fix(core): don't treat transient setup-probe DB errors as a fresh install by scottbuscemi · Pull Request #1345 · emdash-cms/emdash

scottbuscemi · 2026-06-04T20:01:14Z

What does this PR do?

Fixes logged-in and anonymous visitors being redirected to /_emdash/admin/setup when viewing ordinary frontend pages (e.g. a category page) on a fully set-up site.

The anonymous fast-path "setup probe" in packages/core/src/astro/middleware.ts queries _emdash_migrations to detect a fresh, un-migrated database. Its catch block treated every error as "fresh install":

} catch {
    // Table doesn't exist -> fresh database, redirect to setup
    return context.redirect("/_emdash/admin/setup");
}

On a deployed site the migrations table exists, but that probe query can still fail transiently — D1 "Network connection lost"/D1_ERROR, a read replica being briefly unavailable, a query timeout, a cold-start race before the binding is ready, or a locked SQLite DB. Any of those was misread as "no database yet" and bounced a real visitor to the setup wizard.

This is the only place in the codebase that redirected on any DB error. Everywhere else (middleware/setup.ts, typegen.ts, query.ts, loader.ts, handlers, taxonomies, bylines) uses the dialect-aware isMissingTableError() helper to distinguish a genuinely-missing table from other failures.

Changes:

The probe now redirects only when isMissingTableError(error) is true. Other errors are logged (non-fatal) and the page renders normally.
The setupVerified flag is moved from a module-scoped let onto a globalThis Symbol.for("emdash:setup-verified") singleton, matching the pattern in request-cache.ts. Per AGENTS.md, a plain module-scoped let gets duplicated across SSR chunks, which made the probe re-run far more often than intended — and each re-run was another chance to hit the bug.

(Logged-in users normally skip this path, but fall into it when the network-backed session lookup transiently returns null, which is why the report noted logged-in users specifically.)

Closes #

Type of change

Checklist

I have read CONTRIBUTING.md
pnpm typecheck passes (core typechecks clean after building registry-client; the pre-existing @emdash-cms/registry-client/env resolution failures on main are unrelated to this change)
pnpm lint passes (pnpm lint:json reports 0 diagnostics)
pnpm test passes (or targeted tests for my change) — ran tests/unit/astro/ + tests/unit/middleware/, 96 passed
pnpm format has been run
I have added/updated tests for my changes (if applicable)
User-visible strings in the admin UI are wrapped for translation (if applicable) — n/a, no admin UI strings; the redirect target is a fixed route path
I have added a changeset (if this PR changes a published package)
New features link to an approved Discussion — n/a, bug fix

AI-generated code disclosure

This PR includes AI-generated code — model/tool: Claude Opus 4.8 (opencode)

Screenshots / test output

Regression test added to tests/unit/astro/middleware-prerender.test.ts:

"redirects to setup when the migrations table is genuinely missing" — passes
"does NOT redirect to setup on a transient DB error (regression)" — fails against the old bare-catch, passes with the fix

Verified the transient-error test fails on the pre-fix code (bare catch redirects) and passes after the fix, while the missing-table test passes in both — confirming the test is specific to the bug.

 Test Files  12 passed (12)
      Tests  96 passed (96)

The anonymous fast-path setup probe in the Astro middleware queries `_emdash_migrations` to detect a fresh, un-migrated database. Its catch block treated every error as "fresh install" and redirected to `/_emdash/admin/setup`, so a transient DB failure (D1 connection loss, replica unavailable, query timeout, cold-start race, locked SQLite) wrongly bounced real visitors on a set-up site to the setup wizard. Only redirect when the error is a genuinely-missing table (via the shared `isMissingTableError` helper); otherwise log and render the page. Also move the `setupVerified` flag onto a globalThis Symbol.for singleton so it isn't duplicated across SSR chunks — a plain module-scoped `let` became multiple variables, making the probe re-run far more often than intended (and each re-run was another chance to hit the bug). Adds regression tests: a missing migrations table still redirects to setup; a transient probe error renders the page and does not redirect.

changeset-bot · 2026-06-04T20:01:20Z

🦋 Changeset detected

Latest commit: 4ae2f2d

The changes in this PR will be included in the next version bump.

This PR includes changesets to release 14 packages

Name	Type
emdash	Patch
@emdash-cms/cloudflare	Patch
@emdash-cms/sandbox-workerd	Patch
@emdash-cms/fixture-perf-site	Patch
@emdash-cms/perf-demo-site	Patch
@emdash-cms/cache-demo-site	Patch
@emdash-cms/admin	Patch
@emdash-cms/auth	Patch
@emdash-cms/blocks	Patch
@emdash-cms/gutenberg-to-portable-text	Patch
@emdash-cms/x402	Patch
create-emdash	Patch
@emdash-cms/auth-atproto	Patch
@emdash-cms/plugin-embeds	Patch

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cloudflare-workers-and-pages · 2026-06-04T20:03:20Z

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cloudflare-workers-and-pages · 2026-06-04T20:06:26Z

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emdashbot

This PR correctly fixes a real bug where transient database errors in the anonymous setup probe were being misread as "fresh install," causing visitors on fully-set-up sites to be redirected to /_emdash/admin/setup.

Approach: Sound. The author correctly identified that the bare catch block was the only place in the codebase not using the dialect-aware isMissingTableError() helper to distinguish a missing table from other failures. Limiting the redirect to genuinely-missing-table errors, and logging everything else as non-fatal, is the right behavior for a production site.

Global singleton: Moving setupVerified from a module-scoped let onto a globalThis Symbol.for singleton matches the established pattern in request-cache.ts, settings/index.ts, and other core modules. This avoids Vite SSR chunk duplication that was making the probe re-run more often than intended. The implementation (setupFlagStore[SETUP_VERIFIED_KEY] === true) is safe and consistent with siblings.

Tests: The regression test in middleware-prerender.test.ts is focused — it confirms that a missing table still redirects and that a D1 connection-lost error no longer does. The resetSetupVerified() helper in beforeEach correctly resets the global singleton between test runs.

Conventions: I checked for AGENTS.md violations — no new SQL queries (no injection risk), no content-table queries (no locale-filter concern), no admin UI strings (no Lingui or RTL issue). A changeset is present.

Code quality: The diff is focused and minimal. I found nothing worth flagging. LGTM.

github-actions Bot added review/needs-review No maintainer or bot review yet area/core size/M labels Jun 4, 2026

emdashbot Bot approved these changes Jun 4, 2026

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github-actions Bot added review/approved Approved; no new commits since and removed review/needs-review No maintainer or bot review yet labels Jun 4, 2026

ascorbic approved these changes Jun 5, 2026

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ascorbic merged commit 80f2925 into main Jun 5, 2026
48 of 49 checks passed

ascorbic deleted the fix/setup-probe-transient-error branch June 5, 2026 10:22

emdashbot Bot mentioned this pull request Jun 5, 2026

ci: release #1354

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fix(core): don't treat transient setup-probe DB errors as a fresh install#1345

fix(core): don't treat transient setup-probe DB errors as a fresh install#1345
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scottbuscemi commented Jun 4, 2026

What does this PR do?

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