will discard.
+--
+-- Why it matters here specifically: a host is a promoted GUEST, and `reset_pin` overwrites another
+-- guest's credential and returns the new PIN in the clear. So a host can take over any guest's
+-- account and post as them, and nothing in the record showed it happened (only /recover FAILURES
+-- were logged). At a wedding the people involved know each other; the point is not catching a
+-- villain, it is being able to answer "what happened to my photo?" the next morning without
+-- guessing.
+--
+-- Deliberately append-only in practice: no UPDATE or DELETE path is written for it anywhere. Small
+-- (a few hundred rows for a real event), so no partitioning or retention job.
+
+CREATE TABLE host_action_audit (
+    id           BIGSERIAL PRIMARY KEY,
+    event_id     UUID NOT NULL REFERENCES event(id) ON DELETE CASCADE,
+    -- The privileged caller. NOT a FK with ON DELETE CASCADE: the record must survive the actor's
+    -- account being removed, which is exactly when it is most likely to be wanted.
+    actor_id     UUID,
+    actor_name   TEXT,
+    actor_role   TEXT NOT NULL,
+    -- Short stable slug: 'ban_user', 'unban_user', 'reset_pin', 'delete_upload',
+    -- 'delete_comment', 'release_gallery', 'lock_uploads', 'unlock_uploads', 'patch_config',
+    -- 'promote_user', 'demote_user', 'delete_user'.
+    action       TEXT NOT NULL,
+    -- The guest or object acted upon, when there is one.
+    target_id    UUID,
+    target_name  TEXT,
+    -- Free-form context: the config key and its old/new value, the caption that was removed, etc.
+    -- Never credentials — a reset PIN must not be recoverable from this table.
+    detail       JSONB,
+    created_at   TIMESTAMPTZ NOT NULL DEFAULT NOW()
+);
+
+-- The only query shape this needs: "what happened at this event, newest first".
+CREATE INDEX host_action_audit_event_created_idx
+    ON host_action_audit (event_id, created_at DESC);

backend/migrations/030_raise_join_ip_rate.down.sql

@@ -0,0 +1,3 @@
+-- Revert the join ceiling to 60/min for installs still on the raised default
+-- (preserves any explicit admin override at another value).
+UPDATE config SET value = '60' WHERE key = 'join_ip_rate_per_min' AND value = '300';

backend/migrations/030_raise_join_ip_rate.up.sql

@@ -0,0 +1,15 @@
+-- Raise the per-IP join ceiling from 60/min to 300/min.
+--
+-- Rationale: every guest at the venue arrives through one NAT'd public address,
+-- so `join_ip:{ip}` is not a per-guest limit at all — it is a ceiling on the
+-- whole party. The QR code goes up once and is scanned in a burst: at 60/min,
+-- guest 61 onwards is refused on the join screen, which is the one screen with
+-- no auto-retry, and every manual retry spends another slot.
+--
+-- The code default was already raised to 300 (auth/handlers.rs), but a default
+-- only applies when the key is ABSENT, and migration 017 seeds it. Without this
+-- UPDATE the raise is dead code on every existing install.
+--
+-- Only bump installs still on the seeded default; an admin who deliberately set
+-- a different value keeps it (migration 017 seeded 60; this UPDATE is scoped to '60').
+UPDATE config SET value = '300' WHERE key = 'join_ip_rate_per_min' AND value = '60';

backend/migrations/031_takedown_holds_idempotency_key.down.sql

@@ -0,0 +1,10 @@
+-- Restore migration 026's predicate, then drop the column it depended on.
+--
+-- Note the same pairing caveat 026's own down carries: this is only valid alongside a code
+-- rollback. `Upload::create` sends an ON CONFLICT predicate that must match the live index, so
+-- running this down against the current binary makes every keyed upload a runtime 500.
+DROP INDEX IF EXISTS upload_client_upload_id_key;
+CREATE UNIQUE INDEX upload_client_upload_id_key ON upload (client_upload_id)
+    WHERE client_upload_id IS NOT NULL AND deleted_at IS NULL;
+
+ALTER TABLE upload DROP COLUMN IF EXISTS taken_down_by_host;

backend/migrations/031_takedown_holds_idempotency_key.up.sql

@@ -0,0 +1,28 @@
+-- Keep a client upload key CLAIMED when the deletion was a host takedown.
+--
+-- Migration 026 narrowed `upload_client_upload_id_key` to live rows so that a guest who deletes
+-- their own photo and whose queue later retries gets a fresh upload instead of a permanent 409.
+-- That rationale reasoned only about the GUEST deleting. `deleted_at` is also set by
+-- `host_delete_upload`, and for that case the same rule undoes a moderation decision:
+--
+--   1. Guest uploads. The row commits and the photo appears in the feed, but the response is lost
+--      on the way back (the flaky-wifi case this whole feature exists for), so the phone keeps the
+--      queue item.
+--   2. The host sees the photo and takes it down. `deleted_at` is stamped, the keepsake epoch is
+--      bumped, and the archive is rebuilt without it.
+--   3. Ten minutes later the phone reconnects and retries. The key is no longer claimed, the
+--      INSERT succeeds, and the photo is BACK — in the feed, in the next keepsake, under a NEW
+--      uuid that matches nothing in the host's moderation history, with nothing logged to say a
+--      takedown was undone.
+--
+-- So the key stays claimed for a host takedown and is released only for a guest's own delete. The
+-- retry then resolves to the duplicate path and is refused, which is the correct answer: the photo
+-- was deliberately removed, and re-sending the bytes must not bring it back.
+ALTER TABLE upload ADD COLUMN taken_down_by_host BOOLEAN NOT NULL DEFAULT FALSE;
+
+-- KEEP THE PREDICATE IN LOCKSTEP WITH `Upload::create`'s ON CONFLICT clause (models/upload.rs).
+-- A drift between the two is not a compile error here — queries are checked at runtime — it is a
+-- 500 on every upload that carries a key, i.e. on exactly the retries this index exists to serve.
+DROP INDEX IF EXISTS upload_client_upload_id_key;
+CREATE UNIQUE INDEX upload_client_upload_id_key ON upload (client_upload_id)
+    WHERE client_upload_id IS NOT NULL AND (deleted_at IS NULL OR taken_down_by_host);

backend/src/config.rs

@@ -17,6 +17,30 @@ fn looks_placeholder(s: &str) -> bool {
         || lower.contains("placeholder")
 }
 
+/// A bcrypt hash is exactly 60 characters and opens with `$2<variant>$<cost>$`.
+///
+/// Checking the SHAPE, not just placeholder-ness, is what catches a hash silently mangled in
+/// transit. The `$` segments are variable-expansion bait for both shell quoting and Docker
+/// Compose's `env_file` parsing, and a mangled hash is not a placeholder — so without this it
+/// passes every other guard here, the app boots green, `/health` returns `ok`, and every admin
+/// login 401s.
+///
+/// That failure is unrecoverable mid-event, which is why it is worth a hard fail at boot: the
+/// Admin row is created BY a successful admin login (`auth/handlers.rs`), and only an Admin or
+/// Host can promote a Host. No admin login therefore means no host at all — the event cannot be
+/// closed, the gallery cannot be released, and nothing can be moderated.
+fn looks_bcrypt(s: &str) -> bool {
+    let b = s.as_bytes();
+    s.len() == 60
+        && b[0] == b'$'
+        && b[1] == b'2'
+        && matches!(b[2], b'a' | b'b' | b'x' | b'y')
+        && b[3] == b'$'
+        && b[4].is_ascii_digit()
+        && b[5].is_ascii_digit()
+        && b[6] == b'$'
+}
+
 /// Enforce secret hygiene. In production every guard is hard-fail: a booting app
 /// with a publicly-known signing key is worse than one that refuses to start.
 /// Outside production the dev sentinel is tolerated (warned) so local dev is frictionless.
@@ -46,6 +70,18 @@ fn validate_secrets(
                 "ADMIN_PASSWORD_HASH is unset or still the .env.example placeholder — generate one \
                  (docker run --rm caddy:2-alpine caddy hash-password --plaintext '<password>').",
             );
+        } else if !looks_bcrypt(admin_password_hash) {
+            problems.push(
+                "ADMIN_PASSWORD_HASH is not a well-formed bcrypt hash: expected exactly 60 \
+                 characters starting `$2b$12$…`. First look at the value that actually reached \
+                 the app — `docker compose exec app printenv ADMIN_PASSWORD_HASH` — and compare \
+                 it to .env character for character. In .env, SINGLE-QUOTE the hash \
+                 ('$2b$12$…'): Compose uses single-quoted env_file values literally, so the `$` \
+                 segments survive. Double them to `$$` ONLY when setting the value under \
+                 `environment:` in docker-compose.yml — doing that in .env corrupts a hash that \
+                 would otherwise have worked. Regenerate with: \
+                 docker run --rm caddy:2-alpine caddy hash-password --plaintext '<password>'",
+            );
         }
         // The DATABASE_URL carries the Postgres password, so a placeholder here means the stack is
         // running on `CHANGE_ME_use_a_strong_password` — a credential published in the repo. The
@@ -114,6 +150,49 @@ pub struct AppConfig {
 /// ramp in tailwind-theme.css). Kept here so an unset env still yields the current look.
 const DEFAULT_THEME_SEED: &str = "#8a6a2b";
 
+/// Upper bound on `SESSION_EXPIRY_DAYS`. ~10 years — absurdly generous for a one-evening event,
+/// and low enough that `chrono::Duration::days` cannot overflow downstream.
+const MAX_SESSION_EXPIRY_DAYS: i64 = 3650;
+
+/// Parse and RANGE-CHECK `SESSION_EXPIRY_DAYS`. Refusing to boot is the whole point.
+///
+/// This was `.parse().context(...)` with no bounds, and both ends of the range were live faults
+/// that a green health check hid completely (H7):
+///
+///   * A huge value made `chrono::Duration::days` PANIC on every `/join`, `/recover` and
+///     `/admin/login`. There is no `CatchPanicLayer`, so the client got a connection reset with no
+///     HTTP response at all — the app was up, healthy, and unable to authenticate anybody.
+///   * Zero or negative created every session already-expired: `/join` returns 201 with a token,
+///     and then every authenticated request 401s. A guest joins successfully and the app
+///     immediately behaves as though they never did.
+///
+/// Both booted green because `/health` only probes the database. A bad value must stop the
+/// container instead, where the operator sees it.
+fn parse_session_expiry_days(raw: Option<&str>) -> Result<i64> {
+    let Some(raw) = raw else { return Ok(30) };
+    let trimmed = raw.trim();
+    if trimmed.is_empty() {
+        return Ok(30);
+    }
+    let days: i64 = trimmed
+        .parse()
+        .with_context(|| format!("SESSION_EXPIRY_DAYS must be a whole number (got {trimmed:?})"))?;
+    if days < 1 {
+        return Err(anyhow!(
+            "SESSION_EXPIRY_DAYS must be at least 1 (got {days}). Zero or negative makes every \
+             session expire the moment it is created: /join succeeds and every request after it \
+             returns 401."
+        ));
+    }
+    if days > MAX_SESSION_EXPIRY_DAYS {
+        return Err(anyhow!(
+            "SESSION_EXPIRY_DAYS must be at most {MAX_SESSION_EXPIRY_DAYS} (got {days}). Larger \
+             values overflow the token-expiry arithmetic and panic on every auth request."
+        ));
+    }
+    Ok(days)
+}
+
 impl AppConfig {
     pub fn from_env() -> Result<Self> {
         let app_env = std::env::var("APP_ENV").unwrap_or_else(|_| "development".to_string());
@@ -128,10 +207,9 @@ impl AppConfig {
         Ok(Self {
             database_url,
             jwt_secret,
-            session_expiry_days: std::env::var("SESSION_EXPIRY_DAYS")
-                .unwrap_or_else(|_| "30".to_string())
-                .parse()
-                .context("SESSION_EXPIRY_DAYS must be a number")?,
+            session_expiry_days: parse_session_expiry_days(
+                std::env::var("SESSION_EXPIRY_DAYS").ok().as_deref(),
+            )?,
             admin_password_hash,
             event_name: std::env::var("EVENT_NAME").unwrap_or_else(|_| "EventSnap".to_string()),
             event_slug: std::env::var("EVENT_SLUG").context("EVENT_SLUG must be set")?,
@@ -173,7 +251,10 @@ mod tests {
     use super::*;
 
     const REAL_SECRET: &str = "a1b2c3d4e5f6a7b8c9d0e1f2a3b4c5d6a7b8c9d0e1f2a3b4c5d6e7f8a9b0c1d2";
-    const REAL_HASH: &str = "$2y$12$abcdefghijklmnopqrstuv.wxyzABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ012";
+    // A structurally valid bcrypt hash: exactly 60 chars, `$2y$12$` + 53 of salt/digest.
+    // The shape matters — `looks_bcrypt` enforces it, so a fixture of the wrong length
+    // would assert the opposite of what these tests claim.
+    const REAL_HASH: &str = "$2y$12$abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyzABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXY01";
     const REAL_DB_URL: &str = "postgres://eventsnap:7f3a9c1e5b2d8a4f@db:5432/eventsnap";
 
     #[test]
@@ -198,6 +279,31 @@ mod tests {
         assert!(validate_secrets(true, "tooshort", REAL_HASH, REAL_DB_URL).is_err());
     }
 
+    /// The failure this guards is silent and unrecoverable mid-event: a hash whose `$`
+    /// segments were eaten by shell or Compose interpolation is NOT a placeholder, so every
+    /// other guard passes, the app boots green and `/health` reports ok — and then every
+    /// admin login 401s, which (because the Admin row is created by a successful login, and
+    /// only an Admin/Host can promote a Host) means no host exists for the whole event.
+    #[test]
+    fn prod_rejects_mangled_admin_hash() {
+        // What `$2y$12$…` degrades to once `$2y`/`$12` are read as unset variables.
+        assert!(validate_secrets(true, REAL_SECRET, "abcdefghijklmnop", REAL_DB_URL).is_err());
+        // Right prefix, truncated body — still not a usable hash.
+        assert!(validate_secrets(true, REAL_SECRET, "$2y$12$tooshort", REAL_DB_URL).is_err());
+        // Correct length but no bcrypt prefix at all.
+        assert!(validate_secrets(true, REAL_SECRET, &"x".repeat(60), REAL_DB_URL).is_err());
+        // All three shipped bcrypt variants stay acceptable.
+        let body = "abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyzABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXY01";
+        for variant in ["2a", "2b", "2y"] {
+            let hash = format!("${variant}$12${body}");
+            assert_eq!(hash.len(), 60);
+            assert!(
+                validate_secrets(true, REAL_SECRET, &hash, REAL_DB_URL).is_ok(),
+                "bcrypt variant ${variant}$ must be accepted"
+            );
+        }
+    }
+
     #[test]
     fn prod_rejects_missing_or_placeholder_admin_hash() {
         assert!(validate_secrets(true, REAL_SECRET, "", REAL_DB_URL).is_err());

backend/src/db.rs

@@ -2,7 +2,11 @@ use anyhow::{Context, Result};
 use sqlx::PgPool;
 use sqlx::postgres::PgPoolOptions;
 
-const DEFAULT_MAX_CONNECTIONS: u32 = 10;
+/// Keep in step with `.env.example` and the `db` sizing comment in `docker-compose.yml`.
+/// These three drifted apart once (code 10 / `.env.example` 15 / runbook 30) and the runbook
+/// presented its number as authoritative, so the contradiction was invisible at deploy time.
+/// 15 is sized to 2 vCPU and the 1G `db` memory limit — raise it only alongside both.
+const DEFAULT_MAX_CONNECTIONS: u32 = 15;
 
 /// SQLSTATE for `invalid_password`.
 const PG_INVALID_PASSWORD: &str = "28P01";
@@ -47,13 +51,51 @@ fn explain_auth_failure(err: &sqlx::Error) {
 }
 
 pub async fn create_pool(database_url: &str) -> Result<PgPool> {
-    let max_connections = std::env::var("DATABASE_MAX_CONNECTIONS")
-        .ok()
-        .and_then(|s| s.parse::<u32>().ok())
-        .unwrap_or(DEFAULT_MAX_CONNECTIONS);
+    // A malformed value must not silently become the default: an operator who typed
+    // `DATABASE_MAX_CONNECTIONS=3O` (letter O) would otherwise get 15 with no indication,
+    // and would keep tuning a knob that never took effect.
+    let max_connections = match std::env::var("DATABASE_MAX_CONNECTIONS") {
+        Err(_) => DEFAULT_MAX_CONNECTIONS,
+        Ok(raw) => match raw.trim().parse::<u32>() {
+            Ok(0) => {
+                anyhow::bail!("DATABASE_MAX_CONNECTIONS must be at least 1 (got 0)");
+            }
+            Ok(n) => n,
+            Err(e) => {
+                anyhow::bail!(
+                    "DATABASE_MAX_CONNECTIONS must be a positive integer (got {raw:?}): {e}"
+                );
+            }
+        },
+    };
 
     let pool = match PgPoolOptions::new()
         .max_connections(max_connections)
+        // Fail fast instead of parking. sqlx's default is 30s, which on a DB blip means every
+        // request AND all ~100 SSE session revalidations sit on the pool for half a minute
+        // before erroring — the app looks hung rather than degraded, and the backlog outlives
+        // the blip. Five seconds is far longer than a healthy acquire ever takes.
+        .acquire_timeout(std::time::Duration::from_secs(5))
+        // Keep a couple of connections warm so the first request after an idle stretch (the gap
+        // between setting the venue up and the guests arriving) doesn't pay TCP + auth.
+        .min_connections(2)
+        // Bound every statement server-side. Without this a single pathological query holds a
+        // pool slot indefinitely and no client-side timeout can take it back — the slot is only
+        // released when Postgres finishes. `lock_timeout` covers the same hazard for a row lock
+        // contended by, say, a release running against an in-flight upload.
+        .after_connect(|conn, _meta| {
+            Box::pin(async move {
+                // Two statements, two round-trips, deliberately. `sqlx::query` uses the extended
+                // query protocol, which permits exactly ONE statement per call — sending them as
+                // `SET a; SET b` makes every new connection fail, which surfaces as the pool
+                // never opening one at all and `create_pool` reporting a connect timeout.
+                sqlx::query("SET statement_timeout = '15s'")
+                    .execute(&mut *conn)
+                    .await?;
+                sqlx::query("SET lock_timeout = '5s'").execute(conn).await?;
+                Ok(())
+            })
+        })
         .connect(database_url)
         .await
     {
@@ -64,10 +106,27 @@ pub async fn create_pool(database_url: &str) -> Result<PgPool> {
         }
     };
 
+    // Migrations run on their OWN connection, deliberately NOT from the pool.
+    //
+    // `after_connect` above puts `lock_timeout = 5s` on every pooled connection, and the migrator
+    // would inherit it. Migrations that take ACCESS EXCLUSIVE (026's index swap, 027's ADD COLUMN)
+    // then turn a short WAIT into a hard FAILURE: anything holding ACCESS SHARE on `upload` or
+    // `"user"` for more than five seconds — the hourly `pg_dump` the runbook installs in §10.2, or
+    // an operator's open `psql` transaction — aborts the migration, `create_pool` returns an
+    // error, `main` exits 1, and `restart: unless-stopped` crash-loops the app behind a live Caddy.
+    // The rollback is clean and a later retry succeeds, which is exactly what makes it a confusing
+    // intermittent outage rather than an obvious one.
+    //
+    // `statement_timeout` is left off here too: a migration on a real table can legitimately run
+    // longer than the 15s a request is allowed.
+    let mut migrator_conn = <sqlx::PgConnection as sqlx::Connection>::connect(database_url)
+        .await
+        .context("failed to open a connection for migrations")?;
     sqlx::migrate!()
-        .run(&pool)
+        .run(&mut migrator_conn)
         .await
         .context("failed to run database migrations")?;
+    let _ = sqlx::Connection::close(migrator_conn).await;
 
     tracing::info!(max_connections, "database connected and migrations applied");
     Ok(pool)

backend/src/error.rs

@@ -11,6 +11,27 @@ pub enum AppError {
     /// (banned user, quota): the queued blob is kept and retried if the host reopens,
     /// instead of being purged like a genuinely-terminal rejection.
     UploadsLocked(String),
+    /// The gallery has been RELEASED — the keepsake was snapshotted, so a late upload could
+    /// never appear in it. Mechanically this is still reversible (a host reopen clears
+    /// `export_released_at` and bumps the epoch), which is why the blob must still be kept.
+    ///
+    /// Distinct from `UploadsLocked` because the two differ in *expectation*, and the client's
+    /// retry policy has to differ with them. A closed event is a pause the host means to undo;
+    /// a released gallery is the end of the event, and nobody reopens it. Under one shared code
+    /// the queue kept auto-retrying a released event forever — re-streaming a multi-megabyte
+    /// photo over cellular on every budget refill, for a request whose answer will not change,
+    /// while telling the guest to tap a camera button that 403s. `gallery_released` lets the
+    /// client park the item visibly and wait for an actual `event-opened` instead of guessing.
+    GalleryReleased(String),
+    /// The uploader is banned. A 403 like `Forbidden`, but tagged `user_banned` so the client
+    /// keeps the queued blob instead of purging it.
+    ///
+    /// A ban is reversible — `unban_user` exists, and the host's own confirm copy promises the
+    /// photos come back — but the client classified the generic `forbidden` code as permanent,
+    /// deleted the blob from IndexedDB, and moved the row to `blocked`, which has no retry
+    /// button. So an unban could restore everything except the photos that were in flight when
+    /// the ban landed, and a ban issued by mistake destroyed them with no way back.
+    UserBanned(String),
     NotFound(String),
     Conflict(String),
     /// Second field: optional retry-after seconds to include in the response.
@@ -19,6 +40,12 @@ pub enum AppError {
     /// the client can treat it as *terminal* (413, no retry) instead of backing off and
     /// retrying a permanently-failing upload forever.
     QuotaExceeded(String),
+    /// The server is temporarily unable to serve this request — currently only pool
+    /// saturation. Distinct from `Internal` because it is TRANSIENT and the client should be
+    /// told so: a 500 reads as "this request is broken", while a 503 + Retry-After reads as
+    /// "come back shortly", which is what the upload queue's retry classifier needs to make
+    /// the right call. Second field: optional retry-after seconds.
+    ServiceUnavailable(String, Option<u64>),
     Internal(anyhow::Error),
 }
 
@@ -29,10 +56,15 @@ impl AppError {
             Self::Unauthorized(_) => (StatusCode::UNAUTHORIZED, "unauthorized"),
             Self::Forbidden(_) => (StatusCode::FORBIDDEN, "forbidden"),
             Self::UploadsLocked(_) => (StatusCode::FORBIDDEN, "uploads_locked"),
+            Self::GalleryReleased(_) => (StatusCode::FORBIDDEN, "gallery_released"),
+            Self::UserBanned(_) => (StatusCode::FORBIDDEN, "user_banned"),
             Self::NotFound(_) => (StatusCode::NOT_FOUND, "not_found"),
             Self::Conflict(_) => (StatusCode::CONFLICT, "conflict"),
             Self::TooManyRequests(..) => (StatusCode::TOO_MANY_REQUESTS, "too_many_requests"),
             Self::QuotaExceeded(_) => (StatusCode::PAYLOAD_TOO_LARGE, "quota_exceeded"),
+            Self::ServiceUnavailable(..) => {
+                (StatusCode::SERVICE_UNAVAILABLE, "service_unavailable")
+            }
             Self::Internal(_) => (StatusCode::INTERNAL_SERVER_ERROR, "internal_error"),
         }
     }
@@ -43,9 +75,12 @@ impl AppError {
             | Self::Unauthorized(msg)
             | Self::Forbidden(msg)
             | Self::UploadsLocked(msg)
+            | Self::GalleryReleased(msg)
+            | Self::UserBanned(msg)
             | Self::NotFound(msg)
             | Self::Conflict(msg) => msg.clone(),
             Self::TooManyRequests(msg, _) => msg.clone(),
+            Self::ServiceUnavailable(msg, _) => msg.clone(),
             Self::QuotaExceeded(msg) => msg.clone(),
             Self::Internal(err) => {
                 tracing::error!("internal error: {err:#}");
@@ -58,13 +93,61 @@ impl AppError {
 impl IntoResponse for AppError {
     fn into_response(self) -> Response {
         let (status, code) = self.status_and_code();
-        let retry_after_secs = if let Self::TooManyRequests(_, Some(secs)) = &self {
-            Some(*secs)
-        } else {
-            None
+        // BOTH retry-carrying variants must be matched here. `message()` would fail to
+        // compile on a missing arm; this one would not — it would silently drop the header and
+        // the `retry_after_secs` body field, which is exactly the sort of omission that only
+        // shows up under the load the 503 exists for.
+        let retry_after_secs = match &self {
+            Self::TooManyRequests(_, secs) | Self::ServiceUnavailable(_, secs) => *secs,
+            _ => None,
         };
         let message = self.message();
 
+        // Log every 4xx. Until now they were invisible at ANY log level: tower_http's
+        // `ServerErrorsAsFailures` classifier counts a 4xx as a *success*, so it goes to
+        // `DefaultOnResponse` at DEBUG, and production runs at `info`. The consequence is that a
+        // misconfigured limit leaves no trace at all — if guests spend the evening hitting 429s
+        // on `upload_rate_per_hour`, or 413s on the storage quota, `docker compose logs` after
+        // the event contains nothing about it and the cause is unknowable.
+        //
+        // WARN rather than INFO because every variant here is a request that did not do what
+        // the guest asked. 5xx is excluded: `Internal` already logs with its full source chain
+        // in `message()` above, and the pool-exhaustion 503 logs at construction — logging again
+        // here would double every server-side failure.
+        //
+        // No request context is available: `into_response` receives only the error, so there is
+        // no path, method or user id to attach. Status + code + message is what can honestly be
+        // reported from here, and it is enough to see the SHAPE of a bad evening. Raising
+        // `tower_http` to DEBUG instead was considered and rejected — see the note in main.rs.
+        //
+        // `detail = ?message`, NOT `%message`. Two reasons, both learned the hard way:
+        //
+        //  * `message` is tracing's own reserved field for an event's format literal, so `%message`
+        //    printed unlabelled and would collide under a JSON layer.
+        //  * Debug formatting QUOTES AND ESCAPES the string, and several 4xx messages interpolate
+        //    attacker-chosen text — the guest's name in `Der Name "X" ist bereits vergeben.`, and
+        //    multipart/parse errors that echo their input. With Display formatting, a value
+        //    carrying a newline plus a plausible log prefix lets two unauthenticated requests
+        //    forge lines in the only forensic record an unattended event has.
+        //    `validate_display_name` now rejects control characters, so the name route is closed
+        //    at the source as well — but that is ONE input, and this line formats every 4xx
+        //    message in the app. Escaping here is what makes the guarantee general; do not
+        //    "simplify" it to `%message` on the grounds that names are already validated.
+        //
+        // 401 and 404 are logged at DEBUG rather than WARN. They carry no operator signal (an
+        // expired session, a mistyped URL) and they are the cheapest lines for a scanner to
+        // generate — at ~260 bytes each against the 30 MB the json-file driver retains
+        // (docker-compose.yml), a sustained flood could otherwise roll the whole window in
+        // minutes and destroy the post-event forensics this logging exists to provide.
+        if status.is_client_error() {
+            let noisy = status == StatusCode::UNAUTHORIZED || status == StatusCode::NOT_FOUND;
+            if noisy {
+                tracing::debug!(status = status.as_u16(), code, detail = ?message, "request rejected");
+            } else {
+                tracing::warn!(status = status.as_u16(), code, detail = ?message, "request rejected");
+            }
+        }
+
         let mut body = serde_json::json!({
             "error": code,
             "message": message,
@@ -93,6 +176,120 @@ impl From<anyhow::Error> for AppError {
 
 impl From<sqlx::Error> for AppError {
     fn from(err: sqlx::Error) -> Self {
-        Self::Internal(err.into())
+        match err {
+            // Pool saturation is load, not a bug. Reporting it as a 500 was actively harmful:
+            // the frontend's upload-queue classifier treats 5xx as transient and retries, so
+            // the retries piled straight back into the saturated pool with no Retry-After to
+            // pace them. A 503 says the same thing honestly and carries the backoff.
+            //
+            // `PoolClosed` stays `Internal` — it only happens during shutdown, where a 503
+            // would invite a retry against a server that is going away.
+            sqlx::Error::PoolTimedOut => {
+                tracing::warn!("database pool exhausted; shedding a request with 503");
+                Self::ServiceUnavailable(
+                    "Server ist gerade ausgelastet. Bitte versuche es in ein paar Sekunden erneut."
+                        .into(),
+                    Some(POOL_TIMEOUT_RETRY_AFTER_SECS),
+                )
+            }
+            other => Self::Internal(other.into()),
+        }
+    }
+}
+
+/// Retry-After for a shed request. Short: pool saturation clears in seconds once the queue
+/// drains, and a long value would make a brief spike feel like an outage.
+const POOL_TIMEOUT_RETRY_AFTER_SECS: u64 = 3;
+
+#[cfg(test)]
+mod tests {
+    use super::*;
+
+    /// `into_response` extracts `retry_after_secs` by MATCHING ON VARIANTS, so unlike
+    /// `message()` a missing arm is not a compile error — it silently drops the header. Pin the
+    /// behaviour for both retry-carrying variants.
+    #[test]
+    fn both_retry_carrying_variants_emit_retry_after() {
+        for err in [
+            AppError::TooManyRequests("slow down".into(), Some(42)),
+            AppError::ServiceUnavailable("busy".into(), Some(3)),
+        ] {
+            let expected = match &err {
+                AppError::TooManyRequests(_, Some(s))
+                | AppError::ServiceUnavailable(_, Some(s)) => s.to_string(),
+                _ => unreachable!(),
+            };
+            let resp = err.into_response();
+            assert_eq!(
+                resp.headers()
+                    .get(axum::http::header::RETRY_AFTER)
+                    .and_then(|v| v.to_str().ok()),
+                Some(expected.as_str()),
+                "a shed/throttled client must be told when to come back"
+            );
+        }
+    }
+
+    /// 4xx must be logged and 5xx must not be logged HERE — `Internal` logs its source chain in
+    /// `message()` and the pool-exhaustion 503 logs at construction, so a second line in
+    /// `into_response` would double every server-side failure in the post-event logs.
+    ///
+    /// The guard is `status.is_client_error()`, so this pins the classification rather than the
+    /// logging itself (which needs a subscriber to observe).
+    #[test]
+    fn only_client_errors_are_in_the_logged_band() {
+        for err in [
+            AppError::BadRequest("x".into()),
+            AppError::Unauthorized("x".into()),
+            AppError::Forbidden("x".into()),
+            AppError::UploadsLocked("x".into()),
+            AppError::NotFound("x".into()),
+            AppError::Conflict("x".into()),
+            AppError::TooManyRequests("x".into(), Some(1)),
+            AppError::QuotaExceeded("x".into()),
+        ] {
+            let (status, _) = err.status_and_code();
+            assert!(
+                status.is_client_error(),
+                "{status} should be in the 4xx band this logs"
+            );
+        }
+
+        for err in [
+            AppError::ServiceUnavailable("x".into(), Some(3)),
+            AppError::Internal(anyhow::anyhow!("boom")),
+        ] {
+            let (status, _) = err.status_and_code();
+            assert!(
+                !status.is_client_error(),
+                "{status} logs elsewhere; logging it here would double it"
+            );
+        }
+    }
+
+    /// Pool saturation is load, not a bug. A 500 makes the frontend's retry classifier pile
+    /// straight back into the saturated pool with no backoff to pace it.
+    #[test]
+    fn pool_exhaustion_sheds_with_503_but_shutdown_does_not() {
+        let shed: AppError = sqlx::Error::PoolTimedOut.into();
+        assert_eq!(
+            shed.status_and_code(),
+            (StatusCode::SERVICE_UNAVAILABLE, "service_unavailable")
+        );
+
+        // PoolClosed only happens during shutdown; a 503 there would invite a retry against a
+        // server that is going away.
+        let closing: AppError = sqlx::Error::PoolClosed.into();
+        assert_eq!(
+            closing.status_and_code(),
+            (StatusCode::INTERNAL_SERVER_ERROR, "internal_error")
+        );
+
+        // Everything else must keep its existing mapping.
+        let missing: AppError = sqlx::Error::RowNotFound.into();
+        assert_eq!(
+            missing.status_and_code(),
+            (StatusCode::INTERNAL_SERVER_ERROR, "internal_error")
+        );
     }
 }

backend/src/handlers/admin.rs

@@ -10,6 +10,7 @@ use uuid::Uuid;
 use crate::auth::middleware::RequireAdmin;
 use crate::error::AppError;
 use crate::services::config;
+use crate::services::sse_tickets::TicketKind;
 use crate::state::AppState;
 
 // ── DTOs ─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
@@ -104,7 +105,7 @@ pub struct PatchConfigRequest(pub HashMap<String, String>);
 
 pub async fn patch_config(
     State(state): State<AppState>,
-    RequireAdmin(_auth): RequireAdmin,
+    RequireAdmin(auth): RequireAdmin,
     Json(body): Json<HashMap<String, String>>,
 ) -> Result<StatusCode, AppError> {
     // Numeric keys validated as f64; boolean keys validated as truthy strings; the
@@ -132,6 +133,16 @@ pub async fn patch_config(
         ("social_rate_per_min", true, 1.0, 100_000.0),
         ("quota_tolerance", false, 0.0, 1.0),
         ("estimated_guest_count", true, 1.0, 1_000_000.0),
+        // The three limiters migration 025 introduced. All are READ at runtime
+        // (`upload.rs` for the edit limiter, `auth/handlers.rs` for the other two) and 025
+        // INSERTs all of them into `config`, so `GET /admin/config` listed them while
+        // `PATCH /admin/config` answered "Unbekannter Konfigurationsschlüssel" — the same
+        // dead-key defect the comment under BOOL_KEYS says was fixed for the two login
+        // toggles. These are precisely the knobs an operator reaches for while abuse is
+        // happening, which is the one moment a restart to change them is unaffordable.
+        ("upload_edit_rate_per_min", true, 1.0, 100_000.0),
+        ("recover_name_rate_per_15min", true, 1.0, 100_000.0),
+        ("pin_reset_ip_rate_per_min", true, 1.0, 100_000.0),
     ];
     const BOOL_KEYS: &[&str] = &[
         "rate_limits_enabled",
@@ -145,6 +156,9 @@ pub async fn patch_config(
         "admin_login_rate_enabled",
         "recover_rate_enabled",
         "social_rate_enabled",
+        // Read by `upload::edit_upload`, inserted by migration 025, and until now unreachable
+        // from this endpoint — see the note in NUMERIC_SPECS.
+        "upload_edit_rate_enabled",
         "quota_enabled",
         "storage_quota_enabled",
         "upload_count_quota_enabled",
@@ -275,6 +289,23 @@ pub async fn patch_config(
     // the TTL is only a backstop and must not be relied on for correctness.
     state.config_cache.invalidate();
 
+    // Config changes were logged NOWHERE. They are the actions most likely to be blamed the
+    // morning after ("why did uploads stop?") and the hardest to reconstruct, because the value
+    // that caused the problem has since been changed back. Record the keys and their new values;
+    // these are operational settings, not credentials, so the payload is safe to keep.
+    crate::services::audit::record(
+        &state.pool,
+        auth.event_id,
+        auth.user_id,
+        None,
+        auth.role.clone(),
+        "patch_config",
+        None,
+        None,
+        serde_json::to_value(&body).ok(),
+    )
+    .await;
+
     // Notify all clients that a publicly-readable config value changed so their stores
     // (e.g. the privacy note in My Account) refresh without a manual reload.
     if privacy_note_changed || theme_changed {
@@ -333,27 +364,142 @@ pub struct DownloadQuery {
 /// is a top-level navigation so the multi-GB ZIP streams straight to disk instead
 /// of being buffered in memory by `fetch()` + `blob()` — but a navigation can't
 /// carry an `Authorization` header, so the client exchanges its Bearer token for
-/// an opaque ticket here, then hits `/export/zip?ticket=...`. Reuses the same
-/// single-use, 30s-TTL store as the SSE stream.
+/// an opaque ticket here, then hits `/export/zip?ticket=...`. Uses the same store as the SSE
+/// stream, but NOT the same lifetime: a download ticket lives `DOWNLOAD_TTL` (6 h) and is
+/// redeemable up to `MAX_DOWNLOAD_REDEMPTIONS` times, because a multi-GB transfer over venue wifi
+/// has to survive being resumed with `Range`.
+#[derive(serde::Deserialize)]
+pub struct ExportTicketQuery {
+    /// Which archive the ticket is for — `zip` or `html`.
+    ///
+    /// REQUIRED. It used to be optional "so an older client keeps working", but the ticket is now
+    /// bound to the archive it was minted for (see `TicketKind::Download`), and a ticket with no
+    /// archive would either have to be valid for both — the abuse this closes — or be issued for a
+    /// guess that 401s at the other endpoint. Every shipped client sends it.
+    #[serde(default)]
+    pub kind: Option<String>,
+}
+
 pub async fn export_ticket(
     State(state): State<AppState>,
+    axum::extract::Query(q): axum::extract::Query<ExportTicketQuery>,
     auth: crate::auth::middleware::AuthUser,
-) -> Json<serde_json::Value> {
+) -> Result<Json<serde_json::Value>, AppError> {
     // NOTE: intentionally NOT gated on `is_banned`. A banned user keeps *read* access
     // by design (USER_JOURNEYS §10.3, FEATURES: "Can still download the export once
     // released — Spec design choice"). The export is read-only, so it stays available
     // to them, consistent with the read-only-ban model.
-    let ticket = state.sse_tickets.issue(auth.token_hash);
-    Json(serde_json::json!({ "ticket": ticket }))
+
+    // The rate limit is enforced HERE rather than on the download itself, and that placement is
+    // the whole point: the download is an iframe navigation, so its response is invisible to the
+    // page. Limiting it there meant a guest over the limit tapped "Herunterladen", the ticket
+    // POST returned 200, the iframe silently received a 429, and absolutely nothing happened —
+    // forever, with no explanation, on the one screen that is the emotional payoff of the app.
+    // Minting is a normal `fetch`, so a 429 here reaches the user as a German message.
+    //
+    // Moving it does not weaken the limit meaningfully: a ticket can only be obtained from this
+    // authenticated endpoint, is bound to one archive, and — since downloads must be resumable —
+    // is worth at most `MAX_DOWNLOAD_REDEMPTIONS` transfers rather than exactly one. The daily
+    // limit is therefore a bound on mints, not on bytes; see `MAX_DOWNLOAD_REDEMPTIONS` for why
+    // charging per redemption would re-break resumption.
+    // Confirm the archive actually EXISTS before spending anything on it.
+    //
+    // `export_status` — which is what enables the Download button — reports `done` from
+    // `export_job`, while the download resolves through `export_current.file_path` plus a
+    // `Path::exists()`. Those are different sources of truth and can legitimately disagree: a
+    // row can say done while the file is gone, or an epoch bump can retire it between the page
+    // rendering and the guest tapping. When they disagreed the guest got the worst possible
+    // shape of failure — a green "Download gestartet" toast, a consumed single-use ticket, one
+    // of only three daily slots spent, and nothing in their Downloads folder, repeatable until
+    // the day's allowance was gone.
+    //
+    // Checking here, before `enforce_export_rate`, turns that into an honest error on a plain
+    // `fetch` that the existing `toastError` path already renders. This is NOT the HEAD probe
+    // ruled out elsewhere: it reads the same indexed row the download will read and touches no
+    // ticket, so it cannot consume anything.
+    let export_kind = match q.kind.as_deref() {
+        Some("zip") => crate::services::sse_tickets::ExportKind::Zip,
+        Some("html") => crate::services::sse_tickets::ExportKind::Html,
+        Some(other) => {
+            return Err(AppError::BadRequest(format!(
+                "Unbekannter Export-Typ: {other}"
+            )));
+        }
+        None => {
+            return Err(AppError::BadRequest(
+                "Es fehlt die Angabe, welches Archiv geladen werden soll. Bitte lade die Seite \
+                 neu und versuche es erneut."
+                    .into(),
+            ));
+        }
+    };
+    {
+        let export_type = match export_kind {
+            crate::services::sse_tickets::ExportKind::Zip => "zip",
+            crate::services::sse_tickets::ExportKind::Html => "html",
+        };
+        let msg = if export_type == "zip" {
+            "Der ZIP-Export ist noch nicht verfügbar."
+        } else {
+            "Der HTML-Export ist noch nicht verfügbar."
+        };
+        resolve_export_file(&state, export_type, msg).await?;
+    }
+
+    // `issue` returns None when the ticket store is at capacity. Unwrapping it into the JSON body
+    // serialized `{"ticket": null}` with a 200 — so `api.post` resolved happily, the page toasted
+    // success, and the iframe navigated to `?ticket=null`. 503 + Retry-After, matching how
+    // `sse::issue_ticket` answers the identical condition.
+    //
+    // Minted BEFORE the rate limit is charged. Charging first meant a store-capacity 503 — a
+    // server-side condition the guest did nothing to cause and cannot see — still cost one of
+    // their three DAILY downloads. There is no refund path, so the only fix is not to charge until
+    // the thing being charged for actually exists.
+    let ticket = state
+        .sse_tickets
+        .issue(auth.token_hash, TicketKind::Download(export_kind))
+        .ok_or_else(|| {
+            AppError::ServiceUnavailable(
+                "Server ist gerade ausgelastet. Bitte versuch es in einem Moment erneut.".into(),
+                Some(30),
+            )
+        })?;
+
+    // A refused mint must not leave its ticket behind. The per-session cap is FOUR tickets of the
+    // same kind, and a download ticket now lives six hours instead of being consumed on first use —
+    // so every abandoned one occupies a slot until it expires. A guest whose 1.4 GB transfer looks
+    // stuck and who taps "Herunterladen" a few more times spends mints 1-3 legitimately, then gets
+    // a 429 on taps 4 and 5 — but both still minted, and the fifth evicted the OLDEST download
+    // ticket for the session: the one the running transfer is holding. The next `Range` resume then
+    // 401s, and re-minting is impossible because they are at the daily limit. The keepsake is gone
+    // until tomorrow, having done nothing worse than tapping a button that appeared to do nothing.
+    //
+    // Discarding here keeps both properties that put the mint first: a store-capacity 503 still
+    // costs no download, and a refused download costs no slot.
+    if let Err(e) = enforce_export_rate(&state, auth.user_id).await {
+        let _ = state
+            .sse_tickets
+            .consume(&ticket, TicketKind::Download(export_kind));
+        return Err(e);
+    }
+
+    Ok(Json(serde_json::json!({ "ticket": ticket })))
 }
 
-/// Validate a download ticket (single-use) and confirm its session still exists.
-/// Resolve a single-use download ticket to the user who minted it. The caller needs the
-/// id to key the export rate limit per-user (see `enforce_export_rate`).
-async fn authenticate_download_ticket(state: &AppState, ticket: &str) -> Result<Uuid, AppError> {
+/// Validate a download ticket and confirm its session still exists, resolving it to the user who
+/// minted it. Deliberately NOT single-use — see the note on `redeem_download` below.
+async fn authenticate_download_ticket(
+    state: &AppState,
+    ticket: &str,
+    want: crate::services::sse_tickets::ExportKind,
+) -> Result<Uuid, AppError> {
+    // Non-consuming: a keepsake download must survive being resumed with `Range`, and a
+    // single-use ticket meant the resume 401'd and cost the guest another of their three daily
+    // downloads. `redeem_download` bounds it by DOWNLOAD_TTL instead, and the session check
+    // below still runs on every request.
     let token_hash = state
         .sse_tickets
-        .consume(ticket)
+        .redeem_download(ticket, want)
         .ok_or_else(|| AppError::Unauthorized("Ticket ungültig oder abgelaufen.".into()))?;
     let session = crate::models::session::Session::find_by_token_hash(&state.pool, &token_hash)
         .await
@@ -364,14 +510,32 @@ async fn authenticate_download_ticket(state: &AppState, ticket: &str) -> Result<
 
 pub async fn download_zip(
     State(state): State<AppState>,
+    headers: axum::http::HeaderMap,
     Query(q): Query<DownloadQuery>,
 ) -> Result<axum::response::Response, AppError> {
-    let user_id = authenticate_download_ticket(&state, &q.ticket).await?;
-    enforce_export_rate(&state, user_id).await?;
+    // Ticket validation only — the rate limit was charged at mint time, where a 429 is visible
+    // to the page. Charging it again here would cost every download two slots.
+    authenticate_download_ticket(
+        &state,
+        &q.ticket,
+        crate::services::sse_tickets::ExportKind::Zip,
+    )
+    .await?;
 
     let path =
         resolve_export_file(&state, "zip", "Der ZIP-Export ist noch nicht verfügbar.").await?;
-    serve_file(path, "Gallery.zip", "application/zip").await
+    serve_file(
+        path,
+        "Gallery.zip",
+        "application/zip",
+        headers
+            .get(axum::http::header::RANGE)
+            .and_then(|v| v.to_str().ok()),
+        headers
+            .get(axum::http::header::IF_RANGE)
+            .and_then(|v| v.to_str().ok()),
+    )
+    .await
 }
 
 /// Resolve the on-disk path of the CURRENT export generation — readiness check and path lookup in
@@ -417,45 +581,130 @@ async fn resolve_export_file(
 
 pub async fn download_html(
     State(state): State<AppState>,
+    headers: axum::http::HeaderMap,
     Query(q): Query<DownloadQuery>,
 ) -> Result<axum::response::Response, AppError> {
-    let user_id = authenticate_download_ticket(&state, &q.ticket).await?;
-    enforce_export_rate(&state, user_id).await?;
+    // See `download_zip`: the limit is charged at ticket mint, where the client can see it.
+    authenticate_download_ticket(
+        &state,
+        &q.ticket,
+        crate::services::sse_tickets::ExportKind::Html,
+    )
+    .await?;
 
     let path =
         resolve_export_file(&state, "html", "Der HTML-Export ist noch nicht verfügbar.").await?;
-    serve_file(path, "Memories.zip", "application/zip").await
+    serve_file(
+        path,
+        "Memories.zip",
+        "application/zip",
+        headers
+            .get(axum::http::header::RANGE)
+            .and_then(|v| v.to_str().ok()),
+        headers
+            .get(axum::http::header::IF_RANGE)
+            .and_then(|v| v.to_str().ok()),
+    )
+    .await
 }
 
+/// Stream a keepsake archive, honouring `Range`.
+///
+/// Range support is not a nicety here. The keepsake is the emotional payoff of the product and can
+/// be ~1.4 GB; without `Accept-Ranges` a download that dies at 90% over hotel wifi restarts at byte
+/// zero. Worse, the 3/day limit is charged when the download TICKET is minted and ZIP+HTML already
+/// costs 2 — so one dropped connection locked a guest out of their own wedding photos for ~24h.
+///
+/// Reuses `upload::parse_range`, which already implements exactly the forms a client sends and is
+/// unit-tested there. The media routes have always done this correctly; this route was the outlier.
 async fn serve_file(
     path: std::path::PathBuf,
     filename: &str,
     content_type: &str,
+    range_header: Option<&str>,
+    if_range_header: Option<&str>,
 ) -> Result<axum::response::Response, AppError> {
+    use crate::handlers::upload::{RangeSpec, parse_range};
     use axum::body::Body;
     use axum::http::{Response, StatusCode, header};
+    use tokio::io::{AsyncReadExt, AsyncSeekExt};
     use tokio_util::io::ReaderStream;
 
-    let file = tokio::fs::File::open(&path)
+    let mut file = tokio::fs::File::open(&path)
         .await
         .map_err(|e| AppError::Internal(e.into()))?;
-    let metadata = file
+    let len = file
         .metadata()
         .await
-        .map_err(|e| AppError::Internal(e.into()))?;
-    let stream = ReaderStream::new(file);
+        .map_err(|e| AppError::Internal(e.into()))?
+        .len();
 
     let disposition = format!("attachment; filename=\"{filename}\"");
 
-    let response = Response::builder()
-        .status(StatusCode::OK)
-        .header(header::CONTENT_TYPE, content_type)
-        .header(header::CONTENT_DISPOSITION, disposition)
-        .header(header::CONTENT_LENGTH, metadata.len())
-        .body(Body::from_stream(stream))
-        .map_err(|e| AppError::Internal(e.into()))?;
+    // A validator that CHANGES when the archive does, so a resume cannot splice two generations.
+    //
+    // The on-disk name is `{prefix}.{event_id}.{epoch}.zip`, so it already identifies the exact
+    // generation; length distinguishes a rebuild at the same epoch. Together they are a strong
+    // validator.
+    //
+    // Why this matters: `resolve_export_file` re-reads `export_current` on EVERY request, and a
+    // download ticket outlives several redemptions. So a guest whose 500 MB download drops at
+    // 500 MB, while the host takes a photo down (epoch bumps, rebuild lands, the old generation is
+    // pruned), used to resume with `Range: bytes=500000000-` against a DIFFERENT FILE of a
+    // different length — and the server would happily seek 500 MB into it and stream. The client
+    // concatenated the two halves into a structurally corrupt ZIP, with nothing logged anywhere.
+    let etag = format!(
+        "\"{}-{len}\"",
+        path.file_name()
+            .and_then(|n| n.to_str())
+            .unwrap_or(filename)
+    );
 
-    Ok(response)
+    let base = |status: StatusCode| {
+        Response::builder()
+            .status(status)
+            .header(header::CONTENT_TYPE, content_type)
+            .header(header::CONTENT_DISPOSITION, disposition.clone())
+            // Advertised on EVERY response, including the 200. A client only knows it may resume
+            // if the first (unranged) response says so.
+            .header(header::ACCEPT_RANGES, "bytes")
+            .header(header::ETAG, etag.clone())
+    };
+
+    // Serve a partial ONLY when the client proves it is resuming the same bytes.
+    //
+    // `If-Range` matching our ETag is that proof. A client that sends `Range` with no `If-Range`
+    // at all (curl -C -, wget -c, most download managers) cannot be given a partial safely — it
+    // has no way to notice the archive changed underneath it — so it gets a 200 and starts over.
+    // Restarting a download is a cost; a silently corrupt keepsake is not recoverable. Browsers
+    // send `If-Range`, so the ordinary resume path is unaffected, and this is the first release
+    // where their resume works at all: without a validator they simply refused to try.
+    let resume_is_safe = if_range_header.is_some_and(|v| v.trim() == etag);
+    let effective_range = if resume_is_safe { range_header } else { None };
+
+    match parse_range(effective_range, len) {
+        RangeSpec::Full => base(StatusCode::OK)
+            .header(header::CONTENT_LENGTH, len)
+            .body(Body::from_stream(ReaderStream::new(file)))
+            .map_err(|e| AppError::Internal(e.into())),
+
+        RangeSpec::Partial { start, end } => {
+            file.seek(std::io::SeekFrom::Start(start))
+                .await
+                .map_err(|e| AppError::Internal(e.into()))?;
+            let span = end - start + 1;
+            base(StatusCode::PARTIAL_CONTENT)
+                .header(header::CONTENT_LENGTH, span)
+                .header(header::CONTENT_RANGE, format!("bytes {start}-{end}/{len}"))
+                .body(Body::from_stream(ReaderStream::new(file.take(span))))
+                .map_err(|e| AppError::Internal(e.into()))
+        }
+
+        RangeSpec::Unsatisfiable => base(StatusCode::RANGE_NOT_SATISFIABLE)
+            .header(header::CONTENT_RANGE, format!("bytes */{len}"))
+            .body(Body::empty())
+            .map_err(|e| AppError::Internal(e.into())),
+    }
 }
 
 /// Also expose export status to all authenticated users (guests need it for the export page)
@@ -536,8 +785,13 @@ async fn enforce_export_rate(state: &AppState, user_id: Uuid) -> Result<(), AppE
         limit,
         Duration::from_secs(86400),
     ) {
+        // Names the real window. The generic "warte kurz" wording this used to share with the
+        // per-minute limiters is actively wrong here — the bucket is a DAY, so a guest told to
+        // wait a moment would keep tapping a button that cannot work again until tomorrow.
         return Err(AppError::TooManyRequests(
-            "Zu viele Anfragen. Bitte warte kurz und versuche es erneut.".into(),
+            "Du hast das Tageslimit für Downloads erreicht. Versuch es später noch einmal — \
+             deine Galerie bleibt gespeichert."
+                .into(),
             Some(retry_after_secs),
         ));
     }

backend/src/handlers/feed.rs

@@ -15,7 +15,43 @@ use crate::state::AppState;
 pub struct FeedQuery {
     pub cursor: Option<Uuid>,
     pub limit: Option<i64>,
+    /// Single tag (list view). Kept alongside `hashtags` so existing callers keep working.
     pub hashtag: Option<String>,
+    /// Comma-separated tags, combined with **OR** — the grid's chip semantics
+    /// (USER_JOURNEYS §8). Filtering moved server-side because the client could only ever
+    /// filter the pages it had already loaded: with page 1 = 20 items out of a 1000-photo
+    /// event, selecting a tag showed a handful of tiles and looked complete. Matching is
+    /// now the exact `hashtag` row in both views, so the grid and the list can no longer
+    /// disagree about which photos carry a tag (the client matched a caption SUBSTRING, so
+    /// `#tanz` also matched `#tanzflaeche`).
+    pub hashtags: Option<String>,
+    /// Exact uploader display name, combined with the tag group using **AND**.
+    pub uploader: Option<String>,
+}
+
+/// Merge the single-tag and CSV tag params into one normalised, de-duplicated list.
+///
+/// Normalisation mirrors `Hashtag::upsert` exactly (trim, drop a leading `#`, lowercase), so
+/// a chip built from a display string like `#Tanz` matches the stored `tanz` row. Returns
+/// `None` when no usable tag was supplied, which makes the SQL predicate a no-op — an empty
+/// list must mean "no tag filter", never "match nothing".
+fn normalize_tags(single: Option<&str>, csv: Option<&str>) -> Option<Vec<String>> {
+    let mut out: Vec<String> = Vec::new();
+    let mut push = |raw: &str| {
+        let t = raw.trim().trim_start_matches('#').to_lowercase();
+        if !t.is_empty() && !out.contains(&t) {
+            out.push(t);
+        }
+    };
+    if let Some(s) = single {
+        push(s);
+    }
+    if let Some(s) = csv {
+        for part in s.split(',') {
+            push(part);
+        }
+    }
+    if out.is_empty() { None } else { Some(out) }
 }
 
 #[derive(Serialize)]
@@ -80,7 +116,9 @@ pub async fn feed(
         }
     }
 
-    let limit = q.limit.unwrap_or(20).min(100);
+    // Clamped at BOTH ends: only the upper bound was enforced, so `?limit=-5` reached Postgres
+    // as `LIMIT -4` and answered a hand-written URL with a 500.
+    let limit = q.limit.unwrap_or(20).clamp(1, 100);
 
     // Resolve the cursor to a (created_at, id) position. The pair is compared as a
     // tuple so ties on created_at break on id — keyset pagination on created_at
@@ -93,44 +131,42 @@ pub async fn feed(
         None => (None, None),
     };
 
-    let rows = if let Some(hashtag) = &q.hashtag {
-        let tag = hashtag.trim().trim_start_matches('#').to_lowercase();
-        sqlx::query_as::<_, FeedRow>(
-            "SELECT v.id, v.user_id, v.uploader_name, v.preview_path, v.thumbnail_path,
-                    v.display_path, v.mime_type, v.caption, v.like_count, v.comment_count,
-                    v.created_at
-             FROM v_feed v
-             JOIN upload_hashtag uh ON uh.upload_id = v.id
-             JOIN hashtag h ON h.id = uh.hashtag_id AND h.tag = $1
-             WHERE v.event_id = $2
-               AND ($3::timestamptz IS NULL OR (v.created_at, v.id) < ($3, $4))
-             ORDER BY v.created_at DESC, v.id DESC
-             LIMIT $5",
-        )
-        .bind(&tag)
-        .bind(auth.event_id)
-        .bind(cursor_time)
-        .bind(cursor_id)
-        .bind(limit + 1)
-        .fetch_all(&state.pool)
-        .await?
-    } else {
-        sqlx::query_as::<_, FeedRow>(
-            "SELECT id, user_id, uploader_name, preview_path, thumbnail_path,
-                    display_path, mime_type, caption, like_count, comment_count, created_at
-             FROM v_feed
-             WHERE event_id = $1
-               AND ($2::timestamptz IS NULL OR (created_at, id) < ($2, $3))
-             ORDER BY created_at DESC, id DESC
-             LIMIT $4",
-        )
-        .bind(auth.event_id)
-        .bind(cursor_time)
-        .bind(cursor_id)
-        .bind(limit + 1)
-        .fetch_all(&state.pool)
-        .await?
-    };
+    // Tags from either param, normalised the same way `Hashtag::upsert` stores them
+    // (trimmed, leading `#` dropped, lowercased) so the comparison is exact.
+    let tags = normalize_tags(q.hashtag.as_deref(), q.hashtags.as_deref());
+    let uploader = q
+        .uploader
+        .as_deref()
+        .map(str::trim)
+        .filter(|s| !s.is_empty());
+
+    // ONE statement for every combination, rather than a branch per filter. `EXISTS` with
+    // `= ANY($4)` gives OR across the tag group without the row multiplication a JOIN would
+    // cause when a photo carries two selected tags; the uploader predicate ANDs on top. Both
+    // are no-ops when NULL, so the unfiltered feed takes the same path.
+    let rows = sqlx::query_as::<_, FeedRow>(
+        "SELECT v.id, v.user_id, v.uploader_name, v.preview_path, v.thumbnail_path,
+                v.display_path, v.mime_type, v.caption, v.like_count, v.comment_count,
+                v.created_at
+         FROM v_feed v
+         WHERE v.event_id = $1
+           AND ($2::timestamptz IS NULL OR (v.created_at, v.id) < ($2, $3))
+           AND ($4::text[] IS NULL OR EXISTS (
+                 SELECT 1 FROM upload_hashtag uh
+                 JOIN hashtag h ON h.id = uh.hashtag_id
+                 WHERE uh.upload_id = v.id AND h.tag = ANY($4)))
+           AND ($5::text IS NULL OR v.uploader_name = $5)
+         ORDER BY v.created_at DESC, v.id DESC
+         LIMIT $6",
+    )
+    .bind(auth.event_id)
+    .bind(cursor_time)
+    .bind(cursor_id)
+    .bind(tags.as_deref())
+    .bind(uploader)
+    .bind(limit + 1)
+    .fetch_all(&state.pool)
+    .await?;
 
     let has_more = rows.len() as i64 > limit;
     let rows: Vec<FeedRow> = rows.into_iter().take(limit as usize).collect();
@@ -357,6 +393,32 @@ pub async fn hashtags(
     ))
 }
 
+/// Every uploader who has at least one visible upload, for the grid's "Nutzer suchen" picker.
+///
+/// The picker used to derive names from the uploads currently in memory — page 1, 20 items —
+/// so typing a guest's name found nothing whenever their photos happened to sit below the
+/// fold, which reads as "search is broken". This is the authoritative list.
+///
+/// Reads `v_feed`, so it inherits exactly the feed's visibility rules: soft-deleted uploads,
+/// banned uploaders and hidden uploaders are all excluded, and a guest who has not uploaded
+/// anything never appears. Uncapped on purpose — one short string per uploader, bounded by
+/// the guest count, and truncating it would reintroduce the very bug this replaces.
+/// Deliberately NOT the host-only `/host/users` route: that one lists every joined guest and
+/// exposes moderation state.
+pub async fn uploaders(
+    State(state): State<AppState>,
+    auth: AuthUser,
+) -> Result<Json<Vec<String>>, AppError> {
+    let rows: Vec<(String,)> = sqlx::query_as(
+        "SELECT DISTINCT uploader_name FROM v_feed WHERE event_id = $1 ORDER BY uploader_name",
+    )
+    .bind(auth.event_id)
+    .fetch_all(&state.pool)
+    .await?;
+
+    Ok(Json(rows.into_iter().map(|(name,)| name).collect()))
+}
+
 /// Resolve a cursor id to its `(created_at, id)` position. Both are needed:
 /// `created_at` alone isn't unique, so pagination must break ties on `id` to
 /// avoid silently dropping rows that share a timestamp across a page boundary.
@@ -388,3 +450,41 @@ async fn get_liked_set(
 
     rows.into_iter().map(|r| r.0).collect()
 }
+
+#[cfg(test)]
+mod tests {
+    use super::normalize_tags;
+
+    /// The chips carry display strings (`#Tanz`), the `hashtag` table stores `tanz`. If these
+    /// two drift the filter silently returns nothing, which is indistinguishable from "no
+    /// photos have this tag" — so pin the normalisation to `Hashtag::upsert`'s rule.
+    #[test]
+    fn tags_are_normalised_like_upsert_stores_them() {
+        assert_eq!(
+            normalize_tags(Some("#Tanz"), None),
+            Some(vec!["tanz".to_string()])
+        );
+        assert_eq!(
+            normalize_tags(None, Some(" #Buffet , reden ")),
+            Some(vec!["buffet".to_string(), "reden".to_string()])
+        );
+    }
+
+    /// An empty list must mean "no filter", never "match nothing" — returning `Some(vec![])`
+    /// would make `= ANY('{}')` false for every row and blank the feed.
+    #[test]
+    fn blank_input_disables_the_filter() {
+        assert_eq!(normalize_tags(None, None), None);
+        assert_eq!(normalize_tags(Some("   "), Some(" , ,#")), None);
+    }
+
+    /// Both params feed one list, de-duplicated: the list view sends `hashtag`, the grid sends
+    /// `hashtags`, and carrying a filter across views can legitimately set both to the same tag.
+    #[test]
+    fn single_and_csv_merge_without_duplicates() {
+        assert_eq!(
+            normalize_tags(Some("tanz"), Some("tanz,buffet")),
+            Some(vec!["tanz".to_string(), "buffet".to_string()])
+        );
+    }
+}

backend/src/handlers/host.rs

@@ -44,10 +44,6 @@ pub struct EventStatus {
     pub disk_low: bool,
 }
 
-/// Absolute floor below which free space is worth surfacing regardless of gallery size — the
-/// threshold the README has carried on the roadmap since v1.
-const LOW_DISK_FLOOR_BYTES: u64 = 10_000_000_000;
-
 /// Is free space low enough that the host needs to know?
 ///
 /// Two triggers, because a fixed threshold answers the wrong question. `postgres_data`,
@@ -59,15 +55,47 @@ const LOW_DISK_FLOOR_BYTES: u64 = 10_000_000_000;
 /// gallery-sized archives, and the only moment a host can do anything about that is BEFORE they
 /// release. Warning at "you could not build the keepsake right now" turns a post-event dead end
 /// into a decision someone can still make.
+///
+/// IT MUST FIRE BEFORE THE UPLOAD GATE CLOSES, and that is why the reserve and the margin are
+/// here. The gate in `handlers::upload` refuses at
+/// `free < keepsake_required + DISK_RESERVE_BYTES + UPLOAD_GATE_HEADROOM_BYTES`;
+/// warning at `free < keepsake_required` alone meant the two differed by the whole reserve, so
+/// the wall was always hit FIRST. Every guest would be blocked from uploading while this
+/// dashboard showed a comfortable disk and no banner at all — on the shipped 40 GB box, uploads
+/// stopping with ~27 GB free and nothing on screen to explain it, with no operator present.
+///
+/// The 25% margin makes it a warning rather than an obituary: the host sees it while there is
+/// still room to act (delete a few large videos, which refunds immediately and reopens the gate).
 fn disk_is_low(free: u64, keepsake_required: u64) -> bool {
-    free < LOW_DISK_FLOOR_BYTES || free < keepsake_required
+    // Mirrors the gate EXACTLY, headroom included. The gate now demands
+    // `UPLOAD_GATE_HEADROOM_BYTES` more than the export preflight does, so that ordinary
+    // end-of-night writes cannot flip the preflight after uploads have already stopped. Leaving
+    // that term out here would shrink the warning's lead by 1.5 GB — and the whole point of this
+    // function is that the banner must appear while the host can still act.
+    let gate_closes_at = keepsake_required
+        .saturating_add(crate::handlers::upload::DISK_RESERVE_BYTES as u64)
+        .saturating_add(crate::handlers::upload::UPLOAD_GATE_HEADROOM_BYTES as u64);
+    let warn_at = gate_closes_at.saturating_add(gate_closes_at / 4);
+    // No separate absolute-floor clause. There used to be `free < LOW_DISK_FLOOR_BYTES ||` here,
+    // and it was unreachable: `gate_closes_at` is at least DISK_RESERVE_BYTES, so `warn_at` is at
+    // least 1.25x it (12.5 GB) — always above the 10 GB floor. Two tests were named after that
+    // clause and neither could fail if it were deleted. Keeping dead code that tests claim to
+    // cover is worse than not having it.
+    free < warn_at
 }
 
 /// Count non-banned hosts/admins in the event OTHER than `excluding` — the operators
 /// who would remain if `excluding` were demoted or banned. Used to enforce the "an event
 /// always keeps at least one operator" floor.
+///
+/// Takes a CONNECTION, not the pool, and every caller passes the same transaction it is about to
+/// write in — after taking [`lock_operator_floor`]. Read on the pool beforehand, this count was a
+/// snapshot that any concurrent operator-removing action could invalidate before the UPDATE landed:
+/// an admin demoting host B while host A calls `DELETE /me` saw two independent checks each observe
+/// the other still present, both commit, and the event end up with zero operators — which is not
+/// recoverable from inside the app, since appointing an operator requires being one.
 async fn remaining_operators(
-    state: &AppState,
+    conn: &mut sqlx::PgConnection,
     event_id: Uuid,
     excluding: Uuid,
 ) -> Result<i64, AppError> {
@@ -78,11 +106,36 @@ async fn remaining_operators(
     )
     .bind(event_id)
     .bind(excluding)
-    .fetch_one(&state.pool)
+    .fetch_one(conn)
     .await?;
     Ok(count)
 }
 
+/// Serialise every action that can remove an operator from an event.
+///
+/// The same key `me::delete_account` takes — namespace 4242, `hashtext(event_id)` — and it MUST
+/// stay identical, or the two families of caller lock against nothing. An advisory lock is used
+/// rather than a row lock because it is a separate lock space and so cannot join the
+/// `event`/`user` row-lock graph that moderation traffic already traverses in both directions;
+/// it is released automatically when the transaction ends.
+///
+/// **Call this FIRST in the transaction, before taking any row lock.** Being a separate lock space
+/// means it cannot form a cycle *with itself*, not that ordering is free: all three callers go on
+/// to lock `user` and `event` rows, so a caller that took those rows first and reached for this
+/// lock afterwards would deadlock against one that did it the other way round. Postgres would
+/// break the tie by killing one transaction with a 500. Every caller acquires it first; keep it
+/// that way.
+pub(crate) async fn lock_operator_floor(
+    conn: &mut sqlx::PgConnection,
+    event_id: Uuid,
+) -> Result<(), AppError> {
+    sqlx::query("SELECT pg_advisory_xact_lock(4242, hashtext($1::text))")
+        .bind(event_id)
+        .execute(conn)
+        .await?;
+    Ok(())
+}
+
 #[derive(Deserialize)]
 pub struct SetRoleRequest {
     pub role: String,
@@ -179,14 +232,6 @@ pub async fn ban_user(
         ));
     }
 
-    // Floor: never leave the event with zero operators. Banning removes the target from
-    // the active-operator pool, so refuse if they're the last non-banned host/admin.
-    if target.0 == "host" && remaining_operators(&state, auth.event_id, user_id).await? == 0 {
-        return Err(AppError::BadRequest(
-            "Der letzte Host kann nicht gesperrt werden.".into(),
-        ));
-    }
-
     // Ban ALWAYS hides: a banned user's content is "gone" everywhere. The visibility
     // views/queries now also filter on `is_banned` (defense in depth), and we set
     // `uploads_hidden` so the existing `user-hidden` live-eviction path fires too. The old
@@ -201,6 +246,21 @@ pub async fn ban_user(
     //
     // The ban and the keepsake invalidation are ONE transaction — see `host_delete_upload`.
     let mut tx = state.pool.begin().await?;
+
+    // Floor: never leave the event with zero operators. Banning removes the target from the
+    // active-operator pool, so refuse if they're the last non-banned host/admin.
+    //
+    // INSIDE the transaction and behind the operator lock — see `remaining_operators`. Checked on
+    // the pool beforehand, this raced `set_role` and `DELETE /me` into an event with no operator.
+    if target.0 == "host" {
+        lock_operator_floor(&mut tx, auth.event_id).await?;
+        if remaining_operators(&mut tx, auth.event_id, user_id).await? == 0 {
+            return Err(AppError::BadRequest(
+                "Der letzte Host kann nicht gesperrt werden.".into(),
+            ));
+        }
+    }
+
     sqlx::query(
         "UPDATE \"user\"
          SET is_banned = TRUE, uploads_hidden = TRUE, uploads_hidden_at = NOW()
@@ -242,6 +302,19 @@ pub async fn ban_user(
         "host: ban_user"
     );
 
+    crate::services::audit::record(
+        &state.pool,
+        auth.event_id,
+        auth.user_id,
+        None,
+        auth.role.clone(),
+        "ban_user",
+        Some(user_id),
+        None,
+        None,
+    )
+    .await;
+
     Ok(StatusCode::NO_CONTENT)
 }
 
@@ -300,12 +373,40 @@ pub async fn unban_user(
         start_regen(&state, r);
     }
 
+    // The exact mirror of `ban_user`'s `user-hidden`, and it was missing entirely: every open
+    // feed and the unattended projector kept the guest evicted until somebody reloaded the page
+    // by hand. Meanwhile the host's own confirm copy promises the photos "come back to the
+    // gallery, die Diashow und den Export" — so the one surface that would have shown the host
+    // their action had worked showed the opposite.
+    //
+    // Also the signal a banned guest's upload queue waits on: their queued photos parked with
+    // the blob intact rather than being purged (see `AppError::UserBanned`), and this is what
+    // releases them.
+    let _ = state.sse_tx.send(SseEvent::new(
+        "user-shown",
+        serde_json::json!({ "user_id": user_id }).to_string(),
+    ));
+
     tracing::info!(
         actor_user_id = %auth.user_id,
         target_user_id = %user_id,
         event_id = %auth.event_id,
         "host: unban_user"
     );
+
+    crate::services::audit::record(
+        &state.pool,
+        auth.event_id,
+        auth.user_id,
+        None,
+        auth.role.clone(),
+        "unban_user",
+        Some(user_id),
+        None,
+        None,
+    )
+    .await;
+
     Ok(StatusCode::NO_CONTENT)
 }
 
@@ -406,21 +507,26 @@ pub async fn set_role(
 
     // Floor: demoting the last non-banned host/admin to guest would leave the event with
     // no operator. Refuse.
-    if new_role == "guest"
-        && target.0 == "host"
-        && remaining_operators(&state, auth.event_id, user_id).await? == 0
-    {
-        return Err(AppError::BadRequest(
-            "Der letzte Host kann nicht zum Gast gemacht werden.".into(),
-        ));
+    //
+    // The check and the UPDATE are ONE transaction, behind the operator lock — see
+    // `remaining_operators`. Split apart on the pool, this raced `ban_user` and `DELETE /me`.
+    let mut tx = state.pool.begin().await?;
+    if new_role == "guest" && target.0 == "host" {
+        lock_operator_floor(&mut tx, auth.event_id).await?;
+        if remaining_operators(&mut tx, auth.event_id, user_id).await? == 0 {
+            return Err(AppError::BadRequest(
+                "Der letzte Host kann nicht zum Gast gemacht werden.".into(),
+            ));
+        }
     }
 
     sqlx::query("UPDATE \"user\" SET role = $2::user_role WHERE id = $1 AND event_id = $3")
         .bind(user_id)
         .bind(new_role)
         .bind(auth.event_id)
-        .execute(&state.pool)
+        .execute(&mut *tx)
         .await?;
+    tx.commit().await?;
     tracing::info!(
         actor_user_id = %auth.user_id,
         target_user_id = %user_id,
@@ -429,6 +535,19 @@ pub async fn set_role(
         new_role,
         "host: set_role"
     );
+
+    crate::services::audit::record(
+        &state.pool,
+        auth.event_id,
+        auth.user_id,
+        None,
+        auth.role.clone(),
+        "set_role",
+        Some(user_id),
+        None,
+        None,
+    )
+    .await;
     Ok(StatusCode::NO_CONTENT)
 }
 
@@ -521,6 +640,19 @@ pub async fn reset_user_pin(
         "host: reset_user_pin"
     );
 
+    crate::services::audit::record(
+        &state.pool,
+        auth.event_id,
+        auth.user_id,
+        None,
+        auth.role.clone(),
+        "reset_pin",
+        Some(user_id),
+        None,
+        None,
+    )
+    .await;
+
     Ok(Json(PinResetResponse { pin }))
 }
 
@@ -597,8 +729,13 @@ pub fn start_regen(state: &AppState, regen: crate::services::export::PendingRege
         state.config.comments_enabled,
         // Debounced: a takedown pass is a burst, and each request retires the last generation. The
         // delay lets superseded workers fail their claim and do zero work instead of each building
-        // a full archive. See export::REGEN_DEBOUNCE.
-        crate::services::export::REGEN_DEBOUNCE,
+        // a full archive.
+        //
+        // Measured from the START of the burst, not from this request — a fixed per-request delay
+        // meant a steady stream of invalidations faster than one per 20s deferred the build
+        // forever, leaving the keepsake permanently 404 and the UI stuck on "Wird vorbereitet…".
+        // See export::regen_delay_for.
+        crate::services::export::regen_delay_for(regen.event_id),
         state.pool.clone(),
         state.config.media_path.clone(),
         state.config.export_path.clone(),
@@ -619,7 +756,9 @@ pub async fn host_delete_upload(
     // invalidation didn't, the taken-down photo would stay downloadable forever and nothing would
     // notice (the keepsake still looks complete, and the host can no longer find the upload to retry).
     let mut tx = state.pool.begin().await?;
-    let deleted = Upload::soft_delete_in_event(&mut tx, upload_id, auth.event_id).await?;
+    // `by_host: true` — the takedown holds the uploader's idempotency key so a late retry from
+    // their queue cannot resurrect the photo. See migration 031.
+    let deleted = Upload::soft_delete_in_event(&mut tx, upload_id, auth.event_id, true).await?;
     if !deleted {
         return Err(AppError::NotFound("Upload nicht gefunden.".into()));
     }
@@ -646,6 +785,19 @@ pub async fn host_delete_upload(
         "host: host_delete_upload"
     );
 
+    crate::services::audit::record(
+        &state.pool,
+        auth.event_id,
+        auth.user_id,
+        None,
+        auth.role.clone(),
+        "delete_upload",
+        Some(upload_id),
+        None,
+        None,
+    )
+    .await;
+
     Ok(StatusCode::NO_CONTENT)
 }
 
@@ -683,12 +835,25 @@ pub async fn host_delete_comment(
         comment_id = %comment_id,
         "host: host_delete_comment"
     );
+
+    crate::services::audit::record(
+        &state.pool,
+        auth.event_id,
+        auth.user_id,
+        None,
+        auth.role.clone(),
+        "delete_comment",
+        Some(comment_id),
+        None,
+        None,
+    )
+    .await;
     Ok(StatusCode::NO_CONTENT)
 }
 
 pub async fn close_event(
     State(state): State<AppState>,
-    RequireHost(_auth): RequireHost,
+    RequireHost(auth): RequireHost,
 ) -> Result<StatusCode, AppError> {
     let result = sqlx::query(
         "UPDATE event SET uploads_locked_at = NOW() WHERE slug = $1 AND uploads_locked_at IS NULL",
@@ -703,12 +868,27 @@ pub async fn close_event(
         let _ = state.sse_tx.send(SseEvent::new("event-closed", "{}"));
     }
 
+    // Was logged NOWHERE at all before this — not even a tracing line. A host reading
+    // the record the morning after had no way to see when uploads were locked or the
+    // gallery released, which are the two actions that change what every guest can do.
+    crate::services::audit::record(
+        &state.pool,
+        auth.event_id,
+        auth.user_id,
+        None,
+        auth.role.clone(),
+        "lock_uploads",
+        None,
+        None,
+        None,
+    )
+    .await;
     Ok(StatusCode::NO_CONTENT)
 }
 
 pub async fn open_event(
     State(state): State<AppState>,
-    RequireHost(_auth): RequireHost,
+    RequireHost(auth): RequireHost,
 ) -> Result<StatusCode, AppError> {
     // Reopening invalidates any prior release: the keepsake was snapshotted at release time, so
     // allowing new uploads afterwards would silently diverge the live feed from the frozen export.
@@ -734,12 +914,27 @@ pub async fn open_event(
         let _ = state.sse_tx.send(SseEvent::new("event-opened", "{}"));
     }
 
+    // Was logged NOWHERE at all before this — not even a tracing line. A host reading
+    // the record the morning after had no way to see when uploads were locked or the
+    // gallery released, which are the two actions that change what every guest can do.
+    crate::services::audit::record(
+        &state.pool,
+        auth.event_id,
+        auth.user_id,
+        None,
+        auth.role.clone(),
+        "unlock_uploads",
+        None,
+        None,
+        None,
+    )
+    .await;
     Ok(StatusCode::NO_CONTENT)
 }
 
 pub async fn release_gallery(
     State(state): State<AppState>,
-    RequireHost(_auth): RequireHost,
+    RequireHost(auth): RequireHost,
 ) -> Result<StatusCode, AppError> {
     // The release claim, the epoch bump, the upload lock and BOTH job rows are written in ONE
     // transaction. Two reasons, both of which were live bugs:
@@ -795,6 +990,20 @@ pub async fn release_gallery(
     let _ = state.sse_tx.send(SseEvent::new("event-closed", "{}"));
 
     // Detached — survives this handler being cancelled.
+    //
+    // SPAWNED IMMEDIATELY AFTER THE COMMIT, BEFORE ANY OTHER `.await`. Every `invalidate_and_arm`
+    // call site does this; `me::delete_account` carries the same note. The audit write below used
+    // to sit here, and it is two pool round-trips that can each wait up to the 5 s acquire timeout
+    // — right at the moment `event-closed` has just fanned out to ~100 phones whose queues all hit
+    // the API at once, so the pool is as contended as it ever gets. Drop the handler future during
+    // that suspension (the host's phone sleeps, the tab closes, Caddy times the request out) and
+    // the task never spawns: the event is released, uploads are locked, both `export_job` rows sit
+    // `pending` at the live epoch, and no worker exists. `/export/*` 404s, the page sits on "Wird
+    // vorbereitet…", `recover_exports` only runs at boot, and `release_gallery` refuses a retry
+    // because the gallery is already released.
+    //
+    // This is the one path that arms the FIRST build of the keepsake, so it is the worst possible
+    // place to reintroduce that window.
     crate::services::export::spawn_export_jobs(
         event_id,
         event_name,
@@ -807,28 +1016,131 @@ pub async fn release_gallery(
         state.sse_tx.clone(),
     );
 
+    // Was logged NOWHERE at all before this — not even a tracing line. A host reading
+    // the record the morning after had no way to see when uploads were locked or the
+    // gallery released, which are the two actions that change what every guest can do.
+    //
+    // Last, deliberately: it is best-effort by design (it swallows its own errors), so nothing
+    // downstream may depend on it having completed.
+    crate::services::audit::record(
+        &state.pool,
+        auth.event_id,
+        auth.user_id,
+        None,
+        auth.role.clone(),
+        "release_gallery",
+        None,
+        None,
+        None,
+    )
+    .await;
+
     Ok(StatusCode::NO_CONTENT)
 }
 
 #[cfg(test)]
 mod tests {
-    use super::{LOW_DISK_FLOOR_BYTES, disk_is_low};
+    use super::disk_is_low;
+    use crate::handlers::upload::{DISK_RESERVE_BYTES, UPLOAD_GATE_HEADROOM_BYTES};
+    use crate::services::export::required_free_bytes;
 
     const GB: u64 = 1_000_000_000;
 
     #[test]
     fn a_healthy_disk_with_room_for_the_keepsake_is_not_low() {
-        assert!(!disk_is_low(40 * GB, 25 * GB));
+        // Room for the keepsake AND the reserve the upload gate holds back, with margin.
+        assert!(!disk_is_low(60 * GB, 25 * GB));
     }
 
+    /// Renamed from `the_absolute_floor_fires_...`: there is no separate floor clause any more
+    /// (see `disk_is_low`). What still has to hold is the behaviour the floor was there FOR — a
+    /// nearly-empty disk is low even when the gallery is small enough that the keepsake term
+    /// alone would clear it, because all three volumes share one filesystem and Postgres needs
+    /// room to write.
     #[test]
-    fn the_absolute_floor_fires_even_when_the_gallery_is_tiny() {
+    fn a_nearly_empty_disk_is_low_even_when_the_gallery_is_tiny() {
         // All three volumes share one filesystem, so running out doesn't degrade one subsystem —
         // Postgres stops being able to write and the event goes down. A 1 GB gallery would clear
         // the keepsake test comfortably; the floor is what catches this.
         assert!(disk_is_low(5 * GB, GB));
-        assert!(disk_is_low(LOW_DISK_FLOOR_BYTES - 1, 0));
-        assert!(!disk_is_low(LOW_DISK_FLOOR_BYTES, 0));
+        assert!(disk_is_low(9 * GB, 0));
+        assert!(!disk_is_low(20 * GB, 0), "a roomy empty disk is not low");
+    }
+
+    /// THE PROPERTY THIS EXISTS FOR: the host must be warned BEFORE guests are blocked.
+    ///
+    /// `handlers::upload` refuses at `free < keepsake_required + DISK_RESERVE_BYTES`. If the
+    /// banner fires only at or below that, the host's first signal is 100 guests being unable
+    /// to upload while the dashboard shows a comfortable disk — with nobody on site to ask.
+    #[test]
+    fn the_banner_always_fires_before_the_upload_gate_closes() {
+        // Asserting `disk_is_low(gate_closes_at, required)` is what this used to do, and it was a
+        // tautology: `disk_is_low` recomputes the same `gate_closes_at` internally and compares
+        // against `gate + gate/4`, so the assertion reduced to `G < G + G/4` — true for every G,
+        // for any margin, even a margin of zero. It could not detect the banner being moved to
+        // exactly the gate, which is the regression it is named for.
+        //
+        // So pin the GAP instead: find the free-space level at which the banner starts, and
+        // require it to be strictly above the level at which the gate closes, by a usable amount.
+        for media_gb in [0u64, 1, 4, 8, 16, 32] {
+            let required = required_free_bytes(media_gb * GB, 2);
+            let gate_closes_at =
+                required + DISK_RESERVE_BYTES as u64 + UPLOAD_GATE_HEADROOM_BYTES as u64;
+
+            // Just above the gate: guests can still upload, and the host must already be warned.
+            assert!(
+                disk_is_low(gate_closes_at + 1, required),
+                "at media={media_gb}GB the banner is not yet showing while the gate still allows uploads"
+            );
+
+            // The warning must lead by a margin the host can act inside, not by one byte.
+            let mut warn_starts_at = gate_closes_at;
+            while disk_is_low(warn_starts_at, required) {
+                warn_starts_at += GB / 10;
+            }
+            assert!(
+                warn_starts_at >= gate_closes_at + gate_closes_at / 5,
+                "at media={media_gb}GB the banner leads the gate by only                  {} bytes",
+                warn_starts_at - gate_closes_at
+            );
+        }
+    }
+
+    /// The invariant the headroom exists for: uploads must stop while the keepsake can STILL be
+    /// built, with room to spare — not at the exact instant the preflight reaches its own limit.
+    ///
+    /// Both thresholds used to be `required_free_bytes(media, 2) + DISK_RESERVE_BYTES`, identically.
+    /// So the moment the gate refused its first upload, the export preflight was already sitting on
+    /// its limit, and every byte written afterwards (WAL, container logs, the compression backlog
+    /// draining at exactly that hour) pushed it under. The release would then COMMIT — event closed,
+    /// uploads locked, epoch bumped, `event-closed` fanned out to every phone — and only then would
+    /// both workers bail, with no second release possible.
+    #[test]
+    fn the_upload_gate_closes_before_the_export_preflight_would_refuse() {
+        for media_gb in [0u64, 1, 4, 8, 16, 32] {
+            let required = required_free_bytes(media_gb * GB, 2);
+
+            // `services::export::preflight` bails below this.
+            let preflight_refuses_below = required + DISK_RESERVE_BYTES as u64;
+            // `handlers::upload` refuses below this.
+            let gate_refuses_below = preflight_refuses_below + UPLOAD_GATE_HEADROOM_BYTES as u64;
+
+            assert!(
+                gate_refuses_below > preflight_refuses_below,
+                "at media={media_gb}GB the gate and the preflight share a threshold, so the \
+                 keepsake's fate rests on whatever is written after uploads stop"
+            );
+
+            // At the instant the last upload is refused, the preflight must still pass with the
+            // whole headroom to spare — that is the slack the night's remaining writes consume.
+            let free_when_gate_closes = gate_refuses_below;
+            assert!(
+                free_when_gate_closes
+                    >= preflight_refuses_below + UPLOAD_GATE_HEADROOM_BYTES as u64,
+                "at media={media_gb}GB there is no slack between the gate closing and the \
+                 preflight failing"
+            );
+        }
     }
 
     #[test]
@@ -841,13 +1153,22 @@ mod tests {
 
     #[test]
     fn the_keepsake_trigger_is_exact_at_the_boundary() {
-        assert!(!disk_is_low(66 * GB, 66 * GB), "exactly enough is enough");
-        assert!(disk_is_low(66 * GB - 1, 66 * GB));
+        // The boundary is the UPLOAD GATE's threshold plus a 25% margin, not the bare keepsake
+        // size — see `disk_is_low`. Warning at the bare size fired only after the gate had
+        // already blocked every guest.
+        let required = 20 * GB;
+        let gate = required + DISK_RESERVE_BYTES as u64 + UPLOAD_GATE_HEADROOM_BYTES as u64;
+        let warn_at = gate + gate / 4;
+        assert!(!disk_is_low(warn_at, required), "exactly enough is enough");
+        assert!(disk_is_low(warn_at - 1, required));
     }
 
     #[test]
-    fn an_empty_gallery_needs_nothing_and_only_the_floor_applies() {
-        assert!(!disk_is_low(11 * GB, 0));
+    fn an_empty_gallery_still_reserves_room_for_postgres() {
+        // With no gallery the keepsake term is 0, so the warn threshold collapses to
+        // 1.25 x (DISK_RESERVE_BYTES + UPLOAD_GATE_HEADROOM_BYTES) = 1.25 x 11.5 GB = 14.375 GB,
+        // which dominates the 10 GB absolute floor.
+        assert!(!disk_is_low(15 * GB, 0));
         assert!(disk_is_low(9 * GB, 0));
     }
 }

backend/src/handlers/me.rs

@@ -75,6 +75,14 @@ pub struct MeContextDto {
     /// The gallery has been released and the export snapshotted — uploads are permanently
     /// closed for this run (release ⇒ lock, and reopening regenerates).
     pub gallery_released: bool,
+    /// This guest is banned: a deliberately READ-ONLY ban (see `handlers/host.rs`) — they keep
+    /// the feed and the keepsake, but every write is refused.
+    ///
+    /// Exposed so the UI can SAY so. Without it the client had no idea, so the upload button,
+    /// the like button and "Löschen" all rendered enabled and returned 403 "Du bist gesperrt."
+    /// on every tap — a guest tapping upload repeatedly with nobody to ask. The lock case
+    /// (`uploads_locked`) has always been surfaced for exactly this reason; a ban was not.
+    pub is_banned: bool,
 }
 
 pub async fn get_context(
@@ -110,5 +118,203 @@ pub async fn get_context(
         storage_quota_enabled,
         uploads_locked,
         gallery_released,
+        is_banned: user.is_banned,
     }))
 }
+
+/// `(original_path, preview_path, thumbnail_path, display_path)` for one upload.
+type UploadFilePaths = (String, Option<String>, Option<String>, Option<String>);
+
+/// Delete the caller's own account and everything attached to it.
+///
+/// The erasure path (H18). There was no user-deletion route at ANY role, so honouring a "please
+/// remove my photos and my name" request meant hand-written SQL against production — during or
+/// after a wedding, by whoever happened to have psql access. Deletion also never removed text:
+/// captions, comment bodies and hashtag links survived indefinitely by design, so even the
+/// existing per-photo delete left the guest's words in the database and in the keepsake.
+///
+/// Self-service on purpose. The alternative (host-initiated only) puts a guest's erasure request
+/// through a third party who is at a party, and the join page's data notice now promises this.
+///
+/// ORDER MATTERS. `upload.user_id` and `comment.user_id` are plain FKs with NO `ON DELETE CASCADE`
+/// (migration 002), so deleting the user first fails on a constraint violation. Children first,
+/// then the row itself — at which point `session`, `like` and `pin_reset_request` do cascade.
+pub async fn delete_account(
+    State(state): State<AppState>,
+    auth: AuthUser,
+) -> Result<axum::http::StatusCode, AppError> {
+    // The last host/admin may not erase themselves: it would leave the event with no operator and
+    // no way to appoint one. Mirrors the floor `set_role` and `ban_user` already enforce.
+    let user = User::find_by_id(&state.pool, auth.user_id)
+        .await?
+        .ok_or_else(|| AppError::NotFound("Benutzer nicht gefunden.".into()))?;
+    if matches!(user.role, UserRole::Host | UserRole::Admin) {
+        let others = sqlx::query_scalar::<_, i64>(
+            "SELECT COUNT(*) FROM \"user\"
+              WHERE event_id = $1 AND id != $2
+                AND role IN ('host', 'admin') AND is_banned = FALSE",
+        )
+        .bind(auth.event_id)
+        .bind(auth.user_id)
+        .fetch_one(&state.pool)
+        .await?;
+        if others == 0 {
+            return Err(AppError::BadRequest(
+                "Du bist der letzte Gastgeber. Ernenne zuerst einen anderen Gastgeber, bevor du \
+                 dein Konto löschst."
+                    .into(),
+            ));
+        }
+    }
+
+    // Collect the file paths BEFORE the rows go, or they are unrecoverable. Every derivative, not
+    // just the original: a preview left behind is still the guest's photo.
+    let files: Vec<UploadFilePaths> = sqlx::query_as(
+        "SELECT original_path, preview_path, thumbnail_path, display_path
+           FROM upload WHERE user_id = $1",
+    )
+    .bind(auth.user_id)
+    .fetch_all(&state.pool)
+    .await?;
+
+    let mut tx = state.pool.begin().await?;
+
+    // The last-host guard, AUTHORITATIVELY — inside the transaction, holding a lock.
+    //
+    // The pre-check further up runs on the pool before this transaction opens, so two hosts
+    // deleting themselves at the same moment each saw the other and both proceeded, leaving the
+    // event with NO operator: nobody to moderate, nobody to release the gallery, and no way to
+    // appoint anyone because appointing requires a host. Not recoverable from inside the app.
+    //
+    // Serialised with a transaction-scoped ADVISORY lock, not a row lock. `FOR UPDATE` on the
+    // other operators\' rows looks like the obvious answer and is the wrong one: each deleter would
+    // lock the OTHER\'s row and then try to delete its own, so the two block on each other and
+    // Postgres resolves it by killing one with a deadlock error — the invariant holds, but the
+    // loser gets a 500 instead of the sentence below. Locking the `event` row instead would
+    // serialise cleanly, but it inverts the lock order every moderation path uses (upload/user
+    // rows first, event last). An advisory lock is a separate lock space, so it cannot join the
+    // row-lock graph at all, and it is released automatically when this transaction ends.
+    //
+    // FIRST STATEMENT IN THE TRANSACTION, before any row lock — the ORDER matters as much as the
+    // lock. `ban_user` and `set_role` take this same lock and then go on to lock `user` and
+    // `event` rows. If this path grabbed those rows first and reached for the advisory lock
+    // afterwards, the two would deadlock, each holding what the other needs, and Postgres would
+    // kill one with a 500: the invariant would survive, but a host deleting their account would
+    // get an error page instead of the sentence below.
+    //
+    // Taking it up front also means the refusal path does no work at all before answering.
+    if matches!(user.role, UserRole::Host | UserRole::Admin) {
+        // Shared with `host::ban_user` and `host::set_role` — the same key, by construction rather
+        // than by two copies agreeing. All three remove an operator, so all three must serialise
+        // against each other or the floor is enforceable only against its own kind of caller.
+        crate::handlers::host::lock_operator_floor(&mut tx, auth.event_id).await?;
+        let others: Vec<uuid::Uuid> = sqlx::query_scalar(
+            "SELECT id FROM \"user\"
+              WHERE event_id = $1 AND id != $2
+                AND role IN ('host', 'admin') AND is_banned = FALSE",
+        )
+        .bind(auth.event_id)
+        .bind(auth.user_id)
+        .fetch_all(&mut *tx)
+        .await?;
+        if others.is_empty() {
+            return Err(AppError::BadRequest(
+                "Du bist der letzte Gastgeber. Ernenne zuerst einen anderen Gastgeber, bevor du \
+                 dein Konto löschst."
+                    .into(),
+            ));
+        }
+    }
+
+    // Comments the guest wrote on OTHER people's photos. Hard delete, not `deleted_at`: this is
+    // erasure, and a soft delete leaves the body in the table and in the keepsake's data.json.
+    sqlx::query("DELETE FROM comment WHERE user_id = $1")
+        .bind(auth.user_id)
+        .execute(&mut *tx)
+        .await?;
+    // Their uploads. Cascades comments and likes ON those uploads, plus upload_hashtag links.
+    sqlx::query("DELETE FROM upload WHERE user_id = $1")
+        .bind(auth.user_id)
+        .execute(&mut *tx)
+        .await?;
+    // Invalidate the keepsake inside the same transaction — an already-released archive still
+    // contains this guest's photos and captions, and erasure that leaves them in the downloadable
+    // ZIP has not happened. Returns None when the event isn't released, in which case there is
+    // nothing to rebuild.
+    let regen = crate::services::export::invalidate_and_arm(
+        &mut tx,
+        &state.config.event_slug,
+        crate::services::export::Affects::Both,
+    )
+    .await?;
+    // And the account. `session`, `like` and `pin_reset_request` cascade from here.
+    sqlx::query("DELETE FROM \"user\" WHERE id = $1")
+        .bind(auth.user_id)
+        .execute(&mut *tx)
+        .await?;
+    tx.commit().await?;
+
+    // IMMEDIATELY after the commit, before any other `.await`. Every other `invalidate_and_arm`
+    // call site does this; this one used to spawn the workers *after* the file-removal loop below,
+    // and axum drops a handler future the moment the client disconnects. Drop it inside that loop
+    // and the keepsake is left with the epoch bumped, both `export_job` rows armed `pending` at
+    // that epoch, and NO WORKER: `/export/zip` and `/export/html` 404, the UI sits on
+    // "Wird vorbereitet…" forever, and `recover_exports` only runs at boot. Deleting your account
+    // from a phone that walks out of wifi range is enough to do it.
+    if let Some(r) = regen {
+        crate::handlers::host::start_regen(&state, r);
+    }
+
+    // Best effort, after the commit. Anything missed here is an orphan with no row pointing at it,
+    // which `sweep_orphan_originals` reclaims on its next pass — so a failure delays reclamation
+    // rather than leaving the file referenced.
+    for (original, preview, thumbnail, display) in &files {
+        for rel in [
+            Some(original),
+            preview.as_ref(),
+            thumbnail.as_ref(),
+            display.as_ref(),
+        ]
+        .into_iter()
+        .flatten()
+        {
+            let abs = state.config.media_path.join(rel);
+            if let Err(e) = tokio::fs::remove_file(&abs).await
+                && e.kind() != std::io::ErrorKind::NotFound
+            {
+                tracing::warn!(error = ?e, path = %abs.display(), "account deletion: could not remove media file");
+            }
+        }
+    }
+
+    // Evict their content from every open feed and the projector. `user-hidden` is exactly the
+    // right signal — it already means "this user's cards must go" — and reusing it means every
+    // client already handles this with no new event type.
+    let _ = state.sse_tx.send(crate::state::SseEvent::new(
+        "user-hidden",
+        serde_json::json!({ "user_id": auth.user_id }).to_string(),
+    ));
+
+    // Audited like the host actions it resembles, with the actor and target being the same person.
+    //
+    // The names are passed EXPLICITLY here, unlike every other call site. `audit::record` resolves
+    // a missing name by looking the id up in `"user"` — and this handler has just hard-deleted that
+    // row, so the lookup would find nothing and write the NULL that makes the record unreadable.
+    // This is the row most likely to be read later ("whose photos disappeared?"), and migration 029
+    // made these columns non-FK precisely so it would survive the deletion.
+    crate::services::audit::record(
+        &state.pool,
+        auth.event_id,
+        auth.user_id,
+        Some(&user.display_name),
+        user.role.clone(),
+        "delete_account",
+        Some(auth.user_id),
+        Some(&user.display_name),
+        Some(serde_json::json!({ "uploads_removed": files.len() })),
+    )
+    .await;
+
+    tracing::info!(user_id = %auth.user_id, uploads = files.len(), "account deleted by its owner");
+    Ok(axum::http::StatusCode::NO_CONTENT)
+}

backend/src/handlers/public.rs

@@ -21,6 +21,15 @@ pub struct PublicEventDto {
     pub theme_preset: String,
     pub theme_primary: String,
     pub theme_accent: String,
+    /// The operator's data notice, if they set one. Empty string when unset (migration 009
+    /// defaults it to `''`).
+    ///
+    /// Exposed PUBLICLY — it was only on `/me/context`, which requires a token, so the one place a
+    /// notice actually has to appear (before a name is collected) could not read it. The join page
+    /// pairs this with a baseline notice of its own, precisely because this can be empty: relying
+    /// on an operator-supplied string meant a stock deploy collected ~100 EU guests' photos of
+    /// identifiable people, including children, with no notice at the point of collection at all.
+    pub privacy_note: String,
 }
 
 /// Public event identity + presentation config, used by the pre-auth join/recover
@@ -40,5 +49,6 @@ pub async fn get_public_event(State(state): State<AppState>) -> Json<PublicEvent
             .await,
         theme_accent: config::get_str(cache, "theme_accent", &state.config.default_theme_accent)
             .await,
+        privacy_note: config::get_str(cache, "privacy_note", "").await,
     })
 }

backend/src/handlers/social.rs

@@ -104,8 +104,17 @@ pub async fn toggle_like(
     // itself is already committed, so a failed count must not fail the request — but we
     // also must NOT broadcast/return a bogus 0 (that would push like_count: 0 to every
     // client until the next event). On error we skip the broadcast and return null.
+    // The `NOT u.is_banned` join is what makes "mirrors v_feed.like_count" true. Migration 028
+    // added it to the view and not here, so the two disagreed the moment anyone was banned: the
+    // host bans a guest, the feed correctly drops to the lower number, and then the very next like
+    // on that photo broadcasts the UNFILTERED count back to every open client — including the
+    // host's, who is watching that number to confirm the ban took. It stayed wrong until a full
+    // page-1 refetch. `like.user_id` is NOT NULL REFERENCES "user"(id), so the inner join can
+    // neither drop nor duplicate a row.
     let like_count = sqlx::query_scalar::<_, i64>(
-        "SELECT COUNT(DISTINCT user_id) FROM \"like\" WHERE upload_id = $1",
+        "SELECT COUNT(DISTINCT l.user_id) FROM \"like\" l \
+         JOIN \"user\" u ON u.id = l.user_id \
+         WHERE l.upload_id = $1 AND NOT u.is_banned",
     )
     .bind(upload_id)
     .fetch_one(&state.pool)
@@ -195,7 +204,14 @@ pub async fn add_comment(
 
     // Insert the comment and link its hashtags atomically, so a crash mid-loop
     // can't leave a committed comment with only some of its tags indexed.
-    let tags = hashtag::extract_hashtags(text);
+    let mut tags = hashtag::extract_hashtags(text);
+    // Deterministic lock order, matching the upload path. `Hashtag::upsert` takes row locks,
+    // so two transactions touching the same two tags in OPPOSITE order deadlock — Postgres
+    // aborts one after ~1s and that guest's comment 500s. `extract_hashtags` returns them in
+    // text order, which is exactly the unordered case. Sort on the NORMALISED form, because
+    // that is the key `upsert` locks on.
+    tags.sort_by_key(|t| t.trim().trim_start_matches('#').to_lowercase());
+    tags.dedup_by_key(|t| t.trim().trim_start_matches('#').to_lowercase());
     let mut tx = state.pool.begin().await?;
     let comment = Comment::create(&mut *tx, upload_id, auth.user_id, text).await?;
     for tag in &tags {
@@ -215,8 +231,13 @@ pub async fn add_comment(
     // over the same deleted_at filter is identical since comment.id is the PK). The
     // count + broadcast are a UI optimisation — the comment is already committed, so a
     // failure here must not fail the request. Swallow the error and skip the broadcast.
+    // `NOT u.is_banned` for the same reason as `like_count` above — see that comment. Migration
+    // 028 put this filter in `v_feed.comment_count` and `Comment::list_for_upload`, but not here,
+    // so posting a comment pushed the pre-ban total back to every client.
     if let Ok(comment_count) = sqlx::query_scalar::<_, i64>(
-        "SELECT COUNT(*) FROM comment WHERE upload_id = $1 AND deleted_at IS NULL",
+        "SELECT COUNT(*) FROM comment c \
+         JOIN \"user\" u ON u.id = c.user_id \
+         WHERE c.upload_id = $1 AND c.deleted_at IS NULL AND NOT u.is_banned",
     )
     .bind(upload_id)
     .fetch_one(&state.pool)

backend/src/handlers/sse.rs

@@ -13,6 +13,7 @@ use tokio_stream::wrappers::errors::BroadcastStreamRecvError;
 use crate::auth::middleware::AuthUser;
 use crate::error::AppError;
 use crate::models::session::Session;
+use crate::services::sse_tickets::TicketKind;
 use crate::state::AppState;
 
 #[derive(Deserialize)]
@@ -38,7 +39,29 @@ pub async fn issue_ticket(
     State(state): State<AppState>,
     auth: AuthUser,
 ) -> Result<Json<StreamTicketResponse>, AppError> {
-    let ticket = state.sse_tickets.issue(auth.token_hash);
+    // The endpoint had no rate limit at all. Authentication is not a bound here: one valid
+    // session could loop it freely. 60/min is far above a real client (one ticket per SSE
+    // (re)connect, and reconnects are backed off) while capping a loop.
+    if let Err(retry_after_secs) = state.rate_limiter.check_with_retry(
+        format!("sse_ticket:{}", auth.user_id),
+        60,
+        Duration::from_secs(60),
+    ) {
+        return Err(AppError::TooManyRequests(
+            "Zu viele Verbindungsversuche. Bitte warte kurz.".into(),
+            Some(retry_after_secs),
+        ));
+    }
+
+    let ticket = state
+        .sse_tickets
+        .issue(auth.token_hash, TicketKind::Sse)
+        .ok_or_else(|| {
+            AppError::ServiceUnavailable(
+                "Server ist gerade ausgelastet. Live-Updates folgen in Kürze.".into(),
+                Some(30),
+            )
+        })?;
     let server_time = sqlx::query_scalar("SELECT NOW()")
         .fetch_one(&state.pool)
         .await?;
@@ -48,6 +71,57 @@ pub async fn issue_ticket(
     }))
 }
 
+/// Live SSE streams one session may hold OPEN at once.
+///
+/// The ticket store's `MAX_TICKETS_PER_SESSION` bounds UNCONSUMED tickets, not open streams — so it
+/// never bounded this at all: mint a ticket, redeem it (freeing the slot), repeat. At the 60/min
+/// ticket ceiling one guest could accumulate 60 new live streams per minute indefinitely, each
+/// holding a broadcast receiver, a tokio task and a 60-second DB revalidation ticker.
+///
+/// 6 rather than 2: a guest legitimately has the feed in one tab, the diashow on a laptop, and both
+/// may briefly double during a reconnect before the old socket's `Drop` lands. Well above real use,
+/// far below anything that hurts.
+const MAX_OPEN_STREAMS_PER_SESSION: usize = 6;
+
+/// Open stream count per session token hash.
+type OpenStreams = std::collections::HashMap<String, usize>;
+static OPEN_STREAMS: std::sync::LazyLock<std::sync::Mutex<OpenStreams>> =
+    std::sync::LazyLock::new(|| std::sync::Mutex::new(OpenStreams::new()));
+
+/// Decrements the open-stream count for its session when the stream is dropped.
+///
+/// A `Drop` guard is the only thing that works here: a client vanishing off wifi never runs any
+/// cleanup path we write, but dropping the response future is exactly what happens.
+struct StreamSlot(String);
+
+impl Drop for StreamSlot {
+    fn drop(&mut self) {
+        if let Ok(mut map) = OPEN_STREAMS.lock()
+            && let Some(n) = map.get_mut(&self.0)
+        {
+            *n = n.saturating_sub(1);
+            if *n == 0 {
+                map.remove(&self.0);
+            }
+        }
+    }
+}
+
+/// Claim one of this session's stream slots, or `None` when it is already at the cap.
+fn claim_stream_slot(token_hash: &str) -> Option<StreamSlot> {
+    let mut map = match OPEN_STREAMS.lock() {
+        Ok(m) => m,
+        // Never let a poisoned lock take live updates down for the whole venue.
+        Err(e) => e.into_inner(),
+    };
+    let n = map.entry(token_hash.to_string()).or_insert(0);
+    if *n >= MAX_OPEN_STREAMS_PER_SESSION {
+        return None;
+    }
+    *n += 1;
+    Some(StreamSlot(token_hash.to_string()))
+}
+
 /// SSE stream endpoint. Authenticates via a single-use ticket (see
 /// [`issue_ticket`]) — never the raw JWT.
 pub async fn stream(
@@ -56,7 +130,7 @@ pub async fn stream(
 ) -> Result<Sse<impl Stream<Item = Result<Event, Infallible>>>, AppError> {
     let token_hash = state
         .sse_tickets
-        .consume(&q.ticket)
+        .consume(&q.ticket, TicketKind::Sse)
         .ok_or_else(|| AppError::Unauthorized("Ticket ungültig oder abgelaufen.".into()))?;
 
     // NOTE: this authenticates via ticket→session, not the `AuthUser` extractor. The
@@ -68,6 +142,17 @@ pub async fn stream(
         .map_err(|e| AppError::Internal(e.into()))?
         .ok_or_else(|| AppError::Unauthorized("Sitzung nicht gefunden.".into()))?;
 
+    // Bound how many streams this session holds open — see MAX_OPEN_STREAMS_PER_SESSION. Refuse
+    // rather than evict: closing somebody's live feed to make room for their own reconnect loop
+    // reads exactly like the flakiness it would be trying to fix.
+    let slot = claim_stream_slot(&token_hash).ok_or_else(|| {
+        tracing::warn!("session at its open-SSE-stream cap; refusing another");
+        AppError::TooManyRequests(
+            "Zu viele offene Verbindungen. Bitte schließe andere Tabs.".into(),
+            Some(10),
+        )
+    })?;
+
     let rx = state.sse_tx.subscribe();
     let events = BroadcastStream::new(rx).filter_map(|msg| match msg {
         Ok(sse_event) => Some(Ok(Event::default()
@@ -93,6 +178,10 @@ pub async fn stream(
     let pool = state.pool.clone();
     let session_hash = token_hash.clone();
     let session_gone = async move {
+        // Owns the slot guard, and this future is owned by the returned stream — so the slot is
+        // released exactly when the stream is dropped, including when the client simply walks out
+        // of range and no cleanup code of ours ever runs.
+        let _slot = slot;
         let mut ticker = tokio::time::interval(Duration::from_secs(60));
         ticker.tick().await; // consume the immediate first tick
         loop {

backend/src/handlers/test_admin.rs

@@ -61,7 +61,7 @@ pub async fn truncate_all(
             ('upload_rate_per_hour',       '100'),
             ('feed_rate_per_min',          '60'),
             ('export_rate_per_day',        '3'),
-            ('join_ip_rate_per_min',       '60'),
+            ('join_ip_rate_per_min',       '300'),
             ('recover_ip_rate_per_min',    '30'),
             ('social_rate_per_min',        '120'),
             ('quota_tolerance',            '0.75'),
@@ -111,6 +111,12 @@ pub async fn truncate_all(
     // steers the per-user limit off `free_disk_bytes`), i.e. two holes were masking each other.
     state.disk_cache.invalidate();
 
+    // `media_total` caches SUM(user.total_upload_bytes) for the upload gate's keepsake-headroom
+    // check. TRUNCATE has just zeroed every one of those rows, so a surviving reading would make
+    // the next test's first upload measure its headroom against the previous test's gallery —
+    // and that gate REFUSES uploads, so the failure would look like a spurious quota rejection.
+    state.media_total.invalidate();
+
     // `sse_tickets` maps a ticket to a session token hash. TRUNCATE deletes the sessions, so every
     // surviving ticket is a dangling reference to a user that no longer exists.
     state.sse_tickets.clear();

backend/src/main.rs

@@ -27,13 +27,34 @@ async fn main() -> Result<()> {
 
     tracing_subscriber::registry()
         .with(
+            // `info`, not `debug`. A stock deploy sets RUST_LOG nowhere (it is absent from
+            // .env.example and was absent from docker-compose.yml), so this fallback IS the
+            // production level — and at `debug` the TraceLayer below emits a line per request
+            // AND per response, into a log file that had no rotation. `tower_http=warn`
+            // rather than `info` states the intent: those spans are diagnostics, not an
+            // access log, and a future `DefaultOnResponse::new().level(Level::INFO)` should
+            // not silently re-enable them.
             tracing_subscriber::EnvFilter::try_from_default_env()
-                .unwrap_or_else(|_| "eventsnap_backend=debug,tower_http=debug".into()),
+                .unwrap_or_else(|_| "eventsnap_backend=info,tower_http=warn".into()),
         )
         .with(tracing_subscriber::fmt::layer())
         .init();
 
     let config = AppConfig::from_env()?;
+
+    // Prove both media directories are writable BEFORE anything else runs. This is first
+    // because everything downstream — the derivative backfill, export recovery, every upload —
+    // assumes it silently.
+    //
+    // This used to be `create_dir_all(&media_path).await.ok()` far below, which discarded the
+    // only signal there was, and EXPORT_PATH was never created or probed at all. The failure
+    // mode that produced: a wrong bind mount or a root-owned volume left the app booting
+    // *green* — `/health` only probes the database — so Caddy routed traffic to it, guests
+    // joined, and every single upload failed with EACCES. Existence is not the property we
+    // need; writability is, and the only way to know is to write.
+    ensure_writable_dir(&config.media_path, "MEDIA_PATH").await?;
+    ensure_writable_dir(&config.export_path, "EXPORT_PATH").await?;
+
     let pool = db::create_pool(&config.database_url).await?;
 
     // Reset any rows left mid-flight by a previous (possibly crashed) instance —
@@ -51,6 +72,12 @@ async fn main() -> Result<()> {
     // originals are never touched, so a failure just retries on the next start.
     state.compression.backfill_stale_derivatives().await;
 
+    // Re-extract poster frames for videos a restart interrupted. `startup_recovery` above
+    // marks their compression `failed` but nothing re-enqueued them, so `thumbnail_path`
+    // stayed NULL for the rest of the event. Shares the attempt budget with the image
+    // backfill, so a clip that genuinely yields no frame stops being retried.
+    state.compression.backfill_video_posters().await;
+
     // Re-spawn exports for events that were released but whose keepsake never finished
     // (crash mid-export). Needs the media/export paths + SSE sender, so it runs here
     // rather than inside `startup_recovery`. Fire-and-forget: the workers run in the
@@ -73,9 +100,6 @@ async fn main() -> Result<()> {
         config.media_path.clone(),
     );
 
-    // Ensure media directories exist
-    tokio::fs::create_dir_all(&config.media_path).await.ok();
-
     let api = Router::new()
         // Auth
         .route("/api/v1/event", get(handlers::public::get_public_event))
@@ -125,10 +149,15 @@ async fn main() -> Result<()> {
         // Current-user endpoints (live quota estimate, profile + privacy note bundle)
         .route("/api/v1/me/context", get(handlers::me::get_context))
         .route("/api/v1/me/quota", get(handlers::me::get_quota))
+        // Self-service erasure. There was no user-deletion route at any role, so an erasure
+        // request could only be honoured with hand-written SQL against production — and the join
+        // page's data notice now promises this exists. See `me::delete_account`.
+        .route("/api/v1/me", delete(handlers::me::delete_account))
         // Feed
         .route("/api/v1/feed", get(handlers::feed::feed))
         .route("/api/v1/feed/delta", get(handlers::feed::feed_delta))
         .route("/api/v1/hashtags", get(handlers::feed::hashtags))
+        .route("/api/v1/uploaders", get(handlers::feed::uploaders))
         // Social
         .route(
             "/api/v1/upload/{id}/like",
@@ -248,7 +277,27 @@ async fn main() -> Result<()> {
     // four subtrees. Deleting the route removes the vector outright rather than racing the
     // decoder; `/media/**` now 404s regardless of encoding.
     let router = Router::new()
-        .route("/health", get(|| async { "ok" }))
+        // ONE probe, and it touches the database. The merge of the unattended-blockers work
+        // brought a competing design — a dependency-free `/health` for the compose gate plus
+        // a DB-backed `/health/ready` for an external monitor. That split is defensible, and
+        // it was rejected deliberately:
+        //
+        //   * `/health` returning a constant "ok" is the exact defect faea555 fixed and
+        //     verified live (stop Postgres → 503 → start → 200, with no app restart). Every
+        //     request path touches the database, so a constant probe reports healthy while
+        //     the app is useless — the disk-full endgame stayed green all the way down.
+        //   * The split's motive was that Caddy's `depends_on: app: service_healthy` would
+        //     be blocked by a Postgres hiccup at boot. But `app` itself already gates on
+        //     `db: service_healthy`, so the DB is up before this probe ever runs, and the
+        //     healthcheck carries a 20s start_period plus 5 retries on top.
+        //   * The two handlers were the same `SELECT 1` with the same 2s timeout under two
+        //     names, so keeping both bought nothing.
+        //
+        // The external uptime monitor points at this route — DEPLOYMENT_RUNBOOK.md §10.4,
+        // which documents the response table and is the only thing in this deployment that
+        // can page a human. (That section previously did not exist and this comment claimed
+        // it did; if you are removing §10.4, this route loses its only consumer.)
+        .route("/health", get(health))
         .merge(api)
         .layer(TraceLayer::new_for_http())
         .with_state(state);
@@ -268,6 +317,97 @@ async fn main() -> Result<()> {
     Ok(())
 }
 
+/// Create `dir` if absent, then prove we can actually write inside it. Hard error otherwise.
+///
+/// `create_dir_all` succeeding proves nothing: it is a no-op on an existing directory, so a
+/// root-owned volume, a read-only bind mount and a full filesystem all "succeed". The probe
+/// below is the only thing that distinguishes them, and it is worth the two syscalls once per
+/// boot to turn a silent evening of failed uploads into a container that refuses to start.
+///
+/// `label` is the env var name so the operator gets the name of the knob to fix, not a path
+/// they then have to trace back to a variable.
+async fn ensure_writable_dir(dir: &std::path::Path, label: &str) -> anyhow::Result<()> {
+    use anyhow::Context;
+
+    tokio::fs::create_dir_all(dir)
+        .await
+        .with_context(|| format!("{label}: cannot create {}", dir.display()))?;
+
+    // A fixed name is fine: this runs once, before the server accepts requests, and two
+    // instances sharing one volume would be a misconfiguration in its own right. Removed on
+    // both the success and failure paths so a crashed boot cannot leave litter behind.
+    let probe = dir.join(".eventsnap-write-probe");
+    let result = async {
+        let mut f = tokio::fs::File::create(&probe)
+            .await
+            .with_context(|| format!("{label}: cannot create a file in {}", dir.display()))?;
+        // Write and fsync rather than just create: a full filesystem lets the create succeed
+        // and fails at the first byte, which is exactly the disk-full endgame this guards.
+        tokio::io::AsyncWriteExt::write_all(&mut f, b"ok")
+            .await
+            .with_context(|| format!("{label}: cannot write to {}", dir.display()))?;
+        f.sync_all()
+            .await
+            .with_context(|| format!("{label}: cannot flush to {}", dir.display()))?;
+        anyhow::Ok(())
+    }
+    .await;
+    let _ = tokio::fs::remove_file(&probe).await;
+
+    result.with_context(|| {
+        format!(
+            "{label} ({}) is not writable. The app refuses to start rather than accept uploads \
+             it cannot store — check the bind mount and that the volume is owned by the \
+             container's non-root user.",
+            dir.display()
+        )
+    })?;
+
+    tracing::info!(path = %dir.display(), "{label} is writable");
+    Ok(())
+}
+
+/// How long `/health` waits for the database before calling the app unhealthy. Deliberately
+/// short: the point is to answer "can this process actually serve a request right now", and a
+/// probe that blocks for the acquire timeout is itself a symptom.
+const HEALTH_DB_TIMEOUT: std::time::Duration = std::time::Duration::from_secs(2);
+
+/// Readiness probe — the Docker healthcheck, Caddy's `depends_on` gate, and the runbook's
+/// event-day `curl` all hit this.
+///
+/// It used to return the literal string `"ok"` and touch nothing. Every request in the app needs
+/// the database, so that answered a question nobody asked: the container reported healthy while
+/// every real request 500'd, and with no operator watching during the event there was no signal
+/// at all. Note what this does NOT buy: Compose's `restart: unless-stopped` does not react to
+/// healthcheck state, so nothing restarts on a red probe — this is a diagnostic, and it is
+/// deliberately not wired to automatic recovery, because the pool already heals itself across a
+/// Postgres restart (sqlx revalidates on acquire) and an auto-restart would truncate every
+/// in-flight upload to "fix" an outage that was about to clear on its own.
+async fn health(
+    axum::extract::State(state): axum::extract::State<AppState>,
+) -> impl axum::response::IntoResponse {
+    use axum::http::StatusCode;
+    match tokio::time::timeout(
+        HEALTH_DB_TIMEOUT,
+        sqlx::query("SELECT 1").execute(&state.pool),
+    )
+    .await
+    {
+        Ok(Ok(_)) => (StatusCode::OK, "ok"),
+        Ok(Err(e)) => {
+            tracing::error!(error = ?e, "health check: database query failed");
+            (StatusCode::SERVICE_UNAVAILABLE, "database unavailable")
+        }
+        Err(_) => {
+            tracing::error!(
+                timeout_s = HEALTH_DB_TIMEOUT.as_secs(),
+                "health check: database did not respond"
+            );
+            (StatusCode::SERVICE_UNAVAILABLE, "database timeout")
+        }
+    }
+}
+
 /// Hard cap on how long we wait for in-flight connections to drain after a shutdown
 /// signal. Uploads (streamed to disk) finish in well under this; the cap exists because
 /// long-lived SSE streams never end on their own and would otherwise keep the graceful

backend/src/models/comment.rs

@@ -62,13 +62,27 @@ impl Comment {
     ) -> Result<Vec<CommentDto>, sqlx::Error> {
         // Two-step: pick the newest `limit` rows older than `before`, then flip
         // them back into ascending order so the caller can render top-to-bottom.
+        // `AND NOT u.is_banned` — the filter that was missing (H11).
+        //
+        // Only `deleted_at` was checked, so a banned guest's comments stayed on the live feed
+        // forever: the host bans somebody for an abusive comment, watches every photo of theirs
+        // vanish, and the comment is still sitting there on the most-viewed photo of the evening.
+        // Nothing on the client evicted them either.
+        //
+        // The tell that this was an oversight rather than a decision: the EXPORT query already
+        // filters `is_banned`, so the comment disappeared from the keepsake but not from the app —
+        // the two views of the same moderation action disagreed. Migration 021 did the same for
+        // hashtag counts. This brings the live read path in line with both.
+        //
+        // A ban is reversible and this is derived at read time, so `unban_user` restores the
+        // comments with no extra work.
         sqlx::query_as::<_, CommentDto>(
             "SELECT * FROM (
                SELECT c.id, c.upload_id, c.user_id, u.display_name AS uploader_name,
                       c.body, c.created_at
                FROM comment c
                JOIN \"user\" u ON u.id = c.user_id
-               WHERE c.upload_id = $1 AND c.deleted_at IS NULL
+               WHERE c.upload_id = $1 AND c.deleted_at IS NULL AND NOT u.is_banned
                  AND ($2::timestamptz IS NULL OR c.created_at < $2)
                ORDER BY c.created_at DESC
                LIMIT $3

backend/src/models/event.rs

@@ -32,14 +32,32 @@ impl Event {
             .await
     }
 
+    /// Insert the event, or return the existing row if another request won the race.
+    ///
+    /// `ON CONFLICT`, not a bare INSERT. `slug` is UNIQUE (migration 002), and the only callers are
+    /// `/join` and `/admin/login` — both of which run before the row exists, at the one moment the
+    /// app is most concurrent: the QR code goes up and every phone in the room posts `/join` within
+    /// the same second. A check-then-insert loses that race by construction, and the losers got a
+    /// bare unique violation surfaced as a 500 on the very first screen of the event.
+    ///
+    /// `DO UPDATE SET slug = EXCLUDED.slug` is a deliberate no-op write: `DO NOTHING` returns no
+    /// row on conflict, which would put the loser right back at square one. It touches only `slug`,
+    /// so `name`, `export_epoch` and the lock/release timestamps are never disturbed by a late
+    /// arrival.
     pub async fn create(pool: &PgPool, slug: &str, name: &str) -> Result<Self, sqlx::Error> {
-        sqlx::query_as::<_, Self>("INSERT INTO event (slug, name) VALUES ($1, $2) RETURNING *")
-            .bind(slug)
-            .bind(name)
-            .fetch_one(pool)
-            .await
+        sqlx::query_as::<_, Self>(
+            "INSERT INTO event (slug, name) VALUES ($1, $2)
+             ON CONFLICT (slug) DO UPDATE SET slug = EXCLUDED.slug
+             RETURNING *",
+        )
+        .bind(slug)
+        .bind(name)
+        .fetch_one(pool)
+        .await
     }
 
+    /// Reads first so the common case (the row already exists, i.e. every join after the first)
+    /// stays a plain SELECT and never takes a row lock.
     pub async fn find_or_create(
         pool: &PgPool,
         slug: &str,
@@ -51,3 +69,71 @@ impl Event {
         Self::create(pool, slug, name).await
     }
 }
+
+#[cfg(test)]
+mod tests {
+    use super::*;
+
+    /// The QR code goes up and every phone posts `/join` in the same second, before the event row
+    /// exists. `find_or_create` reads first, so all of them miss, and all of them insert.
+    ///
+    /// With a bare `INSERT`, exactly one wins and the rest get a unique violation on `slug` —
+    /// surfaced as a 500 on the first screen of the event, for everyone but the winner. There is no
+    /// retry on that path and nothing in the UI explains it.
+    #[sqlx::test]
+    async fn concurrent_first_joins_all_get_the_same_event(pool: PgPool) {
+        let racers: Vec<_> = (0..16)
+            .map(|_| {
+                let pool = pool.clone();
+                tokio::spawn(
+                    async move { Event::find_or_create(&pool, "wedding", "Hochzeit").await },
+                )
+            })
+            .collect();
+
+        let mut ids = Vec::new();
+        for r in racers {
+            let event = r
+                .await
+                .expect("task panicked")
+                .expect("a concurrent first join must not fail — this is the QR-scan burst");
+            ids.push(event.id);
+        }
+
+        assert_eq!(ids.len(), 16);
+        assert!(
+            ids.iter().all(|id| *id == ids[0]),
+            "every racer must land on ONE event row, not create rivals"
+        );
+
+        let count: i64 = sqlx::query_scalar("SELECT COUNT(*) FROM event WHERE slug = 'wedding'")
+            .fetch_one(&pool)
+            .await
+            .expect("count");
+        assert_eq!(count, 1, "exactly one event row may exist for a slug");
+    }
+
+    /// A late arrival must not clobber the row it collides with — the no-op `DO UPDATE` exists to
+    /// return the loser a row, not to let it rewrite one mid-event.
+    #[sqlx::test]
+    async fn a_late_create_does_not_disturb_the_existing_row(pool: PgPool) {
+        let first = Event::find_or_create(&pool, "wedding", "Hochzeit")
+            .await
+            .expect("first");
+
+        sqlx::query("UPDATE event SET name = $1, export_epoch = 7 WHERE id = $2")
+            .bind("Anna und Ben")
+            .bind(first.id)
+            .execute(&pool)
+            .await
+            .expect("simulate a live event");
+
+        let late = Event::create(&pool, "wedding", "Hochzeit")
+            .await
+            .expect("a colliding insert must still return the row");
+
+        assert_eq!(late.id, first.id);
+        assert_eq!(late.name, "Anna und Ben", "the name must survive");
+        assert_eq!(late.export_epoch, 7, "and so must the export epoch");
+    }
+}

backend/src/models/hashtag.rs

@@ -63,6 +63,33 @@ impl Hashtag {
             .await?;
         Ok(())
     }
+
+    /// The upload's current tags, lowercased and sorted — the comparable form.
+    ///
+    /// Exists so `edit_upload` can tell a real hashtag change from a re-send of the same list.
+    /// Without it, `PATCH {"hashtags": []}` in a loop retired the HTML keepsake on every request
+    /// (readiness is derived from `event.export_epoch`), and every armed rebuild was superseded
+    /// before the debounce let it start — so the viewer 404'd for the rest of the event at zero
+    /// cost to the client. One indexed lookup on `upload_hashtag(upload_id)` is a fair price for
+    /// closing that.
+    pub async fn normalized_for_upload<'e, E>(
+        executor: E,
+        upload_id: Uuid,
+    ) -> Result<Vec<String>, sqlx::Error>
+    where
+        E: sqlx::PgExecutor<'e>,
+    {
+        let rows: Vec<(String,)> = sqlx::query_as(
+            "SELECT lower(h.tag) FROM hashtag h
+             JOIN upload_hashtag uh ON uh.hashtag_id = h.id
+             WHERE uh.upload_id = $1
+             ORDER BY lower(h.tag)",
+        )
+        .bind(upload_id)
+        .fetch_all(executor)
+        .await?;
+        Ok(rows.into_iter().map(|(t,)| t).collect())
+    }
 }
 
 /// Extract `#hashtags` from text (caption or body). Tags are restricted to

backend/src/models/upload.rs

@@ -53,6 +53,9 @@ pub struct VisibleMedia {
 impl Upload {
     /// Takes any executor so the caller can run it inside a transaction (atomic
     /// quota + insert) or standalone against the pool.
+    // Eight arguments, one per column the INSERT writes, with exactly one call site. A params
+    // struct here would restate the column list a second time and buy nothing.
+    #[allow(clippy::too_many_arguments)]
     pub async fn create<'e, E>(
         executor: E,
         event_id: Uuid,
@@ -61,13 +64,34 @@ impl Upload {
         mime_type: &str,
         original_size_bytes: i64,
         caption: Option<&str>,
-    ) -> Result<Self, sqlx::Error>
+        client_upload_id: Option<Uuid>,
+    ) -> Result<Option<Self>, sqlx::Error>
     where
         E: sqlx::PgExecutor<'e>,
     {
+        // `Ok(None)` means this exact `client_upload_id` is already stored — the caller's request
+        // is a retry of one that already succeeded, and it must replay the original row rather
+        // than create a second. Letting the unique index raise instead would work, but only after
+        // the whole transaction had aborted, and it would arrive as an opaque database error the
+        // caller would have to string-match to recognise.
+        //
+        // The conflict target repeats the index's `WHERE` clause because it is a partial index;
+        // without it Postgres cannot prove which index to use and rejects the statement.
+        //
+        // KEEP THIS IN LOCKSTEP WITH `upload_client_upload_id_key` (migrations 026 and 031). The
+        // predicate here must match the index's, or the arbiter cannot be inferred and every
+        // upload that carries a `client_upload_id` fails as a runtime 500 — queries in this
+        // codebase are not compile-time checked, so nothing catches a drift at build time.
+        //
+        // `deleted_at IS NULL` is what makes a retry-after-delete work instead of 409ing forever:
+        // the key is claimed only while a LIVE row holds it, which is what
+        // `find_by_client_upload_id` below has always assumed. `OR taken_down_by_host` carves the
+        // moderation case back out — see migration 031: releasing the key for a HOST takedown let
+        // a late retry resurrect a photo the host had deliberately removed.
         sqlx::query_as::<_, Self>(
-            "INSERT INTO upload (event_id, user_id, original_path, mime_type, original_size_bytes, caption)
-             VALUES ($1, $2, $3, $4, $5, $6)
+            "INSERT INTO upload (event_id, user_id, original_path, mime_type, original_size_bytes, caption, client_upload_id)
+             VALUES ($1, $2, $3, $4, $5, $6, $7)
+             ON CONFLICT (client_upload_id) WHERE client_upload_id IS NOT NULL AND (deleted_at IS NULL OR taken_down_by_host) DO NOTHING
              RETURNING *",
         )
         .bind(event_id)
@@ -76,7 +100,52 @@ impl Upload {
         .bind(mime_type)
         .bind(original_size_bytes)
         .bind(caption)
-        .fetch_one(executor)
+        .bind(client_upload_id)
+        .fetch_optional(executor)
+        .await
+    }
+
+    /// Look up a live upload by the idempotency key its client sent.
+    ///
+    /// Scoped to the user as well as the key: the key alone is unique, but a lookup that ignored
+    /// ownership would let one guest's retry return another guest's row if a key ever repeated.
+    /// Soft-deleted rows are excluded on purpose — if the guest deleted the photo and their queue
+    /// later retries, they should get a fresh upload rather than a resurrection of a deleted one.
+    pub async fn find_by_client_upload_id(
+        pool: &sqlx::PgPool,
+        user_id: Uuid,
+        client_upload_id: Uuid,
+    ) -> Result<Option<Self>, sqlx::Error> {
+        sqlx::query_as::<_, Self>(
+            "SELECT * FROM upload
+             WHERE client_upload_id = $1 AND user_id = $2 AND deleted_at IS NULL",
+        )
+        .bind(client_upload_id)
+        .bind(user_id)
+        .fetch_optional(pool)
+        .await
+    }
+
+    /// Was this key claimed by a row the HOST took down?
+    ///
+    /// Only used to answer a refused retry honestly. Without it the guest's queue shows
+    /// "Dieser Upload wurde bereits verarbeitet." for a photo that was in fact removed by the
+    /// hosts — technically true, actively misleading, and it invites them to try again.
+    pub async fn taken_down_by_client_upload_id(
+        pool: &sqlx::PgPool,
+        user_id: Uuid,
+        client_upload_id: Uuid,
+    ) -> Result<bool, sqlx::Error> {
+        sqlx::query_scalar::<_, bool>(
+            "SELECT EXISTS (
+                 SELECT 1 FROM upload
+                 WHERE client_upload_id = $1 AND user_id = $2
+                   AND deleted_at IS NOT NULL AND taken_down_by_host
+             )",
+        )
+        .bind(client_upload_id)
+        .bind(user_id)
+        .fetch_one(pool)
         .await
     }
 
@@ -150,10 +219,74 @@ impl Upload {
 
     /// Stamp which revision of the derivative pipeline produced this row's preview/display,
     /// so the startup backfill can find rows generated by an older one exactly once.
+    ///
+    /// Also clears the attempt counter: success is the only thing that resets it, and folding
+    /// the reset in here means both the live path and the backfill get it with no extra call
+    /// site to forget.
     pub async fn set_derivatives_rev(pool: &PgPool, id: Uuid, rev: i16) -> Result<(), sqlx::Error> {
-        sqlx::query("UPDATE upload SET derivatives_rev = $2 WHERE id = $1")
+        sqlx::query(
+            "UPDATE upload
+                SET derivatives_rev = $2, derivative_attempts = 0, derivative_last_error = NULL
+              WHERE id = $1",
+        )
+        .bind(id)
+        .bind(rev)
+        .execute(pool)
+        .await?;
+        Ok(())
+    }
+
+    /// Record that derivative processing is ABOUT to be attempted, returning the new count.
+    ///
+    /// WRITE-AHEAD ON PURPOSE. The failure this bounds is a cgroup SIGKILL: the process
+    /// vanishes mid-work, so no `Err` is returned, no error handler runs and no `Drop` fires.
+    /// A counter incremented after a failure would increment zero times per crash and the
+    /// boot loop would be unchanged. Counting the ATTEMPT is the only thing that survives the
+    /// process dying. The cost is that a genuinely transient failure also burns an attempt —
+    /// acceptable, because the retry budget is per-boot-loop, not per-request, and success
+    /// resets it to zero.
+    /// `None` when the row no longer exists (hard-deleted, or an e2e TRUNCATE landed while the
+    /// task waited on the semaphore) — the caller should abandon quietly rather than treat a
+    /// missing row as a processing failure.
+    pub async fn begin_derivative_attempt(
+        pool: &PgPool,
+        id: Uuid,
+    ) -> Result<Option<i16>, sqlx::Error> {
+        sqlx::query_scalar(
+            "UPDATE upload
+                SET derivative_attempts = derivative_attempts + 1
+              WHERE id = $1
+          RETURNING derivative_attempts",
+        )
+        .bind(id)
+        .fetch_optional(pool)
+        .await
+    }
+
+    /// Read the lifetime derivative-attempt counter WITHOUT charging it.
+    ///
+    /// Used by the in-request retries after the first: those re-enter `do_process` but must not
+    /// spend the lifetime budget again (see `charge_lifetime_attempt`). `None` still means the
+    /// row vanished, so the caller's "nothing to do" branch keeps working unchanged.
+    pub async fn derivative_attempts(pool: &PgPool, id: Uuid) -> Result<Option<i16>, sqlx::Error> {
+        sqlx::query_scalar("SELECT derivative_attempts FROM upload WHERE id = $1")
             .bind(id)
-            .bind(rev)
+            .fetch_optional(pool)
+            .await
+    }
+
+    /// Store why the last derivative attempt failed. Diagnostics only — nothing branches on it.
+    pub async fn record_derivative_failure(
+        pool: &PgPool,
+        id: Uuid,
+        error: &str,
+    ) -> Result<(), sqlx::Error> {
+        // Bounded: an anyhow chain can be long, and this is written on a failure path that may
+        // repeat across every row of a bad batch.
+        let truncated: String = error.chars().take(500).collect();
+        sqlx::query("UPDATE upload SET derivative_last_error = $2 WHERE id = $1")
+            .bind(id)
+            .bind(truncated)
             .execute(pool)
             .await?;
         Ok(())
@@ -172,40 +305,8 @@ impl Upload {
         Ok(())
     }
 
-    /// Soft-deletes the upload and decrements the uploader's `total_upload_bytes`.
-    /// Done in a single transaction so a crash between the two writes can't leave
-    /// the quota counter pointing at bytes the user has already deleted (which would
-    /// silently lock them out of future uploads).
-    ///
-    /// No-op if the row is already deleted — protects against a double-tap on the
-    /// delete action double-decrementing the counter.
-    pub async fn soft_delete(pool: &PgPool, id: Uuid) -> Result<(), sqlx::Error> {
-        let mut tx = pool.begin().await?;
-        let row: Option<(Uuid, i64)> = sqlx::query_as(
-            "UPDATE upload
-             SET deleted_at = NOW()
-             WHERE id = $1 AND deleted_at IS NULL
-             RETURNING user_id, original_size_bytes",
-        )
-        .bind(id)
-        .fetch_optional(&mut *tx)
-        .await?;
-        if let Some((user_id, bytes)) = row {
-            sqlx::query(
-                "UPDATE \"user\"
-                 SET total_upload_bytes = GREATEST(0, total_upload_bytes - $2)
-                 WHERE id = $1",
-            )
-            .bind(user_id)
-            .bind(bytes)
-            .execute(&mut *tx)
-            .await?;
-        }
-        tx.commit().await?;
-        Ok(())
-    }
-
-    /// Event-scoped variant of [`Self::soft_delete`]. Returns `false` if no row
+    /// Soft-deletes an upload within its event and refunds the uploader's
+    /// `total_upload_bytes`, in one transaction. Returns `false` if no row
     /// matched (already deleted, wrong event, or unknown id) so host handlers
     /// can return a clean 404 instead of silently no-op'ing.
     /// Executor-generic so a caller can run the delete and the keepsake regeneration in ONE
@@ -213,20 +314,27 @@ impl Upload {
     /// dropped handler future, a failed second tx), the taken-down photo stays in the downloadable
     /// archive forever, and recovery can't tell — the keepsake still looks complete at the current
     /// epoch, and the host can no longer even find the upload to retry.
+    ///
+    /// `by_host` records WHO removed it, which decides whether the row keeps holding its
+    /// idempotency key — see migration 031. A host takedown holds it, so a late retry from the
+    /// uploader's queue cannot bring the photo back; a guest deleting their own photo releases it,
+    /// so their next upload of the same queue item succeeds.
     pub async fn soft_delete_in_event(
         conn: &mut sqlx::PgConnection,
         id: Uuid,
         event_id: Uuid,
+        by_host: bool,
     ) -> Result<bool, sqlx::Error> {
         let tx = conn;
         let row: Option<(Uuid, i64)> = sqlx::query_as(
             "UPDATE upload
-             SET deleted_at = NOW()
+             SET deleted_at = NOW(), taken_down_by_host = $3
              WHERE id = $1 AND event_id = $2 AND deleted_at IS NULL
              RETURNING user_id, original_size_bytes",
         )
         .bind(id)
         .bind(event_id)
+        .bind(by_host)
         .fetch_optional(&mut *tx)
         .await?;
         let deleted = if let Some((user_id, bytes)) = row {

backend/src/models/user.rs

@@ -47,19 +47,89 @@ impl User {
         event_id: Uuid,
         display_name: &str,
         pin_hash: &str,
+        client_join_id: Option<Uuid>,
     ) -> Result<Self, sqlx::Error> {
         sqlx::query_as::<_, Self>(
-            "INSERT INTO \"user\" (event_id, display_name, recovery_pin_hash)
-             VALUES ($1, $2, $3)
+            "INSERT INTO \"user\" (event_id, display_name, recovery_pin_hash, client_join_id)
+             VALUES ($1, $2, $3, $4)
              RETURNING *",
         )
         .bind(event_id)
         .bind(display_name)
         .bind(pin_hash)
+        .bind(client_join_id)
         .fetch_one(pool)
         .await
     }
 
+    /// Look up a join that already succeeded, by the idempotency key its client sent.
+    ///
+    /// The retry path for H16: the account was created but the response never arrived, so the
+    /// client re-sends the same `client_join_id`. Finding a row here means "this join already
+    /// happened" — the caller rotates the PIN and answers with a usable one rather than 409ing
+    /// on a name the caller itself owns.
+    pub async fn find_by_client_join_id(
+        pool: &PgPool,
+        event_id: Uuid,
+        client_join_id: Uuid,
+    ) -> Result<Option<Self>, sqlx::Error> {
+        sqlx::query_as::<_, Self>(
+            "SELECT * FROM \"user\" WHERE event_id = $1 AND client_join_id = $2",
+        )
+        .bind(event_id)
+        .bind(client_join_id)
+        .fetch_optional(pool)
+        .await
+    }
+
+    /// Create a user with an explicit role, in ONE statement.
+    ///
+    /// `create` + a separate `UPDATE ... SET role` is not equivalent: a crash or a pool error
+    /// between the two leaves a GUEST row holding a reserved name, which is exactly the
+    /// poisoned state that bricked admin login — now self-inflicted, and invisible to a
+    /// role-based lookup, so the next login would create yet another.
+    pub async fn create_with_role(
+        pool: &PgPool,
+        event_id: Uuid,
+        display_name: &str,
+        pin_hash: &str,
+        role: UserRole,
+    ) -> Result<Self, sqlx::Error> {
+        sqlx::query_as::<_, Self>(
+            "INSERT INTO \"user\" (event_id, display_name, recovery_pin_hash, role)
+             VALUES ($1, $2, $3, $4)
+             RETURNING *",
+        )
+        .bind(event_id)
+        .bind(display_name)
+        .bind(pin_hash)
+        .bind(role)
+        .fetch_one(pool)
+        .await
+    }
+
+    /// The event's admin, looked up BY ROLE.
+    ///
+    /// The name is not the identity and never was. Looking the admin up by `display_name`
+    /// meant any guest who joined as "Admin" first made the lookup miss, and the fallback
+    /// `create` then violated the case-insensitive unique index from migration 007 — a
+    /// permanent 500 on admin login, recoverable only by hand-editing the database.
+    ///
+    /// `ORDER BY created_at` so a database that somehow acquired two admin rows resolves to a
+    /// stable one rather than alternating between them.
+    pub async fn find_admin_for_event(
+        pool: &PgPool,
+        event_id: Uuid,
+    ) -> Result<Option<Self>, sqlx::Error> {
+        sqlx::query_as::<_, Self>(
+            "SELECT * FROM \"user\" WHERE event_id = $1 AND role = 'admin'
+             ORDER BY created_at ASC LIMIT 1",
+        )
+        .bind(event_id)
+        .fetch_optional(pool)
+        .await
+    }
+
     pub async fn find_by_id(pool: &PgPool, id: Uuid) -> Result<Option<Self>, sqlx::Error> {
         sqlx::query_as::<_, Self>("SELECT * FROM \"user\" WHERE id = $1")
             .bind(id)
@@ -96,14 +166,31 @@ impl User {
         Ok(row.0)
     }
 
+    /// Window after which a failed-PIN streak is forgotten. Matches the lockout duration, so
+    /// "wait out the cooldown" and "start clean" are the same interval to a guest.
+    const PIN_ATTEMPT_DECAY_MINUTES: i64 = 15;
+
+    /// Record a wrong PIN and return the CURRENT streak length.
+    ///
+    /// The counter decays: before this, it only ever cleared on a successful recovery or after
+    /// a lockout expired, so ordinary typos accumulated across days and a guest could arrive at
+    /// an event already most of the way to being locked out by mistakes made the night before.
+    /// Decay is what makes the raised lock threshold safe rather than merely lenient.
     pub async fn increment_failed_pin(pool: &PgPool, id: Uuid) -> Result<i16, sqlx::Error> {
         let row: (i16,) = sqlx::query_as(
             "UPDATE \"user\"
-             SET failed_pin_attempts = failed_pin_attempts + 1
+             SET failed_pin_attempts = CASE
+                     WHEN last_failed_pin_at IS NULL
+                       OR last_failed_pin_at < NOW() - ($2 || ' minutes')::interval
+                     THEN 1
+                     ELSE failed_pin_attempts + 1
+                 END,
+                 last_failed_pin_at = NOW()
              WHERE id = $1
              RETURNING failed_pin_attempts",
         )
         .bind(id)
+        .bind(Self::PIN_ATTEMPT_DECAY_MINUTES.to_string())
         .fetch_one(pool)
         .await?;
         Ok(row.0)
@@ -124,7 +211,9 @@ impl User {
 
     pub async fn reset_pin_attempts(pool: &PgPool, id: Uuid) -> Result<(), sqlx::Error> {
         sqlx::query(
-            "UPDATE \"user\" SET failed_pin_attempts = 0, pin_locked_until = NULL WHERE id = $1",
+            "UPDATE \"user\"
+                SET failed_pin_attempts = 0, pin_locked_until = NULL, last_failed_pin_at = NULL
+              WHERE id = $1",
         )
         .bind(id)
         .execute(pool)

backend/src/services/audit.rs

@@ -0,0 +1,314 @@
+//! Append-only record of privileged actions. See migration 029 for why it exists.
+//!
+//! Design constraints, both learned from the rest of this codebase:
+//!
+//!  * **Never fail the action.** An audit write that can turn a successful ban into a 500 makes
+//!    moderation less reliable than no audit at all. Every failure here is logged and swallowed.
+//!  * **Never store a credential.** `reset_pin` is the action most worth recording and the one
+//!    whose payload must never be in `detail` — a table that could hand back a guest's PIN would
+//!    be a worse privacy problem than the gap it closes.
+//!
+//! **Action slugs actually written**, since migration 029's header lists three (`promote_user`,
+//! `demote_user`, `delete_user`) that no call site has ever emitted, and the migration file cannot
+//! be corrected without changing its checksum and crash-looping every database that ran it:
+//!
+//! `ban_user`, `unban_user`, `set_role`, `reset_pin`, `delete_upload`, `delete_comment`,
+//! `lock_uploads`, `unlock_uploads`, `release_gallery`, `delete_account`, `patch_config`.
+//! Eleven, one per `audit::record` call site — grep for it if this list ages.
+//!
+//! **There is deliberately no read endpoint.** The table is queried by hand:
+//!
+//! ```sql
+//! SELECT created_at, actor_name, actor_role, action, target_name, detail
+//!   FROM host_action_audit ORDER BY created_at DESC LIMIT 50;
+//! ```
+
+use serde_json::Value;
+use sqlx::PgPool;
+use uuid::Uuid;
+
+use crate::models::user::UserRole;
+
+/// Record one privileged action.
+///
+/// Takes `&PgPool` rather than a transaction on purpose: the audit row is not part of the action's
+/// atomicity. If the action commits and the audit write fails we want the action to stand (and a
+/// loud log line); if the action rolls back, an orphan audit row saying "someone tried" is more
+/// useful than silence.
+#[allow(clippy::too_many_arguments)]
+pub async fn record(
+    pool: &PgPool,
+    event_id: Uuid,
+    actor_id: Uuid,
+    actor_name: Option<&str>,
+    actor_role: UserRole,
+    action: &str,
+    target_id: Option<Uuid>,
+    target_name: Option<&str>,
+    detail: Option<Value>,
+) {
+    // Resolve whatever names the caller did not supply.
+    //
+    // Migration 029 made `actor_id`/`target_id` deliberately non-FK so "the record survives the
+    // actor's account being removed, which is exactly when it is most likely to be wanted". Every
+    // caller passed None for both names, so what survived was a bare uuid resolving to nothing —
+    // the guarantee the column exists for, minus the only thing that made it readable.
+    //
+    // Resolved HERE rather than at eleven call sites so none can be missed. The one caller that
+    // destroys the row it is recording — `me::delete_account` — must still pass the name in, since
+    // by the time this runs there is nothing left to look up, and that is precisely the row a host
+    // will be reading the next morning ("whose photos disappeared?").
+    let (actor_name, target_name) =
+        resolve_names(pool, actor_id, actor_name, target_id, target_name).await;
+
+    let result = sqlx::query(
+        "INSERT INTO host_action_audit
+           (event_id, actor_id, actor_name, actor_role, action, target_id, target_name, detail)
+         VALUES ($1, $2, $3, $4, $5, $6, $7, $8)",
+    )
+    .bind(event_id)
+    .bind(actor_id)
+    .bind(actor_name.as_deref())
+    // `as_str()`, not `format!("{actor_role:?}")`: the Debug spelling is not a stable wire format,
+    // so a `#[derive(Debug)]` change or a renamed variant would silently start writing a different
+    // string into a column nothing validates. `as_str` is the one the rest of the codebase uses.
+    .bind(actor_role.as_str())
+    .bind(action)
+    .bind(target_id)
+    .bind(target_name.as_deref())
+    .bind(detail)
+    .execute(pool)
+    .await;
+
+    match result {
+        Ok(_) => {}
+        Err(e) => {
+            // `error`, not `warn`: losing an audit row is the kind of thing that should show up in
+            // whatever is watching the logs, even though it must not fail the request.
+            tracing::error!(
+                error = ?e, action, %actor_id, ?target_id,
+                "failed to write host action audit row"
+            );
+        }
+    }
+}
+
+/// Fill in any name the caller left as `None`, in ONE query.
+///
+/// Best-effort by the same rule as the insert: a failed lookup writes NULL rather than failing the
+/// action, and it is one round-trip whether zero, one or both names are missing.
+async fn resolve_names(
+    pool: &PgPool,
+    actor_id: Uuid,
+    actor_name: Option<&str>,
+    target_id: Option<Uuid>,
+    target_name: Option<&str>,
+) -> (Option<String>, Option<String>) {
+    let need_actor = actor_name.is_none();
+    let need_target = target_name.is_none() && target_id.is_some();
+    if !need_actor && !need_target {
+        return (
+            actor_name.map(str::to_owned),
+            target_name.map(str::to_owned),
+        );
+    }
+
+    let mut wanted: Vec<Uuid> = Vec::with_capacity(2);
+    if need_actor {
+        wanted.push(actor_id);
+    }
+    if let Some(t) = target_id
+        && need_target
+    {
+        wanted.push(t);
+    }
+
+    let rows: Vec<(Uuid, String)> =
+        sqlx::query_as("SELECT id, display_name FROM \"user\" WHERE id = ANY($1)")
+            .bind(&wanted)
+            .fetch_all(pool)
+            .await
+            .unwrap_or_default();
+
+    let lookup = |id: Uuid| rows.iter().find(|(i, _)| *i == id).map(|(_, n)| n.clone());
+
+    (
+        actor_name.map(str::to_owned).or_else(|| lookup(actor_id)),
+        target_name
+            .map(str::to_owned)
+            .or_else(|| target_id.and_then(lookup)),
+    )
+}
+
+/// These live HERE, not in `tests/`, and that is the entire point.
+///
+/// `backend/` is a binary crate, so an integration test cannot import `record`. The house rule in
+/// `tests/common/mod.rs` — copy the production SQL character-for-character — works for pinning
+/// behaviour that already existed, but applied to a NEW fix whose only coverage is the copy it
+/// proves nothing: the fix and its test become two independent implementations, and deleting the
+/// fix leaves the test green. The previous `tests/audit_names.rs` did exactly that, down to
+/// asserting `actor_role == "host"` against its own hardcoded `.bind("host")` — an assertion that
+/// could not fail for any change to the code it named.
+///
+/// A `#[cfg(test)]` module inside the binary can call the real function, so these do.
+#[cfg(test)]
+mod tests {
+    use super::*;
+
+    async fn seed_event(pool: &PgPool, slug: &str) -> Uuid {
+        sqlx::query_scalar("INSERT INTO event (slug, name) VALUES ($1, $2) RETURNING id")
+            .bind(slug)
+            .bind("Hochzeit")
+            .fetch_one(pool)
+            .await
+            .expect("seed event")
+    }
+
+    async fn seed_user(pool: &PgPool, event_id: Uuid, name: &str) -> Uuid {
+        sqlx::query_scalar(
+            "INSERT INTO \"user\" (event_id, display_name, recovery_pin_hash)
+             VALUES ($1, $2, 'x') RETURNING id",
+        )
+        .bind(event_id)
+        .bind(name)
+        .fetch_one(pool)
+        .await
+        .expect("seed user")
+    }
+
+    async fn audit_row(pool: &PgPool, action: &str) -> Option<(Option<String>, Option<String>)> {
+        sqlx::query_as(
+            "SELECT actor_name, target_name FROM host_action_audit
+              WHERE action = $1 ORDER BY created_at DESC LIMIT 1",
+        )
+        .bind(action)
+        .fetch_optional(pool)
+        .await
+        .expect("audit lookup")
+    }
+
+    /// The ordinary case: the caller supplies no names and `record` resolves both from the ids.
+    /// This is what nine of the eleven call sites do. Revert `resolve_names` and both names go NULL.
+    #[sqlx::test]
+    async fn a_recorded_action_carries_both_names_without_the_caller_supplying_them(pool: PgPool) {
+        let event_id = seed_event(&pool, "wedding").await;
+        let host = seed_user(&pool, event_id, "Gastgeberin Greta").await;
+        let guest = seed_user(&pool, event_id, "Gesperrter Gustav").await;
+
+        record(
+            &pool,
+            event_id,
+            host,
+            None,
+            UserRole::Host,
+            "ban_user",
+            Some(guest),
+            None,
+            None,
+        )
+        .await;
+
+        let (actor_name, target_name) = audit_row(&pool, "ban_user").await.expect("a row");
+        assert_eq!(actor_name.as_deref(), Some("Gastgeberin Greta"));
+        assert_eq!(target_name.as_deref(), Some("Gesperrter Gustav"));
+    }
+
+    /// `as_str()`, not the `Debug` spelling. Asserted against `UserRole::as_str` itself rather than
+    /// a literal, so it tracks a rename instead of pretending to: what must hold is that the column
+    /// carries the SAME string the rest of the codebase uses, whatever that string is. Swap line 75
+    /// back to `format!("{actor_role:?}")` and this goes red on the `Host`/`host` casing.
+    #[sqlx::test]
+    async fn the_role_column_carries_the_canonical_spelling(pool: PgPool) {
+        let event_id = seed_event(&pool, "wedding").await;
+        let host = seed_user(&pool, event_id, "Gastgeberin Greta").await;
+
+        record(
+            &pool,
+            event_id,
+            host,
+            None,
+            UserRole::Host,
+            "release_gallery",
+            None,
+            None,
+            None,
+        )
+        .await;
+
+        let role: String = sqlx::query_scalar(
+            "SELECT actor_role FROM host_action_audit WHERE action = 'release_gallery'",
+        )
+        .fetch_one(&pool)
+        .await
+        .expect("role");
+        assert_eq!(role, UserRole::Host.as_str());
+        assert_ne!(
+            role,
+            format!("{:?}", UserRole::Host),
+            "the Debug spelling is not a wire format"
+        );
+    }
+
+    /// The case the columns exist for. `delete_account` hard-deletes the user row, so a name
+    /// resolved AFTER the fact would be NULL — the caller has to pass it in.
+    #[sqlx::test]
+    async fn a_name_supplied_by_the_caller_survives_the_row_being_deleted(pool: PgPool) {
+        let event_id = seed_event(&pool, "wedding").await;
+        let leaver = seed_user(&pool, event_id, "Abschied Anke").await;
+
+        // Exactly the order `me::delete_account` runs in: the row goes first, the audit row second.
+        sqlx::query("DELETE FROM \"user\" WHERE id = $1")
+            .bind(leaver)
+            .execute(&pool)
+            .await
+            .expect("delete user");
+
+        record(
+            &pool,
+            event_id,
+            leaver,
+            Some("Abschied Anke"),
+            UserRole::Guest,
+            "delete_account",
+            Some(leaver),
+            Some("Abschied Anke"),
+            None,
+        )
+        .await;
+
+        let (actor_name, target_name) = audit_row(&pool, "delete_account").await.expect("a row");
+        assert_eq!(
+            actor_name.as_deref(),
+            Some("Abschied Anke"),
+            "the audit row must name the deleted account — resolving it later is impossible"
+        );
+        assert_eq!(target_name.as_deref(), Some("Abschied Anke"));
+    }
+
+    /// And the failure mode that made this worth testing: with nothing supplied and nothing to look
+    /// up, the write must still succeed (an audit row must never fail an action) and carry NULLs.
+    #[sqlx::test]
+    async fn an_unresolvable_name_writes_the_row_anyway(pool: PgPool) {
+        let event_id = seed_event(&pool, "wedding").await;
+        let ghost = Uuid::new_v4();
+
+        record(
+            &pool,
+            event_id,
+            ghost,
+            None,
+            UserRole::Host,
+            "reset_pin",
+            Some(ghost),
+            None,
+            None,
+        )
+        .await;
+
+        let (actor_name, target_name) = audit_row(&pool, "reset_pin")
+            .await
+            .expect("the row must be written even when no name can be resolved");
+        assert_eq!(actor_name, None);
+        assert_eq!(target_name, None);
+    }
+}

backend/src/services/compression.rs

@@ -58,6 +58,21 @@ impl CompressionWorker {
     /// next start. Rev 1 = EXIF orientation is applied.
     const DERIVATIVES_REV: i16 = 1;
 
+    /// How many times derivative generation may be ATTEMPTED for one upload before it is left
+    /// alone. Counted write-ahead and reset on success — see `Upload::begin_derivative_attempt`.
+    ///
+    /// This is what turns a fatal input from an outage into a blemish. The startup backfill
+    /// runs unconditionally on every boot, so before this bound a row whose processing killed
+    /// the process was re-selected and re-run forever, and `restart: unless-stopped` made that
+    /// an infinite loop that also dropped every SSE stream and truncated every in-flight
+    /// upload on each cycle. Three attempts absorbs genuinely transient infrastructure
+    /// failures (an ENOSPC spike, a pool blip) without ever becoming unbounded.
+    const MAX_DERIVATIVE_ATTEMPTS: i16 = 3;
+
+    /// Rows regenerated per boot. Bounds both the query and the amount of work a single start
+    /// can queue; whatever is left is picked up on the next boot.
+    const BACKFILL_BATCH: i64 = 200;
+
     /// Spawn a background task to process an uploaded file.
     pub fn process(&self, upload_id: Uuid, original_path: String, mime_type: String) {
         let worker = self.clone();
@@ -82,13 +97,15 @@ impl CompressionWorker {
             let mut attempt = 1u32;
             let outcome = loop {
                 match worker
-                    .do_process(upload_id, &original_path, &mime_type)
+                    // Charge the lifetime budget once per episode, on the first attempt only.
+                    .do_process(upload_id, &original_path, &mime_type, attempt == 1)
                     .await
                 {
                     Ok(v) => break Ok(v),
                     Err(e)
                         if attempt < Self::MAX_PROCESS_ATTEMPTS
-                            && !crate::services::imaging::is_permanent_image_error(&e) =>
+                            && !crate::services::imaging::is_permanent_image_error(&e)
+                            && !crate::services::imaging::is_storage_full_error(&e) =>
                     {
                         tracing::warn!(
                             error = ?e, %upload_id, attempt,
@@ -113,39 +130,75 @@ impl CompressionWorker {
                         data: serde_json::json!({ "upload_id": upload_id }).to_string(),
                     });
                 }
+                Err(e) if crate::services::imaging::is_storage_full_error(&e) => {
+                    // Out of disk. Keep the row AND the original — the opposite of the branch
+                    // below, and for the same reason it retains the file: nothing here is the
+                    // guest's fault and nothing about the photo is wrong.
+                    //
+                    // Soft-deleting on ENOSPC was strictly harmful. It refunded the quota while
+                    // keeping the bytes, so it freed nothing, removed the photo from the feed
+                    // seconds after a `201 Created`, and handed the guest the allowance to
+                    // upload it again into the same full disk. Leaving the row live costs
+                    // nothing instead: every client already falls back to the original when
+                    // `preview_url` and `thumbnail_url` are NULL, so the photo stays visible —
+                    // just uncompressed — and `backfill_stale_derivatives` regenerates the
+                    // derivatives on the next start, once there is room for them.
+                    tracing::error!(
+                        %upload_id,
+                        "compression failed: the media filesystem is out of space. The upload is \
+                         kept and served from its original; free disk space and restart to \
+                         regenerate derivatives: {e:#}"
+                    );
+                    let _ = Upload::set_compression_status(&worker.pool, upload_id, "failed").await;
+                    // Not an "error" event: nothing was lost and there is nothing for the guest
+                    // to act on. Clients treat this purely as "refetch me", which is what makes
+                    // the card appear with its original as the image source.
+                    let _ = worker.sse_tx.send(SseEvent {
+                        event_type: "upload-processed".to_string(),
+                        data: serde_json::json!({ "upload_id": upload_id }).to_string(),
+                    });
+                }
                 Err(e) => {
                     tracing::error!(
                         "compression failed for upload {upload_id} after {attempt} attempt(s): {e:#}"
                     );
-                    // Refund + soft-delete (one tx, so v_feed excludes it) so a failed
-                    // transcode doesn't leave a permanently broken feed card or silently
-                    // charge the uploader's quota. Then tell the uploader (upload-error
-                    // toast) and evict the card everywhere (upload-deleted).
+                    // KEEP THE ROW. This used to soft-delete, which made a derivative failure
+                    // indistinguishable — to the guest — from their photo being deleted: they
+                    // got a `201 Created`, watched the card appear, and then watched it vanish.
+                    // The row left `v_feed`, `find_visible_media` and BOTH keepsake archives,
+                    // so the photo was gone from the product's core promise while its bytes sat
+                    // on disk for 14 days waiting for a `cleanup_deleted_media` that nothing
+                    // told anyone about. There is no host or admin screen listing compression
+                    // failures, so recovery meant hand-written SQL that also had to re-add the
+                    // refunded quota bytes. Against "0 lost uploads", that was silent per-photo
+                    // loss on any error the ENOSPC arm above doesn't catch — a HEIC that slipped
+                    // the allowlist, a truncated frame, an ffmpeg hiccup, a pool blip.
                     //
-                    // The ORIGINAL IS DELIBERATELY KEPT. This path used to `remove_file` it
-                    // unconditionally, which meant any transient error — a disk-full blip
-                    // while saving a derivative, a pool hiccup, a panic in the image codec —
-                    // irreversibly destroyed the guest's only copy of a photo they can never
-                    // retake. The row is only soft-deleted, so keeping the bytes makes the
-                    // upload fully recoverable; the file is orphaned rather than lost, and
-                    // the path is logged so it can be found. `backfill_stale_derivatives`
-                    // already refuses to destroy data on error for exactly this reason.
+                    // This is exactly what the ENOSPC arm already does and documents as correct:
+                    // every client falls back to the original when `preview_url` and
+                    // `thumbnail_url` are NULL, so the photo stays visible and downloadable —
+                    // just uncompressed — and `backfill_stale_derivatives` retries it on the
+                    // next boot, now bounded by `derivative_attempts` so a poisoned row cannot
+                    // loop. The quota stays charged, which is correct: the bytes are still on
+                    // disk and still the guest's.
                     let _ = Upload::set_compression_status(&worker.pool, upload_id, "failed").await;
-                    if let Err(del) = Upload::soft_delete(&worker.pool, upload_id).await {
-                        tracing::warn!(error = ?del, %upload_id, "failed to soft-delete after compression failure");
-                    }
                     tracing::warn!(
                         %upload_id,
                         path = %worker.media_path.join(&original_path).display(),
-                        "original retained for recovery after compression failure"
+                        "derivatives failed; the upload is kept and served from its original"
                     );
+                    // `upload-error` still fires so the uploader learns the photo will look
+                    // uncompressed. `upload-deleted` deliberately does NOT — nothing was
+                    // deleted, and evicting the card was the visible half of the data loss.
                     let _ = worker.sse_tx.send(SseEvent {
                         event_type: "upload-error".to_string(),
                         data: serde_json::json!({ "upload_id": upload_id, "error": e.to_string() })
                             .to_string(),
                     });
+                    // Tell every client to refetch, so the card re-renders from the original
+                    // instead of sitting on a stale "processing" placeholder forever.
                     let _ = worker.sse_tx.send(SseEvent {
-                        event_type: "upload-deleted".to_string(),
+                        event_type: "upload-processed".to_string(),
                         data: serde_json::json!({ "upload_id": upload_id }).to_string(),
                     });
                 }
@@ -153,17 +206,53 @@ impl CompressionWorker {
         });
     }
 
+    /// `charge_lifetime_attempt` is true only for the FIRST `do_process` of a given
+    /// `process()` call, so the two budgets stay independent.
+    ///
+    /// They were not. `MAX_PROCESS_ATTEMPTS` (in-request retries, 3) and
+    /// `MAX_DERIVATIVE_ATTEMPTS` (lifetime, 3) are equal, and every retry re-entered here and
+    /// charged the lifetime counter — so one request's three retries, six seconds apart,
+    /// exhausted the entire lifetime budget. A ten-second pool blip during the arrival burst
+    /// therefore stranded every photo whose worker was inside that window with no preview and no
+    /// display derivative, permanently, recoverable by nothing: the boot backfill re-selects them
+    /// and immediately gives up on the same exhausted counter.
+    ///
+    /// The two exist to bound different things — "this request is flapping" versus "this INPUT is
+    /// poison" — and only the second should survive across requests.
     async fn do_process(
         &self,
         upload_id: Uuid,
         original_path: &str,
         mime_type: &str,
+        charge_lifetime_attempt: bool,
     ) -> Result<()> {
         Upload::set_compression_status(&self.pool, upload_id, "processing").await?;
 
         let original = self.media_path.join(original_path);
 
         if mime_type.starts_with("image/") {
+            // Count the attempt BEFORE doing the work — see `begin_derivative_attempt`. If this
+            // input is the one that kills the container, this write is the only record that
+            // survives, and it is what stops the boot backfill replaying it forever. Charging on
+            // the first attempt preserves that: a container-killing input never reaches a second.
+            let charged = if charge_lifetime_attempt {
+                Upload::begin_derivative_attempt(&self.pool, upload_id).await?
+            } else {
+                // Already charged for this episode. Re-read the row only to notice it vanished.
+                Upload::derivative_attempts(&self.pool, upload_id).await?
+            };
+            match charged {
+                Some(attempts) if attempts > Self::MAX_DERIVATIVE_ATTEMPTS => {
+                    anyhow::bail!(
+                        "derivative generation gave up after {} attempt(s)",
+                        attempts - 1
+                    );
+                }
+                Some(_) => {}
+                // The row vanished while this task waited on the semaphore. Nothing to do, and
+                // reporting a failure would broadcast into a stream that no longer has a card.
+                None => return Ok(()),
+            }
             let (preview_rel, display_rel) = self
                 .generate_image_derivatives(upload_id, &original, mime_type)
                 .await?;
@@ -180,17 +269,39 @@ impl CompressionWorker {
             // this non-fatal would have been far worse than the bug. Every clip of a second or less
             // would fail compression, exhaust its retries and be soft-deleted — a cosmetic defect
             // turned into data loss, on exactly the mis-tap/Live-Photo clips guests produce most.
-            match self.generate_video_thumbnail(upload_id, &original).await? {
-                Some(thumb_rel) => {
-                    Upload::set_thumbnail_path(&self.pool, upload_id, &thumb_rel).await?;
-                    tracing::info!("thumbnail generated for upload {upload_id}");
+            // Handling only the `Ok(None)` arm was not enough: the `?` on the call itself still
+            // routed every OTHER poster failure into the give-up path. `extract_poster_frame`
+            // returns `Err` when ffmpeg is missing from the image, when it hangs on a truncated
+            // `.mov` and trips FFMPEG_TIMEOUT, or when `thumbnails/` can't be created — and
+            // `set_thumbnail_path` returns `Err` on any DB blip. None of those say anything about
+            // the video itself, yet each one destroyed it. Confirmed live: on a box with no ffmpeg
+            // the spawn error propagated, exhausted all three attempts and soft-deleted the clip.
+            //
+            // Nothing about a video post depends on the poster — `get_original` serves the file
+            // byte-for-byte and the tile falls back to the video element — so no failure in this
+            // branch may fail the upload.
+            match self.generate_video_thumbnail(upload_id, &original).await {
+                Ok(Some(thumb_rel)) => {
+                    match Upload::set_thumbnail_path(&self.pool, upload_id, &thumb_rel).await {
+                        Ok(()) => tracing::info!("thumbnail generated for upload {upload_id}"),
+                        Err(e) => tracing::warn!(
+                            error = ?e, %upload_id,
+                            "poster extracted but could not be recorded; the video keeps its own tile"
+                        ),
+                    }
                 }
-                None => {
+                Ok(None) => {
                     tracing::warn!(
                         %upload_id,
                         "no poster frame could be extracted; the video keeps its own tile"
                     );
                 }
+                Err(e) => {
+                    tracing::warn!(
+                        error = ?e, %upload_id,
+                        "poster extraction failed; the video keeps its own tile"
+                    );
+                }
             }
         }
 
@@ -205,6 +316,24 @@ impl CompressionWorker {
     /// Longest edge of the phone-feed "preview" (data-saver default).
     const PREVIEW_MAX_EDGE: u32 = 800;
 
+    /// Above this pixel count the PNG original is stored as uploaded, unoptimised.
+    ///
+    /// oxipng's peak memory scales with PIXELS, not file size: it decodes the PNG itself and
+    /// then evaluates row filters, each trial holding a full-size buffer. That is why a 2.82
+    /// MiB file could measure 1250 MiB of peak RSS inside a 1 GiB container — smooth,
+    /// synthetic content compresses to almost nothing on disk while still being 8000x8000.
+    /// 8 MP covers every real phone photo; beyond it we decline the (lossless, cosmetic)
+    /// saving rather than risk the OOM kill.
+    const OXIPNG_MAX_PIXELS: u64 = 8_000_000;
+
+    /// Wall-clock ceiling for one oxipng run.
+    ///
+    /// Bounds TIME, NOT MEMORY — oxipng checks the deadline between trials, so a single trial
+    /// still allocates in full. The pixel gate above and the sequential build (see
+    /// `default-features = false` in Cargo.toml) are what bound memory. Do not treat this
+    /// constant as the OOM fix.
+    const OXIPNG_TIMEOUT: std::time::Duration = std::time::Duration::from_secs(20);
+
     /// Decode the image ONCE and emit both derivatives — the 800px `preview` (phone feed)
     /// and the 2048px `display` (diashow). Returns `(preview_rel, display_rel)`.
     async fn generate_image_derivatives(
@@ -223,53 +352,40 @@ impl CompressionWorker {
         let display_path = displays_dir.join(&filename);
         let original = original.to_path_buf();
         let mime_owned = mime_type.to_string();
-        let preview_max = Self::PREVIEW_MAX_EDGE;
-        let display_max = Self::DISPLAY_MAX_EDGE;
+
+        // Estimate the peak from the HEADER (no pixels decoded — the same kind of cheap probe
+        // the upload handler already does via `exceeds_decode_budget`) and, if this job is a
+        // giant, take the exclusive permit so it cannot overlap another giant. Held for the
+        // whole blocking section, released on drop including on error.
+        let estimate = crate::services::imaging::estimated_processing_peak_bytes(
+            &original,
+            Self::DISPLAY_MAX_EDGE,
+        );
+        let _heavy_permit = match estimate {
+            Some(bytes) if bytes > crate::services::imaging::HEAVY_IMAGE_BYTES => {
+                tracing::debug!(
+                    %upload_id,
+                    estimated_mib = bytes / (1024 * 1024),
+                    "waiting for the heavy-image permit"
+                );
+                Some(
+                    crate::services::imaging::HEAVY_IMAGE_PERMITS
+                        .acquire()
+                        .await,
+                )
+            }
+            _ => None,
+        };
 
         // Run blocking image operations in a spawn_blocking task
-        tokio::task::spawn_blocking(move || -> Result<()> {
-            // Decompression-bomb limits + EXIF orientation, both in one place — see
-            // services::imaging for why neither may be skipped.
-            let img = crate::services::imaging::decode_oriented(&original)?;
-
-            // Preview: max 800px, preserving aspect ratio (data-saver feed).
-            img.resize(
-                preview_max,
-                preview_max,
-                image::imageops::FilterType::Lanczos3,
+        tokio::task::spawn_blocking(move || {
+            write_image_derivatives(
+                upload_id,
+                &original,
+                &mime_owned,
+                &preview_path,
+                &display_path,
             )
-            .save_with_format(&preview_path, image::ImageFormat::Jpeg)
-            .context("failed to save preview")?;
-
-            // Display: max 2048px for the diashow. Only DOWNSCALE — never upscale a smaller
-            // original (that adds bytes with no quality gain); re-encode it as JPEG as-is.
-            let display = if img.width() > display_max || img.height() > display_max {
-                img.resize(
-                    display_max,
-                    display_max,
-                    image::imageops::FilterType::Lanczos3,
-                )
-            } else {
-                img
-            };
-            display
-                .save_with_format(&display_path, image::ImageFormat::Jpeg)
-                .context("failed to save display")?;
-
-            // If the original is PNG, try lossless compression in-place
-            if mime_owned == "image/png" {
-                let opts = oxipng::Options::from_preset(2);
-                let _ = oxipng::optimize(
-                    &oxipng::InFile::Path(original),
-                    &oxipng::OutFile::Path {
-                        path: None,
-                        preserve_attrs: true,
-                    },
-                    &opts,
-                );
-            }
-
-            Ok(())
         })
         .await??;
 
@@ -290,17 +406,29 @@ impl CompressionWorker {
     ///
     /// Unlike the failure path in `process`, a backfill error is logged and skipped — it must
     /// NEVER destroy or soft-delete an upload that already has a working preview.
+    ///
+    /// Bounded in three ways, all of them load-bearing on a box that restarts itself:
+    /// `derivative_attempts` stops a fatal row being replayed on every boot, `BACKFILL_BATCH`
+    /// stops one start queueing unbounded work, and the whole thing runs as ONE task walking
+    /// the rows sequentially rather than N tasks racing for the same semaphore.
     pub async fn backfill_stale_derivatives(&self) {
+        // `original_path IS NOT NULL` was dead — the column is NOT NULL. What actually needs
+        // excluding is the blanked path `cleanup_deleted_media` leaves behind.
         let rows = sqlx::query_as::<_, (Uuid, String, String)>(
             "SELECT id, original_path, mime_type FROM upload
              WHERE deleted_at IS NULL AND mime_type LIKE 'image/%'
-               AND original_path IS NOT NULL
+               AND original_path <> ''
+               AND derivative_attempts < $2
                AND (
                      (display_path IS NULL AND preview_path IS NOT NULL)
                   OR derivatives_rev < $1
-               )",
+               )
+             ORDER BY created_at DESC
+             LIMIT $3",
         )
         .bind(Self::DERIVATIVES_REV)
+        .bind(Self::MAX_DERIVATIVE_ATTEMPTS)
+        .bind(Self::BACKFILL_BATCH)
         .fetch_all(&self.pool)
         .await;
         let rows = match rows {
@@ -310,14 +438,32 @@ impl CompressionWorker {
                 return;
             }
         };
+
+        self.report_exhausted_derivatives().await;
+
         if rows.is_empty() {
             return;
         }
         tracing::info!("regenerating derivatives for {} upload(s)", rows.len());
-        for (id, original_path, mime_type) in rows {
-            let worker = self.clone();
-            tokio::spawn(async move {
+
+        // ONE task for the whole batch. The previous shape spawned a task per row, so a large
+        // backlog created thousands of live tasks that each held a pool handle and queued on
+        // the same two semaphore permits, competing with live uploads for the entire boot.
+        let worker = self.clone();
+        tokio::spawn(async move {
+            for (id, original_path, mime_type) in rows {
                 let _permit = worker.semaphore.acquire().await;
+                // Write-ahead, exactly as in the live path: if this row is the one that kills
+                // the process, this increment is the only thing that outlives the SIGKILL.
+                match Upload::begin_derivative_attempt(&worker.pool, id).await {
+                    Ok(Some(n)) if n > Self::MAX_DERIVATIVE_ATTEMPTS => continue,
+                    Ok(Some(_)) => {}
+                    Ok(None) => continue,
+                    Err(e) => {
+                        tracing::warn!(error = ?e, %id, "could not record a backfill attempt; skipping");
+                        continue;
+                    }
+                }
                 let original = worker.media_path.join(&original_path);
                 match worker
                     .generate_image_derivatives(id, &original, &mime_type)
@@ -326,6 +472,8 @@ impl CompressionWorker {
                     Ok((preview_rel, display_rel)) => {
                         let _ = Upload::set_preview_path(&worker.pool, id, &preview_rel).await;
                         let _ = Upload::set_display_path(&worker.pool, id, &display_rel).await;
+                        // Clears derivative_attempts too, so a row that failed transiently is
+                        // not one boot closer to being abandoned.
                         let _ =
                             Upload::set_derivatives_rev(&worker.pool, id, Self::DERIVATIVES_REV)
                                 .await;
@@ -333,12 +481,133 @@ impl CompressionWorker {
                     }
                     Err(e) => {
                         // Leave the existing derivatives and the original intact; this row is
-                        // simply retried on the next start. The rev stays behind, which is the
-                        // marker that it still needs doing.
+                        // retried on the next start until its attempt budget runs out. The rev
+                        // stays behind, which is the marker that it still needs doing.
                         tracing::warn!(error = ?e, %id, "derivative backfill failed; leaving as-is");
+                        let _ =
+                            Upload::record_derivative_failure(&worker.pool, id, &format!("{e:#}"))
+                                .await;
                     }
                 }
-            });
+            }
+        });
+    }
+
+    /// Re-extract poster frames for videos that never got one.
+    ///
+    /// A video interrupted by a restart is stranded: `startup_recovery` flips its
+    /// `compression_status` from `processing` to `failed` and nothing re-enqueues it, so
+    /// `thumbnail_path` stays NULL forever while the clip itself plays fine. The feed shows a
+    /// posterless tile for the rest of the event, and after
+    /// `FAILED_ORIGINAL_RETENTION_DAYS` the reclaim sweep is entitled to the original.
+    ///
+    /// Shares `derivative_attempts` with the image backfill on purpose. Note the consequence,
+    /// which is intended rather than a bug to fix later: `extract_poster_frame` returning
+    /// `Ok(false)` is a NORMAL, permanent outcome for a sub-second clip (Live Photos,
+    /// mis-taps), and since the counter is write-ahead and only cleared by a real success,
+    /// those clips stop being re-ffmpeg'd on every boot once the budget is spent.
+    pub async fn backfill_video_posters(&self) {
+        let rows = sqlx::query_as::<_, (Uuid, String)>(
+            "SELECT id, original_path FROM upload
+             WHERE deleted_at IS NULL AND mime_type LIKE 'video/%'
+               AND thumbnail_path IS NULL
+               AND original_path <> ''
+               AND derivative_attempts < $1
+             ORDER BY created_at DESC
+             LIMIT $2",
+        )
+        .bind(Self::MAX_DERIVATIVE_ATTEMPTS)
+        .bind(Self::BACKFILL_BATCH)
+        .fetch_all(&self.pool)
+        .await;
+        let rows = match rows {
+            Ok(r) => r,
+            Err(e) => {
+                tracing::warn!(error = ?e, "video poster backfill query failed");
+                return;
+            }
+        };
+        if rows.is_empty() {
+            return;
+        }
+        tracing::info!("re-extracting posters for {} video(s)", rows.len());
+
+        let worker = self.clone();
+        tokio::spawn(async move {
+            for (id, original_path) in rows {
+                let _permit = worker.semaphore.acquire().await;
+                match Upload::begin_derivative_attempt(&worker.pool, id).await {
+                    Ok(Some(n)) if n > Self::MAX_DERIVATIVE_ATTEMPTS => continue,
+                    Ok(Some(_)) => {}
+                    Ok(None) => continue,
+                    Err(e) => {
+                        tracing::warn!(error = ?e, %id, "could not record a poster attempt; skipping");
+                        continue;
+                    }
+                }
+                let original = worker.media_path.join(&original_path);
+                match worker.generate_video_thumbnail(id, &original).await {
+                    Ok(Some(thumb_rel)) => {
+                        if Upload::set_thumbnail_path(&worker.pool, id, &thumb_rel)
+                            .await
+                            .is_ok()
+                        {
+                            // Clears the attempt counter: a video that eventually succeeded
+                            // must not carry a budget scar into a future pipeline revision.
+                            let _ = Upload::set_derivatives_rev(
+                                &worker.pool,
+                                id,
+                                Self::DERIVATIVES_REV,
+                            )
+                            .await;
+                            tracing::info!("poster regenerated for upload {id}");
+                        }
+                    }
+                    // No frame at all — normal for a very short clip. The tile stays
+                    // posterless and the attempt is spent, which is what stops the retry.
+                    Ok(None) => {
+                        tracing::debug!(%id, "still no poster frame; leaving the tile as-is");
+                    }
+                    Err(e) => {
+                        tracing::warn!(error = ?e, %id, "poster backfill failed; leaving as-is");
+                        let _ =
+                            Upload::record_derivative_failure(&worker.pool, id, &format!("{e:#}"))
+                                .await;
+                    }
+                }
+            }
+        });
+    }
+
+    /// Say out loud, once per boot, that some uploads have stopped being retried.
+    ///
+    /// Without this the give-up is invisible: the loop stops (which is the point) but the
+    /// affected photos keep a stale or missing derivative forever with nothing to notice. The
+    /// originals are untouched, so this is recoverable once the cause is fixed — reset
+    /// `derivative_attempts` to 0 and restart.
+    async fn report_exhausted_derivatives(&self) {
+        let exhausted: Result<i64, _> = sqlx::query_scalar(
+            "SELECT count(*) FROM upload
+             WHERE deleted_at IS NULL AND mime_type LIKE 'image/%'
+               AND derivative_attempts >= $2
+               AND (
+                     (display_path IS NULL AND preview_path IS NOT NULL)
+                  OR derivatives_rev < $1
+               )",
+        )
+        .bind(Self::DERIVATIVES_REV)
+        .bind(Self::MAX_DERIVATIVE_ATTEMPTS)
+        .fetch_one(&self.pool)
+        .await;
+        if let Ok(count) = exhausted
+            && count > 0
+        {
+            tracing::error!(
+                count,
+                "{count} upload(s) exhausted derivative regeneration and will no longer be \
+                 retried; their originals are intact — see upload.derivative_last_error, fix \
+                 the cause, then reset derivative_attempts to 0 and restart"
+            );
         }
     }
 
@@ -362,3 +631,250 @@ impl CompressionWorker {
         Ok(produced.then(|| format!("thumbnails/{thumb_filename}")))
     }
 }
+
+/// The blocking half of [`CompressionWorker::generate_image_derivatives`]: decode once, write
+/// both derivatives, then optionally shrink a PNG original in place.
+///
+/// A free function rather than an inline closure so its memory behaviour is directly testable —
+/// this is the code path that OOM-killed the container, and the fix is a scoping property that a
+/// future edit could silently undo.
+fn write_image_derivatives(
+    upload_id: Uuid,
+    original: &Path,
+    mime_type: &str,
+    preview_path: &Path,
+    display_path: &Path,
+) -> Result<()> {
+    let preview_max = CompressionWorker::PREVIEW_MAX_EDGE;
+    let display_max = CompressionWorker::DISPLAY_MAX_EDGE;
+
+    // THE FULL-SIZE DECODE IS SCOPED TO THIS BLOCK ON PURPOSE, and the block yields the
+    // DISPLAY derivative rather than the original.
+    //
+    // `img` is up to 256 MiB (imaging::decode_limits max_alloc) and `resize` only BORROWS it,
+    // so it used to stay alive through both resizes AND the oxipng call below — which decodes
+    // the PNG a second time and holds a full-size buffer per filter trial. That measured
+    // ~1250 MiB of peak RSS for a 2.8 MiB input, inside a 1 GiB cgroup: the container was
+    // SIGKILLed, taking every SSE stream and every in-flight upload with it.
+    //
+    // A block rather than a bare `drop(img)` because a `drop` call is one careless edit away
+    // from being removed as redundant-looking — and note the `else` arm MOVES `img` out, which
+    // is what makes "the block's value is the only survivor" true in both arms.
+    let (display, width, height) = {
+        // Decompression-bomb limits + EXIF orientation, both in one place — see
+        // services::imaging for why neither may be skipped.
+        let img = crate::services::imaging::decode_oriented(original)?;
+        let (width, height) = (img.width(), img.height());
+
+        // Display: max 2048px for the diashow. Only DOWNSCALE — never upscale a smaller
+        // original (that adds bytes with no quality gain); re-encode it as JPEG as-is.
+        let display = if width > display_max || height > display_max {
+            img.resize(
+                display_max,
+                display_max,
+                image::imageops::FilterType::Lanczos3,
+            )
+        } else {
+            img
+        };
+        (display, width, height)
+    };
+
+    display
+        .save_with_format(display_path, image::ImageFormat::Jpeg)
+        .context("failed to save display")?;
+
+    // Preview: max 800px, derived from the DISPLAY, not from the original.
+    //
+    // Both derivatives used to resize the full-size decode independently, so a 8000x8000
+    // original paid for two full-size Lanczos passes and their intermediates — measured 520
+    // MiB peak even after the scoping fix above, which two concurrent workers cannot fit in a
+    // 1 GiB container. Chaining 8000 -> 2048 -> 800 makes the second pass operate on 2048px
+    // input, and the full-size buffer is already freed by the time it runs. Quality is not the
+    // trade-off here: a staged Lanczos3 downscale to 800px is visually indistinguishable from
+    // a single-step one (and is a standard technique for large ratios).
+    display
+        .resize(
+            preview_max,
+            preview_max,
+            image::imageops::FilterType::Lanczos3,
+        )
+        .save_with_format(preview_path, image::ImageFormat::Jpeg)
+        .context("failed to save preview")?;
+    drop(display);
+
+    let pixels = u64::from(width) * u64::from(height);
+
+    // If the original is PNG, try lossless compression in place — but only when its pixel count
+    // is inside the budget, and never for longer than OXIPNG_TIMEOUT. This is a best-effort size
+    // saving: declining it costs disk, while attempting it unbounded cost the whole container.
+    if mime_type == "image/png" {
+        if pixels <= CompressionWorker::OXIPNG_MAX_PIXELS {
+            let mut opts = oxipng::Options::from_preset(2);
+            opts.timeout = Some(CompressionWorker::OXIPNG_TIMEOUT);
+            let _ = oxipng::optimize(
+                &oxipng::InFile::Path(original.to_path_buf()),
+                &oxipng::OutFile::Path {
+                    path: None,
+                    preserve_attrs: true,
+                },
+                &opts,
+            );
+        } else {
+            tracing::info!(
+                %upload_id, pixels,
+                "skipping oxipng: above the pixel budget; the original is stored as uploaded"
+            );
+        }
+    }
+
+    Ok(())
+}
+
+#[cfg(test)]
+mod tests {
+    use super::*;
+
+    /// Peak resident set of THIS process, in bytes, from `/proc/self/status`.
+    fn peak_rss_bytes() -> u64 {
+        let status = std::fs::read_to_string("/proc/self/status").expect("procfs");
+        let line = status
+            .lines()
+            .find(|l| l.starts_with("VmHWM:"))
+            .expect("VmHWM");
+        let kb: u64 = line
+            .split_whitespace()
+            .nth(1)
+            .and_then(|v| v.parse().ok())
+            .expect("VmHWM value");
+        kb * 1024
+    }
+
+    /// Reset the kernel's peak-RSS watermark so the measurement covers only what follows.
+    /// Linux 4.0+; writing "5" to `clear_refs` resets `VmHWM` to the current RSS.
+    fn reset_peak_rss() {
+        let _ = std::fs::write("/proc/self/clear_refs", "5");
+    }
+
+    /// The pixel gate has to sit below what the axis limits allow, or it can never fire.
+    #[test]
+    fn the_oxipng_gate_is_reachable_within_the_decode_limits() {
+        const _: () = {
+            // imaging::decode_limits permits 12_000 x 12_000 = 144 MP. A gate above that would
+            // never skip anything.
+            assert!(CompressionWorker::OXIPNG_MAX_PIXELS < 12_000 * 12_000);
+            // ...and it must stay above a 48 MP camera, so real photos still get optimised.
+            assert!(CompressionWorker::OXIPNG_MAX_PIXELS >= 8_000_000);
+        };
+    }
+
+    /// The heavy-image gate has to classify the two cases the way the sizing assumed:
+    /// an ordinary phone photo must NOT serialise, and the giant must.
+    #[test]
+    fn the_heavy_gate_separates_a_phone_photo_from_a_giant() {
+        let dir = std::env::temp_dir().join(format!("es-heavy-{}", std::process::id()));
+        std::fs::create_dir_all(&dir).unwrap();
+
+        // 12 MP, the shape of a default phone capture.
+        let ordinary = dir.join("ordinary.jpg");
+        image::RgbImage::new(4032, 3024).save(&ordinary).unwrap();
+        let ordinary_peak = crate::services::imaging::estimated_processing_peak_bytes(
+            &ordinary,
+            CompressionWorker::DISPLAY_MAX_EDGE,
+        )
+        .expect("header readable");
+        assert!(
+            ordinary_peak <= crate::services::imaging::HEAVY_IMAGE_BYTES,
+            "a 12 MP photo estimated at {} MiB would serialise the common path",
+            ordinary_peak / 1048576
+        );
+
+        // The 64 MP RGBA case that measured ~516 MiB peak.
+        let giant = dir.join("giant.png");
+        image::RgbaImage::new(8000, 8000).save(&giant).unwrap();
+        let giant_peak = crate::services::imaging::estimated_processing_peak_bytes(
+            &giant,
+            CompressionWorker::DISPLAY_MAX_EDGE,
+        )
+        .expect("header readable");
+        assert!(
+            giant_peak > crate::services::imaging::HEAVY_IMAGE_BYTES,
+            "an 8000x8000 RGBA original estimated at only {} MiB would be allowed to run \
+             concurrently with another one — 2x its real ~516 MiB peak does not fit in 1 GiB",
+            giant_peak / 1048576
+        );
+        // The estimate must also be in the right ballpark, not merely on the right side of the
+        // threshold: 244 MiB decode + 262 MiB f32 resize intermediate.
+        assert!(
+            (400..700).contains(&(giant_peak / 1048576)),
+            "estimate {} MiB is far from the measured ~516 MiB peak",
+            giant_peak / 1048576
+        );
+
+        let _ = std::fs::remove_dir_all(&dir);
+    }
+
+    /// The OOM that took the container down, measured rather than argued.
+    ///
+    /// An 8000x8000 RGBA PNG passes admission: 256,000,000 bytes is just under the 256 MiB
+    /// `max_alloc`, and smooth content is a few MB on disk, far under any size cap. The old
+    /// code kept that ~244 MiB decode alive across an unbounded, multi-threaded oxipng run and
+    /// peaked at ~1250 MiB — inside a 1 GiB cgroup. Being SIGKILLed there is not a blip: the
+    /// row was already committed, so the boot backfill replayed the identical workload on every
+    /// restart.
+    ///
+    /// `#[ignore]` because it allocates ~250 MiB and takes a few seconds. Run explicitly:
+    ///   cargo test --release oom -- --ignored --nocapture --test-threads=1
+    /// It must run ALONE — `VmHWM` is per process, so a concurrent test would pollute it.
+    #[test]
+    #[ignore = "heavy: allocates ~250 MiB; run with --ignored --test-threads=1"]
+    fn a_large_png_stays_far_below_the_container_limit() {
+        const EDGE: u32 = 8_000;
+        let dir = std::env::temp_dir().join(format!("es-oom-{}", std::process::id()));
+        std::fs::create_dir_all(&dir).unwrap();
+        let original = dir.join("big.png");
+
+        // Smooth gradient: ~244 MiB decoded, a couple of MB on disk. That gap is the whole
+        // point — file size tells you nothing about what a PNG costs to process.
+        {
+            let mut buf = image::RgbaImage::new(EDGE, EDGE);
+            for (x, y, px) in buf.enumerate_pixels_mut() {
+                *px = image::Rgba([(x >> 5) as u8, (y >> 5) as u8, ((x + y) >> 6) as u8, 255]);
+            }
+            buf.save(&original).unwrap();
+        }
+
+        // Everything above is fixture setup, not the code under test.
+        reset_peak_rss();
+        let before = peak_rss_bytes();
+
+        write_image_derivatives(
+            Uuid::new_v4(),
+            &original,
+            "image/png",
+            &dir.join("preview.jpg"),
+            &dir.join("display.jpg"),
+        )
+        .expect("derivatives");
+
+        let peak = peak_rss_bytes();
+        let on_disk = std::fs::metadata(&original).unwrap().len();
+        eprintln!(
+            "input {:.2} MiB on disk ({EDGE}x{EDGE}); peak RSS {:.0} MiB (was {:.0} MiB before)",
+            on_disk as f64 / 1048576.0,
+            peak as f64 / 1048576.0,
+            before as f64 / 1048576.0
+        );
+
+        assert!(dir.join("preview.jpg").exists() && dir.join("display.jpg").exists());
+        // The container gets 1 GiB and runs two of these concurrently. 600 MiB is a generous
+        // ceiling that the old code (~1250 MiB) could not have met.
+        assert!(
+            peak < 600 * 1024 * 1024,
+            "peak RSS {} MiB — the decode is being held across oxipng again, or the pixel \
+             gate stopped firing",
+            peak / 1048576
+        );
+        let _ = std::fs::remove_dir_all(&dir);
+    }
+}

backend/src/services/config.rs

@@ -148,3 +148,104 @@ pub async fn get_bool(cache: &ConfigCache, key: &str, default: bool) -> bool {
         _ => default,
     }
 }
+
+#[cfg(test)]
+mod seed_tests {
+    /// The value a fresh database actually ends up with for `key`, by replaying the migrations.
+    ///
+    /// This exists because a `config::get_*` default is only a fallback for a MISSING key, and the
+    /// migrations seed nearly every key there is. So the literal in the handler is dead code on any
+    /// real install, and changing it changes nothing — which is exactly what happened to
+    /// `join_ip_rate_per_min`: it was raised 60 → 300 in `auth/handlers.rs` to stop one QR-code
+    /// burst from locking the venue out of `/join`, shipped, and did nothing at all, because
+    /// migration 017 seeds 60 and the seed wins. Nothing in the test suite could see it: the e2e
+    /// regression guard fires 12 concurrent joins, which is green at 60 and at 300 alike.
+    fn effective_seed(key: &str) -> Option<String> {
+        let dir = std::path::Path::new(env!("CARGO_MANIFEST_DIR")).join("migrations");
+        let mut files: Vec<_> = std::fs::read_dir(&dir)
+            .expect("migrations directory")
+            .filter_map(|e| e.ok().map(|e| e.path()))
+            .filter(|p| p.to_string_lossy().ends_with(".up.sql"))
+            .collect();
+        // Version order: migrations are applied in filename order and later ones override.
+        files.sort();
+
+        let mut value: Option<String> = None;
+        for path in files {
+            let sql = std::fs::read_to_string(&path).expect("readable migration");
+            for line in sql.lines() {
+                let line = line.trim();
+                if line.starts_with("--") {
+                    continue;
+                }
+                // Seed form:  ('key', 'value')
+                if let Some(rest) = line.strip_prefix(&format!("('{key}',"))
+                    && let Some(v) = rest.split('\'').nth(1)
+                {
+                    value = Some(v.to_string());
+                }
+                // Update form: UPDATE config SET value = 'new' WHERE key = 'key' AND value = 'old'
+                if line.starts_with("UPDATE config SET value")
+                    && line.contains(&format!("key = '{key}'"))
+                    && let Some(new) = line.split('\'').nth(1)
+                {
+                    let scoped_to = line
+                        .rsplit_once("AND value = '")
+                        .and_then(|(_, tail)| tail.split('\'').next().map(|s| s.to_string()));
+                    // Only applies if the current value still matches the scope it was written for.
+                    if scoped_to.is_none() || scoped_to.as_deref() == value.as_deref() {
+                        value = Some(new.to_string());
+                    }
+                }
+            }
+        }
+        value
+    }
+
+    /// The invariant, not the number: `join_ip:{ip}` is keyed on an address the WHOLE VENUE shares
+    /// behind NAT, and `/join` is the one screen with no auto-retry. A ceiling near the size of the
+    /// party is a ceiling on the party. Asserted against the effective seed rather than the code
+    /// default precisely because the code default is what silently did not apply.
+    #[test]
+    fn the_join_ceiling_a_real_install_gets_is_sized_for_a_whole_venue_arriving_at_once() {
+        let seeded = effective_seed("join_ip_rate_per_min")
+            .expect("join_ip_rate_per_min must be seeded by a migration");
+        let seeded: usize = seeded.parse().expect("numeric");
+        assert!(
+            seeded >= 300,
+            "a fresh database ends up with join_ip_rate_per_min = {seeded}. Every guest shares one \
+             NAT address, so this is the ceiling for the entire party scanning one QR code. Raise \
+             it with a value-scoped UPDATE migration (see 030) — changing the default in \
+             auth/handlers.rs does nothing, because the seed wins."
+        );
+    }
+
+    /// Pins the other half of the same trap: the seeded value must not exceed the ceiling the
+    /// handler clamps to, or an operator reading `GET /admin/config` sees a number that is not the
+    /// one being enforced.
+    #[test]
+    fn the_seeded_recover_name_ceiling_is_within_what_the_handler_will_honour() {
+        let seeded = effective_seed("recover_name_rate_per_15min")
+            .expect("recover_name_rate_per_15min must be seeded by a migration");
+        let seeded: usize = seeded.parse().expect("numeric");
+        assert!(
+            seeded <= crate::auth::handlers::RECOVER_NAME_CEILING_MAX,
+            "seeded recover_name_rate_per_15min = {seeded} exceeds RECOVER_NAME_CEILING_MAX = {}; \
+             the handler clamps at the point of use, so the advertised value would be a lie.",
+            crate::auth::handlers::RECOVER_NAME_CEILING_MAX
+        );
+    }
+
+    /// The parser itself, against a value migration 015 really does change. Without this a bug in
+    /// `effective_seed` makes both tests above vacuously green.
+    #[test]
+    fn the_seed_parser_follows_a_value_through_a_later_update_migration() {
+        assert_eq!(
+            effective_seed("upload_rate_per_hour").as_deref(),
+            Some("100"),
+            "005 seeds 10 and 015 raises it to 100; reading 10 here means the UPDATE form is not \
+             being applied, and every assertion built on this helper is worthless."
+        );
+        assert_eq!(effective_seed("no_such_key_anywhere"), None);
+    }
+}

backend/src/services/imaging.rs

@@ -39,8 +39,10 @@ fn decode_limits() -> image::Limits {
 ///
 /// Deliberately narrow. Only the `ImageError` variants that are a property of the *input*
 /// count: the file will not shrink, gain codec support, or un-corrupt itself between
-/// attempts. `IoError` is excluded on purpose — an ENOSPC while writing a derivative, or
-/// EMFILE under load, is exactly the transient case the retry exists for.
+/// attempts. `IoError` is excluded on purpose — EMFILE under load, or a momentarily
+/// unreadable file, is exactly the transient case the retry exists for. A FULL disk is the
+/// one io error that must not be retried either, but for a different reason and with a
+/// different remedy; see [`is_storage_full_error`].
 pub fn is_permanent_image_error(err: &anyhow::Error) -> bool {
     err.chain().any(|cause| {
         matches!(
@@ -54,6 +56,34 @@ pub fn is_permanent_image_error(err: &anyhow::Error) -> bool {
     })
 }
 
+/// True when the failure is the media filesystem being out of space.
+///
+/// Deliberately separate from [`is_permanent_image_error`], which is about the *input*. ENOSPC
+/// is about the *host*, and it is the one failure the retry loop actively makes worse: a disk
+/// does not drain during six seconds of backoff, so all three attempts fail identically while
+/// holding a compression permit that photos are queued behind.
+///
+/// The give-up path it fed was worse still. It refunded the guest's quota and soft-deleted the
+/// row while deliberately RETAINING the original — so the bytes stayed on the full disk, the
+/// photo vanished from the feed seconds after a `201 Created`, and the guest was handed back
+/// the quota to upload it again into the same full disk. Each round shrank free space further.
+pub fn is_storage_full_error(err: &anyhow::Error) -> bool {
+    fn is_full(io: &std::io::Error) -> bool {
+        // `StorageFull` is the portable classification; the raw ENOSPC catches the paths where
+        // the OS error was never mapped to a named kind.
+        io.kind() == std::io::ErrorKind::StorageFull || io.raw_os_error() == Some(28)
+    }
+    err.chain().any(|cause| {
+        // `image` wraps the io error in its own variant rather than exposing it as a source,
+        // so the plain downcast alone would miss every derivative-write failure.
+        cause.downcast_ref::<std::io::Error>().is_some_and(is_full)
+            || matches!(
+                cause.downcast_ref::<image::ImageError>(),
+                Some(image::ImageError::IoError(io)) if is_full(io)
+            )
+    })
+}
+
 /// Build a decoder for `path` with the budget enforced, WITHOUT reading any pixels.
 ///
 /// Single source of truth for "may this image be decoded at all": both the upload
@@ -88,6 +118,40 @@ fn decoder_within_budget(path: &Path) -> Result<impl image::ImageDecoder> {
     Ok(decoder)
 }
 
+/// Rough peak heap an image will cost to turn into derivatives, read from the HEADER only —
+/// no pixels are decoded. `None` when the header can't be read or the image is over budget
+/// (the caller is about to fail on it anyway).
+///
+/// Two terms, and the second is the one that surprises:
+///
+/// - the decoded buffer, `width * height * channels`; and
+/// - the resize intermediate. `image`'s Lanczos3 path accumulates in `f32`, so the buffer
+///   between the horizontal and vertical passes is `new_width * old_height * 4 channels * 4
+///   bytes` — 16 bytes per pixel-row-slot, not the 4 the output uses. For an 8000x8000
+///   original that is 262 MiB on top of a 244 MiB decode, measured. It is bigger than the
+///   decode for any tall image, which is why "the decode is bounded by max_alloc" was never
+///   the whole story.
+///
+/// Used to decide whether an image is heavy enough to need exclusive use of the box's memory
+/// headroom, NOT to reject anything.
+pub fn estimated_processing_peak_bytes(path: &Path, display_edge: u32) -> Option<u64> {
+    let decoder = decoder_within_budget(path).ok()?;
+    let (width, height) = decoder.dimensions();
+    let decoded = decoder.total_bytes();
+
+    // Aspect-preserving fit into `display_edge`, matching DynamicImage::resize. No downscale
+    // means no intermediate at all.
+    let intermediate = if width > display_edge || height > display_edge {
+        let ratio = f64::from(display_edge) / f64::from(width.max(height));
+        let new_width = (f64::from(width) * ratio).round().max(1.0) as u64;
+        new_width * u64::from(height) * 16
+    } else {
+        0
+    };
+
+    Some(decoded.saturating_add(intermediate))
+}
+
 /// Megapixels an image would decode to, or `None` if its header can't be read. Used only
 /// to put a concrete number in the message the guest sees.
 pub fn megapixels(path: &Path) -> Option<f64> {
@@ -141,6 +205,32 @@ pub fn decode_oriented(path: &Path) -> Result<DynamicImage> {
     Ok(img)
 }
 
+/// Process-wide serialisation for memory-heavy image work.
+///
+/// The `app` container gets 1 GiB. A single 8000x8000 original measures ~516 MiB peak even with
+/// the decode correctly scoped, so two overlapping giants is an OOM kill — and the kernel kills
+/// the whole process, dropping every SSE stream and stranding every in-flight upload.
+///
+/// GLOBAL rather than a field on `CompressionWorker`, because the constraint is the container's
+/// memory and there is more than one producer of this work. The export's own image path
+/// (`services::export`) decodes and resizes every photo in the gallery — a thumbnail for each,
+/// plus a 2000px re-encode for every original over 5 MB — and it ran in a bare `spawn_blocking`
+/// with no permit at all. So "host taps Freigeben while the last phone photos are still
+/// compressing" put an export decode and a heavy compression job in the same cgroup at the same
+/// time, which is the scenario the permit exists to make impossible. Worse, it is self-repeating:
+/// the OOM kill marks the export failed, and `recover_exports` re-spawns it on boot into the same
+/// conditions.
+///
+/// Held across the blocking section and released on drop, including on error.
+pub static HEAVY_IMAGE_PERMITS: std::sync::LazyLock<tokio::sync::Semaphore> =
+    std::sync::LazyLock::new(|| tokio::sync::Semaphore::new(1));
+
+/// Estimated peak heap above which a job must take [`HEAVY_IMAGE_PERMITS`].
+///
+/// 150 MiB sits far above a normal phone photo (a 12 MP JPEG costs ~50 MiB all-in) so the common
+/// path never serialises, and far below the point where two jobs stop fitting in the container.
+pub const HEAVY_IMAGE_BYTES: u64 = 150 * 1024 * 1024;
+
 #[cfg(test)]
 mod tests {
     use super::*;
@@ -189,9 +279,10 @@ mod tests {
 
     #[test]
     fn a_plain_io_error_is_not_permanent() {
-        // The mirror that keeps the classifier honest. ENOSPC while writing a derivative, or
-        // EMFILE under load, is exactly what the retry exists for — misclassifying those as
+        // The mirror that keeps the classifier honest. EMFILE under load, or a momentary
+        // unreadable file, is exactly what the retry exists for — misclassifying those as
         // permanent would turn a transient blip back into the data loss round 1 fixed.
+        // (A FULL disk is its own case now; see the storage-full tests below.)
         let err = decode_oriented(Path::new("/nonexistent/definitely-not-here.jpg"))
             .map(|img| (img.width(), img.height()))
             .expect_err("a missing file must error");
@@ -201,6 +292,40 @@ mod tests {
         );
     }
 
+    #[test]
+    fn a_full_disk_is_recognised_through_both_wrappers() {
+        // The two shapes ENOSPC actually arrives in. A bare io::Error is what `tokio::fs` and
+        // `std::fs` produce; the `image` crate wraps its own in `ImageError::IoError`, which is
+        // NOT reachable via `source()` — so a chain walk that only downcast to io::Error would
+        // miss every derivative-write failure, i.e. the exact case this classifier exists for.
+        let bare = anyhow::Error::from(std::io::Error::from(std::io::ErrorKind::StorageFull))
+            .context("failed to write the preview");
+        assert!(is_storage_full_error(&bare), "bare io::Error: {bare:#}");
+
+        let wrapped = anyhow::Error::from(image::ImageError::IoError(std::io::Error::from(
+            std::io::ErrorKind::StorageFull,
+        )))
+        .context("failed to save the display derivative");
+        assert!(
+            is_storage_full_error(&wrapped),
+            "ImageError::IoError: {wrapped:#}"
+        );
+    }
+
+    #[test]
+    fn an_ordinary_io_error_is_not_a_full_disk() {
+        // Keeps the classifier from swallowing the general case: only ENOSPC may skip the retry
+        // and take the keep-the-row branch. Anything else must still be retried and, if it keeps
+        // failing, soft-deleted as before.
+        let missing = decode_oriented(Path::new("/nonexistent/definitely-not-here.jpg"))
+            .map(|img| (img.width(), img.height()))
+            .expect_err("a missing file must error");
+        assert!(
+            !is_storage_full_error(&missing),
+            "a missing file is not a full disk: {missing:#}"
+        );
+    }
+
     #[test]
     fn admission_rejects_only_the_over_budget_case() {
         // Admission and processing must agree about SIZE — a photo accepted at the door and

backend/src/services/maintenance.rs

@@ -120,6 +120,19 @@ pub async fn startup_recovery(pool: &PgPool) {
     }
 }
 
+/// How long a file in `originals/` may exist without a database row before it is treated as
+/// abandoned.
+///
+/// This window is the ONLY thing making the sweep safe, because the upload handler renames the
+/// temp file into its final path BEFORE committing the row: for a short moment a perfectly
+/// healthy upload legitimately looks exactly like an orphan. Six hours is far beyond any live
+/// request (a 576 MiB body over a bad venue uplink is minutes, and the request itself is bounded
+/// by the reverse proxy) while still reclaiming the leak inside a single event.
+///
+/// DO NOT SHORTEN THIS to make a test faster — a value below the longest possible in-flight
+/// upload deletes photos out from under the request that is committing them.
+const ORPHAN_UPLOAD_RETENTION_HOURS: u64 = 6;
+
 /// Spawns a background task that periodically:
 /// - deletes session rows whose `expires_at` is more than a day in the past
 /// - prunes the in-memory rate-limiter HashMap of empty windows
@@ -132,20 +145,143 @@ pub fn spawn_periodic_tasks(
     sse_tickets: SseTicketStore,
     media_path: PathBuf,
 ) {
+    // Supervised, because this one task carries EVERY piece of recurring hygiene in the app:
+    // session pruning, media reclamation, the orphan-temp sweep, and the rate-limiter and
+    // SSE-ticket maps. As a bare `tokio::spawn` with no retained handle, a single panic anywhere
+    // inside it stopped all five permanently and silently — no log line, no symptom until the
+    // disk or a HashMap grew into one. The supervisor re-spawns and, just as importantly, says
+    // so; it can never spin hot because the inner loop only returns by dying.
     tokio::spawn(async move {
-        let mut tick = tokio::time::interval(Duration::from_secs(3600));
-        // Fire the first tick immediately, then hourly.
-        tick.tick().await;
         loop {
-            tick.tick().await;
-            cleanup_sessions(&pool).await;
-            cleanup_deleted_media(&pool, &media_path).await;
-            rate_limiter.prune();
-            sse_tickets.prune();
+            let inner = tokio::spawn(periodic_loop(
+                pool.clone(),
+                rate_limiter.clone(),
+                sse_tickets.clone(),
+                media_path.clone(),
+            ));
+            match inner.await {
+                Ok(()) => tracing::error!("periodic maintenance loop returned; restarting it"),
+                Err(e) => {
+                    tracing::error!(error = ?e, "periodic maintenance task died; restarting it")
+                }
+            }
+            tokio::time::sleep(Duration::from_secs(60)).await;
         }
     });
 }
 
+/// The actual hygiene loop. Never returns in normal operation — see the supervisor above.
+async fn periodic_loop(
+    pool: PgPool,
+    rate_limiter: RateLimiter,
+    sse_tickets: SseTicketStore,
+    media_path: PathBuf,
+) {
+    // A crash left whatever the previous process was mid-upload behind, and the first periodic
+    // tick is an hour away — sweep once up front so a restart is also a cleanup.
+    sweep_orphan_upload_temps(&media_path).await;
+
+    let mut tick = tokio::time::interval(Duration::from_secs(3600));
+    // Fire the first tick immediately, then hourly.
+    tick.tick().await;
+    loop {
+        tick.tick().await;
+        cleanup_sessions(&pool).await;
+        cleanup_deleted_media(&pool, &media_path).await;
+        sweep_orphan_upload_temps(&media_path).await;
+        // Runs AFTER the .tmp sweep, and covers the class that one structurally cannot see:
+        // an original that was renamed to its final name but whose transaction never
+        // committed. Those have no row, so `cleanup_deleted_media` (row-driven) can never
+        // find them, and `sweep_orphan_upload_temps` skips them because they no longer end
+        // in `.tmp` — they were permanently unowned, silently shrinking the free disk that
+        // `compute_storage_quota` divides among guests.
+        sweep_orphan_originals(&pool, &media_path).await;
+        rate_limiter.prune();
+        sse_tickets.prune();
+    }
+}
+
+/// How long an upload's `.tmp` file must have been untouched before it is treated as abandoned.
+///
+/// This is an age on the MODIFICATION time, not on creation, and that is what makes an hour
+/// safe rather than reckless: a live upload is being written to continuously, so its mtime keeps
+/// advancing and it can never age into the sweep no matter how slow the connection. The clock
+/// only starts once the writer stops — i.e. once the upload is genuinely dead.
+const ORPHAN_TEMP_MAX_AGE: Duration = Duration::from_secs(3600);
+
+/// Reclaim `.tmp` files left in the media tree by uploads that never finished.
+///
+/// `stream_field_to_file` removes its temp file on every error return, which covers everything
+/// the handler can see. It cannot cover the case that actually happens at a party: the client
+/// simply goes away — a phone sleeps, a guest walks out of range, the PWA is evicted mid-video —
+/// and axum DROPS the handler future rather than returning an error, so no cleanup code runs at
+/// all. The shutdown backstop force-exits in-flight handlers for the same net effect.
+///
+/// Nothing else reclaims these. `cleanup_deleted_media` only visits rows with `deleted_at`, and
+/// an abandoned upload never got a row; `export::sweep_orphan_temps` is only ever pointed at the
+/// exports volume. So before this, every abandonment stranded up to `max_video_size_mb` of
+/// unowned bytes permanently — and worse than merely leaking, they were subtracted from what
+/// everyone else could upload, because the per-user quota is computed from live free disk
+/// (`compute_storage_quota`). On a 40 GB disk shared with `postgres_data`, an evening of flaky
+/// venue wifi could take the event down.
+async fn sweep_orphan_upload_temps(media_path: &std::path::Path) {
+    let originals = media_path.join("originals");
+    let mut event_dirs = match tokio::fs::read_dir(&originals).await {
+        Ok(d) => d,
+        // Absent before the first upload — not a problem worth logging every hour.
+        Err(e) if e.kind() == std::io::ErrorKind::NotFound => return,
+        Err(e) => {
+            tracing::warn!(error = ?e, path = %originals.display(), "orphan temp sweep: unreadable");
+            return;
+        }
+    };
+
+    let mut reclaimed = 0usize;
+    let mut bytes = 0u64;
+    while let Ok(Some(event_dir)) = event_dirs.next_entry().await {
+        let Ok(mut files) = tokio::fs::read_dir(event_dir.path()).await else {
+            continue;
+        };
+        while let Ok(Some(file)) = files.next_entry().await {
+            let path = file.path();
+            if path.extension().is_none_or(|e| e != "tmp") {
+                continue;
+            }
+            let Ok(meta) = file.metadata().await else {
+                continue;
+            };
+            // No mtime (or a clock that moved backwards) means we cannot show the file is
+            // abandoned, and deleting a live upload is far worse than leaking one temp file.
+            let abandoned = meta
+                .modified()
+                .ok()
+                .and_then(|m| m.elapsed().ok())
+                .is_some_and(|age| age >= ORPHAN_TEMP_MAX_AGE);
+            if !abandoned {
+                continue;
+            }
+            match tokio::fs::remove_file(&path).await {
+                Ok(()) => {
+                    reclaimed += 1;
+                    bytes += meta.len();
+                }
+                Err(e) if e.kind() == std::io::ErrorKind::NotFound => {}
+                Err(e) => {
+                    tracing::warn!(error = ?e, path = %path.display(),
+                        "orphan temp sweep: could not reclaim")
+                }
+            }
+        }
+    }
+
+    if reclaimed > 0 {
+        tracing::info!(
+            "orphan temp sweep: reclaimed {reclaimed} abandoned upload temp file(s), {} MiB",
+            bytes / (1024 * 1024)
+        );
+    }
+}
+
 /// Reclaim the media of soft-deleted uploads once they are past their retention window.
 ///
 /// ONLY ever touches rows with `deleted_at IS NOT NULL`, so it can never reach a live upload. Two
@@ -262,3 +398,198 @@ async fn cleanup_sessions(pool: &PgPool) {
         Err(e) => tracing::warn!("session cleanup failed: {e:#}"),
     }
 }
+
+/// Reclaim files in `originals/` that no upload row references.
+///
+/// The backstop behind [`TempFileGuard`](crate::handlers::upload). The guard covers the
+/// process that is running; this covers the process that was killed — a SIGKILL, an OOM, or a
+/// power cut leaves whatever bytes had been written with no `Drop` to reclaim them, and those
+/// files are then permanently invisible: they have no row, so `cleanup_deleted_media` (which is
+/// row-driven) can never see them, and they are not counted against any quota while still
+/// consuming the free disk that `compute_storage_quota` divides among guests. On a single box
+/// where all three volumes share a filesystem, that ends with Postgres unable to write WAL.
+///
+/// Two classes:
+/// - `*.tmp` — an upload that never got as far as being renamed. Always safe past the window.
+/// - everything else — a final-named original whose commit never happened.
+async fn sweep_orphan_originals(pool: &PgPool, media_path: &std::path::Path) {
+    let originals = media_path.join("originals");
+    let cutoff = Duration::from_secs(ORPHAN_UPLOAD_RETENTION_HOURS * 3600);
+
+    // originals/{event_slug}/{uuid}.{ext} — one level of per-event directories.
+    let mut event_dirs = match tokio::fs::read_dir(&originals).await {
+        Ok(rd) => rd,
+        // Nothing uploaded yet; the directory is created lazily by the upload handler.
+        Err(_) => return,
+    };
+
+    let mut candidates: Vec<(String, std::path::PathBuf)> = Vec::new();
+    let mut temps_removed = 0u32;
+
+    while let Ok(Some(event_dir)) = event_dirs.next_entry().await {
+        if !event_dir
+            .file_type()
+            .await
+            .map(|t| t.is_dir())
+            .unwrap_or(false)
+        {
+            continue;
+        }
+        let slug = event_dir.file_name().to_string_lossy().to_string();
+        let Ok(mut files) = tokio::fs::read_dir(event_dir.path()).await else {
+            continue;
+        };
+        while let Ok(Some(entry)) = files.next_entry().await {
+            let Ok(meta) = entry.metadata().await else {
+                continue;
+            };
+            if !meta.is_file() {
+                continue;
+            }
+            // Too young to judge: an upload committing RIGHT NOW is indistinguishable from an
+            // orphan, because the rename precedes the commit.
+            //
+            // This sweep is also the backstop for the one case the upload handler's drop guard
+            // deliberately leaks: a client disconnect while `tx.commit()` is in flight disarms
+            // the guard first (so a COMMIT that Postgres applied anyway keeps its file), which
+            // means a COMMIT that did NOT apply leaves a final-named file with no row. The
+            // `NOT EXISTS` check below is what reclaims it. See `upload.rs`, the disarm site.
+            let recent = meta
+                .modified()
+                .ok()
+                .and_then(|m| m.elapsed().ok())
+                .is_none_or(|age| age < cutoff);
+            if recent {
+                continue;
+            }
+
+            let name = entry.file_name().to_string_lossy().to_string();
+            if name.ends_with(".tmp") {
+                // A `.tmp` never has a row by construction — no DB check needed.
+                if tokio::fs::remove_file(entry.path()).await.is_ok() {
+                    temps_removed += 1;
+                }
+                continue;
+            }
+            candidates.push((format!("originals/{slug}/{name}"), entry.path()));
+        }
+    }
+
+    if temps_removed > 0 {
+        tracing::warn!(
+            "reclaimed {temps_removed} abandoned upload temp file(s) older than \
+             {ORPHAN_UPLOAD_RETENTION_HOURS}h"
+        );
+    }
+    if candidates.is_empty() {
+        return;
+    }
+
+    // One query per batch, not one per file: a backlog of thousands of orphans must not turn
+    // into thousands of round trips on an hourly timer.
+    let mut orphans_removed = 0u32;
+    for chunk in candidates.chunks(500) {
+        let paths: Vec<String> = chunk.iter().map(|(rel, _)| rel.clone()).collect();
+        // NO `deleted_at IS NULL` FILTER HERE. A soft-deleted row still points at its file
+        // during its retention window, and reclaiming that file is `cleanup_deleted_media`'s
+        // job — filtering here would race the two sweeps and destroy the exact files the
+        // recovery window exists to preserve.
+        let unreferenced: Result<Vec<(String,)>, _> = sqlx::query_as(
+            "SELECT p FROM unnest($1::text[]) AS p
+              WHERE NOT EXISTS (SELECT 1 FROM upload u WHERE u.original_path = p)",
+        )
+        .bind(&paths)
+        .fetch_all(pool)
+        .await;
+        let unreferenced = match unreferenced {
+            Ok(rows) => rows,
+            Err(e) => {
+                tracing::warn!(error = ?e, "orphan-original sweep query failed");
+                return;
+            }
+        };
+        for (rel,) in unreferenced {
+            if let Some((_, abs)) = chunk.iter().find(|(r, _)| *r == rel)
+                && tokio::fs::remove_file(abs).await.is_ok()
+            {
+                orphans_removed += 1;
+            }
+        }
+    }
+
+    if orphans_removed > 0 {
+        tracing::warn!(
+            "reclaimed {orphans_removed} original(s) with no upload row, older than \
+             {ORPHAN_UPLOAD_RETENTION_HOURS}h"
+        );
+    }
+}
+
+#[cfg(test)]
+mod tests {
+    use super::*;
+
+    /// Build `<root>/originals/<event>/<name>` with `len` bytes, optionally back-dating its mtime
+    /// by `age`. Back-dating is the only way to test the sweep without sleeping through an hour.
+    fn temp_file(root: &std::path::Path, name: &str, len: usize, age: Option<Duration>) {
+        let dir = root.join("originals").join("wedding");
+        std::fs::create_dir_all(&dir).expect("create dir");
+        let path = dir.join(name);
+        let f = std::fs::File::create(&path).expect("create file");
+        std::io::Write::write_all(&mut &f, &vec![0u8; len]).expect("write");
+        if let Some(age) = age {
+            let when = std::time::SystemTime::now() - age;
+            f.set_modified(when).expect("set mtime");
+        }
+    }
+
+    fn exists(root: &std::path::Path, name: &str) -> bool {
+        root.join("originals").join("wedding").join(name).exists()
+    }
+
+    /// The two halves of the guarantee in one pass: an abandoned temp is reclaimed, and a temp
+    /// that is still being written to is NOT — the second matters more, because deleting a live
+    /// upload's temp file would corrupt a photo that was about to succeed.
+    #[tokio::test]
+    async fn the_sweep_reclaims_abandoned_temps_and_spares_live_ones() {
+        let root = std::env::temp_dir().join(format!("es-sweep-{}", uuid::Uuid::new_v4()));
+
+        // Abandoned: the writer died over an hour ago and nothing has touched it since.
+        temp_file(
+            &root,
+            "dead.tmp",
+            2048,
+            Some(ORPHAN_TEMP_MAX_AGE + Duration::from_secs(60)),
+        );
+        // Live: an upload in progress keeps advancing its mtime, so it always looks young —
+        // this is why the threshold is on modification time and not on creation time.
+        temp_file(&root, "inflight.tmp", 2048, None);
+        // A committed original. The sweep must only ever consider `.tmp`.
+        temp_file(&root, "keeper.jpg", 2048, Some(Duration::from_secs(86_400)));
+
+        sweep_orphan_upload_temps(&root).await;
+
+        assert!(
+            !exists(&root, "dead.tmp"),
+            "an abandoned temp must be reclaimed"
+        );
+        assert!(
+            exists(&root, "inflight.tmp"),
+            "a temp still being written to must survive — deleting it destroys a live upload"
+        );
+        assert!(
+            exists(&root, "keeper.jpg"),
+            "the sweep must never touch a committed original"
+        );
+
+        let _ = std::fs::remove_dir_all(&root);
+    }
+
+    /// Runs on every boot and every hour, so a media tree that does not exist yet (before the
+    /// first upload) must be a silent no-op rather than an error logged 24 times a day.
+    #[tokio::test]
+    async fn a_missing_media_tree_is_not_an_error() {
+        let root = std::env::temp_dir().join(format!("es-sweep-absent-{}", uuid::Uuid::new_v4()));
+        sweep_orphan_upload_temps(&root).await; // must simply return
+    }
+}

backend/src/services/media_total.rs

@@ -0,0 +1,112 @@
+//! Cached sum of all media bytes the event is holding.
+//!
+//! The upload gate needs to know "how big would the keepsake be if we accept this file", because
+//! the archive needs room for BOTH halves at once (`export::required_free_bytes` is
+//! `media × 1.1 × 2` — the ZIP and the HTML viewer are each gallery-sized). Asking that question
+//! per upload has to be cheap, and it has to be cheap on the busiest write path in the app.
+//!
+//! `export::estimate_export_bytes` answers the same question exactly, but it aggregates
+//! `original_size_bytes` across every upload row joined to `user` — fine once per release,
+//! wasteful per upload and growing all evening. This sums `user.total_upload_bytes` instead:
+//! one row per guest (~100), already maintained transactionally by the quota path, already
+//! refunded on delete.
+//!
+//! The two differ slightly — this one counts uploads belonging to banned or hidden users, which
+//! the export filters out. That skew is in the SAFE direction: it over-estimates the archive, so
+//! the gate closes marginally early rather than marginally late. Never swap it for a cheaper
+//! query that could under-estimate; an under-estimate authorises the very upload that makes the
+//! keepsake unbuildable, which is the failure this exists to prevent.
+
+use std::sync::{Arc, RwLock};
+use std::time::{Duration, Instant};
+
+use sqlx::PgPool;
+
+/// How long a reading is trusted. Shorter than [`crate::services::disk`]'s TTL because this
+/// number only ever grows and does so in the same request path that reads it — a stale value
+/// under-counts the newest uploads, and under-counting is the direction that matters.
+const TTL: Duration = Duration::from_secs(5);
+
+/// Cheap-to-clone cache of the event's total media bytes. Lives in `AppState`.
+#[derive(Clone)]
+pub struct MediaTotalCache {
+    inner: Arc<RwLock<Option<(i64, Instant)>>>,
+}
+
+impl MediaTotalCache {
+    pub fn new() -> Self {
+        Self {
+            inner: Arc::new(RwLock::new(None)),
+        }
+    }
+
+    /// Drop the cached reading so the next `get()` re-queries.
+    ///
+    /// Used by the e2e TRUNCATE endpoint for the same reason `DiskCache::invalidate` exists:
+    /// truncation removes every upload, and a surviving reading would make the next test's
+    /// gate compute against the previous test's data.
+    pub fn invalidate(&self) {
+        *self.inner.write().unwrap() = None;
+    }
+
+    /// Total bytes of media the event is holding, cached for [`TTL`].
+    ///
+    /// Returns 0 when the query fails. That is a deliberate FAIL-OPEN, consistent with the
+    /// quota path and the export preflight: a database blip must not turn into "every upload
+    /// refused". The disk-space half of the gate still applies, so a failure here degrades the
+    /// check to the old flat-reserve behaviour rather than disabling it.
+    pub async fn get(&self, pool: &PgPool, event_slug: &str) -> i64 {
+        if let Some((bytes, at)) = *self.inner.read().unwrap()
+            && at.elapsed() < TTL
+        {
+            return bytes;
+        }
+        // Scoped to THIS event (H12). The unscoped `SUM(total_upload_bytes) FROM "user"` summed
+        // every user row in the table, so reusing the install for a second event carried the first
+        // one's bytes into the second one's keepsake-headroom gate — closing uploads early with a
+        // message about "the event's storage" being full, counting media that belongs to a party
+        // that already happened (and whose files are never reclaimed either).
+        let queried = sqlx::query_scalar::<_, Option<i64>>(
+            "SELECT SUM(u.total_upload_bytes)::bigint FROM \"user\" u
+               JOIN event e ON e.id = u.event_id
+              WHERE e.slug = $1",
+        )
+        .bind(event_slug)
+        .fetch_one(pool)
+        .await;
+
+        let bytes = match queried {
+            Ok(v) => v.unwrap_or(0).max(0),
+            Err(e) => {
+                // FAIL OPEN, but do NOT cache the failure, and do NOT let it pass silently.
+                //
+                // Storing 0 here pinned the gate's view of the event at "empty" for the whole
+                // TTL. During that window `media_after` is just this upload, `keepsake_needs`
+                // collapses to ~2.2x one file, and the gate degrades to the flat 10 GB reserve —
+                // precisely the behaviour the two-halves design replaced, reappearing with no
+                // trace in the log. And the trigger correlates with the danger: with
+                // `max_connections = 10` and a 5s acquire timeout, this query fails exactly when
+                // a burst is in progress.
+                //
+                // Falling back to the LAST GOOD reading (however stale) is strictly better than
+                // 0: the total only ever grows, so a stale value under-counts slightly, while 0
+                // under-counts by everything.
+                let previous = self.inner.read().unwrap().map(|(b, _)| b);
+                tracing::warn!(
+                    error = %e,
+                    fallback_bytes = previous.unwrap_or(0),
+                    "media total query failed; upload gate is running on a stale reading"
+                );
+                return previous.unwrap_or(0);
+            }
+        };
+        *self.inner.write().unwrap() = Some((bytes, Instant::now()));
+        bytes
+    }
+}
+
+impl Default for MediaTotalCache {
+    fn default() -> Self {
+        Self::new()
+    }
+}

backend/src/services/mod.rs

@@ -1,9 +1,12 @@
+pub mod audit;
 pub mod compression;
 pub mod config;
 pub mod disk;
 pub mod export;
 pub mod imaging;
 pub mod maintenance;
+pub mod media_total;
 pub mod rate_limiter;
 pub mod sse_tickets;
+pub mod upload_admission;
 pub mod video;

backend/src/services/rate_limiter.rs

@@ -7,7 +7,23 @@ use std::time::{Duration, Instant};
 /// of recent requests and rejects new ones once the window is full.
 #[derive(Clone)]
 pub struct RateLimiter {
-    windows: Arc<Mutex<HashMap<String, Vec<Instant>>>>,
+    windows: Arc<Mutex<HashMap<String, Bucket>>>,
+}
+
+/// One key's recent hits, plus the window they were recorded under.
+///
+/// The `window` field is what makes pruning correct. `prune` used a single fixed 24 h ceiling for
+/// every key, on the reasoning that 24 h is the longest window in use (export downloads) — but that
+/// meant a `join:{ip}:{name}` key whose 60-SECOND window expired 23 hours ago was still retained.
+/// Minting one costs a single 409 and no bcrypt, at 60/min per IP across three endpoints: roughly
+/// 172,800 keys/day/IP, about 31 MB/day/IP inside a 1 GB container. The limiter became the
+/// memory-exhaustion primitive it exists to prevent.
+///
+/// Storing the window per key makes the sweep drop each bucket as soon as ITS OWN window has
+/// elapsed, which is also what the hot path already does on every check.
+struct Bucket {
+    hits: Vec<Instant>,
+    window: Duration,
 }
 
 impl RateLimiter {
@@ -34,20 +50,68 @@ impl RateLimiter {
         let now = Instant::now();
         let key = key.into();
         let mut map = self.windows.lock().unwrap();
-        let timestamps = map.entry(key).or_default();
+        let bucket = map.entry(key).or_insert_with(|| Bucket {
+            hits: Vec::new(),
+            window,
+        });
+        // A key's window can change under it when an admin edits the limit at runtime. Track the
+        // current one so `prune` expires the bucket on the window actually in force.
+        bucket.window = window;
+        let timestamps = &mut bucket.hits;
         timestamps.retain(|&t| now.duration_since(t) < window);
         if timestamps.len() < max {
             timestamps.push(now);
             Ok(())
         } else {
-            // The oldest timestamp expires at oldest + window; compute remaining seconds
-            let oldest = timestamps[0];
+            // The oldest timestamp expires at oldest + window; compute remaining seconds.
+            //
+            // `first()`, not `[0]`: with `max == 0` the length check above is false even on an
+            // empty vec, so indexing would panic — WHILE HOLDING THIS MUTEX. That poisons it
+            // process-wide, so every subsequent `.lock().unwrap()` panics too: upload, feed,
+            // join, recover, social, export and the hourly maintenance task all die, and only
+            // a container restart brings them back. `max == 0` is not reachable through the
+            // admin API (every numeric spec has min = 1) but a direct DB edit would do it, and
+            // the blast radius does not justify the sharper syntax.
+            let Some(&oldest) = timestamps.first() else {
+                return Ok(());
+            };
             let elapsed = now.duration_since(oldest);
             let remaining = window.saturating_sub(elapsed);
             Err(remaining.as_secs().max(1))
         }
     }
 
+    /// Is `key` already at or above `max`, WITHOUT recording a hit?
+    ///
+    /// Needed by limiters whose budget is spent by an outcome rather than by the request — the
+    /// per-IP failed-PIN ceiling charges only on a wrong PIN, so the gate at the top of the handler
+    /// has to be able to ask "is this IP shut out?" without itself consuming the budget it guards.
+    /// Using `check_with_retry` for that would charge every *successful* recovery too, and a venue
+    /// full of guests legitimately recovering their own devices would lock itself out.
+    ///
+    /// Returns `Err(retry_after_secs)` when exhausted, mirroring `check_with_retry` so callers can
+    /// build the same 429.
+    pub fn peek(&self, key: &str, max: usize, window: Duration) -> Result<(), u64> {
+        let now = Instant::now();
+        let mut map = self.windows.lock().unwrap();
+        let Some(bucket) = map.get_mut(key) else {
+            return Ok(());
+        };
+        bucket
+            .hits
+            .retain(|&t| now.duration_since(t) < bucket.window);
+        if bucket.hits.len() < max {
+            return Ok(());
+        }
+        let Some(&oldest) = bucket.hits.first() else {
+            return Ok(());
+        };
+        Err(window
+            .saturating_sub(now.duration_since(oldest))
+            .as_secs()
+            .max(1))
+    }
+
     /// Wipe every tracked window. Used by the test-mode truncate route so a previous
     /// test's accumulated counters don't bleed into the next test's rate-limit checks.
     pub fn clear(&self) {
@@ -58,17 +122,23 @@ impl RateLimiter {
     /// background task (see [`crate::services::maintenance`]) so that long-lived
     /// processes don't accumulate one HashMap entry per IP that ever connected.
     ///
-    /// Uses a conservative 24h ceiling — anything older than that is gone regardless
-    /// of which endpoint's window it was tracked under (the longest window today is
-    /// 24h for export downloads). If we ever add longer windows, raise this constant.
+    /// Expires each bucket against ITS OWN window (see [`Bucket`]), not one global ceiling. The
+    /// previous fixed 24 h ceiling retained per-minute keys for a full day — ~172,800 keys/day/IP
+    /// at 60/min across three endpoints, each mintable with a single 409 and no bcrypt.
+    ///
+    /// Holds the one global mutex for the length of the sweep, and that mutex is on the hot path of
+    /// upload, feed, join, recover, social and export — so the retain does the cheap thing per
+    /// bucket and nothing else. Correct pruning also keeps the map small enough that this stays
+    /// cheap, which the old ceiling actively undermined.
     pub fn prune(&self) {
         let now = Instant::now();
-        let ceiling = Duration::from_secs(24 * 60 * 60);
         let mut map = self.windows.lock().unwrap();
         let before = map.len();
-        map.retain(|_, ts| {
-            ts.retain(|&t| now.duration_since(t) < ceiling);
-            !ts.is_empty()
+        map.retain(|_, bucket| {
+            bucket
+                .hits
+                .retain(|&t| now.duration_since(t) < bucket.window);
+            !bucket.hits.is_empty()
         });
         let dropped = before.saturating_sub(map.len());
         if dropped > 0 {
@@ -220,15 +290,20 @@ mod tests {
     fn prune_drops_keys_whose_windows_have_fully_expired() {
         let rl = RateLimiter::new();
 
-        // A key whose only timestamp is older than the 24h ceiling. We can't sleep for a day,
-        // so backdate the Instant directly.
+        // A key whose only timestamp is older than its own window. We can't sleep, so backdate
+        // the Instant directly. A ONE-MINUTE window here on purpose: the old prune applied a flat
+        // 24 h ceiling to every key, so this bucket — expired for over an hour of wall time —
+        // survived the sweep. That is the leak (H3), and pinning it needs a short-window key.
         let ancient = Instant::now()
-            .checked_sub(Duration::from_secs(25 * 60 * 60))
-            .expect("backdating an Instant by 25h");
-        rl.windows
-            .lock()
-            .unwrap()
-            .insert("stale".to_string(), vec![ancient]);
+            .checked_sub(Duration::from_secs(90 * 60))
+            .expect("backdating an Instant by 90 minutes");
+        rl.windows.lock().unwrap().insert(
+            "stale".to_string(),
+            Bucket {
+                hits: vec![ancient],
+                window: MIN,
+            },
+        );
 
         // ...alongside a key that is still inside its window.
         assert!(rl.check_with_retry("live", 5, MIN).is_ok());

backend/src/services/sse_tickets.rs

@@ -13,6 +13,88 @@ use rand::Rng;
 /// stream open. Tickets are consumed on use and expire after `TTL`.
 const TTL: Duration = Duration::from_secs(30);
 
+/// Lifetime of a `Download` ticket, and it is deliberately far longer than [`TTL`].
+///
+/// A keepsake is up to ~1.4 GB over hotel or cellular wifi, so the download itself outlives a 30 s
+/// window many times over — and a resumed transfer arrives minutes or hours after the ticket was
+/// minted. A `Download` ticket is therefore a short-lived capability for ONE archive rather than a
+/// single-shot nonce: [`SseTicketStore::redeem_download`] does not remove it, so a client may
+/// resume with `Range` as many times as the transfer needs.
+///
+/// The abuse this does NOT open: the ticket is bound to a session (revoked with it), only mints at
+/// `/export/ticket` where the 3/day limit is charged, and grants nothing but this event's own
+/// keepsake — which every authenticated guest is entitled to download anyway. What it buys is that
+/// one dropped connection no longer costs a guest a third of their daily allowance, at the
+/// emotional payoff of the product.
+const DOWNLOAD_TTL: Duration = Duration::from_secs(6 * 60 * 60);
+
+/// The lifetime that applies to a given kind.
+fn ttl_for(kind: TicketKind) -> Duration {
+    match kind {
+        TicketKind::Download(_) => DOWNLOAD_TTL,
+        TicketKind::Sse => TTL,
+    }
+}
+
+/// Ceiling on outstanding tickets across the whole process.
+///
+/// Not really about the bytes (~120 each) — about `issue` having had no bound of any kind.
+/// Sized well above a real event: ~1000 concurrent clients each holding one live 30 s ticket.
+const MAX_TICKETS: usize = 4096;
+
+/// Live tickets one session may hold. Above 1 because two tabs sharing a token open their
+/// EventSources concurrently; 4 absorbs that without letting a reconnect loop accumulate.
+const MAX_TICKETS_PER_SESSION: usize = 4;
+
+/// How many times one download ticket may be redeemed.
+///
+/// Making the ticket non-consuming is what lets a dropped transfer resume without spending another
+/// of the guest's three daily downloads — but unbounded it also meant a single mint was an
+/// unlimited download key for six hours, at BOTH archive endpoints, with the per-day limiter
+/// (charged only at mint) never moving. On a 40 GB box serving ~1.4 GB archives that is the one
+/// resource an ordinary guest could exhaust without doing anything obviously wrong.
+///
+/// 20 is far more than a resumed transfer needs (a browser retries a handful of times, not dozens)
+/// and turns "unbounded until the ticket expires" into a bounded multiple. It does not make the
+/// daily limit exact — that would mean charging per redemption, which would bill a client that
+/// restarts from byte 0 instead of sending a `Range`, i.e. re-break the thing this exists to fix.
+const MAX_DOWNLOAD_REDEMPTIONS: u32 = 20;
+
+/// What a ticket may be redeemed for.
+///
+/// The store began life serving only SSE and stayed untyped when the export download started
+/// reusing it, which silently made the two interchangeable. That is not a theoretical mixing
+/// concern: `POST /stream/ticket` is rate-limited at 60/min per user and charges nothing, while
+/// `POST /export/ticket` charges one of three PER-DAY downloads. An untyped ticket let any guest
+/// mint at the cheap endpoint and redeem at the expensive one, so the daily export limit was
+/// bypassable ~60×/minute — each redemption streaming the whole multi-GB keepsake, `no-store`,
+/// off the same filesystem Postgres writes WAL to.
+///
+/// `consume` therefore requires the kind to MATCH. A ticket is only ever valid for the thing it
+/// was minted for.
+#[derive(Clone, Copy, PartialEq, Eq, Debug)]
+pub enum TicketKind {
+    /// Opens the SSE stream (`GET /stream`). Cheap, high volume.
+    Sse,
+    /// Downloads ONE export archive. Expensive, rate-limited per day.
+    ///
+    /// The archive is part of the ticket, not incidental to it. A bare `Download` ticket was
+    /// accepted by BOTH `/export/zip` and `/export/html` — they share one authenticator — so with
+    /// the redemption budget that makes a ticket resumable, a single mint authorised 20 transfers
+    /// spread across both archives. Three mints a day therefore bought 60 full downloads of a
+    /// ~1.4 GB keepsake, while the per-day limiter (charged only at mint) never moved.
+    Download(ExportKind),
+}
+
+/// Which archive a [`TicketKind::Download`] is good for.
+#[derive(Clone, Copy, PartialEq, Eq, Debug)]
+pub enum ExportKind {
+    /// `Gallery.<event>.<n>.zip` — the original media.
+    Zip,
+    /// `Memories.<event>.<n>.zip` — the offline HTML viewer.
+    Html,
+}
+
 #[derive(Clone)]
 pub struct SseTicketStore {
     inner: Arc<Mutex<HashMap<String, Entry>>>,
@@ -22,6 +104,10 @@ pub struct SseTicketStore {
 struct Entry {
     token_hash: String,
     issued_at: Instant,
+    kind: TicketKind,
+    /// Times this ticket has been redeemed. Only meaningful for `Download` — see
+    /// [`MAX_DOWNLOAD_REDEMPTIONS`].
+    redemptions: u32,
 }
 
 impl SseTicketStore {
@@ -39,26 +125,129 @@ impl SseTicketStore {
     }
 
     /// Mint a new ticket bound to the caller's session (identified by token hash).
-    pub fn issue(&self, token_hash: String) -> String {
+    ///
+    /// `None` when the store is at capacity — the caller should answer 503, not evict.
+    ///
+    /// Three bounds, because `issue` had none: no size cap, no per-caller cap, and no rate
+    /// limit on the endpoint, while `prune` ran only hourly against a 30-second TTL. So any
+    /// authenticated session could loop the endpoint and grow the map for an hour.
+    pub fn issue(&self, token_hash: String, kind: TicketKind) -> Option<String> {
         let ticket = random_ticket();
         let mut map = self.inner.lock().unwrap();
+
+        // Prune on issue rather than only hourly. This alone changes the bound from "tickets
+        // minted since the last maintenance tick" to "tickets live at once", which is what the
+        // 30 s TTL was always meant to express.
+        map.retain(|_, e| e.issued_at.elapsed() <= ttl_for(e.kind));
+
+        // Cap the caller's own outstanding tickets, evicting their oldest. NOT one-per-session:
+        // two tabs sharing a token open their EventSources concurrently, and having tab B
+        // invalidate tab A's unconsumed ticket looks exactly like a flaky SSE connection.
+        //
+        // SCOPED TO THE SAME KIND, which matters now that `Download` tickets live 6 h instead of
+        // being consumed on first use. A long-lived download ticket is ALWAYS the oldest entry for
+        // its session, so a kind-blind cap made it the first thing ordinary SSE churn threw away —
+        // and `/export` itself opens an SSE connection on the very session that just minted it.
+        // A couple of reconnects during the download (a wifi flap is enough; each attempt that
+        // returns early abandons an unconsumed ticket) evicted the ticket out from under a running
+        // transfer, so the next `Range` resume 401'd and the guest had to spend another of their
+        // three daily downloads. Two flaps and they were locked out of their own keepsake for a day.
+        //
+        // Per-kind, an SSE reconnect storm can still only evict SSE tickets, which is what the cap
+        // was written for; the guest's in-flight keepsake is no longer collateral.
+        let mut mine: Vec<(String, Instant)> = map
+            .iter()
+            .filter(|(_, e)| e.token_hash == token_hash && e.kind == kind)
+            .map(|(k, e)| (k.clone(), e.issued_at))
+            .collect();
+        if mine.len() >= MAX_TICKETS_PER_SESSION {
+            mine.sort_by_key(|(_, issued)| *issued);
+            for (key, _) in mine.iter().take(mine.len() - MAX_TICKETS_PER_SESSION + 1) {
+                map.remove(key);
+            }
+        }
+
+        // At capacity, REFUSE — never evict a stranger's ticket. Evicting would let one
+        // misbehaving client deny SSE to the whole venue, which is worse than failing the
+        // request that hit the ceiling.
+        if map.len() >= MAX_TICKETS {
+            tracing::warn!(
+                outstanding = map.len(),
+                "SSE ticket store at capacity; refusing to mint"
+            );
+            return None;
+        }
+
         map.insert(
             ticket.clone(),
             Entry {
                 token_hash,
                 issued_at: Instant::now(),
+                kind,
+                redemptions: 0,
             },
         );
-        ticket
+        Some(ticket)
     }
 
-    /// Consume a ticket. Returns `Some(token_hash)` if the ticket exists and is
-    /// not expired. Single-use: the ticket is removed regardless of whether it
-    /// was still fresh, so a replay can't slip through after expiry.
-    pub fn consume(&self, ticket: &str) -> Option<String> {
+    /// Consume a ticket minted for `kind`. Returns `Some(token_hash)` if the ticket exists, is
+    /// not expired, and was minted for this purpose. Single-use: the ticket is removed regardless
+    /// of whether it was still fresh, so a replay can't slip through after expiry.
+    ///
+    /// A ticket of the WRONG kind is also removed. It was a valid ticket the caller legitimately
+    /// held, so this is not punitive — but leaving it would let a redemption loop probe the store
+    /// without ever spending anything, and the client has no legitimate reason to present a
+    /// ticket at the wrong endpoint.
+    /// Redeem a `Download` ticket WITHOUT consuming it.
+    ///
+    /// Downloads must be resumable — see [`DOWNLOAD_TTL`]. A browser resumes by re-issuing the same
+    /// GET with a `Range` header, so a single-use ticket made `Accept-Ranges` a lie: the retry
+    /// authenticated against a ticket that the interrupted attempt had already spent, 401'd, and
+    /// the guest had to mint a new one, spending another of their three daily downloads. Two
+    /// dropped connections and they were locked out of their own keepsake for ~24 hours.
+    ///
+    /// Still bound to a live session: the caller re-checks the session on every request, so
+    /// revoking a session (logout, "sign out everywhere", a host PIN reset) kills the download too.
+    pub fn redeem_download(&self, ticket: &str, want: ExportKind) -> Option<String> {
+        let mut map = self.inner.lock().unwrap();
+        let entry = map.get_mut(ticket)?;
+        // The archive must match the one this ticket was minted for. Both download routes share
+        // this authenticator, so without the payload check a ZIP ticket opened the HTML archive
+        // too and the redemption budget was spent across both.
+        if entry.kind != TicketKind::Download(want) {
+            tracing::warn!(
+                found = ?entry.kind,
+                ?want,
+                "ticket presented for the wrong archive (or wrong kind); rejected"
+            );
+            return None;
+        }
+        if entry.issued_at.elapsed() > DOWNLOAD_TTL {
+            return None;
+        }
+        if entry.redemptions >= MAX_DOWNLOAD_REDEMPTIONS {
+            tracing::warn!(
+                redemptions = entry.redemptions,
+                "download ticket exceeded its redemption budget; refusing"
+            );
+            return None;
+        }
+        entry.redemptions += 1;
+        Some(entry.token_hash.clone())
+    }
+
+    pub fn consume(&self, ticket: &str, kind: TicketKind) -> Option<String> {
         let mut map = self.inner.lock().unwrap();
         let entry = map.remove(ticket)?;
-        if entry.issued_at.elapsed() > TTL {
+        if entry.issued_at.elapsed() > ttl_for(entry.kind) {
+            return None;
+        }
+        if entry.kind != kind {
+            tracing::warn!(
+                expected = ?kind,
+                found = ?entry.kind,
+                "ticket presented at the wrong endpoint; rejected"
+            );
             return None;
         }
         Some(entry.token_hash)
@@ -68,7 +257,7 @@ impl SseTicketStore {
     /// long-running process doesn't accumulate stale tickets.
     pub fn prune(&self) {
         let mut map = self.inner.lock().unwrap();
-        map.retain(|_, e| e.issued_at.elapsed() <= TTL);
+        map.retain(|_, e| e.issued_at.elapsed() <= ttl_for(e.kind));
     }
 }
 
@@ -84,14 +273,66 @@ fn random_ticket() -> String {
 mod tests {
     use super::*;
 
+    /// `issue` now returns `Option`; in every test below the store is far from capacity, so an
+    /// `expect` here documents that refusing is exceptional rather than routine.
+    fn issue(store: &SseTicketStore, hash: &str) -> String {
+        store
+            .issue(hash.into(), TicketKind::Sse)
+            .expect("store has capacity")
+    }
+
+    /// The store is shared by two endpoints with wildly different costs: `/stream/ticket` is
+    /// 60/min per user and free, `/export/ticket` charges one of three PER-DAY downloads. While
+    /// entries were untyped, a ticket minted at the cheap endpoint opened the expensive one — so
+    /// the daily export limit could be bypassed ~60×/minute, each redemption streaming the whole
+    /// multi-GB keepsake off the disk Postgres writes WAL to.
+    ///
+    /// Asserted in BOTH directions so this cannot be "fixed" by a check that only guards one.
+    #[test]
+    fn a_ticket_is_only_valid_for_the_purpose_it_was_minted_for() {
+        let store = SseTicketStore::new();
+
+        let sse = store.issue("h".into(), TicketKind::Sse).unwrap();
+        assert_eq!(
+            store.consume(&sse, TicketKind::Download(ExportKind::Zip)),
+            None,
+            "an SSE ticket must not open the export download"
+        );
+
+        let dl = store
+            .issue("h".into(), TicketKind::Download(ExportKind::Zip))
+            .unwrap();
+        assert_eq!(
+            store.consume(&dl, TicketKind::Sse),
+            None,
+            "a download ticket must not open the SSE stream"
+        );
+
+        // And the matching cases still work, so the guard is not simply rejecting everything.
+        let sse = store.issue("h".into(), TicketKind::Sse).unwrap();
+        assert_eq!(store.consume(&sse, TicketKind::Sse).as_deref(), Some("h"));
+        let dl = store
+            .issue("h".into(), TicketKind::Download(ExportKind::Zip))
+            .unwrap();
+        assert_eq!(
+            store
+                .consume(&dl, TicketKind::Download(ExportKind::Zip))
+                .as_deref(),
+            Some("h")
+        );
+    }
+
     #[test]
     fn issue_then_consume_returns_the_hash_exactly_once() {
         let store = SseTicketStore::new();
-        let ticket = store.issue("hash-1".into());
-        assert_eq!(store.consume(&ticket).as_deref(), Some("hash-1"));
+        let ticket = issue(&store, "hash-1");
+        assert_eq!(
+            store.consume(&ticket, TicketKind::Sse).as_deref(),
+            Some("hash-1")
+        );
         // Single-use: a replay of the same ticket is rejected.
         assert_eq!(
-            store.consume(&ticket),
+            store.consume(&ticket, TicketKind::Sse),
             None,
             "a consumed ticket must not be reusable"
         );
@@ -100,14 +341,14 @@ mod tests {
     #[test]
     fn unknown_ticket_consumes_to_none() {
         let store = SseTicketStore::new();
-        assert_eq!(store.consume("never-issued"), None);
+        assert_eq!(store.consume("never-issued", TicketKind::Sse), None);
     }
 
     #[test]
     fn issued_tickets_are_unique_and_hex() {
         let store = SseTicketStore::new();
-        let a = store.issue("h".into());
-        let b = store.issue("h".into());
+        let a = issue(&store, "h");
+        let b = issue(&store, "h");
         assert_ne!(a, b, "each ticket must be unique");
         assert_eq!(a.len(), 48, "24 random bytes → 48 hex chars");
         assert!(a.chars().all(|c| c.is_ascii_hexdigit()));
@@ -116,29 +357,210 @@ mod tests {
     #[test]
     fn fresh_ticket_survives_prune() {
         let store = SseTicketStore::new();
-        let ticket = store.issue("h".into());
+        let ticket = issue(&store, "h");
         store.prune(); // not expired → kept
-        assert_eq!(store.consume(&ticket).as_deref(), Some("h"));
+        assert_eq!(
+            store.consume(&ticket, TicketKind::Sse).as_deref(),
+            Some("h")
+        );
+    }
+
+    /// Build an entry that is already past the TTL.
+    fn insert_stale(store: &SseTicketStore, key: &str, token_hash: &str) {
+        store.inner.lock().unwrap().insert(
+            key.to_string(),
+            Entry {
+                kind: TicketKind::Sse,
+                token_hash: token_hash.into(),
+                issued_at: Instant::now()
+                    .checked_sub(TTL + Duration::from_secs(1))
+                    .expect("host uptime should exceed the ticket TTL"),
+                redemptions: 0,
+            },
+        );
     }
 
     #[test]
     fn expired_ticket_consumes_to_none() {
-        // Construct an entry that is already past the TTL and confirm consume() rejects it.
         let store = SseTicketStore::new();
-        let stale = "stale-ticket".to_string();
-        store.inner.lock().unwrap().insert(
-            stale.clone(),
-            Entry {
-                token_hash: "h".into(),
-                issued_at: Instant::now()
-                    .checked_sub(TTL + Duration::from_secs(1))
-                    .expect("host uptime should exceed the ticket TTL"),
-            },
-        );
+        insert_stale(&store, "stale-ticket", "h");
         assert_eq!(
-            store.consume(&stale),
+            store.consume("stale-ticket", TicketKind::Sse),
             None,
             "an expired ticket must not authenticate"
         );
     }
+
+    /// The TTL is 30 s but `prune` only ran hourly, so the map was really bounded by "tickets
+    /// minted in the last hour" — which is unbounded for a client in a loop.
+    #[test]
+    fn issuing_prunes_expired_entries() {
+        let store = SseTicketStore::new();
+        insert_stale(&store, "stale-a", "someone-else");
+        insert_stale(&store, "stale-b", "someone-else");
+        issue(&store, "h");
+        assert_eq!(
+            store.inner.lock().unwrap().len(),
+            1,
+            "issue must reclaim expired slots, not merely add to them"
+        );
+    }
+
+    /// Two tabs sharing a token is normal, so the per-session cap must be above 1 — but a
+    /// reconnect loop must not accumulate. The caller's OWN oldest is what gets evicted.
+    #[test]
+    fn a_session_is_capped_and_evicts_only_its_own_oldest() {
+        let store = SseTicketStore::new();
+        let stranger = issue(&store, "other-session");
+
+        let mut mine: Vec<String> = Vec::new();
+        for _ in 0..MAX_TICKETS_PER_SESSION + 2 {
+            mine.push(issue(&store, "mine"));
+        }
+
+        let live = mine
+            .iter()
+            .filter(|t| store.inner.lock().unwrap().contains_key(*t))
+            .count();
+        assert_eq!(live, MAX_TICKETS_PER_SESSION, "one session, bounded");
+        assert!(
+            store
+                .inner
+                .lock()
+                .unwrap()
+                .contains_key(&mine[mine.len() - 1]),
+            "the newest ticket is the one the caller is about to use"
+        );
+        assert_eq!(
+            store.consume(&stranger, TicketKind::Sse).as_deref(),
+            Some("other-session"),
+            "another session's ticket must survive — evicting it would let one client deny \
+             SSE to the venue"
+        );
+    }
+
+    /// At capacity the store REFUSES rather than evicting a stranger. Refusing fails the one
+    /// request that hit the ceiling; evicting would break an unrelated client's live stream.
+    #[test]
+    fn at_capacity_the_store_refuses_instead_of_evicting() {
+        let store = SseTicketStore::new();
+        {
+            let mut map = store.inner.lock().unwrap();
+            for i in 0..MAX_TICKETS {
+                map.insert(
+                    format!("filler-{i}"),
+                    Entry {
+                        kind: TicketKind::Sse,
+                        token_hash: format!("session-{i}"),
+                        issued_at: Instant::now(),
+                        redemptions: 0,
+                    },
+                );
+            }
+        }
+        assert_eq!(
+            store.issue("newcomer".into(), TicketKind::Sse),
+            None,
+            "a full store must refuse, so the caller can answer 503"
+        );
+        assert!(
+            store.inner.lock().unwrap().contains_key("filler-0"),
+            "no existing ticket may be sacrificed to make room"
+        );
+    }
+
+    /// A download ticket is deliberately non-consuming so a dropped 1.4 GB transfer can resume
+    /// without spending one of the guest's three daily downloads. Unbounded, though, that made a
+    /// single mint an unlimited download key for six hours while the per-day limiter — charged
+    /// only at mint — never moved. This pins the bound without breaking resumption.
+    #[test]
+    fn a_download_ticket_resumes_freely_but_not_forever() {
+        let store = SseTicketStore::new();
+        let ticket = store
+            .issue("session-a".into(), TicketKind::Download(ExportKind::Zip))
+            .expect("fresh store should issue");
+
+        // Every redemption inside the budget returns the session, so a resumed transfer works.
+        for i in 0..MAX_DOWNLOAD_REDEMPTIONS {
+            assert_eq!(
+                store.redeem_download(&ticket, ExportKind::Zip).as_deref(),
+                Some("session-a"),
+                "redemption {i} should still be honoured"
+            );
+        }
+        // Past it the ticket is spent: the guest re-mints (and is charged) rather than holding
+        // an open-ended key.
+        assert_eq!(store.redeem_download(&ticket, ExportKind::Zip), None);
+    }
+
+    #[test]
+    fn a_download_ticket_opens_only_the_archive_it_was_minted_for() {
+        // Both download routes share one authenticator, so without the archive in the ticket a
+        // single mint was good for BOTH. Combined with the resume budget that made one mint worth
+        // 2 x MAX_DOWNLOAD_REDEMPTIONS transfers of a multi-GB keepsake, while the per-day limit —
+        // charged only at mint — never moved.
+        let store = SseTicketStore::new();
+        let zip = store
+            .issue("s".into(), TicketKind::Download(ExportKind::Zip))
+            .unwrap();
+        assert_eq!(
+            store.redeem_download(&zip, ExportKind::Html),
+            None,
+            "a ZIP ticket must not open the HTML archive"
+        );
+        assert_eq!(
+            store.redeem_download(&zip, ExportKind::Zip).as_deref(),
+            Some("s"),
+            "...and the refusal above must be about the archive, not a spent ticket"
+        );
+
+        let html = store
+            .issue("s".into(), TicketKind::Download(ExportKind::Html))
+            .unwrap();
+        assert_eq!(store.redeem_download(&html, ExportKind::Zip), None);
+        assert_eq!(
+            store.redeem_download(&html, ExportKind::Html).as_deref(),
+            Some("s")
+        );
+    }
+
+    #[test]
+    fn sse_churn_cannot_evict_a_running_download() {
+        // A `Download` ticket lives 6 h, so it is ALWAYS the oldest entry for its session — and a
+        // kind-blind per-session cap therefore threw it away first. `/export` opens its own SSE
+        // connection on the same session, so a couple of reconnects during the transfer evicted
+        // the ticket out from under it: the next `Range` resume 401'd and the guest spent another
+        // of their three daily downloads. Two wifi flaps and they lost their keepsake for a day.
+        let store = SseTicketStore::new();
+        let download = store
+            .issue("one-session".into(), TicketKind::Download(ExportKind::Zip))
+            .unwrap();
+
+        // Far more SSE churn than the per-session cap, all on the same session.
+        for _ in 0..(MAX_TICKETS_PER_SESSION * 3) {
+            store.issue("one-session".into(), TicketKind::Sse).unwrap();
+        }
+
+        assert_eq!(
+            store.redeem_download(&download, ExportKind::Zip).as_deref(),
+            Some("one-session"),
+            "an in-flight keepsake download must survive an SSE reconnect storm"
+        );
+    }
+
+    /// The kind split is what stops a free SSE ticket from redeeming a rate-limited download.
+    #[test]
+    fn an_sse_ticket_is_never_redeemable_as_a_download() {
+        let store = SseTicketStore::new();
+        let sse = store
+            .issue("session-b".into(), TicketKind::Sse)
+            .expect("fresh store should issue");
+        assert_eq!(store.redeem_download(&sse, ExportKind::Zip), None);
+        // And it is still usable for what it IS, so the rejection above is about kind, not
+        // the ticket having been quietly spent.
+        assert_eq!(
+            store.consume(&sse, TicketKind::Sse).as_deref(),
+            Some("session-b")
+        );
+    }
 }

backend/src/services/upload_admission.rs

@@ -0,0 +1,150 @@
+//! Admission control for upload bodies, budgeted in BYTES rather than requests.
+//!
+//! ## Why this has to exist
+//!
+//! The keepsake headroom gate in `handlers::upload` cannot bound a burst, and the reason is
+//! structural rather than a bug in the gate: the request body is streamed to a temp file during
+//! multipart parsing, so the bytes are already on disk by the time any check runs. The gate can
+//! only refuse to COMMIT them. Nothing upstream limited how many bodies stream at once — axum has
+//! no such limit, the tower stack is just `TraceLayer`, and Caddy passes requests straight
+//! through.
+//!
+//! So the failure mode is the ordinary one, not an attack: the ceremony ends, ~100 guests tap
+//! "upload all", and ~100 bodies stream concurrently. At phone-video sizes that is 10-20 GB of
+//! `.tmp` files on a 40 GB volume, none of it visible to the gate, and `DISK_RESERVE_BYTES` — the
+//! 10 GB standing between the party and Postgres losing the volume it writes WAL to — is consumed
+//! by transient files. The `.tmp` sweeper only reclaims files idle for an hour, correctly, which
+//! means nothing reclaims a burst on this timescale.
+//!
+//! ## Why bytes and not a request count
+//!
+//! A flat "N concurrent uploads" limit has to be sized for the worst case (a 500 MB video), which
+//! makes it absurdly restrictive for the common case (a 3 MB photo). Budgeting bytes lets one
+//! 500 MB video and two hundred photos coexist under the same ceiling, and it means the ceiling is
+//! stated in the unit the disk actually cares about.
+//!
+//! The reservation is the streaming CAP, not the real size — the real size is unknowable until the
+//! body has been read, which is far too late. Reserving the cap is deliberately pessimistic; that
+//! pessimism is the safety margin.
+//!
+//! ## Why a permit and not a counter
+//!
+//! `OwnedSemaphorePermit` releases on drop. Every path out of the upload handler — success, error,
+//! a client vanishing mid-body, a panic — therefore returns the reservation without any explicit
+//! bookkeeping. A hand-rolled `AtomicI64` would need a decrement on each of those paths, and the
+//! one that gets missed is the one that leaks the budget until restart.
+
+use std::sync::Arc;
+use std::time::Duration;
+
+use tokio::sync::{OwnedSemaphorePermit, Semaphore};
+
+/// Total transient upload bytes allowed on disk at once, in MiB.
+///
+/// Sized against `DISK_RESERVE_BYTES` (10 GB): the reserve must survive a full burst with room to
+/// spare, since Postgres is writing WAL to the same filesystem throughout. 4 GiB leaves ~6 GB of
+/// the reserve untouched at the worst moment.
+///
+/// It is NOT a throughput limit. On 2 vCPU the box cannot usefully ingest more than this at once
+/// anyway — compression, ffmpeg, Postgres and TLS all contend for the same two cores — so the
+/// budget mostly converts "everything is slow and the disk fills" into "a few uploads wait".
+const BUDGET_MIB: u32 = 4096;
+
+/// How long an upload waits for room before being told to come back.
+///
+/// Long enough to absorb the burst (a photo holds its reservation for well under a second), short
+/// enough that a guest is not left staring at a spinner. On timeout the handler answers 503 with
+/// `Retry-After`, which the client queue already treats as transient and retries with backoff.
+const WAIT: Duration = Duration::from_secs(20);
+
+#[derive(Clone)]
+pub struct UploadAdmission {
+    permits: Arc<Semaphore>,
+}
+
+impl UploadAdmission {
+    pub fn new() -> Self {
+        Self {
+            permits: Arc::new(Semaphore::new(BUDGET_MIB as usize)),
+        }
+    }
+
+    /// Reserve room for a body capped at `cap_bytes`. The returned permit must be held for as long
+    /// as the temp file exists.
+    ///
+    /// `None` means the wait timed out and the caller should shed the request.
+    ///
+    /// A cap larger than the whole budget is clamped rather than refused. Otherwise an operator
+    /// raising `max_video_size_mb` above the budget would make `acquire_many` unsatisfiable and
+    /// every video upload would hang until timeout — a config change silently disabling video for
+    /// the event. Clamped, such an upload simply gets the whole budget to itself, which is the
+    /// honest interpretation of "one file may fill the machine".
+    pub async fn reserve(&self, cap_bytes: usize) -> Option<OwnedSemaphorePermit> {
+        let mib = cap_bytes.div_ceil(1024 * 1024).max(1);
+        let want = u32::try_from(mib).unwrap_or(BUDGET_MIB).min(BUDGET_MIB);
+        match tokio::time::timeout(WAIT, self.permits.clone().acquire_many_owned(want)).await {
+            Ok(Ok(permit)) => Some(permit),
+            // The semaphore is never closed, so `Err` here is unreachable in practice; treat it
+            // the same as a timeout rather than panicking on the upload path.
+            Ok(Err(_)) => None,
+            Err(_) => {
+                tracing::warn!(
+                    requested_mib = want,
+                    "upload admission timed out; shedding to keep transient temp files bounded"
+                );
+                None
+            }
+        }
+    }
+}
+
+impl Default for UploadAdmission {
+    fn default() -> Self {
+        Self::new()
+    }
+}
+
+#[cfg(test)]
+mod tests {
+    use super::*;
+
+    /// The budget must actually block once exhausted — otherwise this whole module is decoration.
+    #[tokio::test]
+    async fn a_full_budget_sheds_instead_of_admitting() {
+        let admission = UploadAdmission::new();
+        let whole = admission
+            .reserve(BUDGET_MIB as usize * 1024 * 1024)
+            .await
+            .expect("first reservation takes the whole budget");
+
+        // Nothing left: a second reservation must not be granted. Raced against a short timeout so
+        // the test does not sit for the full WAIT.
+        let blocked =
+            tokio::time::timeout(Duration::from_millis(150), admission.reserve(1024 * 1024)).await;
+        assert!(
+            blocked.is_err(),
+            "budget exhausted, yet a reservation was granted"
+        );
+
+        // ...and releasing the permit makes room again, so the budget is not a one-way latch.
+        drop(whole);
+        assert!(
+            admission.reserve(1024 * 1024).await.is_some(),
+            "budget did not recover after the permit was dropped"
+        );
+    }
+
+    /// A cap above the whole budget must be clamped, not left unsatisfiable. Unclamped,
+    /// `acquire_many` for more permits than exist never completes, so raising
+    /// `max_video_size_mb` past the budget would silently hang every video upload for 20s and
+    /// then shed it.
+    #[tokio::test]
+    async fn a_cap_larger_than_the_budget_is_clamped_rather_than_unsatisfiable() {
+        let admission = UploadAdmission::new();
+        let oversized = (BUDGET_MIB as usize + 4096) * 1024 * 1024;
+        assert!(
+            admission.reserve(oversized).await.is_some(),
+            "an over-budget cap must still be admittable on an idle server"
+        );
+    }
+}

backend/src/services/video.rs

@@ -26,7 +26,12 @@ use anyhow::{Context, Result};
 /// the semaphore permit and the pool eventually deadlocks; in the export worker it strands the job
 /// at `running` so the keepsake never completes. `export.rs` had NO timeout at all before this
 /// module — sharing the spawn fixes that too.
-const FFMPEG_TIMEOUT: Duration = Duration::from_secs(120);
+/// 45s, not the 120s this started at. The timeout is not a budget for honest work — a poster
+/// frame from a phone clip takes well under a second, and `-ss` before `-i` means even a 500 MB
+/// file seeks rather than scans. It is purely the ceiling on how long a pathological input may
+/// hold a compression permit that guests' photos are queued behind, so it should be as tight as
+/// it can be without ever cutting off real work.
+const FFMPEG_TIMEOUT: Duration = Duration::from_secs(45);
 
 /// Seek positions to try, in order.
 ///
@@ -71,7 +76,7 @@ pub async fn extract_poster_frame(src: &Path, dest: &Path, width: u32) -> Result
 /// Run one ffmpeg attempt. A non-zero exit is NOT an error here — the artifact check above is the
 /// authority, and a corrupt input that fails at 1 s may still yield a frame at 0.
 async fn run_ffmpeg(src: &Path, dest: &Path, width: u32, seek: &str) -> Result<()> {
-    let mut child = tokio::process::Command::new("ffmpeg")
+    let child = tokio::process::Command::new("ffmpeg")
         .args([
             // BEFORE -i: an input-side seek. See SEEK_POSITIONS.
             "-ss",
@@ -85,28 +90,76 @@ async fn run_ffmpeg(src: &Path, dest: &Path, width: u32, seek: &str) -> Result<(
             "-y",
             dest.to_str().unwrap_or_default(),
         ])
-        .stdout(std::process::Stdio::piped())
+        // ffmpeg writes the poster to `dest` itself; nothing here ever reads stdout, so
+        // giving it a pipe only created something that could fill.
+        .stdout(std::process::Stdio::null())
+        // stderr IS piped — it is the only diagnostic when a clip yields no frame — but it
+        // must be DRAINED, which is the whole point of `wait_with_output` below.
         .stderr(std::process::Stdio::piped())
         .kill_on_drop(true)
         .spawn()
         .context("failed to spawn ffmpeg")?;
 
-    match tokio::time::timeout(FFMPEG_TIMEOUT, child.wait()).await {
-        Ok(res) => {
-            res.context("ffmpeg wait failed")?;
-        }
-        Err(_) => {
-            let _ = child.kill().await;
-            anyhow::bail!("ffmpeg timed out after {}s", FFMPEG_TIMEOUT.as_secs());
-        }
+    // `wait_with_output`, NOT `wait`. ffmpeg is verbose on stderr (banner, stream info,
+    // per-frame progress) and `wait()` reads neither pipe — so once the ~64 KiB pipe buffer
+    // filled, ffmpeg blocked writing, `wait()` never returned, and the call burned the full
+    // timeout. That is not merely slow: the timeout is an `Err`, so after 2 seek positions x
+    // 3 compression attempts the caller soft-deletes a perfectly playable video for a
+    // poster-frame failure. `wait_with_output` polls the pipe and the exit status together.
+    //
+    // It also CONSUMES the child, so the explicit `child.kill()` that used to sit on the
+    // timeout arm cannot exist here — and is not needed: `kill_on_drop(true)` is set above,
+    // and dropping the future on timeout drops the child with it.
+    let out = match tokio::time::timeout(FFMPEG_TIMEOUT, child.wait_with_output()).await {
+        Ok(res) => res.context("ffmpeg wait failed")?,
+        Err(_) => anyhow::bail!("ffmpeg timed out after {}s", FFMPEG_TIMEOUT.as_secs()),
+    };
+
+    // A non-zero exit is not an error (see the doc comment) — the artifact check in
+    // `extract_poster_frame` is the authority. Log the tail so a systematically failing
+    // format is diagnosable without turning it into data loss.
+    if !out.status.success() {
+        tracing::debug!(
+            seek,
+            status = ?out.status,
+            stderr = %tail_lines(&out.stderr, 10),
+            "ffmpeg exited non-zero; the artifact check decides"
+        );
     }
     Ok(())
 }
 
+/// Last `n` lines of a child's stderr, lossily decoded.
+///
+/// Bounded on purpose: ffmpeg's stderr is unbounded, and the reason we now drain it is that
+/// unbounded output used to be a hazard. Emitting all of it into a log line — into container
+/// logs that are themselves size-capped — would just move the problem.
+fn tail_lines(bytes: &[u8], n: usize) -> String {
+    let text = String::from_utf8_lossy(bytes);
+    let lines: Vec<&str> = text.lines().filter(|l| !l.trim().is_empty()).collect();
+    lines[lines.len().saturating_sub(n)..].join(" | ")
+}
+
 #[cfg(test)]
 mod tests {
     use super::*;
 
+    /// Is there a usable `ffmpeg` on PATH?
+    ///
+    /// The poster-frame path shells out, and `extract_poster_frame` documents `Err` as meaning
+    /// "a hang or a SPAWN failure" — which is exactly what a missing binary produces. So on a
+    /// machine without ffmpeg the test below stops exercising the case it names (missing INPUT)
+    /// and instead reports a code defect that isn't there. The runtime image installs ffmpeg
+    /// (see backend/Dockerfile), so this only ever skips on a bare developer machine.
+    fn ffmpeg_available() -> bool {
+        std::process::Command::new("ffmpeg")
+            .arg("-version")
+            .stdout(std::process::Stdio::null())
+            .stderr(std::process::Stdio::null())
+            .status()
+            .is_ok()
+    }
+
     /// The order is the whole fix. `-ss` must precede `-i`, and 0 must be tried after 1 s.
     #[test]
     fn the_fallback_seek_exists_and_comes_last() {
@@ -121,6 +174,15 @@ mod tests {
     /// poster", never fail the upload. `Err` is reserved for a hang or a spawn failure.
     #[tokio::test]
     async fn a_missing_source_yields_no_frame_rather_than_an_error() {
+        if !ffmpeg_available() {
+            eprintln!(
+                "SKIP a_missing_source_yields_no_frame_rather_than_an_error: no ffmpeg on PATH. \
+                 A missing binary is a spawn failure, which this function returns Err for by \
+                 design, so the missing-INPUT case cannot be exercised here. Install ffmpeg to \
+                 run it (the runtime image already has it)."
+            );
+            return;
+        }
         let dir = std::env::temp_dir().join(format!("es-video-{}", std::process::id()));
         std::fs::create_dir_all(&dir).unwrap();
         let dest = dir.join("out.jpg");
@@ -137,4 +199,65 @@ mod tests {
         );
         let _ = std::fs::remove_dir_all(&dir);
     }
+
+    #[test]
+    fn the_stderr_tail_is_bounded_and_survives_invalid_utf8() {
+        let noisy: Vec<u8> = (0..500)
+            .map(|i| format!("line {i}\n"))
+            .collect::<String>()
+            .into_bytes();
+        let got = tail_lines(&noisy, 3);
+        assert_eq!(got, "line 497 | line 498 | line 499");
+
+        // ffmpeg emits filenames verbatim, so its stderr is not guaranteed to be UTF-8.
+        assert_eq!(tail_lines(&[b'o', b'k', 0xff], 5), "ok\u{fffd}");
+        assert_eq!(tail_lines(b"", 5), "");
+    }
+
+    /// A real extraction must finish in a small fraction of `FFMPEG_TIMEOUT`.
+    ///
+    /// Wall-clock is the ONLY observable of the bug this guards: piping stderr and then
+    /// calling `wait()` (which drains nothing) blocks ffmpeg on a full pipe buffer until the
+    /// timeout fires, and the timeout is an `Err`, so the upload is soft-deleted. The
+    /// assertion is deliberately on elapsed time, not on the exit status.
+    ///
+    /// Honest limitation: our fixture is quiet enough not to fill a 64 KiB pipe on its own,
+    /// so this catches a regression to `wait()` only in combination with a verbose input. It
+    /// is still worth pinning — a reverted drain plus any chatty clip is data loss.
+    #[tokio::test]
+    async fn a_real_clip_yields_a_poster_well_inside_the_timeout() {
+        if tokio::process::Command::new("ffmpeg")
+            .arg("-version")
+            .stdout(std::process::Stdio::null())
+            .stderr(std::process::Stdio::null())
+            .status()
+            .await
+            .is_err()
+        {
+            eprintln!("skipping: ffmpeg not on PATH");
+            return;
+        }
+        let src = Path::new("../e2e/fixtures/media/sample.mp4");
+        if !src.exists() {
+            eprintln!("skipping: {} missing", src.display());
+            return;
+        }
+
+        let dir = std::env::temp_dir().join(format!("es-video-ok-{}", std::process::id()));
+        std::fs::create_dir_all(&dir).unwrap();
+        let dest = dir.join("poster.jpg");
+
+        let started = std::time::Instant::now();
+        let got = extract_poster_frame(src, &dest, 400).await;
+        let elapsed = started.elapsed();
+
+        assert!(matches!(got, Ok(true)), "expected a poster, got {got:?}");
+        assert!(dest.metadata().unwrap().len() > 0);
+        assert!(
+            elapsed < FFMPEG_TIMEOUT / 4,
+            "extraction took {elapsed:?}; a drained stderr finishes in well under \
+             {FFMPEG_TIMEOUT:?} — this is the pipe-deadlock regression guard"
+        );
+        let _ = std::fs::remove_dir_all(&dir);
+    }
 }

backend/src/state.rs

@@ -5,8 +5,10 @@ use crate::config::AppConfig;
 use crate::services::compression::CompressionWorker;
 use crate::services::config::ConfigCache;
 use crate::services::disk::DiskCache;
+use crate::services::media_total::MediaTotalCache;
 use crate::services::rate_limiter::RateLimiter;
 use crate::services::sse_tickets::SseTicketStore;
+use crate::services::upload_admission::UploadAdmission;
 
 #[derive(Clone, Debug)]
 pub struct SseEvent {
@@ -38,6 +40,12 @@ pub struct AppState {
     pub config_cache: ConfigCache,
     /// Cached total/free bytes for the media filesystem (quota + admin stats).
     pub disk_cache: DiskCache,
+    /// Cached sum of all media bytes, for the upload gate's keepsake-headroom check.
+    pub media_total: MediaTotalCache,
+    /// Byte budget for upload bodies currently streaming to temp files. The headroom gate can
+    /// only refuse to COMMIT bytes that are already on disk; this is what bounds how many get
+    /// there at once.
+    pub upload_admission: UploadAdmission,
 }
 
 impl AppState {
@@ -63,6 +71,8 @@ impl AppState {
             sse_tickets: SseTicketStore::new(),
             config_cache,
             disk_cache: DiskCache::new(),
+            media_total: MediaTotalCache::new(),
+            upload_admission: UploadAdmission::new(),
         }
     }
 }

backend/tests/upload_concurrency.rs

@@ -15,7 +15,9 @@ use common::*;
 use sqlx::PgPool;
 use uuid::Uuid;
 
-/// SRC: `handlers/upload.rs:313-322` — the guarded quota increment, verbatim.
+/// SRC: `handlers/upload.rs::create_upload` — the guarded quota increment, verbatim.
+/// (Named, not line-numbered: the previous pointer drifted by ~130 lines and landed in unrelated
+/// code, which is how a hand-copied fixture silently stops matching its original.)
 /// Returns `rows_affected()`; the handler aborts the whole upload tx when this is 0.
 async fn quota_inc(exec: impl sqlx::PgExecutor<'_>, user_id: Uuid, size: i64, limit: i64) -> u64 {
     sqlx::query(
@@ -146,7 +148,8 @@ async fn quota_guard_is_atomic_under_concurrent_transactions(pool: PgPool) {
 // 6. The `FOR SHARE` upload lock vs. the release
 // ─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
 
-/// SRC: `handlers/upload.rs:297-303` — the in-transaction re-check under a row lock, verbatim.
+/// SRC: `handlers/upload.rs::create_upload` — the in-transaction `FOR SHARE` re-check, verbatim.
+/// (Named, not line-numbered — see the note on `quota_inc`.)
 async fn lock_and_read_event(
     tx: &mut sqlx::PgConnection,
     event_id: Uuid,
@@ -254,12 +257,19 @@ async fn for_share_upload_lock_serializes_against_release(pool: PgPool) {
 }
 
 /// The other side of the same lock: once the release has COMMITTED, the next upload's `FOR SHARE`
-/// re-read sees `export_released_at` set and the handler rejects it with `UploadsLocked`.
+/// re-read sees `export_released_at` set and the handler bails out.
 ///
 /// PREVENTS: the same lost photo, on the losing side of the race — a photo committing AFTER the
 /// export snapshot would be in the live feed but missing from the keepsake. Rejecting is the correct
-/// outcome, and it is reversible: `UploadsLocked` (not Forbidden) tells the client to keep the blob
-/// and resume when the host reopens.
+/// outcome, and it is reversible: the client keeps the blob and resumes when the host reopens.
+///
+/// SCOPE, because the name overstates it: this asserts only what the LOCKED READ observes. It does
+/// not go through the handler, so it says nothing about which error the handler picks. That
+/// distinction is load-bearing — `create_upload` answers a released gallery with `GalleryReleased`
+/// and a plain lock with `UploadsLocked`, in that order, and the two drive different client
+/// behaviour (a `reopen` park vs. a retry). The ordering is covered end-to-end by
+/// `e2e/specs/10-flow-review/upload-lock-code.spec.ts` and `02-upload/retry-after-release.spec.ts`;
+/// this test's doc used to claim `UploadsLocked` outright and was simply wrong after that split.
 #[sqlx::test]
 async fn upload_after_release_commits_sees_the_lock_and_is_rejected(pool: PgPool) {
     let event_id = seed_event(&pool, "wedding").await;
@@ -295,3 +305,99 @@ async fn upload_after_release_commits_sees_the_lock_and_is_rejected(pool: PgPool
     );
     tx.rollback().await.unwrap();
 }
+
+/// SRC: `handlers/me.rs::delete_account` — the last-operator guard, verbatim.
+///
+/// Returns the ids of the OTHER live operators, holding a row lock on each. The handler refuses the
+/// deletion when this is empty.
+async fn other_operators(tx: &mut sqlx::PgConnection, event_id: Uuid, self_id: Uuid) -> Vec<Uuid> {
+    sqlx::query("SELECT pg_advisory_xact_lock(4242, hashtext($1::text))")
+        .bind(event_id)
+        .execute(&mut *tx)
+        .await
+        .expect("advisory lock");
+    sqlx::query_scalar(
+        "SELECT id FROM \"user\"
+          WHERE event_id = $1 AND id != $2
+            AND role IN ('host', 'admin') AND is_banned = FALSE",
+    )
+    .bind(event_id)
+    .bind(self_id)
+    .fetch_all(tx)
+    .await
+    .expect("other_operators")
+}
+
+/// Two hosts deleting themselves at the same moment must not both succeed.
+///
+/// The guard used to run on the pool BEFORE the transaction opened, so each deleter saw the other,
+/// both passed, and the event was left with no operator at all — nobody to moderate, nobody to
+/// release the gallery, and no way to appoint anyone, because appointing requires a host. Not
+/// recoverable from inside the app.
+///
+/// A transaction-scoped ADVISORY lock serialises them. A row lock on the other operators would
+/// deadlock instead — each deleter locks the other's row and then tries to delete its own, so
+/// Postgres kills one with a deadlock error; the invariant survives but the loser gets a 500. A
+/// lock on the `event` row would serialise cleanly but inverts the order every moderation path
+/// takes (upload/user rows first, event last). The advisory lock is a separate space, so it cannot
+/// interact with the row-lock graph at all: the loser waits, then counts zero once the winner's row
+/// is gone, and is refused with a sentence instead of an error.
+#[sqlx::test]
+async fn two_hosts_deleting_at_once_cannot_both_leave_the_event(pool: PgPool) {
+    let event_id = seed_event(&pool, "wedding").await;
+    let a = seed_user(&pool, event_id, "Gastgeber Anton").await;
+    let b = seed_user(&pool, event_id, "Gastgeberin Berta").await;
+    for id in [a, b] {
+        sqlx::query("UPDATE \"user\" SET role = 'host' WHERE id = $1")
+            .bind(id)
+            .execute(&pool)
+            .await
+            .expect("promote");
+    }
+
+    // A opens first and takes the lock on B's row.
+    let mut tx_a = pool.begin().await.expect("tx a");
+    let a_sees = other_operators(&mut tx_a, event_id, a).await;
+    assert_eq!(a_sees, vec![b], "A must see B as the remaining operator");
+
+    // B now tries the same and blocks on A's row. Spawned, because it cannot return until A
+    // commits — which is precisely the serialisation under test.
+    let pool_b = pool.clone();
+    let b_task = tokio::spawn(async move {
+        let mut tx_b = pool_b.begin().await.expect("tx b");
+        let seen = other_operators(&mut tx_b, event_id, b).await;
+        tx_b.commit().await.expect("commit b");
+        seen
+    });
+
+    // Give B a moment to actually reach the lock rather than racing past it.
+    tokio::time::sleep(Duration::from_millis(300)).await;
+
+    // A completes its deletion.
+    sqlx::query("DELETE FROM \"user\" WHERE id = $1")
+        .bind(a)
+        .execute(&mut *tx_a)
+        .await
+        .expect("delete a");
+    tx_a.commit().await.expect("commit a");
+
+    let b_sees = b_task.await.expect("b task");
+    assert!(
+        b_sees.is_empty(),
+        "B unblocked and must now see NO remaining operator (A is gone), so its deletion is \
+         refused — it saw {b_sees:?}"
+    );
+
+    // The event still has exactly one operator: B.
+    let remaining: i64 = sqlx::query_scalar(
+        "SELECT COUNT(*) FROM \"user\" WHERE event_id = $1 AND role IN ('host','admin')",
+    )
+    .bind(event_id)
+    .fetch_one(&pool)
+    .await
+    .expect("count");
+    assert_eq!(
+        remaining, 1,
+        "the event must never be left without an operator"
+    );
+}

backend/tests/upload_idempotency.rs

@@ -0,0 +1,268 @@
+//! DB-backed tests for the upload idempotency key (migration 022).
+//!
+//! The guarantee under test is the one thing standing between a lost response and a duplicated
+//! wedding photo: a retry of an upload that already committed must NOT create a second row, and
+//! must not charge the guest's storage quota twice. The whole mechanism is SQL — a partial unique
+//! index plus `ON CONFLICT DO NOTHING` — so it is tested against a real database with the real
+//! migrations applied, using the same statements `src/` runs.
+
+mod common;
+
+use common::*;
+use sqlx::PgPool;
+use uuid::Uuid;
+
+/// SRC: `models/upload.rs::Upload::create` — the insert, verbatim.
+///
+/// Returns the new row's id, or `None` when the key was already stored. The handler treats
+/// `None` as "a concurrent retry won" and replays the stored row instead of committing.
+async fn create_upload(
+    pool: &PgPool,
+    event_id: Uuid,
+    user_id: Uuid,
+    original_path: &str,
+    client_upload_id: Option<Uuid>,
+) -> Option<Uuid> {
+    let row: Option<(Uuid,)> = sqlx::query_as(
+        "INSERT INTO upload (event_id, user_id, original_path, mime_type, original_size_bytes, caption, client_upload_id)
+         VALUES ($1, $2, $3, $4, $5, $6, $7)
+         ON CONFLICT (client_upload_id) WHERE client_upload_id IS NOT NULL AND (deleted_at IS NULL OR taken_down_by_host) DO NOTHING
+         RETURNING id",
+    )
+    .bind(event_id)
+    .bind(user_id)
+    .bind(original_path)
+    .bind("image/jpeg")
+    .bind(1_000i64)
+    .bind(Option::<String>::None)
+    .bind(client_upload_id)
+    .fetch_optional(pool)
+    .await
+    .expect("create_upload");
+    row.map(|(id,)| id)
+}
+
+/// SRC: `models/upload.rs::Upload::find_by_client_upload_id` — the lookup, verbatim.
+async fn find_by_key(pool: &PgPool, user_id: Uuid, client_upload_id: Uuid) -> Option<Uuid> {
+    let row: Option<(Uuid,)> = sqlx::query_as(
+        "SELECT id FROM upload
+         WHERE client_upload_id = $1 AND user_id = $2 AND deleted_at IS NULL",
+    )
+    .bind(client_upload_id)
+    .bind(user_id)
+    .fetch_optional(pool)
+    .await
+    .expect("find_by_key");
+    row.map(|(id,)| id)
+}
+
+async fn upload_count(pool: &PgPool) -> i64 {
+    sqlx::query_scalar("SELECT COUNT(*) FROM upload")
+        .fetch_one(pool)
+        .await
+        .expect("upload_count")
+}
+
+/// The core guarantee. A phone that loses the response and re-sends the same photo gets the
+/// original row back, not a second copy in the gallery and a second charge against its quota.
+#[sqlx::test]
+async fn the_same_key_can_only_ever_store_one_upload(pool: PgPool) {
+    let event_id = seed_event(&pool, "wedding").await;
+    let user_id = seed_user(&pool, event_id, "Wackelige Wanda").await;
+    let key = Uuid::new_v4();
+
+    let first = create_upload(&pool, event_id, user_id, "originals/a.jpg", Some(key)).await;
+    assert!(first.is_some(), "the first attempt must store the upload");
+
+    // The retry: same key, and (as after a real re-send) a different file on disk.
+    let second = create_upload(&pool, event_id, user_id, "originals/b.jpg", Some(key)).await;
+    assert!(
+        second.is_none(),
+        "a retry of a committed upload must not insert a second row"
+    );
+    assert_eq!(upload_count(&pool).await, 1);
+
+    // And the handler can find the winner to replay it.
+    assert_eq!(find_by_key(&pool, user_id, key).await, first);
+}
+
+/// The index must not over-reach. Two genuinely different photos carry different keys and must
+/// both land — this is the ordinary case, and breaking it would silently drop uploads.
+#[sqlx::test]
+async fn different_keys_are_different_uploads(pool: PgPool) {
+    let event_id = seed_event(&pool, "wedding").await;
+    let user_id = seed_user(&pool, event_id, "Fleißige Frieda").await;
+
+    for _ in 0..5 {
+        assert!(
+            create_upload(
+                &pool,
+                event_id,
+                user_id,
+                "originals/x.jpg",
+                Some(Uuid::new_v4())
+            )
+            .await
+            .is_some()
+        );
+    }
+    assert_eq!(upload_count(&pool).await, 5);
+}
+
+/// The index is PARTIAL, and this is why. Every upload that predates migration 022, and any
+/// client that doesn't send a key, carries NULL — if those collided, the first such upload would
+/// block every subsequent one and the whole event would fail after one photo.
+#[sqlx::test]
+async fn uploads_without_a_key_never_collide(pool: PgPool) {
+    let event_id = seed_event(&pool, "wedding").await;
+    let user_id = seed_user(&pool, event_id, "Alte Anna").await;
+
+    for _ in 0..5 {
+        assert!(
+            create_upload(&pool, event_id, user_id, "originals/legacy.jpg", None)
+                .await
+                .is_some(),
+            "a NULL key must never be treated as a duplicate"
+        );
+    }
+    assert_eq!(upload_count(&pool).await, 5);
+}
+
+/// The lookup is scoped to the owner. The key alone is unique, so this can only matter if a key
+/// ever repeated across users — but a replay that handed one guest another guest's upload row
+/// would be a data leak, so the scope is asserted rather than assumed.
+#[sqlx::test]
+async fn the_replay_lookup_never_crosses_users(pool: PgPool) {
+    let event_id = seed_event(&pool, "wedding").await;
+    let owner = seed_user(&pool, event_id, "Besitzerin Bea").await;
+    let other = seed_user(&pool, event_id, "Fremder Franz").await;
+    let key = Uuid::new_v4();
+
+    let id = create_upload(&pool, event_id, owner, "originals/a.jpg", Some(key)).await;
+
+    assert_eq!(find_by_key(&pool, owner, key).await, id);
+    assert_eq!(
+        find_by_key(&pool, other, key).await,
+        None,
+        "another guest's retry must not resolve to this upload"
+    );
+}
+
+/// A deleted photo must not be resurrected by a stale queue item. If the guest uploaded, deleted,
+/// and their queue then retried the original request, replaying the deleted row would put the
+/// photo they removed back in the gallery — so the lookup excludes soft-deleted rows and the
+/// retry becomes a fresh upload instead.
+#[sqlx::test]
+async fn a_deleted_upload_is_not_replayed(pool: PgPool) {
+    let event_id = seed_event(&pool, "wedding").await;
+    let user_id = seed_user(&pool, event_id, "Reumütige Rita").await;
+    let key = Uuid::new_v4();
+
+    let id = create_upload(&pool, event_id, user_id, "originals/a.jpg", Some(key))
+        .await
+        .expect("first insert");
+    // `taken_down_by_host = FALSE` — the GUEST deleted their own photo. See migration 031 and the
+    // sibling test below: the two cases must behave differently, and this is the one that frees
+    // the key.
+    sqlx::query("UPDATE upload SET deleted_at = NOW(), taken_down_by_host = FALSE WHERE id = $1")
+        .bind(id)
+        .execute(&pool)
+        .await
+        .expect("soft delete");
+
+    assert_eq!(
+        find_by_key(&pool, user_id, key).await,
+        None,
+        "a soft-deleted upload must not be replayed"
+    );
+
+    // The other half of that rule, and the half that was missing (H9). Asserting only that the
+    // lookup returns None left the index free to disagree with it: migration 022's predicate
+    // covered soft-deleted rows, so the retry's INSERT hit `ON CONFLICT DO NOTHING` against the
+    // dead row, the replay lookup above then found nothing, and the handler answered 409 — which
+    // the client classifies terminal and purges the blob for. The photo was gone from the phone
+    // AND absent from the gallery, with no way back.
+    //
+    // Migration 026 narrowed the index to live rows so a retry after a delete inserts a FRESH
+    // upload, which is what `find_by_client_upload_id`'s own doc comment always claimed happened.
+    let retried = create_upload(&pool, event_id, user_id, "originals/a.jpg", Some(key)).await;
+    assert!(
+        retried.is_some(),
+        "a retry after the guest deleted the photo must create a fresh upload, not 409 forever"
+    );
+    assert_ne!(
+        retried,
+        Some(id),
+        "the retry must be a new row, not the dead one"
+    );
+    assert_eq!(
+        find_by_key(&pool, user_id, key).await,
+        retried,
+        "the live row is the one the replay lookup must now find"
+    );
+}
+
+/// The mirror of the test above, and the case migration 026's rationale did not consider.
+///
+/// `deleted_at` is set by the guest deleting their own photo AND by `host_delete_upload`. Freeing
+/// the idempotency key on both meant a takedown could be silently undone: the guest's response was
+/// lost, so their queue still holds the item; the host removes the photo (bumping the keepsake
+/// epoch and rebuilding the archive without it); the phone reconnects ten minutes later and
+/// retries; the key is free, the INSERT succeeds, and the photo is back in the feed and in the next
+/// keepsake — under a NEW uuid that matches nothing in the host's moderation history, with nothing
+/// logged to say a takedown was reversed. The host has to find and delete it a second time.
+///
+/// Migration 031 keeps the key claimed for a host takedown, so the retry resolves to the duplicate
+/// path and is refused. Refusing is the correct answer here: the photo was deliberately removed.
+#[sqlx::test]
+async fn a_host_takedown_is_not_undone_by_a_late_retry(pool: PgPool) {
+    let event_id = seed_event(&pool, "wedding").await;
+    let user_id = seed_user(&pool, event_id, "Übermütiger Uwe").await;
+    let key = Uuid::new_v4();
+
+    let id = create_upload(&pool, event_id, user_id, "originals/a.jpg", Some(key))
+        .await
+        .expect("first insert");
+
+    // SRC: `models/upload.rs::Upload::soft_delete_in_event` with `by_host = true`.
+    sqlx::query("UPDATE upload SET deleted_at = NOW(), taken_down_by_host = TRUE WHERE id = $1")
+        .bind(id)
+        .execute(&pool)
+        .await
+        .expect("host takedown");
+
+    let retried = create_upload(&pool, event_id, user_id, "originals/a.jpg", Some(key)).await;
+    assert_eq!(
+        retried, None,
+        "a retry after a HOST takedown must be suppressed — otherwise the phone silently \
+         reinstates a photo the hosts removed"
+    );
+
+    let live: i64 = sqlx::query_scalar(
+        "SELECT count(*) FROM upload WHERE client_upload_id = $1 AND deleted_at IS NULL",
+    )
+    .bind(key)
+    .fetch_one(&pool)
+    .await
+    .expect("count");
+    assert_eq!(live, 0, "the taken-down photo must stay gone");
+
+    // And the handler must be able to tell the guest WHY, rather than "already processed".
+    // SRC: `models/upload.rs::Upload::taken_down_by_client_upload_id`.
+    let was_taken_down: bool = sqlx::query_scalar(
+        "SELECT EXISTS (
+             SELECT 1 FROM upload
+             WHERE client_upload_id = $1 AND user_id = $2
+               AND deleted_at IS NOT NULL AND taken_down_by_host
+         )",
+    )
+    .bind(key)
+    .bind(user_id)
+    .fetch_one(&pool)
+    .await
+    .expect("takedown lookup");
+    assert!(
+        was_taken_down,
+        "the refusal must be attributable to a takedown so the queue can say so"
+    );
+}

docker-compose.build.yml

@@ -0,0 +1,24 @@
+# Build overlay. NOT loaded automatically (same convention as docker-compose.dev.yml — this
+# repo deliberately never uses the auto-loaded `docker-compose.override.yml` name).
+#
+# Used ONLY on a workstation that builds and pushes images. Never on the production server,
+# which pulls: see the note on the `app` service in docker-compose.yml.
+#
+# Restores the `build:` keys that production omits, so `docker compose build` still works from
+# a single source of truth for the build context paths:
+#
+#   docker compose -f docker-compose.yml -f docker-compose.build.yml build
+#
+# For the actual release build use buildx directly instead — it is what produces linux/amd64
+# images from an arm64 Mac and pushes them in one step (see DEPLOYMENT_RUNBOOK.md §6):
+#
+#   docker buildx build --platform linux/amd64 -t registry.mc02.dev/eventsnap/app:vX.Y.Z --push ./backend
+services:
+  app:
+    build:
+      context: ./backend
+      dockerfile: Dockerfile
+  frontend:
+    build:
+      context: ./frontend
+      dockerfile: Dockerfile

docker-compose.dev.yml

@@ -21,11 +21,15 @@ services:
       # app user can't create it from `/`, so every upload 500s with EACCES. The media
       # volume is mounted at /media (see docker-compose.yml) — point the app there.
       MEDIA_PATH: /media
-      # Recent Docker Compose interpolates env_file values, so the `$` segments of the
-      # bcrypt ADMIN_PASSWORD_HASH in .env get eaten (the salt reads as an unset var) —
-      # every admin login then 401s. Re-supply it here with `$` doubled to `$$` so Compose
-      # passes the literal hash. NOTE: production (docker-compose.yml + .env) has the SAME
-      # bug — escape the hash as `$$` in .env, or set it via `environment:` there too.
+      # Set here purely so local dev needs no `.env` at all. The `$` are doubled because
+      # THIS is a `docker-compose.yml` `environment:` value, where Compose does interpolate.
+      #
+      # DO NOT COPY THE DOUBLING INTO `.env`. An earlier version of this comment claimed
+      # production had "the same bug" and told you to escape the hash as `$$` there — that is
+      # wrong and it breaks a working deployment. Compose uses SINGLE-QUOTED `env_file` values
+      # literally, which is the form `.env.example` ships, so the `$` segments survive intact;
+      # doubling them produces a 74-character string that `looks_bcrypt` rejects and the app
+      # refuses to boot on. Verified with `docker compose exec app printenv`.
       ADMIN_PASSWORD_HASH: "$$2b$$12$$PAteqCNpsbm6d0HTJcywfOaUovjAU.iNVlsL7EDYaRC/z4P/xv7ye"
       # Smoke-testing the comment kill-switch: boot-time flag, so it needs a restart
       # (not an admin-UI toggle). Backend rejects new comments (403) and the frontend
@@ -33,9 +37,10 @@ services:
       COMMENTS_ENABLED: "false"
 
   caddy:
-    # The prod caddy service has no env_file, so the Caddyfile's `{$DOMAIN}` expands
-    # to empty and the site block collapses into a malformed global block. Supply it
-    # for local dev (from .env → localhost, which Caddy serves with a local self-signed
-    # cert). NOTE: the prod compose likely needs DOMAIN wired to caddy too.
+    # The caddy service has no env_file, so the Caddyfile's `{$DOMAIN}` would expand to empty
+    # and the site block would collapse into a malformed global block. Supply it for local dev
+    # (from .env → localhost, which Caddy serves with a local self-signed cert). Production
+    # already wires DOMAIN into caddy's `environment:`, guarded with `:?` so an unset value
+    # fails the command instead of silently producing a site with no address.
     environment:
       DOMAIN: ${DOMAIN}

docker-compose.yml

@@ -1,12 +1,35 @@
+# Docker's default json-file driver has NO rotation at all, and every container writes to the
+# same filesystem as postgres_data, media_data and exports_data. Filling that filesystem does
+# not degrade one subsystem — Postgres stops being able to write and the whole event goes down
+# (see README "Sizing the disk"). This caps logs at 30 MB per service, permanently.
+#
+# Paired with RUST_LOG in .env: without it the app falls back to `eventsnap_backend=debug,
+# tower_http=debug` (main.rs), which is a debug line per HTTP request including every preview.
+x-logging: &default-logging
+  driver: json-file
+  options:
+    max-size: "10m"
+    max-file: "3"
+
 services:
   db:
     image: postgres:16-alpine
     restart: unless-stopped
+    logging: *default-logging
     env_file: .env
     environment:
-      POSTGRES_USER: ${POSTGRES_USER}
-      POSTGRES_PASSWORD: ${POSTGRES_PASSWORD}
-      POSTGRES_DB: ${POSTGRES_DB}
+      # `:?` for the same reason EVENTSNAP_VERSION and DOMAIN use it, and this is the worst place
+      # to omit it. These are interpolated into `environment:`, which OVERRIDES `env_file` — so an
+      # unset value does not fall back to `.env`, it resolves to the empty string and initdb
+      # creates a role and database literally named "". `DATABASE_URL` still points at `eventsnap`,
+      # so the app hits `FATAL: role "eventsnap" does not exist` forever, `pg_isready -U "" -d ""`
+      # never passes, `app` never turns healthy, and Caddy — gated on `service_healthy` — never
+      # starts, so port 443 is dead for the whole event. The only clean exit is `down -v`, which
+      # destroys the volume. The runbook's §3 secrets list omitted both of these, so an operator
+      # writing `.env` from the runbook rather than from `.env.example` walked straight into it.
+      POSTGRES_USER: ${POSTGRES_USER:?set POSTGRES_USER in .env (see .env.example)}
+      POSTGRES_PASSWORD: ${POSTGRES_PASSWORD:?set POSTGRES_PASSWORD in .env}
+      POSTGRES_DB: ${POSTGRES_DB:?set POSTGRES_DB in .env (see .env.example)}
     volumes:
       - postgres_data:/var/lib/postgresql/data
     healthcheck:
@@ -17,35 +40,130 @@ services:
     deploy:
       resources:
         limits:
-          # 1G, not 512M. DATABASE_MAX_CONNECTIONS defaults to 30 for a ~100-guest event
-          # (feed polling + SSE + uploads at once), and 30 backends plus Postgres 16's
-          # default shared_buffers leaves very little headroom at 512M. An OOM here does
-          # not degrade one feature — it takes the event down, because every request
-          # path touches the database. Memory is the cheaper knob than shrinking the
-          # pool back and reintroducing the queueing it was raised to fix.
+          # 1G, not 512M. Postgres 16's default shared_buffers plus a pool of backends
+          # leaves very little headroom at 512M, and an OOM here does not degrade one
+          # feature — it takes the event down, because every request path touches the
+          # database.
           #
-          # Raising DATABASE_MAX_CONNECTIONS further means raising this too.
+          # `.env.example` now sets DATABASE_MAX_CONNECTIONS=15, sized to the 2 vCPU this
+          # box has rather than to the guest count: since migration 024 replaced the feed
+          # view's GROUP BY with scalar subqueries, a feed page costs well under a
+          # millisecond, so connections are no longer spent waiting. Raising it back
+          # toward 30 means raising this limit with it.
           memory: 1G
+          # CPU ceiling. Postgres is the one service that must never be starved: every request
+          # path touches it, so a CPU-bound image resize elsewhere degrades the whole event
+          # rather than one feature. 1.5 of 2 cores is a ceiling, not a reservation — it only
+          # binds when something else is competing.
+          cpus: '1.5'
+        reservations:
+          # Memory floor only. `reservations.cpus` USED TO BE HERE and did nothing: outside
+          # Swarm, `docker compose up` silently drops it — verified by inspecting a running
+          # container, where CpuShares, CpuQuota and CpusetCpus were all unset while
+          # `limits.cpus` and `reservations.memory` came through as NanoCpus and
+          # MemoryReservation. So the comment claiming it was "the piece that actually
+          # protects the database" described a guarantee the box never had.
+          #
+          # It matters on a CX22: the ceilings below sum to 1.2 + 0.6 + 0.5 = 2.3 on 2 vCPU,
+          # so the other services CAN oversubscribe the machine, and with every container on
+          # the default weight Postgres competes on equal footing with two image resizes and
+          # an ffmpeg poster. `cpu_shares` is the knob that survives the translation — see the
+          # weights on each service.
+          memory: 256M
+    # Relative CPU weight under contention (Docker default is 1024). Only consulted when the
+    # CPU is actually saturated, which is exactly the moment the database must not lose.
+    cpu_shares: 2048
+    # Caps memory+swap together, so the `memory` limit above stays the real ceiling.
+    #
+    # Compose sets `Memory` but leaves `MemorySwap` unset, and Docker then permits swap EQUAL to
+    # the memory limit — so following the runbook's "add 2 GB of swap" step silently DOUBLES every
+    # container ceiling, to 5 GiB of ceilings on a 3.82 GiB box. Nothing OOMs; instead Postgres's
+    # working set becomes swap-eligible on a shared-tenancy VPS SSD, turning a bounded OOM-kill
+    # (which restarts in seconds) into unbounded latency everywhere with no signal but "it's slow".
+    #
+    # The runbook used to tell the operator to add this BY HAND, which also broke its own §0 gate
+    # requiring docker-compose.yml to be unmodified. Shipped here instead. 1152m against a 1G limit
+    # leaves 128 MB of swap — enough to absorb a spike, not enough to hide one.
+    #
+    # Verified rather than assumed: service-level `memswap_limit` DOES compose with
+    # `deploy.resources.limits.memory` — `docker inspect` reports Memory=1073741824
+    # MemorySwap=1207959552.
+    memswap_limit: 1152m
 
   app:
-    build:
-      context: ./backend
-      dockerfile: Dockerfile
+    # Production PULLS a prebuilt image; it never compiles. A release build of this crate is
+    # fat-LTO over 427 dependencies (see backend/Cargo.toml [profile.release]) and peaks well
+    # above the RAM a 4 GB box has spare with the stack running — and a rollback would be a
+    # second build under pressure. Images are built on a workstation and pushed; see
+    # docker-compose.build.yml and DEPLOYMENT_RUNBOOK.md.
+    #
+    # There is deliberately NO `build:` key here: without one, a wrong tag fails instantly with
+    # "manifest unknown" instead of silently starting a 45-minute compile on the event server.
+    # The `:?` form fails loudly on an unset variable rather than resolving to an empty tag.
+    image: registry.mc02.dev/eventsnap/app:${EVENTSNAP_VERSION:?set EVENTSNAP_VERSION in .env}
     restart: unless-stopped
+    logging: *default-logging
     env_file: .env
     environment:
+      # Default to info. Without this the code fallback in main.rs applies, which is
+      # `eventsnap_backend=debug,tower_http=debug` — a line per HTTP request AND per
+      # response, including every preview fetch, for a multi-day run. The x-logging cap
+      # above bounds the disk cost but not the CPU/IO one.
+      #
+      # Set here rather than only in `.env` because a stock deploy sets RUST_LOG nowhere,
+      # and this is the layer an operator will actually find when they need to raise it
+      # for a single event (`RUST_LOG=eventsnap_backend=debug docker compose up -d app`).
+      RUST_LOG: ${RUST_LOG:-info}
       # Activates the production secret guard in config.rs — refuses to boot with
       # placeholder JWT_SECRET / ADMIN_PASSWORD_HASH.
       APP_ENV: production
+      # Pinned beside MEDIA_PATH for the same reason, and because nothing validates it:
+      # config.rs defaults it to /exports but never checks that it is a mount or that it
+      # differs from media_path. A stray EXPORT_PATH in .env builds the keepsake into the
+      # container's writable layer, where it passes every health check and disk preflight
+      # and then evaporates on the next `up -d`.
+      EXPORT_PATH: /exports
       # The media volume is mounted at /media (below), so the app MUST write there.
       # Pin it here rather than trusting .env: if MEDIA_PATH in .env points elsewhere
       # (e.g. a host path used for running the backend natively) the container can't
       # create it and every upload 500s with EACCES. `environment` overrides `env_file`,
       # so this is authoritative for the container.
       MEDIA_PATH: /media
+      # Third member of the MEDIA_PATH / EXPORT_PATH family, and the nastiest of the three because
+      # the app itself reports nothing wrong. The healthcheck below hardcodes 127.0.0.1:3000 and
+      # the Caddyfile hardcodes app:3000, while `.env.example` presents APP_PORT as an ordinary
+      # editable line. Change it there and the app boots and serves happily on the new port, the
+      # healthcheck fails forever, `app` never turns healthy — and because caddy is gated on
+      # `service_healthy`, CADDY NEVER STARTS AT ALL. Port 443 is dead for the whole event and the
+      # only diagnostic is `dependency failed to start`.
+      APP_PORT: "3000"
+      # Fourth member of the family, pinned for a reason the other three don't have: this one is
+      # boot-FATAL. `db.rs` rejects an unparseable value with `bail!` rather than falling back to
+      # the default (right call — an operator tuning a knob that silently never applied is worse),
+      # which means a stray quote, a trailing inline comment, or a smart-quote pasted into `.env`
+      # no longer degrades anything: it exits 1, and `restart: unless-stopped` crash-loops the app
+      # behind a live Caddy. `.trim()` covers whitespace and CRLF; it cannot cover those.
+      #
+      # Sized to the 2 vCPU this box has, not to the guest count — see `.env.example` and the
+      # `db` memory limit, which must be raised together with this.
+      DATABASE_MAX_CONNECTIONS: "15"
+      # Pinned for the same reason as MEDIA_PATH: `environment` beats `env_file`, so this cannot
+      # be lost by an operator who copies `.env.example` and edits only the secrets — which is
+      # the likely path, and `.env.example` ships the generic default of `true`.
+      #
+      # This is a product decision for this event, not a technical one: guests should be present
+      # at the party, not in a comment thread. Likes and captions stay on and are unaffected.
+      # Boot-time only, so changing it means `docker compose up -d`, not an admin toggle.
+      # To re-enable comments, delete this line and set COMMENTS_ENABLED in .env.
+      COMMENTS_ENABLED: "false"
     depends_on:
       db:
         condition: service_healthy
+    # Longer than the app's own 10s shutdown backstop (main.rs SHUTDOWN_GRACE), because Docker's
+    # default stop timeout is ALSO 10s — so a redeploy raced the graceful drain and could SIGKILL
+    # the process at the exact moment it was finishing, truncating the in-flight upload the
+    # graceful shutdown exists to protect. The app always exits well before 20s.
+    stop_grace_period: 20s
     volumes:
       - media_data:/media
       # Export archives live OUTSIDE /media so the public media ServeDir can't
@@ -69,17 +187,54 @@ services:
           # Bounds a runaway ffmpeg transcode (large uploads, 2 workers) so it can't
           # OOM the single box and take down Postgres.
           memory: 1G
+          # CPU ceiling for the WHOLE app container. Bounded below 2.0 so it can never take both
+          # cores on its own, which is what protects Postgres.
+          # COMPRESSION_WORKER_CONCURRENCY=2 is the memory bound; this is the CPU one.
+          #
+          # It does NOT cap "the two image workers + ffmpeg" separately from the request path, as
+          # this used to claim. `compression.rs` runs that work in `tokio::task::spawn_blocking` —
+          # same process, same cgroup as every Axum handler — and `cpus`/`cpu_shares` are
+          # per-container, so nothing here can tell them apart. Concretely: `cpu.max` is
+          # `120000 100000`, so two CPU-pegged blocking workers exhaust the 120 ms quota after
+          # ~60 ms of each 100 ms period and the kernel then freezes the ENTIRE cgroup — uploads,
+          # feed and SSE included — for the remainder. Across a 100-photo burst (~210 s of
+          # draining) every request in that window can eat up to 40 ms of throttle stall.
+          #
+          # Kept anyway: an app that can take both cores starves Postgres, and every request path
+          # goes through Postgres. A slightly stalled request beats a starved database. If the
+          # backlog needs to drain faster, the knob is COMPRESSION_WORKER_CONCURRENCY, not this.
+          cpus: '1.2'
+    # Half the default weight, and this is the ceiling's other half: the cap alone leaves
+    # 0.8 vCPU for db + frontend + caddy, which frontend and caddy can consume between them.
+    # Compression is throughput work with no guest waiting on it, so it yields to Postgres —
+    # which every request path, including the app's own, is blocked on.
+    cpu_shares: 512
+    # See the `db` service for why this is shipped rather than hand-added: without it, the
+    # runbook's swap step doubles this ceiling. 1152m against a 1G limit.
+    memswap_limit: 1152m
 
   frontend:
-    build:
-      context: ./frontend
-      dockerfile: Dockerfile
+    # Pulled, not built — see the note on `app` above.
+    image: registry.mc02.dev/eventsnap/frontend:${EVENTSNAP_VERSION:?set EVENTSNAP_VERSION in .env}
     restart: unless-stopped
+    logging: *default-logging
     env_file: .env
     environment:
       # adapter-node behind Caddy TLS needs the public origin for CSRF checks on
       # POST form actions — without it they fail only in production.
-      ORIGIN: "https://${DOMAIN}"
+      # `:?` for the same reason EVENTSNAP_VERSION uses it. A blank DOMAIN doesn't fail — it
+      # produces `https://` here and collapses the Caddyfile's site block below, so the stack
+      # comes up with no TLS and no site and the only symptom is a browser error.
+      ORIGIN: "https://${DOMAIN:?set DOMAIN in .env}"
+      # V8 sizes its old-space heap from the cgroup limit, but lands on ~101% of it (measured:
+      # heap_size_limit 259 MB inside a 256M container). So the JS heap ceiling sits ABOVE the
+      # container's entire budget — before base RSS (~60-90 MB), the C++ heap, or SSR response
+      # buffers, which are external memory V8 doesn't count at all. The practical effect is that
+      # V8 can never reach its own limit and run an emergency GC, so the only backpressure is a
+      # kernel SIGKILL: an arrival burst of ~100 guests SSR-rendering /join and /feed OOM-kills
+      # node, guests get the "Wir sind gleich zurück" page, it restarts, and the burst is still
+      # there. Setting the ceiling below the cgroup limit restores GC as the first line of defence.
+      NODE_OPTIONS: "--max-old-space-size=160"
     depends_on:
       - app
     expose:
@@ -96,16 +251,27 @@ services:
       resources:
         limits:
           memory: 256M
+          # Node SSR is bursty and not latency-critical for guests (the app is CSR after the
+          # first paint), so it yields first under contention.
+          cpus: '0.6'
+    # Lowest weight of the four, for the reason above: `ssr = false`, so this serves the shell
+    # and then guests talk to `app` directly. A slow shell delays a reload; a slow database
+    # breaks the event.
+    cpu_shares: 256
+    # See the `db` service for why this is shipped rather than hand-added: without it, the
+    # runbook's swap step doubles this ceiling. 320m against a 256M limit.
+    memswap_limit: 320m
 
   caddy:
     image: caddy:2-alpine
     restart: unless-stopped
+    logging: *default-logging
     environment:
       # The Caddyfile's site address is `{$DOMAIN}`, read from THIS container's env.
       # Without it, `{$DOMAIN}` expands to empty, the site block collapses, and Caddy
       # serves nothing / fails to obtain a TLS cert. `env_file` alone wouldn't help —
       # Caddy needs it in `environment`, and this keeps the Caddyfile the single source.
-      DOMAIN: ${DOMAIN}
+      DOMAIN: ${DOMAIN:?set DOMAIN in .env}
     ports:
       - "80:80"
       - "443:443"
@@ -121,6 +287,15 @@ services:
       resources:
         limits:
           memory: 256M
+          # TLS termination and static serving. Small but must stay responsive — a starved
+          # reverse proxy makes every service look down.
+          cpus: '0.5'
+    # Left at the Docker default (1024). Caddy is cheap but sits in front of everything, so
+    # it must not be the bottleneck; it is capped at 0.5 vCPU regardless.
+    cpu_shares: 1024
+    # See the `db` service for why this is shipped rather than hand-added: without it, the
+    # runbook's swap step doubles this ceiling. 320m against a 256M limit.
+    memswap_limit: 320m
 
 volumes:
   postgres_data:

docs/FEATURES.md

@@ -14,12 +14,12 @@ Status legend: **✓ shipped** · **◐ partial** · **◯ planned** · **✗ ou
 |---------------------------------------------------------|:-----:|:-----:|:-----:|-----------------------------------------------------------------------|
 | **Onboarding & sessions**                               |       |       |       |                                                                       |
 | Join via shared event link / QR code                    |   ✓   |   ✓   |   ✓   | Name-only registration; server issues JWT + 4-digit PIN               |
-| First-visit guided tour (4 steps)                       |   ✓   |   ✓   |   ✓   | Dismissed once, flag in `localStorage`                                |
+| First-visit guided tour (6 steps)                       |   ✓   |   ✓   |   ✓   | Welcome, upload, hashtags, long-press, hell/dunkel, PIN (+ privacy-note pointer when one is set). Dismissed once, flag in `localStorage` |
 | Persistent 30-day session                               |   ✓   |   ✓   |   ✓   | JWT in `localStorage`; refreshed on activity                          |
 | Sign in on another device using name + PIN              |   ✓   |   ✓   |   ✓   | 3 wrong PINs → 15-min lockout                                         |
 | "Ich habe bereits einen Account" link on the join page  |   ✓   |   ✓   |   ✓   | Small inline link → `/recover` (name + PIN)                           |
 | View / copy own PIN any time ("My Account")             |   ✓   |   ✓   |   ✓   | Read from `localStorage`; never sent back from the server             |
-| Log out / "Leave event"                                 |   ✓   |   ✓   |   ✓   | Confirmation bottom-sheet; invalidates the session row                |
+| Log out ("Abmelden" / "Auf allen Geräten abmelden")     |   ✓   |   ✓   |   ✓   | Confirmation bottom-sheet; `DELETE /session` (this device) or `DELETE /sessions` (all devices). Nothing is deleted — account, PIN and uploads stay |
 | Rename own display name                                 |   ◯   |   ◯   |   ◯   | Not yet wired; PIN-protected change                                   |
 | Pick **data mode** (Saver / Original) in My Account     |   ✓   |   ✓   |   ✓   | Saver = compressed (default). Original = full files + data-usage warning. Applies to feed and diashow. Per-device, in `localStorage` |
 | Read the **Datenschutzhinweis** (privacy note)          |   ✓   |   ✓   |   ✓   | Free text set by Admin during setup; rendered preformatted in My Account; first-visit guide briefly points to it |
@@ -42,7 +42,7 @@ Status legend: **✓ shipped** · **◐ partial** · **◯ planned** · **✗ ou
 | 3-column grid feed with toggle                          |   ✓   |   ✓   |   ✓   | Video play badges, duration                                           |
 | Search & autocomplete (uploader + hashtag)              |   ✓   |   ✓   |   ✓   | Grid view; derived in-memory, no extra API calls                      |
 | Active filter chips (OR within type, AND across types)  |   ✓   |   ✓   |   ✓   | Multiple hashtags = OR; uploader + hashtag = AND                      |
-| Fullscreen lightbox with swipe                          |   ✓   |   ✓   |   ✓   | Swipe navigates the filtered set                                      |
+| Fullscreen lightbox with prev/next navigation           |   ✓   |   ✓   |   ✓   | Navigates the *filtered* set. On-screen prev/next controls, ← / → arrow keys, and swipe left/right on touch |
 | Like / unlike any post                                  |   ✓   |   ✓   |   ✓   | Single toggle; SSE `like-update`                                      |
 | Read comments on any post                               |   ✓   |   ✓   |   ✓   |                                                                       |
 | Add a comment                                           |   ✓   |   ✓   |   ✓   | Hashtags in comments also parsed                                      |
@@ -56,11 +56,11 @@ Status legend: **✓ shipped** · **◐ partial** · **◯ planned** · **✗ ou
 |                                                         |       |       |       |                                                                       |
 | **Moderation (Host)**                                   |       |       |       |                                                                       |
 | List all event users                                    |       |   ✓   |   ✓   | Includes upload count, total bytes                                    |
-| Ban / unban a user                                      |       |   ✓   |   ✓   | Modal asks: hide their existing uploads, or keep visible?             |
+| Ban / unban a user                                      |       |   ✓   |   ✓   | Ban **always hides** their existing uploads — no opt-out, the modal is a plain confirm. Unban restores them. Both invalidate and rebuild a released keepsake. See USER_JOURNEYS §9/§10 |
 | Delete any upload                                       |       |   ✓   |   ✓   |                                                                       |
 | Delete any comment                                      |       |   ✓   |   ✓   |                                                                       |
 | Promote guest to Host                                   |       |   ✓   |   ✓   |                                                                       |
-| Demote Host to guest                                    |       |   ✓   |   ✓   | Hosts may demote other Hosts. Cannot demote self. Admins cannot be demoted by hosts. |
+| Demote Host to guest                                    |       |       |   ✓   | **Admin only** — the backend 403s a Host demoting a peer Host (F1: it would launder past the ban / PIN-reset peer guards). Nobody may change their own role; Admins cannot be demoted at all. The button is hidden for non-admin Hosts |
 | Reset a guest's PIN (Host) / any non-admin PIN (Admin)  |       |   ✓   |   ✓   | New PIN shown once in modal; Host shows/shares it with the guest      |
 | Lock new uploads ("Event schließen")                    |       |   ✓   |   ✓   | Likes + comments + browsing remain open                               |
 | Unlock new uploads                                      |       |   ✓   |   ✓   |                                                                       |
@@ -78,18 +78,18 @@ Status legend: **✓ shipped** · **◐ partial** · **◯ planned** · **✗ ou
 | Edit compression-worker concurrency                     |       |       |   ✓   |                                                                       |
 | Edit **Datenschutzhinweis** (privacy note, free text)   |       |       |   ✓   | Plain text, whitespace + newlines preserved, no HTML. SSE `event-updated` broadcasts edits live. |
 | Inspect export job list & progress                      |       |       |   ✓   |                                                                       |
-| Low-disk alert (< 10 GB free)                           |       |       |   ◯   | Planned                                                               |
+| Low-disk alert                                          |       |   ✓   |   ✓   | Red banner at the top of the Host dashboard when `disk_low`, naming free space and the keepsake's required bytes. Fails closed to "not low" on an unreadable mount |
 | Event banner / cover image                              |       |       |   ◯   | DB column exists, no UI                                               |
 |                                                         |       |       |       |                                                                       |
-| **Quota visibility (Guest-facing)**                     |       |       |       |                                                                       |
-| Show current per-user quota estimate                    |   ✓   |   ✓   |   ✓   | "Du hast X MB von Y MB genutzt." in My Account and on the upload screen. Computed from the live formula. Hidden when quota enforcement is toggled off |
+| **Quota visibility (staff-only)**                       |       |       |       |                                                                       |
+| Show current per-user quota estimate                    |       |   ✓   |   ✓   | **Deliberately not shown to guests** — the storage widget in My Account and on the upload screen is gated on host/admin. Computed from the live formula; also hidden when quota enforcement is toggled off |
 |                                                         |       |       |       |                                                                       |
 | **Export**                                              |       |       |       |                                                                       |
 | Wait at locked export page until released               |   ✓   |   ✓   |   ✓   | Friendly "not yet available" copy                                     |
 | Download `Gallery.zip` (full-quality originals)         |   ✓   |   ✓   |   ✓   | Streamed via `async-zip`; `Photos/` + `Videos/` folders               |
 | Download `Memories.zip` (offline HTML viewer)           |   ✓   |   ✓   |   ✓   | Self-contained SvelteKit-static app + `data.json` + `media/`          |
 | HTML-export in-app guide modal before download          |   ✓   |   ✓   |   ✓   | Explains: unzip first, open `index.html`                              |
-| Per-IP export download rate limit (3 / day)             |   ✓   |   ✓   |   ✓   |                                                                       |
+| Per-**user** export download rate limit (3 / day)       |   ✓   |   ✓   |   ✓   | Keyed on the user id, not the IP — a venue behind one NAT would otherwise share a 3/day budget across every guest |
 |                                                         |       |       |       |                                                                       |
 | **Banned guest** (subset)                               |       |       |       |                                                                       |
 | Cannot upload, like, or comment                         |   ✗   |       |       | Returns HTTP 403                                                      |
@@ -143,7 +143,7 @@ email, no password, no account portal.
   PIN-recovery form for that account ("Already taken — sign in instead, or pick another
   name"). The join page also surfaces an explicit **"Ich habe bereits einen Account"**
   link routing to `/recover` for users who already know they want to sign in.
-- **PIN reset by Host / Admin.** Planned. If a guest loses their PIN and `localStorage` is
+- **PIN reset by Host / Admin.** If a guest loses their PIN and `localStorage` is
   gone everywhere, a Host (for guests) or Admin (for hosts and guests) can hit a
   **PIN zurücksetzen** action in the user list. A fresh PIN is generated server-side, its
   bcrypt stored, and the plaintext is shown **once** in a modal to the requesting
@@ -153,9 +153,13 @@ email, no password, no account portal.
   Admins can.
 - **Roles.** `guest` (default), `host`, `admin`. The Admin role is seeded from the
   `ADMIN_PASSWORD_HASH` env var; admins log in at `/admin/login` with a password (separate
-  JWT, 1-day expiry, in `sessionStorage`). Hosts are guests promoted by an admin. **Hosts
-  may also demote other Hosts to guests** (planned) — but never themselves, to avoid
-  locking the event out of moderation. Admins can demote anyone except admins.
+  JWT, 1-day expiry, in `sessionStorage`). Hosts are guests promoted by a host or an admin.
+  **Only an Admin may change a Host's role** — a plain Host may promote guests but may not
+  demote a peer Host, because demoting one would then let them ban or PIN-reset (→
+  `/recover` takeover) that ex-peer, the guards keying off the target's *current* role (F1).
+  Nobody may change their own role, so the event can't be locked out of moderation, and
+  Admins are un-demotable and un-bannable. Enforced in `handlers::host::set_role`; the
+  button is hidden for non-admin Hosts.
 
 ### 2.2 Posting pipeline
 
@@ -188,8 +192,9 @@ The upload pipeline is built for flaky mobile networks:
   the loaded uploads, so typing never hits the server.
 - **Filter chips** — multiple hashtags combine with OR; multiple uploaders combine with OR;
   hashtag + uploader combine with AND. Matches the redesign concept exactly.
-- **Lightbox** — fullscreen view, swipe navigates the *filtered* set, with embedded
-  like/comment UI.
+- **Lightbox** — fullscreen view with embedded like/comment UI. Navigation across the
+  *filtered* set is available three ways: on-screen prev/next controls, the ← / → arrow
+  keys, and a left/right swipe on touch.
 - **Real-time** — SSE delivers `new-upload`, `upload-processed`, `like-update`,
   `new-comment`, `upload-deleted`, `event-closed`/`event-opened`, `export-progress`,
   `export-available`. Client pauses SSE on `visibilitychange: hidden` and reopens on visible.
@@ -197,15 +202,18 @@ The upload pipeline is built for flaky mobile networks:
 ### 2.4 Host / Admin tooling
 
 - **Host dashboard** — three collapsible sections: Stats, Event-Einstellungen,
-  Nutzerverwaltung. Ban modal asks explicitly whether to hide the user's existing uploads
-  from the public feed. Promote/demote, lock/unlock, release-gallery are one-tap.
-- **Admin dashboard** — same dashboard plus three more inner tabs (Stats, Config, Export,
+  Nutzerverwaltung. The ban modal is a plain confirm: banning **always hides** the user's
+  existing uploads, there is no keep-visible option. Promote/demote/unban/release are each
+  behind a confirmation sheet that spells out the consequence, not one-tap.
+- **Admin dashboard** — same user list plus four inner tabs (Stats, Config, Export,
   Nutzer). Config form covers per-file limits, rate limits, quota tolerance, estimated
-  guest count, and compression concurrency — all stored in the `config` table and read on
+  guest count and the colour theme — all stored in the `config` table and read on
   each request, so changes take effect without a restart. Disk widget pulls from the
-  `sysinfo` crate live.
+  `sysinfo` crate live. The Export tab mirrors the host dashboard's release controls:
+  the release button is disabled once released, the live keepsake status (progress /
+  ready / failure reason) is shown, and a rebuild is offered as the recovery path.
 
-### 2.5 Data mode (planned)
+### 2.5 Data mode
 
 Each device picks a **data mode** in My Account; the setting lives in `localStorage` so a
 guest can be on Saver on their phone and Original on their laptop.
@@ -218,7 +226,7 @@ guest can be on Saver on their phone and Original on their laptop.
 Applies uniformly to the live app's feed/lightbox **and** the diashow. The viewer (offline
 HTML export) is unaffected — it's already a snapshot of pre-bundled media variants.
 
-### 2.6 Rate limits and quotas — toggleable (planned)
+### 2.6 Rate limits and quotas — toggleable
 
 The Admin Config tab gains explicit on/off toggles in addition to the numeric inputs:
 
@@ -230,13 +238,14 @@ The Admin Config tab gains explicit on/off toggles in addition to the numeric in
 - **Per-area quota switch.** Storage-bytes quota and upload-count quota can be disabled
   independently.
 
-When a feature is toggled off, the relevant UI in the guest-facing app should adapt: e.g.
-the "Du hast X von Y MB genutzt" widget hides itself when storage quota is disabled. The
-quota estimate is computed from the same formula the server uses
-(`(free_disk × tolerance) / max(active_uploaders, 1)`) — surfaced in My Account *and* on
-the upload preview screen so guests know before they pick files.
+When a feature is toggled off, the dependent UI adapts: the "Speicher: X / Y" widget hides
+itself when the storage quota is disabled. The quota estimate is computed from the same
+formula the server uses (`(free_disk × tolerance) / max(active_uploaders, 1)`) and is
+surfaced in My Account *and* on the upload preview screen — but **only to hosts and
+admins**. Guests never see it: the number moves as other people upload and as disk frees
+up, which reads as a broken or unfair limit to someone who can't see why.
 
-### 2.7 Privacy note (Datenschutzhinweis, planned)
+### 2.7 Privacy note (Datenschutzhinweis)
 
 Admin sets a free-text **Datenschutzhinweis** during instance setup (Admin Dashboard →
 Config). It's stored as a single config key (plain text, whitespace and newlines

docs/USER_JOURNEYS.md

@@ -19,8 +19,9 @@ can do what" overview, see [FEATURES.md](FEATURES.md). For manual QA, see
    this PIN is the only way to sign in on another device. PIN is also written to
    `localStorage`.
 6. Guest taps **Weiter zur Galerie** → lands in the feed (`/feed`).
-7. The **first-visit onboarding overlay** appears: dismissible steps (welcome, upload,
-   hashtags, PIN, and a brief pointer to the **Datenschutzhinweis** in My Account).
+7. The **first-visit onboarding overlay** appears: six dismissible steps (welcome, upload,
+   hashtags, long-press for more actions, hell/dunkel design pick, and PIN — the PIN step
+   also points at the **Datenschutzhinweis** in My Account when the admin has set one).
    `localStorage('eventsnap_guide_seen') = 'true'` after dismiss.
 8. Guest sees the bottom nav: **🏠 Feed · [📷+ FAB] · 👤 Account**.
 
@@ -41,7 +42,7 @@ can do what" overview, see [FEATURES.md](FEATURES.md). For manual QA, see
 5. Wrong PIN: up to 3 attempts. After the third, the account is locked for 15 minutes
    (`pin_locked_until` is set; further attempts return HTTP 429 with a localized message).
 
-## 4. PIN forgotten — Host or Admin resets it (planned)
+## 4. PIN forgotten — Host or Admin resets it
 
 The PIN is visible in **My Account** as long as `localStorage` is intact on at least one
 of the user's devices. If lost everywhere, the user asks a Host (or Admin) for a reset.
@@ -126,14 +127,23 @@ the Host can clean up later).
 3. **Event settings** — toggle to lock new uploads (likes / comments / browsing stay open;
    broadcasts `event-closed` SSE so all clients show a "uploads are locked" banner).
 4. **Galerie freigeben** — releases the export. Enqueues two export jobs (ZIP + HTML
-   viewer). Progress is visible in the Admin dashboard's Export tab; SSE
-   `export-progress` keeps it live; `export-available` notifies all guests when ready.
+   viewer). Progress is visible on the Host dashboard *and* in the Admin dashboard's Export
+   tab; SSE `export-progress` keeps it live; `export-available` notifies all guests when
+   ready. Once released the button is disabled and reads *"Galerie bereits freigegeben"* —
+   a second release is a 409. If a keepsake half fails, both dashboards show the reason and
+   offer **Erneut versuchen** (rebuild); a ready keepsake can also be rebuilt behind a
+   confirm, during which guest downloads are briefly unavailable.
 5. **Nutzerverwaltung** — search users; per-user controls:
    - **Sperren** opens a confirmation modal. Banning **always hides** the user's existing
      uploads (a banned user's content is "gone" everywhere) — there is no opt-out. Submitting
      calls `POST /host/users/{id}/ban` (no body).
-   - **Entsperren** lifts the ban. Same authority boundary as ban (below): a plain Host may
-     only unban Guests; only an Admin may unban a Host.
+   - **Entsperren** lifts the ban — and does two further things the confirm sheet now spells
+     out, because both are visible to the whole party: it clears `uploads_hidden`, so **all**
+     of that user's previously hidden uploads reappear in the gallery, the diashow and the
+     export; and it invalidates and rebuilds a released keepsake (`invalidate_and_arm`), so
+     every guest's download is unavailable for as long as that takes. A ban does the mirror
+     image of both. Same authority boundary as ban: a plain Host may only unban Guests; only
+     an Admin may unban a Host.
    - **Host** promotes a guest to host (Hosts and Admins may do this).
    - **Degradieren** — demote a Host back to guest. **Only an Admin may change a Host's
      role.** A plain Host may *not* demote a peer Host: doing so would let them then ban or
@@ -181,14 +191,18 @@ the Host can clean up later).
    - **Stats**: live counts and disk-usage widget (via `sysinfo`).
    - **Config**: per-file limits (image MB / video MB), rate limits (upload / feed /
      export), quota tolerance, estimated guest count, compression-worker concurrency,
-     plus the **Datenschutzhinweis** free-text editor and **on/off toggles** for the rate
-     limiters and quotas (planned — see §16). Whitelist on the server side rejects
-     unknown keys. Values are read from the `config` table on each request — no restart
-     needed.
-   - **Export**: list of past export jobs with status badges (pending / running / done /
-     failed) and progress bars; refresh button re-polls.
-   - **Nutzer**: same user list as Host, with the additional Demote action and (planned)
-     PIN-reset on host rows.
+     plus the colour-theme picker, the **Datenschutzhinweis** free-text editor and
+     **on/off toggles** for the rate limiters and quotas (see §18). Whitelist on the
+     server side rejects unknown keys. Values are read from the `config` table on each
+     request — no restart needed.
+   - **Export**: the gallery-release control plus the list of export jobs with status
+     badges (pending / running / done / failed) and progress bars; refresh button
+     re-polls. The release control mirrors the Host dashboard exactly — disabled once
+     released (a second tap would only 409), live keepsake status with progress and the
+     failure reason, and a **Neu erstellen / Erneut versuchen** rebuild as the recovery
+     path for a failed or stale keepsake.
+   - **Nutzer**: same user list as Host, with the additional Demote action (admin-only,
+     see §9) and PIN-reset on host rows.
 
 ## 12. Releasing the export and downloading
 
@@ -224,11 +238,14 @@ the Host can clean up later).
      buttons. Tapping the HTML download first shows an in-app guide modal explaining:
      "Entpacke die ZIP, öffne `index.html`". Tapping **Herunterladen** triggers the
      browser download.
-7. Downloads are rate-limited per IP (default 3 / day).
+7. Downloads are rate-limited **per user** (default 3 / day), keyed on the user id in
+   `enforce_export_rate` — deliberately not per IP. At a venue where a hundred guests share
+   one NAT'd wifi, a per-IP budget would be exhausted by the third person to tap
+   **Herunterladen** and lock everyone else out of their own keepsake.
 
-## 13. Diashow (planned)
+## 13. Diashow
 
-See [CONCEPT_DIASHOW.md](CONCEPT_DIASHOW.md). Summary of the planned flow:
+See [CONCEPT_DIASHOW.md](CONCEPT_DIASHOW.md). Summary of the flow:
 
 1. User taps a **Diashow / Präsentation** action (feed header on tablet/desktop, Account
    on mobile).
@@ -240,7 +257,7 @@ See [CONCEPT_DIASHOW.md](CONCEPT_DIASHOW.md). Summary of the planned flow:
    immediately.
 6. Tap or Escape reveals an overlay (pause, dwell selector, exit).
 
-## 14. Picking a data mode (planned)
+## 14. Picking a data mode
 
 1. Guest opens **My Account** → scrolls to **Datennutzung**.
 2. Two options: **Datensparer (empfohlen)** and **Original**. Saver is the default.
@@ -252,14 +269,24 @@ See [CONCEPT_DIASHOW.md](CONCEPT_DIASHOW.md). Summary of the planned flow:
 5. The viewer (offline HTML export) is unaffected — it already ships with its own pre-
    bundled `_thumb` / `_full` variants.
 
-## 15. Leaving an event
+## 15. Signing out
 
-1. User opens **My Account** → taps **🚪 Event verlassen**.
-2. Bottom-sheet confirmation: "Event verlassen?" with **Abmelden** and **Bleiben**.
-3. Confirming calls `DELETE /api/v1/session` (invalidates the session row), clears the JWT
-   and PIN from `localStorage`, and redirects to the join page.
+The wording matters here: nothing is *left* and nothing is deleted. The account, the PIN
+and every uploaded photo survive — the user signs back in with name + PIN whenever they
+like. ("Event verlassen" read as leaving for good, which the confirmation sheet then
+contradicted by saying you can come back.)
 
-## 16. Reading the Datenschutzhinweis (planned)
+1. User opens **My Account** → Konto section. Two separate actions:
+   - **Abmelden** — this device only (`DELETE /api/v1/session`).
+   - **Auf allen Geräten abmelden** — every session of theirs (`DELETE /api/v1/sessions`),
+     for a lost or borrowed phone.
+2. Bottom-sheet confirmation naming which of the two it is, with **Abmelden** / **Abbrechen**.
+3. Confirming invalidates the session row(s), wipes the local JWT, PIN and the IndexedDB
+   upload queue (so the next guest on a shared phone doesn't inherit pending uploads), and
+   redirects to the join page. The session-delete call is best-effort: the token is gone
+   locally either way, so a network failure never traps the user on the page.
+
+## 16. Reading the Datenschutzhinweis
 
 1. User opens **My Account** → scrolls to **Datenschutzhinweis**.
 2. The note is rendered inside a preformatted block (`<pre>`-style: monospace, whitespace
@@ -270,11 +297,15 @@ See [CONCEPT_DIASHOW.md](CONCEPT_DIASHOW.md). Summary of the planned flow:
 4. Admin sets / edits the note in **Admin Dashboard → Config → Datenschutzhinweis**: a
    tall textarea with a save button. Saved to a single `config` key.
 
-## 17. Mobile-first gestures (planned)
+## 17. Mobile-first gestures (partly shipped)
 
 EventSnap's UI is mobile-first; gestures replace explicit buttons where they're more
 ergonomic. Buttons are always present as fallback for desktop and accessibility.
 
+Shipped today: long-press context sheets on posts and comments, and lightbox navigation
+(on-screen prev/next controls, ← / → arrow keys, and left/right swipe). The remaining rows
+below are still planned.
+
 | Gesture                                   | Action                                                |
 |-------------------------------------------|-------------------------------------------------------|
 | Long-press on a post (own)                | Bottom sheet → Löschen, Original anzeigen, Teilen     |
@@ -294,7 +325,7 @@ Inspiration: Instagram (double-tap heart, swipe stories), WhatsApp (long-press f
 context), Telegram (swipe-to-reply on messages — could inform comment threads if those
 land).
 
-## 18. Admin toggles a rate limit or quota off (planned)
+## 18. Admin toggles a rate limit or quota off
 
 1. Admin opens **Admin Dashboard → Config**.
 2. **Rate-Limits** section: a master switch and per-endpoint switches (upload / feed /
@@ -305,8 +336,9 @@ land).
    limiter entirely.
 5. **Quoten** section mirrors the pattern: master toggle plus per-area toggles (storage
    bytes / upload count).
-6. When the storage-quota toggle is off, the **"X von Y MB genutzt"** widget in the
-   guest's My Account and upload screen hides itself (no quota → no number to show).
+6. When the storage-quota toggle is off, the **"Speicher: X / Y"** widget in My Account and
+   on the upload screen hides itself (no quota → no number to show). That widget is
+   staff-only in any case — guests never see it.
 
 Suggested defaults at deploy time: all toggles **on**, sensible numeric limits.
 Toggling off is the explicit escape hatch for testing or trusted internal events.

e2e/eslint.config.js

@@ -42,6 +42,21 @@ export default ts.config(
     },
   },
   {
-    ignores: ['node_modules/', 'playwright-report/', 'test-results/', '*.config.js'],
+    ignores: [
+      'node_modules/',
+      'playwright-report/',
+      'test-results/',
+      '*.config.js',
+      // Standalone dev/load-test scripts, run directly with `node`. They are not part of the
+      // Playwright tsconfig project, so `projectService: true` cannot type them and every one of
+      // them failed with "was not found by the project service" — which meant `npm run lint` had
+      // been exiting non-zero on main, i.e. the e2e lint gate was not gating at all.
+      //
+      // Ignoring is the honest fix rather than widening the tsconfig: these are throwaway harness
+      // scripts, and the type-aware rules that justify the project service (no-floating-promises)
+      // exist to protect TEST code.
+      '*.mjs',
+      'loadtest/',
+    ],
   }
 );

e2e/fixtures/db.ts

@@ -37,6 +37,52 @@ export const db = {
     );
   },
 
+  /**
+   * Is this user's account currently PIN-locked?
+   *
+   * Distinguishes the two ways /recover can answer 429 — the per-(IP, name) throttle, which
+   * costs the attacker, and the account lock, which costs the VICTIM. Only the second one is
+   * weaponizable, so a test asserting "a single IP cannot lock a guest out" has to look at the
+   * row, not at the status code.
+   */
+  async isPinLocked(userId: string): Promise<boolean> {
+    return withClient(async (c) => {
+      const r = await c.query<{ locked: boolean }>(
+        `SELECT (pin_locked_until IS NOT NULL AND pin_locked_until > NOW()) AS locked
+           FROM "user" WHERE id = $1`,
+        [userId]
+      );
+      return r.rows[0]?.locked ?? false;
+    });
+  },
+
+  /**
+   * Preload the wrong-PIN streak, standing in for failures that arrived from other IPs.
+   *
+   * The account lock is deliberately out of reach of any single source, so a test that wants to
+   * exercise it has to simulate the distributed case rather than hammer from one address.
+   * `last_failed_pin_at` is set to now so the 15-minute decay does not immediately reset it.
+   */
+  async setFailedPinAttempts(userId: string, attempts: number) {
+    await withClient((c) =>
+      c.query(
+        `UPDATE "user" SET failed_pin_attempts = $2, last_failed_pin_at = NOW() WHERE id = $1`,
+        [userId, attempts]
+      )
+    );
+  },
+
+  /** Current wrong-PIN streak. Decays after 15 minutes — see User::increment_failed_pin. */
+  async failedPinAttempts(userId: string): Promise<number> {
+    return withClient(async (c) => {
+      const r = await c.query<{ failed_pin_attempts: number }>(
+        `SELECT failed_pin_attempts FROM "user" WHERE id = $1`,
+        [userId]
+      );
+      return r.rows[0]?.failed_pin_attempts ?? 0;
+    });
+  },
+
   async expireSession(userId: string) {
     await withClient((c) =>
       c.query(`UPDATE session SET expires_at = NOW() - interval '1 hour' WHERE user_id = $1`, [

e2e/fixtures/media/not-an-image.jpg

@@ -0,0 +1,4 @@
+This is plain text, not an image at all.
+This is plain text, not an image at all.
+This is plain text, not an image at all.
+This is plain text, not an image at all.

e2e/helpers/upload-client.ts

@@ -7,6 +7,7 @@ import { BASE } from './env';
  *
  * Field shape matches [backend/src/handlers/upload.rs]:
  *   - file       (binary; carries filename + content_type in the part headers)
+ *   - client_upload_id (uuid, optional; also sent as the X-Client-Upload-Id header)
  *   - caption    (text, optional)
  *   - hashtags   (CSV text, optional)
  */
@@ -17,6 +18,12 @@ export type UploadOptions = {
   contentType?: string;
   caption?: string;
   hashtags?: string;
+  /**
+   * Idempotency key. Sent BOTH as the `X-Client-Upload-Id` header and as the multipart field,
+   * exactly as the real client does — the header is what lets the server replay a stored upload
+   * before it evaluates the lock/release gate, and the field covers the concurrent case.
+   */
+  clientUploadId?: string;
 };
 
 export async function uploadRaw(
@@ -29,9 +36,12 @@ export async function uploadRaw(
   form.append('file', blob as any, opts.filename ?? 'upload.bin');
   if (opts.caption !== undefined) form.append('caption', opts.caption);
   if (opts.hashtags !== undefined) form.append('hashtags', opts.hashtags);
+  if (opts.clientUploadId !== undefined) form.append('client_upload_id', opts.clientUploadId);
+  const headers: Record<string, string> = { Authorization: `Bearer ${token}` };
+  if (opts.clientUploadId !== undefined) headers['X-Client-Upload-Id'] = opts.clientUploadId;
   return fetch(`${BASE}/api/v1/upload`, {
     method: 'POST',
-    headers: { Authorization: `Bearer ${token}` },
+    headers,
     body: form as any,
   });
 }

e2e/page-objects/account-page.ts

@@ -12,8 +12,11 @@ export class AccountPage {
     this.page = page;
     this.displayName = page.locator('[data-testid="account-display-name"]');
     this.pinDisplay = page.locator('[data-testid="account-pin"]');
-    this.leaveButton = page.getByRole('button', { name: /event verlassen/i });
-    this.leaveConfirmButton = page.getByRole('button', { name: /^abmelden$/i });
+    // Keyed on testids, not visible copy. The button was renamed "Event verlassen" ->
+    // "Abmelden" and these locators silently went stale for a week — the smoke spec that
+    // guards eight of nine UA projects runs through `leaveEvent()` below.
+    this.leaveButton = page.getByTestId('account-logout');
+    this.leaveConfirmButton = page.getByTestId('confirm-sheet-confirm');
     this.privacyNote = page.locator('[data-testid="privacy-note"]');
   }
 

e2e/specs/01-auth/join.spec.ts

@@ -75,7 +75,11 @@ test.describe('Auth — join flow', () => {
     expect(storage.pin).toBe(original.pin);
   });
 
-  test('wrong PIN three times locks the account for 15 minutes', async ({ page, guest, db }) => {
+  test('repeated wrong PINs are throttled without locking the guest out', async ({
+    page,
+    guest,
+    db,
+  }) => {
     const dave = await guest('Dave');
     await clearAllStorage(page);
 
@@ -85,22 +89,33 @@ test.describe('Auth — join flow', () => {
     await join.submit();
     await expect(join.recoveryPinInput).toBeVisible();
 
-    // Wrong PIN (real one is dave.pin)
+    // Wrong PIN (real one is dave.pin), four times — one more than the OLD lock threshold of 3.
+    // Typed digit by digit so the 4th character auto-submits (see pin-auto-submit.spec.ts);
+    // clicking as well would double-submit and race the disabled state of the button.
     const wrong = dave.pin === '0000' ? '1111' : '0000';
-    for (let i = 0; i < 3; i++) {
-      await join.recoveryPinInput.fill(wrong);
-      await join.recoverySubmit.click();
+    for (let i = 0; i < 4; i++) {
+      await join.recoveryPinInput.fill('');
+      await join.recoveryPinInput.pressSequentially(wrong, { delay: 30 });
       await expect(join.recoveryError).toBeVisible();
+      await expect(join.recoverySubmit).toBeEnabled();
     }
 
-    // Fourth attempt should hit the 429 lockout (even with the correct PIN now)
-    await join.recoveryPinInput.fill(dave.pin);
-    await join.recoverySubmit.click();
-    await expect(join.recoveryError).toContainText(/15 Minuten/);
+    // THE PROPERTY THIS TEST EXISTS FOR, stated the way a guest experiences it: Dave can still
+    // get into his own account.
+    //
+    // The lock threshold used to be 3, BELOW the per-(IP, name) ceiling — so these very
+    // keystrokes locked Dave out for 15 minutes, and anyone who can read his name off the feed
+    // could do it to him on repeat. Rate limits are disabled in this environment (see
+    // config `rate_limits_enabled`), so what is exercised here is purely the account-lock tier;
+    // the throttle tier is covered in 07-adversarial/auth-tampering.spec.ts.
+    expect(
+      await db.isPinLocked(dave.userId),
+      'four wrong PINs from one device must not lock a guest out of their own account'
+    ).toBe(false);
 
-    // Sanity: DB row reflects the lock
-    // (The handler sets pin_locked_until directly — verify via API "recover" returning 429)
-    void db; // unused for now, documenting that db.lockUserPin exists if we want shortcut path
+    await join.recoveryPinInput.fill('');
+    await join.recoveryPinInput.pressSequentially(dave.pin, { delay: 30 });
+    await page.waitForURL('**/feed');
   });
 
   test('"Anderen Namen wählen" returns to the normal join form', async ({ page, guest }) => {

e2e/specs/01-auth/rate-limit-shared-nat.spec.ts

@@ -13,6 +13,7 @@
  */
 import { test, expect } from '../../fixtures/test';
 import { BASE } from '../../helpers/env';
+import { seedUpload } from '../../helpers/seed';
 
 test.describe('Rate limits — guests behind a shared NAT', () => {
   test('a dozen guests can all join from one IP, and 429s carry Retry-After', async ({
@@ -100,46 +101,139 @@ test.describe('Rate limits — guests behind a shared NAT', () => {
     expect((await read(b.jwt)).status, 'B must not inherit A’s exhausted bucket').toBe(200);
   });
 
+  test('one guest sweeping /recover cannot lock the venue — or the host — out of PIN recovery', async ({
+    api,
+    adminToken,
+    guest,
+  }) => {
+    // The sharpest version of this file's whole premise. `/recover` has a cross-name failure
+    // budget keyed on IP, meant to catch someone sweeping the public name list. Behind the venue
+    // NAT that budget is SHARED BY THE ENTIRE PARTY, and it used to be checked before the account
+    // was even looked up — so it refused a correct PIN.
+    //
+    // That is the host's problem specifically: hosts are promoted guests whose only credential is
+    // a 4-digit PIN, so /recover is their only way back in after losing a session. A guest posting
+    // invented names could deny it to everyone, indefinitely, for the price of ~2 requests/minute.
+    await api.patchConfig(adminToken, {
+      rate_limits_enabled: 'true',
+      recover_rate_enabled: 'true',
+      // Raise the per-IP VOLUME ceiling out of the way. It defaults to 30/min, and the
+      // cross-name FAILURE budget under test is also 30 — so the sweep below would trip the
+      // volume limiter first and this test would pass for the wrong reason (a 429 that proves
+      // nothing about whether a correct PIN survives a spent failure budget).
+      recover_ip_rate_per_min: '500',
+    });
+
+    const victim = await guest('RecoverVictim');
+
+    // Burn the shared per-IP budget with names that do not exist — the cheapest sweep, and the
+    // one that needs no knowledge of the guest list at all.
+    for (let i = 0; i < 35; i++) {
+      await fetch(`${BASE}/api/v1/recover`, {
+        method: 'POST',
+        headers: { 'Content-Type': 'application/json' },
+        body: JSON.stringify({ display_name: `Ghost${i}-${Date.now()}`, pin: '0000' }),
+      });
+    }
+
+    // A real guest, on that same IP, with their REAL PIN, must still get in.
+    const res = await fetch(`${BASE}/api/v1/recover`, {
+      method: 'POST',
+      headers: { 'Content-Type': 'application/json' },
+      body: JSON.stringify({ display_name: 'RecoverVictim', pin: victim.pin }),
+    });
+    expect(
+      res.status,
+      'a correct PIN must survive a spent cross-name budget — otherwise any guest can lock the ' +
+        'host out of the only login path they have'
+    ).toBe(200);
+
+    // ...and the sweep is still answered as a sweep: a WRONG pin gets 429, not a bare 401, so the
+    // budget still does its job on the traffic it was built for.
+    const wrong = await fetch(`${BASE}/api/v1/recover`, {
+      method: 'POST',
+      headers: { 'Content-Type': 'application/json' },
+      body: JSON.stringify({ display_name: 'RecoverVictim', pin: '0001' }),
+    });
+    expect(wrong.status, 'wrong PINs from an exhausted IP are still throttled').toBe(429);
+  });
+
   test('the export limit is per-user — one guest cannot spend the whole venue’s quota', async ({
     api,
     adminToken,
     guest,
     host,
-    db,
   }) => {
     // The sharpest case: 3 downloads per DAY on an IP key meant the 4th guest to fetch
     // their keepsake was locked out until tomorrow.
-    await db.setExportReleased('e2e-test-event', true);
+    //
+    // A REAL release, not `setExportReleased`. `/export/ticket` pre-validates that the archive is
+    // actually servable and answers 404 without charging the limiter — deliberately, so a guest
+    // never spends one of their three daily downloads on an archive that cannot be served. With
+    // only the released FLAG set and no archive on disk, every mint here 404'd and the per-day
+    // limiter under test was never reached at all.
+    await seedUpload(host.jwt, { caption: 'for the keepsake' });
+    expect(
+      (
+        await fetch(`${BASE}/api/v1/host/gallery/release`, {
+          method: 'POST',
+          headers: { Authorization: `Bearer ${host.jwt}` },
+        })
+      ).status
+    ).toBe(204);
+    await expect
+      .poll(
+        async () => {
+          const s = await (
+            await fetch(`${BASE}/api/v1/export/status`, {
+              headers: { Authorization: `Bearer ${host.jwt}` },
+            })
+          ).json();
+          return s.released === true && s.zip?.status === 'done';
+        },
+        { timeout: 90_000, intervals: [500] }
+      )
+      .toBe(true);
+
     await api.patchConfig(adminToken, {
       rate_limits_enabled: 'true',
       export_rate_enabled: 'true',
       export_rate_per_day: '1',
     });
 
+    // The per-day export limit is charged at the MINT, not at the download: the ticket endpoint is
+    // the authenticated chokepoint, while `/export/zip` authenticates by ticket alone so a resumed
+    // transfer doesn't spend another of the guest's daily allowance. So a throttled guest is
+    // refused with 429 at `/export/ticket` and never reaches the archive.
+    //
+    // This helper used to destructure `ticket` from that 429 body regardless, then fetch with
+    // `ticket=undefined` — turning the 429 under test into an unrelated 401 from the download
+    // endpoint. Surface the mint's refusal instead; that IS the throttle.
     const mintAndFetch = async (jwt: string) => {
-      const res = await fetch(`${BASE}/api/v1/export/ticket`, {
+      const minted = await fetch(`${BASE}/api/v1/export/ticket?kind=zip`, {
         method: 'POST',
         headers: { Authorization: `Bearer ${jwt}` },
       });
-      const { ticket } = await res.json();
+      if (!minted.ok) return minted;
+      const { ticket } = await minted.json();
       return fetch(`${BASE}/api/v1/export/zip?ticket=${encodeURIComponent(ticket)}`);
     };
 
     const a = await guest('ExportFirst');
     const b = await guest('ExportSecond');
 
-    // A spends their single daily allowance. The archive itself may not exist (404) —
-    // what matters is that the limiter admitted the request rather than 429ing it.
-    expect((await mintAndFetch(a.jwt)).status).not.toBe(429);
+    // A spends their single daily allowance — on a real archive, so this is a genuine 200 rather
+    // than merely "not 429", which would have been satisfied by any error at all.
+    expect((await mintAndFetch(a.jwt)).status, 'A’s first download must succeed').toBe(200);
     expect((await mintAndFetch(a.jwt)).status, 'A’s second download is throttled').toBe(429);
 
     // B shares A's IP and must still get their keepsake.
-    expect((await mintAndFetch(b.jwt)).status, 'B must not be locked out by A’s download').not.toBe(
-      429
+    expect((await mintAndFetch(b.jwt)).status, 'B must not be locked out by A’s download').toBe(
+      200
     );
 
     // And the host too, for good measure.
-    expect((await mintAndFetch(host.jwt)).status).not.toBe(429);
+    expect((await mintAndFetch(host.jwt)).status).toBe(200);
   });
 });
 
@@ -202,5 +296,22 @@ test.describe('Rate limits — /recover name cycling', () => {
     const codes: number[] = [];
     for (let i = 0; i < 7; i++) codes.push((await attempt()).status);
     expect(codes.at(-1), 'guessing one name must still be throttled').toBe(429);
+
+    // AND THE OTHER HALF, which is the whole reason this bucket counts failures instead of
+    // requests: the victim's own CORRECT PIN must still let them in, from the same IP, while that
+    // budget is spent. Behind the venue's NAT the "attacker" and the victim are the same address,
+    // so a bucket that refused before verifying handed any guest a fifteen-minute lockout of any
+    // named person — the host included, whose only credential is a 4-digit PIN and whose only way
+    // back after losing a session is this endpoint. Four wrong guesses did it, and four more every
+    // fifteen minutes sustained it indefinitely.
+    const rightful = await fetch(`${BASE}/api/v1/recover`, {
+      method: 'POST',
+      headers: { 'Content-Type': 'application/json' },
+      body: JSON.stringify({ display_name: victim.displayName, pin: victim.pin }),
+    });
+    expect(
+      rightful.status,
+      'a correct PIN must authenticate even when this IP has spent the name budget'
+    ).toBe(200);
   });
 });

e2e/specs/02-upload/burst-queue.spec.ts

@@ -199,9 +199,12 @@ test.describe('Upload — client queue under a burst', () => {
       // a closed tab / killed PWA. The remaining pending items live only in
       // IndexedDB now.
       await page.reload();
-      // The queue only resumes where loadQueue() runs — the /upload route's
-      // onMount. Navigating there is the "reopen the composer" recovery path.
-      await page.goto('/upload');
+      // Deliberately NOT navigating to /upload. Rehydration is now module-level and
+      // auth-gated (upload-queue.ts `hydrateQueue`), so the queue resumes wherever the
+      // reload lands. This assertion is the regression guard for the defect it replaced:
+      // `loadQueue()` used to have a single call site in the whole app — the /upload
+      // route's onMount — so a guest who reloaded anywhere else saw a 0 badge and their
+      // staged photos never left the phone, having already been shown a success.
 
       // (4) RESUME: every file ends up server-side without re-staging anything.
       // `>=` not `===`: the only imperfection possible is a DUPLICATE (an upload

e2e/specs/02-upload/quota.spec.ts

@@ -90,6 +90,14 @@ test.describe('Upload — storage quota enforcement', () => {
     await api.patchConfig(adminToken, {
       quota_enabled: 'true',
       storage_quota_enabled: 'true',
+      // The per-user ceiling divides the disk budget by
+      // `max(active_uploaders, estimated_guest_count, 1)` — the operator's expected headcount is a
+      // FLOOR on the divisor, so the ceiling settles early instead of sliding down all evening as
+      // guests arrive. It is seeded at 100, and `setLimitTo` below solves for a target using the
+      // OBSERVED uploader count, so every limit it aimed for came out 100x too small and every
+      // "within the quota" upload 413'd. Pin it to 1 so the divisor is the count the helper
+      // actually controls; the floor itself is exercised by the Rust unit tests.
+      estimated_guest_count: '1',
     });
   });
 

e2e/specs/02-upload/rejection-visible.spec.ts

@@ -55,13 +55,23 @@ test.describe('Upload — a rejected upload is surfaced', () => {
     await expect(queue, 'the upload queue must be rendered somewhere').toBeVisible({
       timeout: 10_000,
     });
-    // Both the status chip ("Gesperrt") and the server's reason ("Du bist gesperrt.") must
-    // render — the reason is the part that had no UI at all before.
-    await expect(page.getByText('Gesperrt', { exact: true })).toBeVisible();
+    // The server's reason ("Du bist gesperrt.") must render — it had no UI at all before.
     await expect(page.getByText('Du bist gesperrt.')).toBeVisible();
+    // The chip reads "Fehler", NOT "Gesperrt", and that is the fix rather than a regression.
+    // A ban used to come back as a generic `forbidden`, which purged the blob and moved the row
+    // to `blocked` — a terminal state with no retry button. So an unban restored everything
+    // except the photo that was actually in flight, which is the one the guest cares about.
+    // It is now a distinct `user_banned` code that PARKS the row (status `error`, blob kept,
+    // `parkedFor: 'unban'`) and resumes it when `user-shown` arrives.
+    await expect(page.getByText('Gesperrt', { exact: true })).toHaveCount(0);
+    // Positively, not just negatively: a chip that rendered empty would satisfy the line above.
+    await expect(page.getByText('Fehler', { exact: true }).first()).toBeVisible();
 
     // 3. The badge must not read as success. It counted only pending/uploading before, so a
     //    rejected item dropped it to 0 — indistinguishable from a completed upload.
+    //    The row is now parked (`error` + `parkedFor: 'unban'`) rather than terminally `blocked`,
+    //    so it is the parked count that must be exactly one — and critically the blob must still
+    //    be there, since that is what an unban replays.
     await expect
       .poll(
         () =>
@@ -74,7 +84,10 @@ test.describe('Upload — a rejected upload is surfaced', () => {
                 const all = tx.objectStore('queue').getAll();
                 all.onsuccess = () =>
                   resolve(
-                    all.result.filter((r: { status: string }) => r.status === 'blocked').length
+                    all.result.filter(
+                      (r: { status: string; parkedFor?: string; blob?: Blob }) =>
+                        r.status === 'error' && r.parkedFor === 'unban' && !!r.blob
+                    ).length
                   );
                 all.onerror = () => reject(all.error);
               };

e2e/specs/02-upload/retry-after-release.spec.ts

@@ -0,0 +1,95 @@
+/**
+ * A retry of a photo that was ALREADY STORED must return that photo — even after the gallery has
+ * been released.
+ *
+ * The idempotency key arrives as a multipart field as well, and there is a replay for it in the
+ * handler; but a field cannot be read until the body is being parsed, which happens after the
+ * lock/release pre-flight. So the replay was unreachable in precisely the case that matters:
+ *
+ *   the photo commits → the response is lost on the way back (the flaky-wifi failure the key
+ *   exists for) → the host releases the gallery at the end of the night → the phone retries →
+ *   `gallery_released`.
+ *
+ * The guest is then told a photo that is sitting in the gallery was never sent, and the remedy the
+ * client offers — ask the hosts to reopen — bumps `export_epoch`, retiring the whole keepsake and
+ * forcing a rebuild, to re-send something that was never missing.
+ *
+ * The key is now also sent as `X-Client-Upload-Id`, which arrives with the request line.
+ */
+import { test, expect } from '../../fixtures/test';
+import { uploadRaw } from '../../helpers/upload-client';
+import { readFileSync } from 'node:fs';
+import { join } from 'node:path';
+import { BASE } from '../../helpers/env';
+
+const SLUG = 'e2e-test-event';
+
+function sample(): Buffer {
+  return readFileSync(join(process.cwd(), 'fixtures', 'media', 'sample.jpg'));
+}
+
+test.describe('Upload — a retry after release replays instead of refusing', () => {
+  test('the stored photo comes back, and the guest is not told to reopen the gallery', async ({
+    guest,
+    db,
+  }) => {
+    const g = await guest('WiederholerWilli');
+    const key = crypto.randomUUID();
+
+    // 1. The upload commits. In the real failure the guest never sees this response.
+    const first = await uploadRaw(g.jwt, sample(), {
+      filename: 'a.jpg',
+      contentType: 'image/jpeg',
+      clientUploadId: key,
+    });
+    expect(first.status).toBe(201);
+    const original = await first.json();
+
+    // 2. The host releases the gallery — the end-of-event action every queue runs into.
+    await db.setExportReleased(SLUG, true);
+
+    // A DIFFERENT photo must still be refused: this is the control that proves the release is
+    // actually in effect, so the replay below is not just "the gate was open all along".
+    const stranger = await uploadRaw(g.jwt, sample(), {
+      filename: 'b.jpg',
+      contentType: 'image/jpeg',
+      clientUploadId: crypto.randomUUID(),
+    });
+    expect(stranger.status, 'a genuinely new upload must still be refused after release').toBe(403);
+    expect((await stranger.json()).error).toBe('gallery_released');
+
+    // 3. The phone retries the FIRST photo. It is already in the gallery, so the honest answer is
+    //    the stored row — not "the gallery is closed".
+    const retry = await uploadRaw(g.jwt, sample(), {
+      filename: 'a.jpg',
+      contentType: 'image/jpeg',
+      clientUploadId: key,
+    });
+    expect(
+      retry.status,
+      'a retry of an already-stored photo must be replayed, not refused with gallery_released'
+    ).toBe(200);
+    const replayed = await retry.json();
+    expect(replayed.id, 'the replay must return the ORIGINAL upload, not a new one').toBe(
+      original.id
+    );
+
+    // 4. And no second row was created — the whole point of the key.
+    //
+    // Counted by UPLOADER, not by `id`. Filtering on `u.id === original.id` looks like a duplicate
+    // check and is not one: a duplicate row gets a fresh uuid, so it could never match, and the
+    // filter yields exactly 1 whether the gallery holds one copy or five. This guest uploaded once
+    // successfully ('a.jpg'); 'b.jpg' was refused at step 2 and the retry must have replayed rather
+    // than stored, so their total must be exactly one.
+    const feed = await fetch(`${BASE}/api/v1/feed?limit=100`, {
+      headers: { Authorization: `Bearer ${g.jwt}` },
+    });
+    const items: any[] = (await feed.json()).uploads ?? [];
+    const mine = items.filter((u) => u.user_id === g.userId);
+    expect(
+      mine.length,
+      `the retry must not have stored a second copy; got ${mine.map((u) => u.id).join(', ')}`
+    ).toBe(1);
+    expect(mine[0].id, 'and the one that exists is the original').toBe(original.id);
+  });
+});

e2e/specs/04-host/moderation-ui.spec.ts

@@ -108,31 +108,25 @@ test.describe('Host — moderation from the UI', () => {
     ).toBeVisible({ timeout: 10_000 });
   });
 
-  test('a host can remove the comment of a guest they have already banned', async ({
+  test('a host removes a guest comment through the lightbox, via the confirm sheet', async ({
     page,
-    api,
     host,
     guest,
     signIn,
   }) => {
-    // The deadlock this closes. Ban first, exactly as a host would react to abuse: from then
-    // on the author gets 403 on their own delete, so if the host has no removal affordance
-    // the comment is stuck on screen forever.
-    // The photo belongs to an innocent third party — a ban hides the banned user's OWN
-    // uploads, so if the comment sat on their own photo the whole card would vanish and
-    // there would be nothing left to moderate.
-    const victim = await guest('PhotoOwner');
+    // The UI leg of host comment moderation, and the ONLY test that clicks it. The affordance is
+    // rendered solely by LightboxModal (`$isStaff` gates the trash button, and it routes through a
+    // ConfirmSheet rather than deleting on first tap). Without this, `pendingCommentDelete` could
+    // stop being wired to the sheet's onConfirm, or the staff gate could invert, and every
+    // remaining comment-moderation test would still pass — they all call the API directly.
+    //
+    // The author is NOT banned here, deliberately. A ban hides the comment from every reader
+    // including the host (see the next test), so a banned author's comment is unreachable in the
+    // UI by construction and cannot exercise this path.
+    const victim = await guest('LightboxPhotoOwner');
     const uploadId = await seedUpload(victim.jwt);
-    const author = await guest('CommentOffender');
-    const commentId = await seedComment(author.jwt, uploadId, 'unangebrachter Kommentar');
-    await api.banUser(host.jwt, author.userId);
-
-    // Confirm the deadlock really exists — the author cannot retract it themselves.
-    const selfDelete = await fetch(`${BASE}/api/v1/comment/${commentId}`, {
-      method: 'DELETE',
-      headers: { Authorization: `Bearer ${author.jwt}` },
-    });
-    expect(selfDelete.status, 'a banned author is blocked from their own delete').toBe(403);
+    const author = await guest('LightboxCommenter');
+    await seedComment(author.jwt, uploadId, 'bitte entfernen');
 
     await signIn(page, host);
     await page.goto('/feed');
@@ -141,9 +135,88 @@ test.describe('Host — moderation from the UI', () => {
     await expect(card).toBeVisible({ timeout: 15_000 });
     await card.getByRole('button', { name: 'Bild vergrößern' }).click();
 
-    const comment = page.getByText('unangebrachter Kommentar');
+    const comment = page.getByText('bitte entfernen');
     await expect(comment).toBeVisible({ timeout: 10_000 });
+
+    // "entfernen" (host removing someone else's) rather than "löschen" (deleting your own) —
+    // the aria-label distinguishes them and the host must get the host one.
     await page.getByRole('button', { name: 'Kommentar entfernen' }).first().click();
+    // It must NOT delete on first tap; the comment is still there behind the sheet.
+    await expect(comment).toBeVisible();
+    await page.getByTestId('confirm-sheet-confirm').click();
     await expect(comment).toHaveCount(0, { timeout: 10_000 });
   });
+
+  test('banning hides a comment for everyone, and the host can still delete it permanently', async ({
+    page,
+    api,
+    host,
+    guest,
+    signIn,
+  }) => {
+    // This used to assert that the host could remove a banned author's comment FROM THE FEED,
+    // on the premise that a ban leaves the comment "stuck on screen forever". That premise no
+    // longer holds: `Comment::list_for_upload` filters `NOT u.is_banned`, so a ban hides the
+    // comment from every reader — host included — which is why there was nothing on screen to
+    // click. The export and hashtag-count queries already filtered banned authors, so this
+    // brought the live read path in line with them.
+    //
+    // But hiding is derived AT READ TIME, and a ban is reversible. Unbanning a guest — because
+    // the host was hasty, or the guest apologised — would republish the abusive comment. So the
+    // property worth pinning is the pair: the ban hides it immediately, and the host's permanent
+    // removal outlives the ban.
+    // The photo belongs to an innocent third party — a ban hides the banned user's OWN uploads,
+    // so if the comment sat on their own photo the whole card would vanish with it.
+    const victim = await guest('PhotoOwner');
+    const uploadId = await seedUpload(victim.jwt);
+    const author = await guest('CommentOffender');
+    const commentId = await seedComment(author.jwt, uploadId, 'unangebrachter Kommentar');
+
+    const listFor = async (jwt: string) =>
+      (await (
+        await fetch(`${BASE}/api/v1/upload/${uploadId}/comments`, {
+          headers: { Authorization: `Bearer ${jwt}` },
+        })
+      ).json()) as Array<{ id: string }>;
+
+    expect(
+      (await listFor(host.jwt)).map((c) => c.id),
+      'before the ban the comment is live'
+    ).toContain(commentId);
+
+    await api.banUser(host.jwt, author.userId);
+
+    // The author cannot retract it themselves — so removal has to be the host's to make.
+    const selfDelete = await fetch(`${BASE}/api/v1/comment/${commentId}`, {
+      method: 'DELETE',
+      headers: { Authorization: `Bearer ${author.jwt}` },
+    });
+    expect(selfDelete.status, 'a banned author is blocked from their own delete').toBe(403);
+
+    // Gone for the host and the photo's owner alike, with no further action.
+    expect((await listFor(host.jwt)).map((c) => c.id)).not.toContain(commentId);
+    expect((await listFor(victim.jwt)).map((c) => c.id)).not.toContain(commentId);
+
+    // ...and gone from the rendered feed, which is what the host actually looks at.
+    await signIn(page, host);
+    await page.goto('/feed');
+    const card = page.locator('article').filter({ hasText: victim.displayName }).first();
+    await expect(card).toBeVisible({ timeout: 15_000 });
+    await card.getByRole('button', { name: 'Bild vergrößern' }).click();
+    await expect(page.getByText('unangebrachter Kommentar')).toHaveCount(0);
+
+    // The permanent removal the host still needs: soft-delete survives an unban, so letting the
+    // guest back in does not republish what they were banned for.
+    const removed = await fetch(`${BASE}/api/v1/host/comment/${commentId}`, {
+      method: 'DELETE',
+      headers: { Authorization: `Bearer ${host.jwt}` },
+    });
+    expect(removed.status, 'the host can delete a banned author’s comment outright').toBe(204);
+
+    await api.unbanUser(host.jwt, author.userId);
+    expect(
+      (await listFor(host.jwt)).map((c) => c.id),
+      'an unban must not resurrect a comment the host deleted'
+    ).not.toContain(commentId);
+  });
 });

e2e/specs/04-host/role-identity-reset.spec.ts

@@ -39,9 +39,9 @@ test.describe('Role — follows the identity across a same-tab switch', () => {
     await expect(page.getByRole('button', { name: REMOVE })).toBeVisible();
     await page.keyboard.press('Escape');
 
-    // 2. Host leaves, in-app — no reload. This is the path "Event verlassen" takes.
+    // 2. Host leaves, in-app — no reload. This is the path the "Abmelden" button takes.
     await page.goto('/account');
-    await page.getByRole('button', { name: /event verlassen/i }).click();
+    await page.getByTestId('account-logout').click();
     const confirm = page.getByTestId('confirm-sheet-confirm');
     if (await confirm.isVisible().catch(() => false)) await confirm.click();
     await page.waitForURL('**/join', { timeout: 10_000 });

e2e/specs/06-export/archive-permissions.spec.ts

@@ -59,7 +59,7 @@ test.describe('Export — the archives extract to readable files', () => {
       .toBe(true);
 
     for (const kind of ['zip', 'html'] as const) {
-      const ticketRes = await fetch(`${BASE}/api/v1/export/ticket`, {
+      const ticketRes = await fetch(`${BASE}/api/v1/export/ticket?kind=${kind}`, {
         method: 'POST',
         headers: bearer,
       });

e2e/specs/06-export/download-resume-validator.spec.ts

@@ -0,0 +1,85 @@
+/**
+ * A resumed keepsake download must never splice two different archives together.
+ *
+ * The download endpoint re-resolves `export_current` on EVERY request, and a download ticket
+ * outlives several redemptions. So the dangerous sequence was:
+ *
+ *   guest's 500 MB download drops at 500 MB
+ *   → host takes a photo down (epoch bumps, rebuild lands, old generation pruned)
+ *   → client resumes with `Range: bytes=500000000-`
+ *   → server seeks 500 MB into a DIFFERENT file of a different length and streams it
+ *   → the client concatenates the two halves into a structurally corrupt ZIP
+ *
+ * Nothing anywhere logged an error. The archive is the one artifact the whole event exists to
+ * produce, so a partial is now served only against a matching `If-Range` validator.
+ */
+import { test, expect } from '../../fixtures/test';
+import { seedUpload } from '../../helpers/seed';
+import { BASE } from '../../helpers/env';
+
+test.describe('Export — a resume cannot splice two archives', () => {
+  test('partial content requires a matching If-Range; a blind Range restarts instead', async ({
+    host,
+  }) => {
+    test.setTimeout(60_000);
+    const bearer = { Authorization: `Bearer ${host.jwt}` };
+
+    await seedUpload(host.jwt, { caption: 'resumable' });
+
+    const rel = await fetch(`${BASE}/api/v1/host/gallery/release`, {
+      method: 'POST',
+      headers: bearer,
+    });
+    expect(rel.status).toBe(204);
+
+    await expect
+      .poll(
+        async () => {
+          const res = await fetch(`${BASE}/api/v1/export/status`, { headers: bearer });
+          return (await res.json()).zip?.status;
+        },
+        { timeout: 45_000, intervals: [500] }
+      )
+      .toBe('done');
+
+    const mint = async () => {
+      const r = await fetch(`${BASE}/api/v1/export/ticket?kind=zip`, {
+        method: 'POST',
+        headers: bearer,
+      });
+      return (await r.json()).ticket as string;
+    };
+    const url = async () => `${BASE}/api/v1/export/zip?ticket=${encodeURIComponent(await mint())}`;
+
+    // 1. The full download advertises a validator. Without one a browser will not even attempt a
+    //    resume, so this header is what makes the feature work at all — and it is what the
+    //    partial below is checked against.
+    const full = await fetch(await url());
+    expect(full.status).toBe(200);
+    const etag = full.headers.get('etag');
+    expect(etag, 'the archive must carry an ETag or no client can resume safely').toBeTruthy();
+    expect(full.headers.get('accept-ranges')).toBe('bytes');
+
+    // 2. A resume that PROVES continuity gets its partial.
+    const resumed = await fetch(await url(), {
+      headers: { Range: 'bytes=0-99', 'If-Range': etag! },
+    });
+    expect(resumed.status, 'a matching If-Range must still get 206').toBe(206);
+    expect(resumed.headers.get('content-range')).toMatch(/^bytes 0-99\/\d+$/);
+
+    // 3. A resume that cannot prove it — `curl -C -`, `wget -c`, the Android download manager —
+    //    gets the whole file instead of a silently spliced one. Restarting a download is a cost;
+    //    a corrupt keepsake is not recoverable.
+    const blind = await fetch(await url(), { headers: { Range: 'bytes=0-99' } });
+    expect(blind.status, 'a Range with no If-Range must NOT be served as a partial').toBe(200);
+    expect(blind.headers.get('content-range')).toBeNull();
+
+    // 4. And a stale validator — the exact case that used to splice — is refused a partial too.
+    const stale = await fetch(await url(), {
+      headers: { Range: 'bytes=0-99', 'If-Range': '"Gallery.some-other-event.99.zip-123"' },
+    });
+    expect(stale.status, 'an If-Range from a different generation must not get a partial').toBe(
+      200
+    );
+  });
+});

e2e/specs/06-export/download-retired-epoch.spec.ts

@@ -0,0 +1,73 @@
+/**
+ * A ticket minted against a LIVE archive must stop working the moment that archive is retired.
+ *
+ * This is the download-side half of the stale-keepsake guarantee, and it was left unasserted. Both
+ * tests in `export.spec.ts` are named "ZIP download 404s…" but now assert only that the *mint*
+ * refuses — correctly, since `/export/ticket` pre-validates and refusing there spends none of the
+ * guest's three daily downloads. The consequence is that nothing exercised `resolve_export_file`
+ * on the download path itself, so removing that check would not have turned anything red.
+ *
+ * It cannot be tested by minting against an already-dead archive (the mint refuses first), so the
+ * order has to be: real release → mint while healthy → retire → download. Which is also exactly
+ * what a host taking a photo down mid-download does to a ticket already in flight.
+ */
+import { test, expect } from '../../fixtures/test';
+import { seedUpload } from '../../helpers/seed';
+import { BASE } from '../../helpers/env';
+
+const SLUG = 'e2e-test-event';
+
+test.describe('Export — a retired generation cannot be downloaded', () => {
+  test('a ticket minted before the epoch moved is refused at the download, not served stale', async ({
+    host,
+    db,
+  }) => {
+    test.setTimeout(60_000);
+    const bearer = { Authorization: `Bearer ${host.jwt}` };
+
+    await seedUpload(host.jwt, { caption: 'about to go stale' });
+
+    const rel = await fetch(`${BASE}/api/v1/host/gallery/release`, {
+      method: 'POST',
+      headers: bearer,
+    });
+    expect(rel.status).toBe(204);
+
+    await expect
+      .poll(
+        async () => {
+          const res = await fetch(`${BASE}/api/v1/export/status`, { headers: bearer });
+          return (await res.json()).zip?.status;
+        },
+        { timeout: 45_000, intervals: [500] }
+      )
+      .toBe('done');
+
+    // Mint while everything is healthy. This must succeed, or the assertion below proves nothing —
+    // a 404 on a ticket that was never valid would be green for the wrong reason.
+    const mint = await fetch(`${BASE}/api/v1/export/ticket?kind=zip`, {
+      method: 'POST',
+      headers: bearer,
+    });
+    expect(mint.status, 'the ticket must be mintable while the archive is live').toBe(200);
+    const { ticket } = await mint.json();
+    expect(ticket).toBeTruthy();
+
+    // And it genuinely works right now — the positive control for the negative below.
+    const before = await fetch(`${BASE}/api/v1/export/zip?ticket=${encodeURIComponent(ticket)}`);
+    expect(before.status, 'the ticket must serve the archive while it is current').toBe(200);
+
+    // Now retire the generation, which is what a reopen or a post-release takedown does.
+    await db.setExportZipReady(SLUG, false);
+
+    // The SAME ticket — still unexpired, still under its redemption cap, session still valid —
+    // must now be refused. Readiness is derived at READ time from `job.epoch = event.export_epoch`,
+    // so this is the check that stops a superseded archive being served to a guest who happened to
+    // hold a ticket when the host moderated.
+    const after = await fetch(`${BASE}/api/v1/export/zip?ticket=${encodeURIComponent(ticket)}`);
+    expect(
+      after.status,
+      'a retired archive must 404 on the download path, not be served from a still-valid ticket'
+    ).toBe(404);
+  });
+});

e2e/specs/06-export/exif-orientation.spec.ts

@@ -80,7 +80,7 @@ test.describe('Export — EXIF orientation in the keepsake', () => {
       )
       .toBe('done');
 
-    const ticketRes = await fetch(`${BASE}/api/v1/export/ticket`, {
+    const ticketRes = await fetch(`${BASE}/api/v1/export/ticket?kind=html`, {
       method: 'POST',
       headers: bearer,
     });

e2e/specs/06-export/export-leak.spec.ts

@@ -51,7 +51,7 @@ test.describe('Export — no public leak (CR2)', () => {
 
     // …but IS retrievable via the gated single-use ticket endpoint. This proves the
     // 404 above means "not public", not merely "no file was produced".
-    const ticketRes = await fetch(`${BASE}/api/v1/export/ticket`, {
+    const ticketRes = await fetch(`${BASE}/api/v1/export/ticket?kind=zip`, {
       method: 'POST',
       headers: bearer,
     });

e2e/specs/06-export/export-video.spec.ts

@@ -53,7 +53,7 @@ test.describe('Export — video streaming (P4)', () => {
       .toBe('done');
 
     // Download Memories.zip via the gated single-use ticket.
-    const ticketRes = await fetch(`${BASE}/api/v1/export/ticket`, {
+    const ticketRes = await fetch(`${BASE}/api/v1/export/ticket?kind=html`, {
       method: 'POST',
       headers: bearer,
     });

e2e/specs/06-export/export.spec.ts

@@ -88,12 +88,14 @@ test.describe('Export — release and download', () => {
 
   // Browser downloads stream to disk via a top-level navigation, so the download
   // endpoint authenticates with a single-use ticket (no Bearer header).
-  async function mintTicket(jwt: string): Promise<string> {
-    const res = await fetch(base + '/api/v1/export/ticket', {
+  /** The raw mint response — `/export/ticket` pre-validates that the archive is actually
+   *  servable, so an unavailable keepsake is refused HERE rather than after charging one of the
+   *  guest's three daily downloads. */
+  async function mintTicketResponse(jwt: string, kind: 'zip' | 'html' = 'zip') {
+    return fetch(base + `/api/v1/export/ticket?kind=${kind}`, {
       method: 'POST',
       headers: { Authorization: `Bearer ${jwt}` },
     });
-    return (await res.json()).ticket;
   }
 
   test('ZIP download 404s for a `done` job at a RETIRED epoch', async ({ guest, db }) => {
@@ -105,10 +107,12 @@ test.describe('Export — release and download', () => {
     await db.setExportReleased(SLUG, true);
     await db.fakeExportJob(SLUG, 'zip', 'done');
     await db.setExportZipReady(SLUG, false); // retire the job to a dead epoch
-    const ticket = await mintTicket(g.jwt);
 
-    const res = await fetch(base + '/api/v1/export/zip?ticket=' + encodeURIComponent(ticket));
-    expect(res.status).toBe(404);
+    // Refused at the MINT. This used to be asserted one step later, on the download, because the
+    // spec did not send `kind` and so skipped the pre-check entirely — now that a ticket is bound
+    // to an archive the kind is always known, and the guest is told the truth before a daily
+    // download is spent on an archive that cannot be served.
+    expect((await mintTicketResponse(g.jwt)).status).toBe(404);
   });
 
   test('ZIP download 404s when the job is current but the file is missing on disk', async ({
@@ -122,9 +126,9 @@ test.describe('Export — release and download', () => {
     await db.setExportReleased(SLUG, true);
     await db.fakeExportJob(SLUG, 'zip', 'done');
     await db.setExportZipReady(SLUG, true);
-    const ticket = await mintTicket(g.jwt);
 
-    const res = await fetch(base + '/api/v1/export/zip?ticket=' + encodeURIComponent(ticket));
-    expect(res.status).toBe(404);
+    // Same as above: the pre-check resolves the file on disk, so a `done` job whose archive is
+    // missing is refused at the mint rather than 404ing mid-download.
+    expect((await mintTicketResponse(g.jwt)).status).toBe(404);
   });
 });

e2e/specs/06-export/ticket-refused-mint.spec.ts

@@ -0,0 +1,99 @@
+/**
+ * A mint that is REFUSED must not cost the guest the download they already have running.
+ *
+ * `/export/ticket` issues the ticket before charging the daily limit, deliberately: charging first
+ * meant a store-capacity 503 — a server-side condition the guest cannot see or cause — still spent
+ * one of their three daily downloads, with no refund path.
+ *
+ * But the ticket a refused mint created was left in the store, and it occupies a slot there for six
+ * hours, because a download ticket is long-lived so a multi-GB transfer can resume with `Range`.
+ * The per-session cap is four tickets of the same kind, so:
+ *
+ *   the 1.4 GB transfer starts on ticket A → the progress bar looks stuck on venue wifi → the guest
+ *   taps "Herunterladen" again → mints 2 and 3 succeed, 4 and 5 are refused with 429 but STILL mint
+ *   → the fifth evicts the oldest download ticket for the session, which is A
+ *   → the transfer drops, resumes with `Range`, and 401s
+ *   → re-minting is impossible: they are at the daily limit
+ *
+ * The keepsake is then unreachable until the next day, for tapping a button that appeared to do
+ * nothing. A refused mint now discards its own ticket.
+ */
+import { test, expect } from '../../fixtures/test';
+import { seedUpload } from '../../helpers/seed';
+import { BASE } from '../../helpers/env';
+
+test.describe('Export — a refused mint does not evict a running download', () => {
+  test('the first ticket still works after the daily limit has refused later mints', async ({
+    host,
+    api,
+    adminToken,
+  }) => {
+    test.setTimeout(60_000);
+    const bearer = { Authorization: `Bearer ${host.jwt}` };
+
+    await seedUpload(host.jwt, { caption: 'keepsake' });
+
+    const rel = await fetch(`${BASE}/api/v1/host/gallery/release`, {
+      method: 'POST',
+      headers: bearer,
+    });
+    expect(rel.status).toBe(204);
+
+    await expect
+      .poll(
+        async () => {
+          const res = await fetch(`${BASE}/api/v1/export/status`, { headers: bearer });
+          return (await res.json()).zip?.status;
+        },
+        { timeout: 45_000, intervals: [500] }
+      )
+      .toBe('done');
+
+    // The e2e reseed forces every limiter OFF, so without this the daily limit never bites and the
+    // whole test passes vacuously. `export_rate_per_day` is seeded at 3 (migration 005).
+    await api.patchConfig(adminToken, {
+      rate_limits_enabled: 'true',
+      export_rate_enabled: 'true',
+    });
+
+    try {
+      const mint = async () =>
+        fetch(`${BASE}/api/v1/export/ticket?kind=zip`, { method: 'POST', headers: bearer });
+
+      // 1. The ticket the "running" transfer holds.
+      const first = await mint();
+      expect(first.status).toBe(200);
+      const ticketA = (await first.json()).ticket as string;
+      expect(ticketA).toBeTruthy();
+
+      // 2. Two more legitimate mints, exhausting the day's three.
+      for (const i of [2, 3]) {
+        const r = await mint();
+        expect(r.status, `mint ${i} is still within the daily allowance`).toBe(200);
+      }
+
+      // 3. Two refused mints — the impatient taps. This is the CONTROL: if these came back 200 the
+      //    limit was not in force and step 4 would prove nothing.
+      for (const i of [4, 5]) {
+        const r = await mint();
+        expect(r.status, `mint ${i} must be refused — the daily limit is spent`).toBe(429);
+      }
+
+      // 4. The running transfer resumes. Its ticket must have survived the refused mints: it is the
+      //    guest's only remaining way to reach the keepsake today.
+      const resumed = await fetch(
+        `${BASE}/api/v1/export/zip?ticket=${encodeURIComponent(ticketA)}`
+      );
+      expect(
+        resumed.status,
+        'a refused mint must not evict the ticket an in-flight download is holding'
+      ).toBe(200);
+      await resumed.arrayBuffer();
+    } finally {
+      await api.patchConfig(adminToken, {
+        rate_limits_enabled: 'false',
+        export_rate_enabled: 'false',
+      });
+    }
+  });
+});

e2e/specs/06-export/viewer-caption-injection.spec.ts

@@ -69,7 +69,7 @@ test.describe('Export — a caption cannot brick the keepsake viewer', () => {
       )
       .toBe('done');
 
-    const ticketRes = await fetch(`${BASE}/api/v1/export/ticket`, {
+    const ticketRes = await fetch(`${BASE}/api/v1/export/ticket?kind=html`, {
       method: 'POST',
       headers: bearer,
     });

e2e/specs/06-export/viewer-no-broken-tiles.spec.ts

@@ -61,7 +61,7 @@ test.describe('Export — the keepsake has no broken tiles', () => {
       )
       .toBe('done');
 
-    const ticketRes = await fetch(`${BASE}/api/v1/export/ticket`, {
+    const ticketRes = await fetch(`${BASE}/api/v1/export/ticket?kind=html`, {
       method: 'POST',
       headers: bearer,
     });
@@ -98,8 +98,18 @@ test.describe('Export — the keepsake has no broken tiles', () => {
         ).toBe(true);
       }
 
-      // THE assertion: nothing rendered broken. Give the images a moment to settle first.
       await page.waitForLoadState('networkidle');
+
+      // POSITIVE anchor FIRST, and it is load-bearing. The "nothing is broken" assertion below
+      // filters `img` elements, so a viewer that rendered NOTHING AT ALL yields `[]` and passes —
+      // this file, whose whole subject is that the images resolve, was the one spec that would
+      // have stayed green through a total viewer regression. Everything else it checks
+      // (`__EXPORT_DATA__`, the archive entries) comes from the backend and the classic head
+      // script, neither of which needs the viewer bundle to have run at all.
+      const rendered = await page.locator('img').count();
+      expect(rendered, 'the keepsake viewer rendered no images at all').toBeGreaterThan(0);
+
+      // THE assertion: nothing rendered broken.
       const broken = await page.evaluate(() =>
         Array.from(document.querySelectorAll('img'))
           .filter((i) => i.complete && i.naturalWidth === 0)

e2e/specs/07-adversarial/auth-tampering.spec.ts

@@ -89,15 +89,43 @@ test.describe('Adversarial — JWT', () => {
 });
 
 test.describe('Adversarial — PIN brute-force', () => {
-  test('sequential wrong-PIN attempts lock the account after 3 attempts', async ({ guest }) => {
+  /**
+   * The PIN defence has two tiers, and telling them apart is the whole point of these tests:
+   *
+   *   - the per-(IP, name) throttle, which refuses the ATTACKER; and
+   *   - the account lock, which refuses the VICTIM — the only tier that can be weaponised.
+   *
+   * Both answer 429, so the status code alone proves nothing. The regression these guard is that
+   * the lock threshold used to sit BELOW the throttle ceiling (3 vs 5), so three requests from a
+   * single IP locked any guest whose display name is readable off the feed, every 15 minutes,
+   * indefinitely. The tier meant to protect a guest was the cheapest way to attack them.
+   */
+  // Restore the default. The first test turns the limiter on for the whole instance, and leaving
+  // it on would throttle unrelated specs sharing this stack. Runs even on failure.
+  test.afterEach(async ({ api, adminToken }) => {
+    await api.patchConfig(adminToken, { rate_limits_enabled: 'false' });
+  });
+
+  test('a single IP is throttled without ever locking the victim out', async ({
+    api,
+    adminToken,
+    guest,
+    db,
+  }) => {
+    // Rate limits are off by default in this environment, and the throttle IS the tier under
+    // test — without it the run would silently assert only half the property.
+    await api.patchConfig(adminToken, {
+      rate_limits_enabled: 'true',
+      recover_rate_enabled: 'true',
+    });
+
     const g = await guest('Brute');
     const wrong = g.pin === '0000' ? '1111' : '0000';
 
-    // Do them serially so the failed_pin_attempts counter increments
-    // monotonically. Parallel attempts race and may never accumulate to 3 in
-    // the current handler implementation — that's a separate finding.
+    // Serially, so the failed-PIN counter increments monotonically. Well past the per-(IP, name)
+    // ceiling of 4, and past the OLD lock threshold of 3.
     const statuses: number[] = [];
-    for (let i = 0; i < 4; i++) {
+    for (let i = 0; i < 8; i++) {
       const r = await fetch(`${BASE}/api/v1/recover`, {
         method: 'POST',
         headers: { 'Content-Type': 'application/json' },
@@ -105,26 +133,56 @@ test.describe('Adversarial — PIN brute-force', () => {
       });
       statuses.push(r.status);
     }
-    // First three are 401, fourth (or later) is 429.
-    expect(statuses.filter((s) => s === 200)).toHaveLength(0);
-    expect(statuses.some((s) => s === 429)).toBe(true);
+    expect(
+      statuses.filter((s) => s === 200),
+      'a wrong PIN must never authenticate'
+    ).toHaveLength(0);
+    expect(
+      statuses.some((s) => s === 429),
+      'the attacker must be throttled'
+    ).toBe(true);
 
-    // Now even the correct PIN fails until lockout expires.
+    expect(
+      await db.isPinLocked(g.userId),
+      'one IP must not be able to lock a guest out of their own account'
+    ).toBe(false);
+  });
+
+  test('the account still locks once the failure count is reached', async ({ guest, db }) => {
+    const g = await guest('BruteDistributed');
+    const wrong = g.pin === '0000' ? '1111' : '0000';
+
+    // The per-IP throttle is what a single source hits first, so drive the counter the way a
+    // DISTRIBUTED attacker would — the tier this test covers is the last line against exactly
+    // that, and it must not have been removed while fixing the weaponisation above.
+    await db.setFailedPinAttempts(g.userId, 11);
+
+    const r = await fetch(`${BASE}/api/v1/recover`, {
+      method: 'POST',
+      headers: { 'Content-Type': 'application/json', 'X-Forwarded-For': '203.0.113.77' },
+      body: JSON.stringify({ display_name: g.displayName, pin: wrong }),
+    });
+    expect(r.status).toBe(401);
+
+    expect(
+      await db.isPinLocked(g.userId),
+      'a distributed guesser must still trip the account lock'
+    ).toBe(true);
+
+    // And the lock holds even against the correct PIN, which is what makes it a real control.
     const correct = await fetch(`${BASE}/api/v1/recover`, {
       method: 'POST',
-      headers: { 'Content-Type': 'application/json' },
+      headers: { 'Content-Type': 'application/json', 'X-Forwarded-For': '203.0.113.78' },
       body: JSON.stringify({ display_name: g.displayName, pin: g.pin }),
     });
     expect(correct.status).toBe(429);
   });
 
-  test('parallel wrong-PIN attempts still lock the account (counter is not lost to the race)', async ({
-    guest,
-  }) => {
+  test('the wrong-PIN streak is atomic under concurrency', async ({ guest, db }) => {
     const g = await guest('BruteParallel');
     const wrong = g.pin === '0000' ? '1111' : '0000';
 
-    const attempts = await Promise.all(
+    await Promise.all(
       Array.from({ length: 10 }, () =>
         fetch(`${BASE}/api/v1/recover`, {
           method: 'POST',
@@ -133,29 +191,14 @@ test.describe('Adversarial — PIN brute-force', () => {
         })
       )
     );
-    const statuses = attempts.map((r) => r.status);
-    expect(
-      statuses.filter((s) => s === 200),
-      'a wrong PIN must never authenticate'
-    ).toHaveLength(0);
 
-    // The in-flight requests all read `pin_locked_until` before any of them wrote it, so
-    // *which* of the 10 come back 429 is genuinely racy and can't be asserted. What is NOT
-    // racy — and is the property this test exists to guard — is the state left behind:
-    // `failed_pin_attempts` is incremented with an atomic `SET x = x + 1 ... RETURNING`, so
-    // 10 wrong PINs must push it past the 3-strike threshold and leave the account locked.
-    //
-    // We prove that with a follow-up request using the CORRECT pin: it must be refused with
-    // 429 (locked), not 200. Delete the lockout counter and this line goes 200 → red.
-    const correct = await fetch(`${BASE}/api/v1/recover`, {
-      method: 'POST',
-      headers: { 'Content-Type': 'application/json' },
-      body: JSON.stringify({ display_name: g.displayName, pin: g.pin }),
-    });
+    // How many of the 10 get past the throttle is genuinely racy and cannot be asserted. What is
+    // NOT racy is that every one that DID reach the handler incremented the counter — it is a
+    // single `SET x = x + 1 ... RETURNING`, so none of them can be lost to the race.
     expect(
-      correct.status,
-      'after 10 wrong PINs the account must be locked, even for the right PIN'
-    ).toBe(429);
+      await db.failedPinAttempts(g.userId),
+      'concurrent wrong PINs must all be counted'
+    ).toBeGreaterThan(1);
   });
 });
 
@@ -216,29 +259,46 @@ test.describe('Adversarial — admin password brute-force', () => {
     expect(statuses.some((s) => s === 200)).toBe(false);
   });
 
-  test('once throttled, even the CORRECT admin password is refused (it is an IP limit, not a password check)', async ({
-    api,
-    adminToken,
-  }) => {
-    // This is the assertion that makes the test non-vacuous: it isolates the RATE LIMIT from the
-    // password logic. If the throttle were removed, the correct password would return 200 here.
+  test('the FAILURE bucket never refuses a correct admin password', async ({ api, adminToken }) => {
+    // This asserted the OPPOSITE — that a throttled IP is refused even with the right password —
+    // and that contract was deliberately removed, because at a real event it is a denial of
+    // service against the operator. Every guest at the venue shares one public IP behind NAT and
+    // `/admin/login` is a publicly linkable page, so a single tight IP bucket charged before the
+    // password check meant any phone in the room could keep it full and the host, on that same IP,
+    // could never spend a slot. The escape hatch was circular: `admin_login_rate_enabled` is only
+    // reachable through `PATCH /admin/config`, which needs the session being blocked.
+    //
+    // So the tight bucket is now charged ONLY on a wrong password. Brute force stays bounded (every
+    // guess costs a slot, per IP) while a valid credential is always honoured. A separate, generous
+    // per-IP ceiling bounds bcrypt CPU regardless of correctness — see ADMIN_LOGIN_CPU_CEILING.
     await api.patchConfig(adminToken, {
       rate_limits_enabled: 'true',
       admin_login_rate_enabled: 'true',
     });
 
-    // Exhaust the window with wrong passwords until throttled.
+    // Exhaust the failure window with wrong passwords until throttled.
     let throttled = false;
     for (let i = 0; i < 10 && !throttled; i++) {
       throttled = (await tryLogin('wrong-' + i)).status === 429;
     }
-    expect(throttled, 'the IP should be throttled after a burst').toBe(true);
+    expect(throttled, 'a burst of WRONG passwords from one IP must be rate-limited').toBe(true);
 
-    // The right password, while throttled, must STILL be refused — the limiter is checked before
-    // the bcrypt verify, so a valid credential does not buy a way around a brute-force lockout.
+    // The limiter is real (above) and yet the operator gets in. That combination is the whole
+    // property: THIS bucket keys on failure, not on the IP alone.
+    //
+    // Deliberately not claimed here: "guests cannot lock the host out". They still can — the
+    // separate CPU ceiling below refuses any password, correct included. This test stays under
+    // that ceiling on purpose so the two are not conflated.
     expect(
       (await tryLogin(ADMIN_PASSWORD)).status,
-      'a throttled IP is refused even with the correct password'
+      'a burst of wrong guesses must not cost the operator their own admin panel'
+    ).toBe(200);
+
+    // And guessing is still throttled AFTER a successful login — a correct password must not
+    // refill or bypass the attacker's bucket.
+    expect(
+      (await tryLogin('wrong-again')).status,
+      'a successful login must not clear the failure bucket for wrong guesses'
     ).toBe(429);
   });
 

e2e/specs/07-adversarial/ddos.spec.ts

@@ -101,10 +101,26 @@ test.describe('Adversarial — small-scale abuse', () => {
       })
     );
     const responses = await Promise.all(requests);
-    // All accepted (or some rate-limited — both fine).
-    for (const r of responses) {
-      expect([200, 429]).toContain(r.status);
+    // One session may hold only MAX_TICKETS_PER_SESSION (4) live tickets — enough for a guest with
+    // a couple of tabs open, deliberately not enough for a reconnect loop to accumulate. Minting a
+    // 5th evicts the oldest, so most of these ten tickets are already dead when their stream opens
+    // and the server answers 401. That IS the cap working; this used to allow only [200, 429] and
+    // so failed on the very defence it was written to exercise.
+    //
+    // What must hold is that the server sheds the flood deliberately rather than falling over: no
+    // 5xx, and the surviving tickets still get their stream.
+    const statuses = responses.map((r) => r.status);
+    for (const s of statuses) {
+      expect([200, 401, 429], `unexpected status from the stream flood: ${statuses}`).toContain(s);
     }
+    // EXACTLY four, not merely "at least one". The cap is a known constant, so asserting a
+    // bound this loose would still pass if it were tightened to 1 (a guest with two tabs loses
+    // their live feed) or if eviction kept the OLDEST ticket instead of the newest (every
+    // reconnect throws away the ticket it just minted — a permanently dead feed for that guest).
+    expect(
+      statuses.filter((s) => s === 200).length,
+      `exactly MAX_TICKETS_PER_SESSION streams should survive, got: ${statuses}`
+    ).toBe(4);
     // Tear them all down so the next test doesn't see leaked connections.
     controllers.forEach((c) => c.abort());
 

e2e/specs/08-browser-chaos/storage-purge.spec.ts

@@ -81,7 +81,16 @@ test.describe('Browser chaos — storage purge', () => {
 
     await clearAllStorage(page);
 
-    await page.goto('/admin');
+    // The `goto` is deliberately allowed to REJECT. What is under test is a race the app wins:
+    // the admin layout redirects to /admin/login the moment it sees no JWT, and a redirect that
+    // lands first makes this navigation either "interrupted by another navigation" or
+    // ERR_ABORTED. Both mean the app did exactly the right thing, quickly — so failing on them
+    // made the test red precisely when the behaviour was correct, roughly one run in three, and
+    // it read as a regression in whatever change happened to be in flight. (`waitUntil: 'commit'`
+    // narrows the window but does not close it; an abort can beat commit too.)
+    //
+    // `waitForURL` below is the assertion, and it is unaffected by how the navigation ended.
+    await page.goto('/admin').catch(() => {});
     // The admin layout should bounce them to /admin/login when the JWT is gone.
     await page.waitForURL(/admin\/login|join/, { timeout: 5_000 });
   });
@@ -94,6 +103,12 @@ test.describe('Browser chaos — storage purge', () => {
     const g = await guest('PurgePin');
     await signIn(page, g);
     await page.goto('/account');
+    // Let the page finish settling before touching its execution context. `goto` resolves at
+    // `load`, but the layout's boot hydration is still in flight and any navigation it triggers
+    // destroys the context out from under the `page.evaluate` below — which surfaced as an
+    // intermittent "Execution context was destroyed" that has nothing to do with what this test
+    // asserts.
+    await page.waitForLoadState('networkidle');
 
     // Simulate clearAuth() — clears JWT + user_id but keeps PIN so the user can recover.
     await page.evaluate(() => {

e2e/specs/09-mobile/sheet-escape.spec.ts

@@ -44,7 +44,7 @@ test.describe('Mobile a11y — sheets dismiss on Escape', () => {
     // click reaches a live handler. See the test above.
     await expect(page.getByText(g.displayName)).toBeVisible();
 
-    await page.getByRole('button', { name: /Event verlassen/i }).click();
+    await page.getByTestId('account-logout').click();
     const sheet = page.getByTestId('confirm-sheet');
     await expect(sheet).toBeVisible();