5 Commits
Author SHA1 Message Date
Dmitry VerkhoturovandGitHub 3286f028e3 Document what each browser actually does with cross-domain auth (#2222)
Measured on real domains over real certificates, Remark42 on one registrable
domain and the host page on another, with a control cookie behind every
blocked column so a run that blocks nothing cannot report a pass.

Three results the manual did not carry. Safari blocks third-party cookies out
of the box, so AUTH_SAME_SITE=none on its own has already stopped working
there, which makes the old recipe broken today and not deprecated later.
Firefox reaches a working session by a weaker route than Chrome and Safari do:
it accepts the server's attribute-less cookie, and because that cookie is
HttpOnly the browser then forbids the widget's script from replacing it, so the
session rides on an ordinary unpartitioned third-party cookie even with the
header flag on. And Firefox's block-all setting discards partitioned cookies
too, so no configuration survives it.

Two parameter descriptions were wrong in ways that matter here. AUTH_SAME_SITE
default emits no SameSite attribute rather than Lax, which is precisely what
lets the widget's own cookie land on Chrome and Safari. And AUTH_TTL_COOKIE
does not govern the cookie that carries the session under the header flag,
since the frontend hardcodes 200h to mirror the default.
2026-08-23 18:03:49 -05:00
UmputunandGitHub 5f439cf1d5 Qualify what works off-domain, and fix two typos beside it (#2221)
The opening summary said Telegram, Email and anonymous auth "would work
everywhere". That holds only with AUTH_SEND_JWT_HEADER set, and the widget's
own cookie is Secure, so the path is HTTPS-only and bounded by ALLOWED_HOSTS
besides. The sentence now states those conditions. What happens without the
flag is two separate things, whether sign-in succeeds in the frame and whether
it survives a reload, and the body below already separates them.

The other two are older: a stray backtick after "work on any domain", and
"expect" for "except" in a bullet whose neighbour already says except.

Related to #2218
2026-08-23 17:51:47 -05:00
Dmitry VerkhoturovandGitHub 7de51ad2ef Document what actually keeps a cross-domain reader signed in (#2218)
* Document what actually keeps a cross-domain reader signed in

The separate-domain manual tells operators to set ALLOWED_HOSTS and
AUTH_SAME_SITE and says authorisation then works anywhere. That stopped being
true as browsers began blocking third-party cookies: the server-set auth
cookies carry no Partitioned attribute, so a browser enforcing the block drops
them whatever their SameSite value. What survives is AUTH_SEND_JWT_HEADER,
where the token returns in a header and the widget writes its own partitioned
cookie from inside the frame, and the manual never mentioned it. It now does,
with the XSS trade-off and a pointer to the parameter page, and it says plainly
that this rescues Email, Telegram and anonymous but not oAuth.

The parameter page's own mitigation list was left wrong by #2197. It promised
SameSite=Strict cookies and a __Host- prefix on HTTPS; authCookieOptions drops
the prefix entirely and uses SameSite=None; Secure; Partitioned whenever the
widget is embedded on another domain, which is the case the flag exists for.

* Say that the JWT header is sent in addition to the cookies, not instead

Both the flag's own help and the parameter table said the header replaces the
server-set cookie. Service.Set does neither: it writes the header and then
falls through to set both cookies, with a comment saying the cookies are needed
because headers do not survive the OAuth redirect. An operator reading either
description would expect the server to stop setting cookies once the flag is
on, and would misjudge what the flag changes about their exposure.

* Correct three details in the cross-domain documentation

The link to the parameter page used Zola's @/ syntax, which Hugo emits
literally as a relative href since there is no render-link hook. It was the
only such link under site/content; the other manuals use the relative form and
this now does too.

The CHIPS description claimed Partitioned makes the cookie unreadable from any
other page the browser visits. The partition key is the top-level site, so a
different site gets a separate cookie while pages and subdomains under the same
site share it. Overstating isolation on the page an operator reads to weigh
risk is the wrong direction to be wrong in.

And Chrome does not block third-party cookies by default: Google's April 2025
position keeps ordinary Chrome on user choice and names Incognito as the mode
that blocks. Naming Safari, Chrome Incognito and browsers configured to block
them says the same thing and stays true.

* Drop AUTH_SAME_SITE from the recommended cross-domain recipe

Measured rather than reasoned, because it reverses guidance this page has
carried for years. With only the remark42-https service taken back to the
default, both reload cases pass for anonymous and email, under a permissive
browser and under one enforcing partitioning.

The cookie jar after an anonymous sign-in says why. With the setting there are
four cookies: the server's unpartitioned JWT and XSRF-TOKEN, and the widget's
own partitioned pair. Without it there are two, the widget's pair alone, and
the session behaves identically. So the setting is doing something real, which
is what makes the passing run meaningful, and what it does is add an
unpartitioned HttpOnly JWT delivered as a third-party cookie to every listed
domain wherever the browser still permits that. Nothing needs it.

It stays documented for the configuration that does need it, which is one
without AUTH_SEND_JWT_HEADER, where the server's cookies are the only ones
there are.

One prediction the experiment falsified: the attribute case was expected to
fail on the default server-set pair. It passes, because a cross-site Set-Cookie
lacking SameSite=None is refused outright, so that pair is absent from the jar
instead of present with the wrong attribute. The manual now says so.
2026-08-23 15:49:06 -05:00
Dmitry VerkhoturovandGitHub a5b2fe3cfc Consolidate the frontend toolchain onto babel, and ship one bundle (#2178)
Four upgrades that were finished but never merged, the compiler collapse
they enable, and the dependency sweep that follows. Direct
devDependencies go from 78 to 60 and dependencies from 10 to 9.

Three were doing the same job: `ts-loader` stripped types in webpack,
`babel-loader` did everything else, and `@swc/jest` repeated both for the
tests with its own copy of the JSX settings. Babel is the one that
survives, because the `data-testid` stripper has no equivalent elsewhere.

`ts-loader` ran `transpileOnly: true`, so it only stripped types, which
`@babel/preset-typescript` does; `fork-ts-checker-webpack-plugin` was
already what type-checks. Jest runs `babel-jest` against the same
`.babelrc.js` the bundle uses, passed as `configFile` because a
file-relative babel config does not reach the `node_modules` packages in
`transformIgnorePatterns`, and `jest.config.mjs` is plain ESM because a
`.ts` config is compiled against `tsconfig.json`, whose
`verbatimModuleSyntax` rejects ESM syntax in a file the package has not
declared as a module.

That removes `ts-loader`, `@swc/jest` and `@swc/core`. The last was
pinned to 1.2.205 from 2022 with no way forward, because newer builds
emit non-configurable exports and break `jest.spyOn` across 13 suites.

Babel compiles a file at a time with no type information, so it cannot
tell a type-only import from a real one and keeps the module. One line,
`import { boundActions } from './connected-comment'`, pulled the whole
redux store into `last-comments.mjs` and doubled it. `verbatimModuleSyntax`
and `@typescript-eslint/consistent-type-imports` mark them properly; the
statement has to be a separate `import type`, since verbatim semantics
keep an inline `import { type X }` and load the module anyway.

The legacy and modern compilations produced the same bytes. Both read the
same browserslist query, `defaults, not IE 11, not samsung 12` resolves to
chrome 109 and up, and nothing in the source needs transforming for that
set, so 28 of the 29 output pairs were byte-identical.

That made the module/nomodule switch worse than redundant: it served the
`.js` file to browsers with no ES module support, and those files carried
`??`, `?.` and class fields, so the fallback handed its own audience a
syntax error. There is now one bundle, always loaded as a module, in the
five templates and in the seven `site/` documents integrators copy from.
A production build emits 29 files rather than 58, in about 3 seconds
rather than 17. Two of those documents did not work at all beforehand:
the SPA snippet could not parse, and the subdomain example had an
unterminated string.

`@babel/core` 8 declares `^22.18 || >=24.11` and `size-limit` 13 declares
`^22.18 || ^24 || >=26`, so 20 was below the floor of two things installed
here; pnpm only warns, which is why every build passed. All seven places
the frontend pins it move together. `site/` is untouched: it builds with
yarn and eleventy and installs neither.

`eslint --print-config` before and after gives 173 active rules on an
application file against 172, and 172 on a spec file and a plain JS file
against 171. What is gone is three `flowtype` rules with no Flow here,
`no-new-object` and `no-new-symbol` whose upstream replacements are on,
`react/forbid-foreign-prop-types` with no propTypes anywhere, and, on TS
only, `no-useless-constructor`, whose typescript-eslint version is on at
error. `@babel/core` is pinned to 8 across the workspace because
`@jest/transform` and `istanbul-lib-instrument` depend on 7 outright; a
second scoped override holds `eslint-config-preact` on 7, since its
`@babel/eslint-parser` loads babel 7 syntax plugins.

`fast-async` rewrote every async function into nodent promise chains,
calls babel's `transform` synchronously, which babel 8 removed, and every
browser in the target list runs async natively. `prefresh` blew its stack
on `createContext` under babel 8 with no newer release to move to, which
compiled `intl.tsx` and `store/context.tsx` into throwing stubs, so
`pnpm dev:app` could not run the widget at all. `core-js` is not injected
now that `useBuiltIns` is gone, `postcss-custom-properties` was reached
directly although nothing declared it and resolved only through pnpm's
private hoist directory, and `cssnano` ran in both postcss chains although
`CssMinimizerPlugin` already uses it.

`pnpm lint`, `pnpm test` and `pnpm build` now work from `frontend/` as
`CLAUDE.md` and the contributing guide have always said they do; the
workspace root defined none of them.
2026-08-21 19:13:25 -05:00
Dmitry VerkhoturovandGitHub 4c9ef37cf1 Move the site from eleventy to hugo (#2179)
* Move the site from eleventy to hugo

The site is built by a single static binary. No node, no package manager,
no lockfile, and the toolchain it needed is gone: eleventy, tailwind,
postcss, markdown-it and its three plugins, date-fns, prism, npm-run-all,
cross-env and html-minifier-terser.

Hugo covers most of that itself. Chroma replaces prism, goldmark replaces
markdown-it, `--minify` replaces html-minifier-terser, and fingerprinted
asset URLs replace the cache-busting `version` shortcode that stamped
`Date.now()` into every stylesheet link.

`assets/styles.css` is hand-written, since tailwind was the only reason
left to keep a package manager. The palette and the light and dark values
are custom properties at the top of the file; the minified stylesheet is
15 kB against tailwind's 46 kB, and the whole build 1.0 MB against 1.2 MB.
It was matched to the old one by comparing computed styles rather than by
eye, which is how the heading weights and line heights, the list marker
colour, and the home page heading and sign-off were caught: the last of
those had been carried by tailwind utilities written into the markup.

The `::: note` container becomes a `note` shortcode taking the emoji to
show. Its closer needs a blank line after it, because a shortcode is not
a block rule the way `markdown-it-container` was, and without one goldmark
keeps the callout inside the open paragraph. The `overflow-x` wrapper
around tables and the heading anchors are goldmark render hooks.

Syntax guessing is off. Chroma detected a systemd unit file as gdscript
and a chat transcript as mysql, and colouring a snippet as the wrong
language is worse than not colouring it. The two chroma themes are scoped
to opposite sides of the theme switch rather than layered, because they do
not declare the same properties on the same tokens: github gives Error a
background github-dark never overrides, and styles Punctuation where
github-dark leaves it alone. Layered, either leaves a light value applying
on a dark page.

`[frontmatter] lastmod` resolves through git, then front matter, then file
modification time. Without that chain `.Lastmod` falls back to `.Date`,
which is zero when a page carries no date, and every page reads
`Jan 01, 0001`. `enableGitInfo` is off because the image build context is
`site/` alone, where hugo fails hard rather than degrading;
`HUGO_ENABLEGITINFO=true` gives real per-page commit dates locally.

Three fixes fall out of the move rather than being sought:

- `/docs/` redirected nowhere. The stub was a markdown file whose
  permalink was a template expression while `markdownTemplateEngine` was
  false, so it never rendered and the URL 404'd. It is an alias now
- `/docs/contributing/` pointed at `/docs/contributing/development/`,
  which has never existed. It points at the backend page
- the 404 page was built to `/404/` and nothing served it. Hugo writes it
  to `/404.html` and reproxy is told to use it

The mobile documentation menu is a checkbox and label. `visibility: hidden`
on the checkbox, which is what the old `invisible` utility set, takes it
out of the tab order, and a label is not focusable on its own, so the menu
could not be opened from the keyboard at all. The checkbox is clipped
rather than hidden, and its label shows a focus ring.

Content is unchanged. Every code block on every page is byte-identical to
the eleventy output; the only prose difference is that two example values,
`mysite.com` and a quoted `https://demo.remark42.com`, are no longer
turned into links, goldmark's linkify being narrower than markdown-it's.

`backend/README.md` and `frontend/apps/remark42/README.md` are symlinks
into the docs tree and follow it to `site/content/`, as does the path
`release.yml` watches. `frontend/CLAUDE.md` described the site as a node
and yarn project in four places.

* Keep the heading anchors markdown-it generated

Goldmark strips punctuation markdown-it kept, so 22 headings holding a
dot, slash, apostrophe, question mark, bracket or em dash would take a new
id and any link into one from outside the repository would stop resolving.

Those headings carry their previous id as well, as an empty target emitted
ahead of the heading by the render hook, from a map of content path to old
anchor in `data/anchor_aliases.json`. The map was built by matching
heading text between the two builds rather than by position, so it
survives a heading being added or moved.

The hook rather than markdown, because goldmark's `{#id}` attribute syntax
cannot express these: it accepts dots, apostrophes and em dashes but
treats a slash, a question mark, a bracket or a percent sign as heading
text, which is 11 of the 22. The ids are stored percent-decoded, since a
browser decodes a fragment before matching, so `#children%E2%80%99s-privacy`
finds `children’s-privacy`. Verified by navigating to the awkward ones
against the built image and measuring where the page settles: each lands
112px down, which is the header offset the target carries.

Three pages carried no title, so the docs template rendered an empty `<h1>`
above the heading their markdown already had. They take their titles from
that heading text, so neither the wording nor its anchor changes, and the
template's `<h1>` carries an id. One in-page link pointed at an anchor
goldmark no longer generates.

The heading render hook emits no permalink anchor. The one it replaced was
an empty `<a href>` with `pointer-events: none`, so it could not be
clicked, and its only job was a `::before` spacer that `scroll-margin-top`
on the heading already does. Being an `<a href>` it stayed in the tab
order, so every heading was an unexplained keyboard stop: eight on the
installation page alone. Fragment navigation still lands 112px down, clear
of the fixed header.

* Harden the site image build and its CI

The architecture guard could not fire. `${TARGETARCH:-amd64}` defaulted
before the `unsupported arch` branch was reachable, so a build without
buildkit put an amd64 hugo inside an aarch64 image and ran only because
Docker Desktop emulates it. Reproduced with `--build-arg TARGETARCH=`:
`/etc/apk/arch` reported aarch64 and `hugo version` linux/amd64. An empty
value is an error now. `Dockerfile.dev` had the same defect and no smoke
step to catch it, so it would have failed at `compose up`.

The hugo tarball is verified against the release's own `checksums.txt`,
and the match is asserted present before it is used: piping grep straight
into `sha256sum -c` left the guarantee resting on what the checker does
with empty input. Busybox exits 1 there, so it did fail closed, but
nothing in the line said so. Verified against a checksums file that does
not list the tarball: the build stops before the install.

Hugo exits 0 on an empty content tree and emits a two-page shell, which
would have been copied, pushed and deployed. The build asserts the home
page and a docs page exist.

`site/**` pull requests were never built. The only building job is gated
on `github.ref == 'refs/heads/master'`, so on a pull request every job
skipped and rendered in the checks list the same way a pass does, and the
image was first built on the run that also deploys it. A `validate` job
builds it with `push: false`, needing no secrets so it works on a fork.

`.github/dependabot.yml` watched `/site` for npm packages that are gone.
That entry is a docker one, which tracks the alpine base. It does not
track the hugo pin and cannot: the docker ecosystem reads `FROM`
references, and `ARG HUGO_VERSION` is a bare string in a download URL, so
that one is a manual bump and `site/README.md` says so.

`Dockerfile.dev` carries a `COPY`, so the dev image works without the
compose bind mount, and compose runs as the invoking user rather than
root, which on linux left root-owned `public/` and `resources/` in the
checkout.

Recorded in the backlog: `master` has `required_status_checks` off with an
empty check list, so the new job surfaces a red X and does not block a
merge. That is a settings decision rather than a code fix.
2026-08-21 18:05:56 -05:00