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Design Records

Product requirements, compatibility decisions, and implementation contracts for the SILO fork.

Design records capture the reasoning behind SILO maintenance decisions: the problem being solved, the compatibility boundary, rejected alternatives, implementation requirements, and the evidence required before release.

1 - CopyObject Checksums Must Cover Logical Object Bytes

This is the final design and verification record for SILO issue #63.

Decision: compute every server-generated CopyObject checksum over the logical destination object before compression or encryption, retain that reader separately from the storage reader, and refuse to publish the object if the expected checksum is unavailable at EOF.
Implementation: PR #66, merged as commit c0e715977.
Related repairs: transform-state preservation #67 / PR #69, and CopyObjectResult checksum fields #68 / PR #70.
Upstream client: minio-go PR #2295.
Release boundary: these changes are merged into source, but no statement on this page implies that a particular release tag, RPM, DEB, APK, archive, or container image already contains them.

Decision in one sentence

A checksum is not merely a digest produced somewhere along the write path. It is a function of a precisely defined byte sequence. For S3 CopyObject, that sequence is the logical object returned to a client, not SILO’s compressed or encrypted representation of that object.

The accepted pipeline is therefore:

logical source bytes
    -> server-side S3 checksum
    -> optional S2 compression
    -> storage-stream hash and ETag delegation
    -> optional server-side encryption
    -> erasure coding
    -> EOF checksum validation
    -> atomic data and metadata commit

Everything else in this design follows from preserving that ordering.

Background: one object, several integrity domains

SILO handles several values that are all casually called a checksum, but they protect different contracts.

Value Byte domain Purpose
Additional S3 checksum Logical object bytes Client-visible end-to-end integrity through HEAD, GET, attributes, and copy responses
ETag Logical content in the ordinary single-part, unencrypted-compatible case; otherwise protocol-specific Object identity and conditional request compatibility
Storage reader accounting Compressed or encrypted write stream Carry size, stream, and ETag delegation through the write path
Erasure bitrot checksum Stored erasure shards Detect corruption of SILO’s physical representation
Encryption authentication Ciphertext framing and keys Detect tampering and authenticate encrypted storage
Compression index S2 storage stream offsets Support efficient reads of large compressed objects

These values may be computed during one streaming write, but they are not interchangeable. In particular, a storage-stream checksum can be perfectly valid while being completely wrong as an S3 object checksum.

Amazon S3 documents that CopyObject produces a destination checksum and that a multipart source copied in one operation becomes a full-object checksum. The algorithm may be selected by the request, inherited from the source, or defaulted when the source has no checksum. The result describes the copied object, not a provider’s private storage encoding.

How #46 exposed #63

The bug was found while repairing multipart checksum compatibility in #46.

That work established three internal rules for UploadPart and UploadPartCopy:

  1. Keep a dedicated reader for logical plaintext checksum calculation.
  2. Install a server fallback hasher in the handler, before compression or encryption can consume the stream.
  3. Let the object layer validate and persist the completed result, rather than deciding the byte domain there.

The resulting private field, checksumReader, deliberately remained separate from the active Reader and the historical rawReader. WithEncryption may replace the active storage reader, but must not replace the logical checksum reader.

Reviewing ordinary CopyObject after #46 showed the same conceptual hazard in a different handler. The code created newS2CompressReader, wrapped its output as srcInfo.Reader, and only later called AddServerSideChecksumHasher on that reader. At that point the name srcInfo.Reader concealed an important fact: it represented the storage stream, not necessarily the S3 object stream.

#46 intentionally did not change CopyObject. Keeping #63 separate meant that the P0 multipart repair could be reviewed, released, or rolled back without bundling another API and another test matrix.

Failure model

The old ordering

The relevant old flow was:

GetObject logical reader
    -> start S2 compressor goroutine
    -> wrap compressed output in hash.Reader
    -> later choose destination checksum algorithm
    -> attach server-side hasher to compressed hash.Reader
    -> persist that result as the object's S3 checksum

The checksum did not cover missing or corrupt data from the storage writer’s point of view. It covered the wrong, complete stream.

Static hypothesis versus dynamic result

The original issue described two possible failures:

  • the hasher could cover compressed data;
  • the compression goroutine could consume logical input before the hasher was attached, causing a prefix to be missed.

The API reproduction confirmed the first and did not confirm the second. The hasher was attached to the compressor’s output reader, so it observed the complete transformed stream from that reader’s beginning. Bytes consumed on the compressor’s input side were not bytes consumed from the output-side hash reader.

This distinction matters. The root cause is not an intermittent race that merely needs a lock. It is a deterministic data-domain error.

Concrete reproduction

For the permanent test payload, the unfixed tree stored:

CRC32 of S2 storage bytes: hN7ytg==
CRC32 of logical bytes:    1WxbLg==

The stored value was a legitimate CRC32, which is why ordinary metadata validation did not catch it. Only an independent checksum of the downloaded logical object exposed the mismatch.

CRC32, CRC32C, CRC64NVME, SHA1, and SHA256 all failed for compressed destinations. When compression and destination encryption were combined, S2 used randomized padding for the encrypted stream. The checksum was then not only wrong but nondeterministic across identical logical copies.

Requirements and non-goals

The repair had to satisfy all of the following:

  1. Correct byte domain. Server-generated checksums cover exactly the logical destination bytes.
  2. Single pass. CopyObject must remain streaming; no second object read.
  3. Transformation independence. Compression and encryption cannot change the logical checksum.
  4. Client compatibility. Existing client-supplied checksum validation and algorithm selection remain unchanged.
  5. Multipart-source correctness. A composite checksum from a multipart source is recomputed as a full-object checksum for the single-operation destination.
  6. Default behavior. A source without a checksum still gives the destination the configured S3-compatible default, CRC64NVME in this baseline.
  7. ETag preservation. Moving the checksum reader cannot silently change the CopyObject ETag contract.
  8. Fail closed. If an internal caller asks for a server checksum but fails to produce it, SILO must not return success with missing integrity metadata.
  9. Format compatibility. Persist results in the existing checksum metadata representation.
  10. Small rollback boundary. Do not mix response-schema, federation, or metadata-only transform bugs into the core placement fix.

The following were explicit non-goals for #63:

  • adding new checksum algorithms;
  • changing the on-disk checksum encoding;
  • scanning or backfilling old objects;
  • fixing legacy federated UploadPartCopy;
  • adding CopyObjectResult XML fields;
  • changing MCLI or Console behavior.

Alternatives considered

Option Attraction Why it was rejected
Attach the hasher in the object layer One centralized fallback for every caller The object layer receives a storage-oriented reader after handler transformations. It cannot reliably reconstruct the logical byte domain, and attachment may be too late
Hash the S2 output Minimal code movement This is the demonstrated bug: it protects storage bytes, not S3 object bytes
Hash ciphertext Convenient after encryption setup Encryption IVs, framing, and authentication make the value provider-specific and often nondeterministic
Read the completed object a second time Easy to reason about Doubles I/O, breaks the single-pass streaming goal, delays responses, and is expensive for large or tiered objects
Buffer the whole object before transforming it Simple sequencing CopyObject supports large objects; whole-object buffering creates unacceptable memory and latency costs
Always copy the source checksum value Avoids computation Fails when the request selects another algorithm, when the source has no checksum, and when a multipart composite source must become a full-object checksum
Add a second CopyObject-only checksum abstraction Keeps code local Duplicates the invariant already created by #46 and gives future paths two subtly different contracts
Reuse the logical checksumReader before transformations One streaming pass, existing metadata format, common invariant Selected

The selected option is not simply the one with the fewest changed lines. It is the smallest option that makes the byte-domain contract explicit and reusable.

Final design

1. Construct the logical reader first

CopyObject obtains a source GetObjectReader that already yields the logical source object: stored compression has been decoded and source encryption has been removed using the authorized source options.

SILO wraps that stream in a logical hash.Reader with the known actual object size. For compressed destinations this also tightens the old unlimited length into a hard logical-size bound before compression.

At this point no compression goroutine has started.

2. Choose the destination checksum policy

The existing policy remains intact:

  1. If the request supplies x-amz-checksum-algorithm, compute that base algorithm.
  2. Otherwise inspect the source checksum.
  3. A source full-object checksum can be retained because the logical bytes are unchanged.
  4. A source multipart composite checksum must be recomputed with its base algorithm because CopyObject creates a single-operation full object.
  5. A source without checksum metadata receives the default CRC64NVME checksum.

Only branches that require computation call AddServerSideChecksumHasher.

3. Start compression after hasher installation

For a compressed destination, the logical reader is captured as checksumReader and passed as the input to newS2CompressReader. The compressor therefore cannot obtain one byte without that byte first passing through the logical hasher.

The compressed output receives its own storage hash.Reader. A new PutObjReader is built around that storage reader, then setChecksumReader restores the logical reader reference.

PutObjReader.Reader          = compressed or encrypted storage stream
PutObjReader.rawReader       = stream used for the historical ETag path
PutObjReader.checksumReader  = logical plaintext stream

No exported method or new package-level abstraction is required.

4. Preserve the separation through encryption

Destination encryption wraps the compressed storage reader and may replace PutObjReader.Reader through WithEncryption. It does not modify checksumReader.

The destination checksum is therefore identical for:

  • plaintext storage;
  • compressed storage;
  • encrypted storage;
  • compressed and encrypted storage.

If checksum metadata itself must be protected, the existing metadata encryption function encrypts the serialized checksum after calculation. That protects metadata at rest without changing what bytes were hashed.

5. Finalize at EOF and fail closed

The internal hash reader sets ServerSideChecksumResult only after its source returns EOF. In the compressed path, io.Copy drains the logical checksum reader before the compressor closes the pipe. The object writer cannot observe the compressed stream’s EOF before the logical reader has finalized its checksum.

The object layer then validates:

  • the result is present;
  • the result is structurally valid;
  • its base algorithm matches WantServerSideChecksumType.

Failure logs an internal invariant violation and aborts the write. Deferred erasure cleanup removes temporary shards before unique metadata is published. Returning HTTP 200 without a requested or default checksum would be a silent correctness failure and is therefore not an acceptable fallback.

6. Persist without a format change

The validated checksum is appended to the same FileInfo.Checksum representation already used by existing objects. Encrypted destinations reuse the existing metadata encrypter. HEAD, GET, GetObjectAttributes, replication metadata, and later readers continue to consume the same representation.

Why the design is correct

Byte-domain proof

Every byte accepted by the compressor is read from checksumReader. The hasher is installed before the compressor is constructed. Therefore the digest input is exactly the compressor’s logical input, not its output.

Completeness proof

The compressor closes its output only after draining the logical input and closing the S2 writer. The object writer must read that output to EOF before completing the write. The checksum result is finalized on the logical input EOF, which precedes the observable storage EOF.

This creates a natural happens-before relationship through the pipe; no separate mutex or out-of-band signal is necessary. Targeted race tests and repeated shuffled executions confirm the implementation.

ETag proof

The compressed reader is wrapped with the logical reader as its ETag delegate. Moving the S3 checksum hasher does not move ETag calculation onto S2 bytes. Permanent tests independently compare the final ETag with the logical object’s MD5 in the compatible plaintext cases.

Storage-integrity proof

The storage-side reader remains after compression for physical stream accounting and ETag delegation, while the erasure layer still writes its own bitrot protection for stored shards. Neither mechanism is replaced by the S3 logical checksum, and the S3 checksum is not presented as shard integrity.

Encryption proof

The encryption reader consumes the storage stream after logical checksum calculation. Random encryption or padding cannot influence the checksum. SSE-C and SSE-S3 tests cover encrypted-only and compressed-plus-encrypted destinations, and an encrypted source verifies that source decryption also precedes hashing.

Compatibility proof

For an uncompressed, unencrypted destination, NewPutObjReader initializes checksumReader and rawReader to the same reader, so the accessor change is behaviorally neutral.

The patch introduced no new server API and no new storage marker. The production portion was limited to three files and about 30 additions / 15 deletions. The larger test file reflects the compatibility matrix, not runtime complexity.

Adversarial findings kept in separate fixes

The review intentionally tried to break the solution around its boundaries. It found two real inherited defects, both independent of the checksum placement.

Metadata-only transform state: #67

CopyObject derived destination compression metadata from current configuration before it knew whether object bytes would be rewritten. A metadata/reference-only self-copy could therefore add a compression marker to uncompressed data or remove the marker from compressed data.

Versioned copies exposed a deeper edge: an unresolved source VersionID could make a metadata-only operation fall through to PutObject. Versioned SSE-C key rotation then wrote plaintext while preserving encryption metadata, producing sio: unsupported version.

PR #69 fixed this separately by:

  • preserving source transform metadata for metadata/reference-only updates;
  • changing compression markers only when bytes are actually rewritten;
  • passing the resolved source version into versioned reference copies.

Keeping this separate preserved #63’s rollback boundary and prevented an apparently simple three-line guard from hiding the versioned corruption case.

CopyObjectResult checksum response: #68

After #63, the object stored and returned the correct checksum through HEAD and GET, but the successful CopyObject XML still contained only LastModified and ETag.

PR #70 added the five checksum fields supported by this server plus ChecksumType, populated them from the committed destination ObjectInfo, and registered the exported fields in the compatibility baseline.

Active minio-go already had checksum fields on UploadInfo but discarded CopyObjectResult values. Upstream PR #2295 connects those existing fields without adding public API.

Verification evidence

The permanent suite covers:

  • CRC32, CRC32C, CRC64NVME, SHA1, and SHA256;
  • explicit algorithms and default CRC64NVME;
  • plain, compressed, encrypted-only, and compressed-plus-encrypted destinations;
  • SSE-C and SSE-S3;
  • encrypted and compressed sources;
  • unversioned and versioned buckets;
  • source full-object checksum preservation;
  • multipart composite source conversion to a full-object checksum;
  • in-place self-copy;
  • empty data, exactly 4096 bytes, and 4097 bytes;
  • the S2 compression-index path above 8 MiB;
  • logical ETag and byte-for-byte body round trip;
  • HEAD and GET with checksum mode enabled;
  • missing and mismatched internal checksum results;
  • absence of a published object after invariant failure.

Validation gates included:

focused API tests
focused race tests
10 shuffled race iterations with GOMAXPROCS=8
full go test ./cmd
CGO-disabled kqueue,dev cmd tests
go vet
golangci-lint
compatibility and rebrand guards
cross compilation
vulnerability analysis
release-pipeline snapshot, SBOM, provenance, package, and image validation

The regression is red on the unfixed baseline and green on the repaired tree.

Operational and rollout considerations

Mixed server versions

The metadata representation is unchanged, so an older node can read an object written with the corrected checksum. However, behavior during a rolling upgrade is request-node dependent: a CopyObject handled by an old node can still write the wrong value while a new node writes the correct value.

Upgrade all API-serving nodes before treating CopyObject checksum behavior as stable. A successful local build or one upgraded node is not sufficient release evidence.

Existing objects

The fix affects future copies. SILO does not automatically scan or rewrite historical checksum metadata because doing so would read and rewrite user data outside an explicit S3 operation.

An object is a candidate for verification when:

  • it was created by CopyObject on an affected server;
  • destination compression matched its key or content type;
  • it carries an additional S3 checksum.

Retrieve the checksum with checksum mode enabled, download the logical object, independently compute the named algorithm, and compare the Base64 value.

For remediation, prefer copying to a new key with an explicit destination checksum algorithm and verifying the result before replacing the original. An in-place copy with x-amz-metadata-directive: REPLACE also rewrites the object, but replaces the current value in an unversioned bucket and creates a new version in a versioned bucket. Review retention, legal hold, tags, user metadata, encryption keys, capacity, replication, and rollback requirements before a bulk rewrite.

Release versus merge

The server fixes and this design record are merged and the document is deployed. That does not identify the first released binary containing the changes. Release notes must name the eventual tag and independently verify archives, packages, container manifests, checksums, signatures, SBOMs, and provenance.

Cross-repository impact

Repository Decision
pgsty/silo Owns the handler, reader chain, object-layer invariant, response schema, and tests
minio/minio Archived upstream retains the original defect; no normal upstream server PR is possible
minio/minio-go PR #2295 returns CopyObject checksum fields through existing UploadInfo fields; maintainer merge pending
pgsty/silo-pkg No change: it does not own ObjectInfo, PutObjReader, or CopyObjectHandler
pgsty/mc No change: requesting –checksum deliberately disables server-side copy and uses download/upload
pgsty/silo-console No direct change: it passes CopyObject through minio-go and does not interpret the checksum result
silo.pgsty.com Owns this bilingual design, release boundary, and historical-object guidance

Legacy federated UploadPartCopy checksum recovery remains issue #64. It is a different API, response contract, and deployment topology and must not be presented as solved by this work.

Final outcome

The repair is small because it does not invent a new checksum system. It makes an existing distinction explicit:

S3 checksum reader = logical object contract
storage reader     = physical representation contract

Once those responsibilities are separated, compression, encryption, ETag, erasure coding, and metadata persistence can remain streaming and independently testable. That is why the solution fixes the demonstrated bug without trading it for extra I/O, unbounded buffering, a new disk format, or a second internal abstraction.

2 - DSN-Only Database Notifications: A Compatibility Boundary for #53

This document is the product requirements and design record for SILO issue #53. It records the accepted compatibility boundary for PostgreSQL and MySQL bucket-notification targets before implementation begins.

Decision

SILO will retain PostgreSQL and MySQL notification targets, but support exactly one current configuration form for each:

  • PostgreSQL requires a complete connection_string.
  • MySQL requires a complete dsn_string.

The old five-field form — host, port, username, password, and database — remains unsupported by the current KV configuration system. SILO will not re-register those keys and will not synthesize a DSN from them during legacy migration.

The legacy migration contract is deliberately narrow:

Legacy target Result
Disabled Ignore it; no target is emitted.
Enabled with a non-empty connection_string or dsn_string Migrate only the canonical connection-string key and the other registered target settings.
Enabled with only discrete connection fields Reject migration and abort server startup before the new configuration is activated, with an actionable error that names the subsystem and target but never prints a credential.

This is a configuration-boundary decision, not removal of the database-notification feature.

Status: accepted design; implementation pending.
Owner: SILO server repository.
Tracking: pgsty/silo#53.
Target: the next SILO patch release after implementation and verification.

Context

SILO inherited two generations of database-notification configuration from MinIO.

The pre-KV JSON configuration could describe a database connection either as a complete string or as five fields:

host
port
username
password
database

The current KV configuration exposes only the driver-native form:

notify_postgres  -> connection_string
notify_mysql     -> dsn_string

This direction is not new. MinIO deprecated the five discrete fields in RELEASE.2020-04-10T03-34-42Z and instructed operators to move to connection_string or dsn_string. SILO’s current help tables, environment-variable documentation, and examples already present the complete string as the supported interface.

SILO is a new community fork with an explicit migration step. Its compatibility contract prioritizes the S3 and Admin APIs, current MINIO_* settings, on-disk data, and current KV configuration. It does not need to perpetuate every pre-2020 configuration spelling when a supported canonical form has existed for years.

The defect

The current legacy migration helpers, SetNotifyPostgres and SetNotifyMySQL, write both forms into the new KV configuration. Even when the old target already has a complete connection string, the helpers also emit all five discrete keys, usually with empty values.

The new parser rejects those keys because neither DefaultPostgresKVS nor DefaultMySQLKVS registers them. Key validation checks key presence, not whether the corresponding value is empty. Both legacy source forms therefore fail:

old complete string -> canonical string + five empty unknown keys -> rejected
old discrete fields -> empty canonical string + five populated unknown keys -> rejected

The failure is amplified by notification initialization. FetchEnabledTargets is fail-fast across notification subsystems: the first invalid subsystem returns an error and a nil target list. The caller logs the error and continues starting the object server, leaving healthy Webhook, Kafka, NATS, and other targets unavailable as well.

Merely returning an error from the two migration helpers does not fix that behavior. The error propagates through readConfigWithoutMigrate and initConfig, but initConfigSubsystem currently logs non-retriable configuration errors as “some features may be missing” and returns success. The server then starts without assigning globalServerConfig; notification failure is only one consequence, because region, storage class, compression, identity, and other stored settings may also be absent. The implementation must therefore carry a typed database-migration error to the startup boundary and make that error fatal. Classifying it as retriable is also wrong because the server would retry forever without any state change that could repair the configuration.

The resulting behavior is especially dangerous because object I/O still works. Operators can see a healthy S3 service while every configured event pipeline has stopped. Targets are never constructed, so delivery or later replay of events produced during the outage must not be assumed.

There is also a diagnostic-exposure issue. The unregistered password key has no sensitivity metadata and may be copied verbatim into health or diagnostic material. The registered connection_string and dsn_string keys are already treated as sensitive values.

Why the first fix was reverted

The first repair registered the five discrete keys and taught the parser to read them. That made migrated targets pass CheckValidKeys, and it appeared attractive because the target argument structures and constructors still contain code for the old fields.

It also broke the documented connection-string path.

The shared mc admin config set tokenizer discovers field boundaries by looking for registered key names. It is not fully quote-aware. Once port became a registered key, this valid input contained what looked like a second top-level field:

connection_string="host=db port=5432 dbname=events user=app"

The tokenizer split at the port= inside the quoted value, truncated connection_string, and handed the remainder to the port parser. The command then failed with invalid port.

Under the current tokenizer, registering common words such as host, port, and password creates a direct conflict between the connection-string grammar and the top-level KV grammar. The attempted registration fix was therefore reverted. Re-registering those keys is not an acceptable solution.

Product judgment

Database notification targets are a specialized but useful capability. They provide a direct database-backed namespace view or access journal without requiring an external event bus. That remains valuable for small deployments and for users already operating PostgreSQL or MySQL.

The legacy spelling of their connection parameters has much less value. A five-field model cannot represent the useful range of driver options: TLS modes and certificates, connection timeouts, application names, Unix sockets, multi-host PostgreSQL settings, MySQL driver parameters, and future driver capabilities. Supporting both forms also creates precedence, merging, redaction, and testing questions that do not exist with one canonical value.

The complete string is the better abstraction boundary: SILO owns notification semantics, while the database driver owns connection syntax.

The product decision is therefore to keep the capability and remove the compatibility illusion. An unsupported legacy target must be rejected clearly; it must not be accepted and transformed into a configuration that later disables unrelated targets.

Goals

  1. Establish connection_string and dsn_string as the only supported live configuration interfaces for database notifications.
  2. Allow a legacy JSON target that already contains the canonical string to cross the migration boundary without modification to its connection semantics.
  3. Reject enabled discrete-only legacy targets before a partial or invalid KV configuration is activated.
  4. Replace the current silent runtime failure mode of #53 — healthy targets disabled while the server appears healthy — with an explicit startup-time failure that operators must resolve before the server runs.
  5. Ensure no migration error, log line, health report, or diagnostic bundle exposes a database password.
  6. Remove the ten Postgres/MySQL exceptions from the source-level unregistered-write audit.
  7. Make the compatibility boundary and operator remediation explicit in release and migration documentation.

Non-goals

  • Supporting both DSN and discrete database fields in the current KV interface.
  • Automatically synthesizing a DSN from old discrete fields.
  • Rewriting the shared KV tokenizer.
  • Changing FetchEnabledTargets fail-fast semantics in this patch.
  • Silently skipping an enabled database target and continuing with partial notification coverage.
  • Removing PostgreSQL or MySQL notification targets.
  • Deleting the legacy struct fields needed to decode and identify unsupported input. They remain on shared target argument structs that are also used by live constructors, whose discrete-field connection-string synthesis is unreachable from current KV configuration; those fields must not become supported configuration keys.
  • Correcting ignored errors from the other eight legacy notification setters. Their pre-existing silent-skip behavior remains unchanged in this narrowly scoped database-migration patch and requires a separate audit and design decision.

Functional requirements

Current configuration

  1. notify_postgres accepts connection_string; notify_mysql accepts dsn_string.
  2. The five discrete keys remain unregistered and rejected by current configuration commands.
  3. Existing full strings must continue to support the database driver’s syntax, including parameters whose names contain host, port, user, password, or database.
  4. No new public environment variables or KV keys are introduced.
  5. The declared legacy variables MINIO_NOTIFY_POSTGRES_HOST/PORT/USERNAME/PASSWORD/DATABASE and their MySQL equivalents are not wired into current parsing and remain unsupported. They must not be documented as working alternatives to the complete-string variables.

Legacy migration

  1. SetNotifyPostgres must return without emitting a target when the legacy target is disabled.
  2. For an enabled target, SetNotifyPostgres must require a non-empty ConnectionString and write only registered Postgres keys. If both a canonical string and discrete fields are present, the canonical string wins and every discrete value is discarded.
  3. SetNotifyMySQL must apply the equivalent rule to DSN.
  4. Neither helper may emit host, port, username, password, or database.
  5. A missing canonical string must return a typed or wrapped migration error identifying the subsystem and target name.
  6. cmd/config-migrate.go must check and propagate both helper errors. Ignoring them is forbidden.
  7. No partially migrated configuration may be activated or persisted after either helper fails.
  8. Error text may name the required key and remediation, but must not include any connection-field value.
  9. The propagated typed migration error must abort server startup. It must not be downgraded to the non-fatal “some features may be missing” path in initConfigSubsystem, and it must not enter the retriable-error loop.
  10. Validation errors for a supplied canonical string follow the same startup-fatal and secrecy rules; wrapping must add target context without repeating the DSN or its components.

Recommended error shape:

notify_postgres:archive uses unsupported legacy discrete connection fields;
set connection_string before migrating to SILO

Operator remediation

An operator encountering the error must choose an explicit remediation path. This applies both before an initial switch to SILO and when upgrading a deployment that is already running SILO: legacy migration output is not persisted, so the same old JSON source can re-enter migration on every start. A deployment that currently starts with notifications silently broken can therefore fail to start after this repair until the source configuration is corrected.

  1. On a compatible intermediate MinIO release, replace the old fields with connection_string or dsn_string, verify the target, and then migrate to SILO.
  2. Disable or remove the legacy database target, migrate the server, and recreate the target with the canonical string afterward.
  3. For a fresh SILO installation, create the target directly with the canonical string; no legacy migration is involved.
  4. For an existing SILO deployment that still reads a legacy JSON file, stop on the previous working release, back up the source configuration, then convert, disable, or remove the database target before starting the fixed release. Do not delete or rewrite unrelated configuration.

Documentation must not suggest that a discrete-only target will be converted automatically.

Availability trade-off

This decision intentionally turns one unsupported configuration from a degraded startup into a hard startup failure. The immediate availability cost is real: a server that previously served objects while all notifications were silently dead may refuse to start after the repair.

That cost is accepted because an object server that appears healthy while configured event sinks are absent creates silent, potentially unrecoverable downstream data loss. SILO is a new fork with an explicit migration boundary, and the discrete form has been deprecated since 2020. A fatal, actionable precondition is preferable to an upgrade that reports success with reduced notification coverage. The release note must make this startup behavior prominent; it must not be buried as an internal migration cleanup.

Security requirements

  1. The unsupported-input error must never format the legacy argument structure or its values.
  2. Tests must use a sentinel password and assert that it is absent from returned errors and captured logs.
  3. Migrated output must contain the registered sensitive connection-string key and no standalone password key.
  4. If a diagnostic bundle was exported from an affected deployment before this repair, operators should treat the database password as potentially disclosed and rotate it.

Alternatives considered

Register and parse the discrete fields

Benefit: preserves the old source form and uses already existing argument fields.
Rejected because: registration makes common field names visible to the shared tokenizer and corrupts quoted connection strings. It also expands the supported public configuration surface after the fields were deprecated in 2020.

Synthesize a canonical string during migration

Benefit: preserves discrete-only legacy installations.
Rejected because: it creates permanent code and test ownership for an obsolete input form, including PostgreSQL quoting, MySQL DSN formatting, socket and IPv6 behavior, defaults, and future driver drift. For a new fork with an explicit migration boundary, the benefit does not justify the continuing surface.

Skip only the unsupported target

Benefit: keeps the object server and other notification targets running.
Rejected because: silently discarding a configured event sink can cause unobservable and unrecoverable event loss. A clear migration failure is safer than an apparently successful upgrade with reduced notification coverage.

Change global notification fail-fast behavior

Benefit: limits the blast radius of future invalid targets.
Rejected for this change because: it neither repairs the database target nor closes the credential-exposure path, and it changes system-wide error semantics. It may be evaluated independently with its own operational contract.

Remove database notification targets

Benefit: removes the complete database-specific maintenance surface.
Rejected because: the targets remain useful and self-contained. The defect belongs to an obsolete configuration form, not to the notification capability itself.

Implementation scope

The server change should remain narrow:

  1. Update internal/config/notify/legacy.go so the two database setters emit only canonical registered keys and reject enabled targets without a canonical string.
  2. Update cmd/config-migrate.go to propagate the two database-helper errors with subsystem and target context.
  3. Define a typed database-migration error and update cmd/server-main.go so initConfigSubsystem returns it as fatal instead of logging and ignoring it. It must remain non-retriable.
  4. Leave ignored errors from the other eight legacy notification setters unchanged in this patch; record them for a separate audit rather than expanding #53 implicitly.
  5. Remove all ten Postgres/MySQL entries from knownUnregisteredWrites; the ratchet should become empty unless another independently justified legacy exception exists.
  6. Add focused migration, startup, validation, secrecy, and coexistence tests.
  7. Update database-notification and migration documentation in silo.pgsty.com.

The patch must not register the old keys, change the generic tokenizer, or refactor unrelated notification targets.

Acceptance criteria

The implementation is complete only when all of the following are demonstrated:

  1. A legacy PostgreSQL target with a complete connection string migrates, passes CheckValidKeys, and is returned by GetNotifyPostgres unchanged.

  2. A legacy MySQL target with a complete DSN does the equivalent.

  3. Discrete-only enabled targets for both databases fail before target initialization with an actionable error containing the subsystem and target name, and server startup aborts.

  4. Missing-string and malformed-string errors contain none of the sentinel host, username, password, database, or DSN values.

  5. Disabled discrete legacy targets do not create configuration entries and do not block migration.

  6. Migrated KVS output contains none of the ten discrete keys, including empty ones.

  7. When a legacy target contains both a canonical string and conflicting discrete values, only the canonical string is migrated and no discrete sentinel appears in any output KVS value.

  8. A SetKVS regression test using the real DefaultPostgresKVS and DefaultMySQLKVS key sets accepts a quoted connection string containing port=, host=, or password=.

  9. A configuration containing healthy Webhook, Kafka, or NATS targets cannot reach FetchEnabledTargets with an invalid migrated database target because readConfigWithoutMigrate fails without yielding, persisting, or activating a partial configuration, and startup aborts on that typed error.

  10. initConfigSubsystem returns the typed migration error; it neither logs-and-continues nor enters the retriable loop.

  11. knownUnregisteredWrites no longer contains Postgres or MySQL exceptions.

  12. The following verification passes:

    go test ./internal/config/notify ./internal/config ./internal/event/target -count=1
    go test -v ./cmd -run 'Test(ReadConfigWithoutMigrate|InitConfigSubsystem)' -count=1
    git diff --check

    The verbose cmd output must show that tests with both prefixes actually ran; a zero-match warning is a failed acceptance check. The normal server CI suite must also pass. In the documentation checkout, run make check.

Release and compatibility statement

The release note must describe this as an enforced compatibility boundary:

SILO database notification targets require connection_string for PostgreSQL and dsn_string for MySQL. The pre-2020 discrete host/port/username/password/database form is not migrated. Convert or recreate such targets before switching the deployment to SILO.

Deployments already running SILO with an old-format source configuration are equally affected: after this release the server will not start until each enabled legacy database target is converted, disabled, or removed.

The issue should close only after the repair is present in a published server tag. A merged patch, a local site build, and a published release are separate completion gates.

Review record

Claude Fable 5 reviewed the first draft at xhigh effort on 2026-08-23 and returned approve with required changes. The required calibration was incorporated: startup-fatal propagation now extends through initConfigSubsystem; already-running SILO deployments are covered; the availability trade-off is explicit; canonical-string precedence, dead legacy environment variables, other ignored helper errors, and executable tests are specified.

The same model then completed a final source-backed verification pass. Final verdict: approve, with no blocking findings. It confirmed that the English and Chinese records are aligned, the requirements are implementable against the current server tree, and the acceptance criteria cover the startup, migration, parser-regression, and secrecy boundaries.

3 - Preview Text, Never Execute It: SILO Console Text Preview PRD

Status: accepted design; implementation pending · Owner: pgsty/silo-console · Tracking: pgsty/silo#17 · Review: consensus of product, security, and frontend architecture reviews

SILO Console can preview images, PDFs, audio, and video, but not the small logs, text files, JSON documents, and XML documents that operators inspect every day. A correctly stored Content-Type does not help: these objects are classified as unsupported before the preview renderer is selected.

Restoring the old browser-native behavior would be easy. It would also be the wrong fix. An object in storage is controlled by the user who uploaded it. Loading that object as a same-origin HTML or XML document would turn a convenience feature into an execution boundary.

The accepted design therefore makes a stronger promise:

SILO previews eligible objects as bounded UTF-8 text. It never asks the browser to interpret their markup, MIME type, or file contents as a document.

This record fixes the product boundary, the resource limit, the security invariants, the implementation shape, and the evidence required before the feature can ship.

Decision

The first release will add a dedicated text preview type and a PreviewText component.

The contract is:

  1. Preserve every existing image, PDF, audio, and video classification.
  2. Only when the existing classifier returns none, consider a text fallback.
  3. Admit the four target extensions or four exact passive text MIME types.
  4. Fetch bytes through the ordinary authenticated download path, without preview=true.
  5. Enforce a hard application read limit of 1 MiB.
  6. Decode only strict UTF-8 and reject binary-looking content.
  7. Render one React text node inside a scrollable <pre>.
  8. Never use an iframe, HTML parser, XML parser, or HTML injection API.
  9. Show the complete object or no object; do not show a truncated JSON or XML document.
  10. Keep download available for files that are too large, invalidly encoded, or otherwise unavailable.

No Console API or S3 API change is required. The backend inline MIME allowlist is not expanded.

Current behavior

The defect is present in SILO Console v2.1.1, the version currently pinned by SILO when this design was written.

The frontend preview union contains only:

image | pdf | audio | video | none

Its extension table contains media formats, but not .log, .txt, .json, or .xml. Its MIME classifier likewise ignores text/plain, application/json, application/xml, and text/xml.

Runtime verification produced this split:

Object Frontend result Console download response
.log / text/plain none inline, SAMEORIGIN
.txt / text/plain none inline, SAMEORIGIN
.json / application/json “Preview unavailable” inline, SAMEORIGIN
.xml / application/xml none attachment, DENY

The object-detail action also uses the wrong conjunction when deciding whether Preview should be disabled. An authorized user can click Preview for an unsupported object and receive only the unavailable message; in other combinations, the UI can offer an action before the server rejects it.

The preview component still contains a generic same-origin iframe fallback. It is unreachable under the current type union, so the current defect is not an exploitable text-preview XSS. The dead branch is nevertheless hazardous: adding text to the union and letting it fall through would reactivate precisely the document-loading behavior this design rejects.

Root cause

This is contract drift across three independently evolved layers.

Classification drift

The browser code decides eligibility from filename and object metadata, but its closed type union has no text representation. Correct metadata cannot select a renderer that does not exist.

Response-policy drift

The Console server separately decides whether a response may be inline. It still treats plain text and JSON as safe passive MIME types, while XML and HTML remain attachments. That server decision is not reflected in the frontend classifier.

Renderer drift

The old generic iframe remains after the set of reachable preview types became media-only. The code therefore suggests a capability that the type system can no longer invoke.

The repair must realign the three layers without making MIME metadata a security boundary.

Why same-origin iframe preview is rejected

X-Frame-Options: SAMEORIGIN is not a sandbox. It controls who may embed a response; it does not limit what code inside a same-origin frame can do.

If uploader-controlled HTML, XHTML, SVG, or active XML were ever served as an inline same-origin document, it could act with the Console origin. An HttpOnly cookie would prevent direct cookie reads, but it would not prevent authenticated same-origin requests. A permissive or accidentally widened MIME rule would then turn stored content into stored application code.

nosniff, Content Security Policy, and Content-Disposition remain useful defense in depth, but none replaces the core invariant:

untrusted object bytes
        |
        v
strict text decoder
        |
        v
React textContent

never:
iframe / innerHTML / DOMParser / XML parser / executable document

Product contract

The feature is a read-only text viewer, not a web previewer and not an online editor.

The user should be able to:

  • open a small eligible object from either the list or object-detail surface;
  • read whitespace-preserving source text in the existing preview modal;
  • select and copy text using browser-native behavior;
  • understand whether a failure is caused by size, encoding, permission, object replacement, or network error;
  • download the original bytes at any time.

The user must never be led to believe that:

  • formatted JSON is the stored object;
  • a partial XML document is complete;
  • replacement characters are original bytes;
  • an unsupported encoding has been decoded faithfully;
  • an active HTML/XML document has been safely “sanitized” and executed.

Goals and non-goals

Goals

  1. Preview small logs, text, JSON, and XML without a local download.
  2. Keep object content inert regardless of extension, MIME, or payload.
  3. Bound retained response bytes and rendered text to 1 MiB.
  4. Preserve the stored text rather than silently reformatting it.
  5. Keep list and detail actions consistent with permissions and type eligibility.
  6. Support current object versions and explicitly selected historical versions.
  7. Preserve anonymous-access and subpath-hosting behavior.
  8. Ship the feature in Console first, then consume that exact Console revision in SILO.

Non-goals

  • HTML or XHTML rendering.
  • XML parsing, XSLT, external entities, or schema validation.
  • Markdown rendering.
  • JSON pretty-printing.
  • YAML or CSV-specific behavior.
  • Editing or saving.
  • Syntax highlighting, line numbers, search, folding, ANSI rendering, or linkification.
  • Head, tail, or truncated previews for large objects.
  • Lossy decoding or automatic detection of GBK, UTF-16, Latin-1, or other encodings.
  • A new backend text-preview endpoint.
  • Changes to the existing SVG, media, PDF, download, share, or storage contracts.

An object such as notes.md may still be shown as raw text when its exact MIME type is text/plain. It does not gain Markdown semantics.

Eligibility contract

Eligibility is deliberately two-stage.

Stage 1: preserve the legacy media decision

Run the current image, PDF, audio, and video classifier unchanged. If it returns anything other than none, return that result.

This preserves historical behavior for conflicting filename and MIME combinations.

Stage 2: apply text fallback

Only after the legacy result is none:

  1. Reject final extensions .html, .htm, and .xhtml.

  2. Match the final filename extension case-insensitively against:

    • .log
    • .txt
    • .json
    • .xml
  3. Normalize Content-Type by removing parameters, trimming whitespace, and lowercasing it.

  4. Match the normalized MIME exactly against:

    • text/plain
    • application/json
    • application/xml
    • text/xml

An allowed extension or an allowed exact MIME is sufficient. Broad matches such as text/, substring tests, and application/+json are forbidden in this release.

The resulting matrix is normative:

Filename and MIME Result Reason
report.txt + image/png image Existing media decision wins.
report.json + application/pdf PDF Existing media decision wins.
server.LOG + application/octet-stream text Allowed extension, case-insensitive.
no extension + application/json; charset=utf-8 text Exact normalized MIME.
page.html + text/plain none Explicit active-extension exclusion.
page.txt + text/html text Extension admits it; HTML source remains inert text.
notes.md + text/plain text Exact MIME admits raw text, not Markdown rendering.
image.svg + image/svg+xml existing image path No new text or iframe path.

Filename and MIME affect product eligibility only. They never select an executable rendering mode.

Resource contract

The binary limit is:

MAX_TEXT_PREVIEW_BYTES = 1,048,576

Exactly 1 MiB is eligible. 1 MiB plus one byte is not.

Known sizes

  • If the selected version has a known size greater than the limit, do not request its body.
  • If its known size is zero, show the empty-file state.
  • If its known size is within the limit, begin a bounded request.
  • An absent size is not the same as zero; it enters the bounded unknown-size path.

The current list-to-modal handoff must therefore preserve undefined rather than converting it to zero with a truthy fallback.

Bounded request

For a small or unknown size, request:

Range: bytes=0-1048576

The extra byte is an over-limit sentinel.

The client must:

  1. Inspect Content-Range and Content-Length when present.
  2. Read the response as a stream rather than calling response.text() or building a complete Blob.
  3. Retain at most the limit plus the sentinel byte.
  4. Cancel immediately when the sentinel byte is observed.
  5. Enforce the same limit when the server ignores Range and returns 200.
  6. Render only after end-of-stream proves that the complete object is within the limit.

An over-limit object opens an explanation state with its known size, the 1 MiB policy, and a Download action. It never shows a prefix fragment.

Request identity and cancellation

A preview request is identified by:

bucket + object name + version ID

The request must use the existing generated API client or an equivalent base-path-safe helper so that it preserves:

  • same-origin credentials;
  • the current Console subpath;
  • version_id;
  • anonymous-mode X-Anonymous: 1;
  • current error handling and permission boundaries.

Close, object change, version change, bucket change, and component unmount must abort the active request and clear the old content.

Abort alone is insufficient. A generation token or invalidation flag must also prevent a response that already completed reading or decoding from updating a newer preview.

An aborted request is not an error and must not produce an error toast.

Encoding and fidelity

The first release supports strict UTF-8 only:

new TextDecoder("utf-8", { fatal: true })

Requirements:

  • handle the UTF-8 BOM without displaying it;
  • preserve Unicode text, emoji, tabs, LF, and CRLF;
  • reject invalid UTF-8 rather than inserting replacement characters;
  • reject decoded NUL characters as binary or unsupported content;
  • do not guess another encoding;
  • do not log or persist object text;
  • always retain Download as the original-byte escape hatch.

The unsupported-encoding state should explain:

This object is not valid UTF-8 text or contains binary data. Download it to inspect the original bytes.

JSON and XML are displayed exactly as decoded source text. The first release must not run JSON.parse followed by JSON.stringify: that can alter unsafe integers, duplicate keys, whitespace, lexical forms, and the text users copy.

Safe renderer

The success state renders one text node:

<pre>{content}</pre>

The implementation must not use:

  • iframe, object, or embed;
  • dangerouslySetInnerHTML or innerHTML;
  • DOMParser or an XML parser;
  • Markdown or HTML rendering;
  • an HTML data/blob URL;
  • per-line or per-token spans;
  • automatic links, ANSI escapes, or syntax markup.

One bounded text node keeps the DOM cost predictable and the security property inspectable.

The preformatted region uses a monospace font, preserves whitespace, defaults to no wrapping, owns both scrollbars, is keyboard focusable, and supports native selection and copy. No-wrap is intentional: it preserves aligned logs and avoids expensive layout of a single very long line.

UI states and permissions

The Preview action is enabled only when:

eligible preview type
AND object read permission
AND not a delete marker
AND not a prefix

The object-detail conjunction bug must be fixed, and list and detail surfaces must share the same eligibility function.

An eligible over-limit object still offers Preview. The modal explains why content is not loaded; disabling the button would leave the user unable to distinguish size, permission, and type failures.

The modal distinguishes:

State Required behavior
Loading Accessible busy state; no stale text.
Success Scrollable raw text plus Download.
Empty Explicit “File is empty” state.
Too large Object size, 1 MiB limit, Download; no body request when size is already known.
Invalid UTF-8 / binary Dedicated explanation and Download.
Forbidden Permission-specific message; no retained text.
Not found / replaced Object-change message; no retained text.
Network / server error Actionable retry/download state.
Aborted / closed Silent cleanup.

HTTP error bodies must never be decoded and displayed as object content.

All new user-facing strings go through the existing translation layer and ship in English and Chinese together. The content region and controls must remain usable in light and dark themes and at narrow widths.

Functional and security requirements

Functional requirements

  • FR1: Existing media and PDF classification remains unchanged.
  • FR2: The text fallback follows the normative extension/MIME matrix.
  • FR3: Eligible complete objects up to 1 MiB render as strict UTF-8 source.
  • FR4: Over-limit objects render no partial content.
  • FR5: Empty objects have a distinct successful empty state.
  • FR6: Current and selected historical versions use the same version for metadata, size, and body.
  • FR7: Anonymous access and subpath hosting retain their current request behavior.
  • FR8: List and detail actions apply the same type and permission decision.
  • FR9: Download, share, media, PDF, and storage behavior do not change.

Security requirements

  • SR1: Object bytes can reach the DOM only through text content.
  • SR2: Text Preview contains no document renderer or parser.
  • SR3: At most 1 MiB plus one sentinel byte is retained.
  • SR4: Closing or changing identity invalidates every previous response.
  • SR5: Invalid UTF-8 and NUL content are not shown as faithful text.
  • SR6: Errors, Redux, local storage, logs, and telemetry never retain preview text.
  • SR7: Server authorization remains authoritative for direct requests.
  • SR8: No CSP or backend inline MIME relaxation is introduced.

Implementation scope

Expected Console changes:

  1. Refactor preview classification so the current media decision is preserved and text is an explicit fallback.
  2. Add text to the preview type union.
  3. Add a dedicated PreviewText component with streaming bounds, strict decode, request cancellation, and explicit states.
  4. Route text objects explicitly to that component.
  5. Remove the unreachable generic iframe fallback.
  6. Fix the object-detail Preview disable expression and share eligibility logic with the list surface.
  7. Preserve unknown size instead of coercing it to zero.
  8. Add English and Chinese strings.
  9. Add classification, component, resource, security, permission, version, and browser tests.

Expected unchanged areas:

  • Console and S3 API paths;
  • the backend safeMimeTypes list;
  • Content Security Policy;
  • object storage and metadata formats;
  • image, PDF, audio, video, download, and share handlers;
  • external frontend dependencies.

If a future product requires tailing, server-side transcoding, organization-wide policy, or reliable behavior through proxies that ignore Range, a dedicated server endpoint may be designed separately.

Rejected alternatives

Keep text preview disabled

Benefit: no new code or browser memory use.
Rejected because: logs and configuration objects are a routine object-storage workflow, and download-only inspection is an avoidable Console regression.

Reuse the same-origin iframe

Benefit: minimal code and browser-native presentation.
Rejected because: it turns uploader-controlled content and mutable MIME metadata into a same-origin document boundary. It also leaves resource use unbounded.

Add a backend preview API now

Benefit: central server-side limits and normalized text responses.
Rejected for the first release because: the user already has object-read permission, and the existing download endpoint provides versioning, authorization, and Range. A new API would duplicate contracts without establishing a new data-access boundary.

Show the first 1 MiB of a large object

Benefit: better large-log convenience.
Rejected because: partial JSON/XML is structurally misleading, UTF-8 boundaries need additional handling, and a single “preview” action would no longer mean complete content.

Decode invalid UTF-8 with replacement characters

Benefit: some damaged or legacy logs remain partially readable.
Rejected because: copied text would no longer faithfully represent the stored object. Lossy viewing and other encodings require a separate, explicit product mode.

Auto-format JSON

Benefit: more readable indentation.
Rejected because: parse/stringify can alter numbers, duplicate keys, lexical representation, and copied content. A future opt-in formatted view may sit beside, never replace, the raw default.

Add Monaco or another code editor

Benefit: line numbers, search, highlighting, and folding.
Rejected because: bundle, worker, CSP, and maintenance costs exceed the needs of a bounded read-only preview. A native <pre> is smaller and easier to audit.

Acceptance and test plan

Classification matrix

Automated tests must lock every normative matrix row, extension case handling, MIME parameter stripping, explicit HTML/XHTML denial, and unchanged media conflicts.

Resource tests

Cover:

  • 0 bytes;
  • 1 byte;
  • exactly 1,048,576 bytes;
  • 1,048,577 bytes;
  • known over-limit size with zero body requests;
  • unknown size;
  • 206 with a revealing Content-Range;
  • server ignores Range and returns 200;
  • missing or false Content-Length;
  • close and identity changes during streaming.

No case may retain or render more than the complete allowed object.

Encoding and fidelity tests

Cover UTF-8 Chinese, emoji, tabs, LF, CRLF, BOM, invalid byte sequences, NUL bytes, JSON unsafe integers, duplicate keys, original whitespace, XML declarations, DOCTYPE, CDATA, and stylesheet processing instructions.

The raw success view must preserve decoded text. Invalid and binary cases must show their dedicated state.

Security tests

Payloads containing <script>, event attributes, iframe tags, SVG handlers, XML stylesheets, external entities, and suspicious URLs must:

  • appear literally in <pre>.textContent;
  • create no corresponding DOM elements;
  • execute no script or dialog;
  • cause no object-content-originated request;
  • encounter no iframe, object, embed, HTML parser, or XML parser in Text Preview.

Permission and race tests

Verify:

  • no GetObject means no usable action and no retained body;
  • historical versions require their corresponding permission;
  • metadata and body use the same version ID;
  • a late old response cannot replace a new object’s preview;
  • 401, 403, 404, 416, and 5xx bodies never become preview content;
  • anonymous access and Console subpaths do not regress.

Browser regression

Use a real SILO/Console test instance to inspect both English and Chinese routes, light and dark themes, and narrow and desktop widths. Media, PDF, download, share, and version workflows require smoke coverage alongside the new text states.

Delivery and completion gates

The change belongs to pgsty/silo-console, even though the user report is tracked in the SILO server repository.

Delivery is staged:

  1. Merge the focused Console source and test change.
  2. Pass TypeScript checking, production build, automated matrices, and real-browser security regression.
  3. Update Console release notes and regenerate the actual embedded web assets.
  4. Publish a Console version; a minor release is appropriate for the new visible capability.
  5. Update SILO’s github.com/minio/console => github.com/pgsty/silo-console replacement to the exact new pseudo-version.
  6. Build a SILO candidate from that exact dependency and repeat integration checks.
  7. Publish the SILO binary and image, naming the first version that contains the feature.

These are separate states:

Gate Meaning
Console PR merged Implementation exists in source.
Console assets/tag published Console is independently consumable.
SILO dependency updated SILO main has integrated the change.
SILO release published Users can obtain the feature.

Issue #17 should not be described as fixed for users merely because a local preview or Console source PR exists.

Trade-off summary

The accepted design favors:

  • explicit scope over a generic browser viewer;
  • complete small files over partial large files;
  • source fidelity over automatic formatting;
  • strict UTF-8 over silent lossy decoding;
  • one inert text node over a full editor;
  • the existing download API over a new backend contract;
  • a verifiable security invariant over convenient same-origin rendering.

The cost is real: large logs and legacy encodings still require download, and the first release has no search, line numbers, wrapping toggle, or highlighting. Those omissions are deliberate. They make the feature small enough to audit and strong enough to trust.

Review record

The design was independently reviewed from three perspectives:

  • product scope, delivery, and acceptance;
  • security and frontend architecture;
  • compatibility and current-source verification.

The reviewers initially differed on MIME-only eligibility and lossy UTF-8 fallback. After cross-review they reached a single contract:

  • existing media classification wins;
  • text fallback accepts the four target extensions or four exact normalized MIME types;
  • HTML/XHTML extensions are explicitly excluded;
  • strict UTF-8 and NUL rejection are required;
  • lossy viewing is deferred to a separate proposal.

No unresolved design question remains. Implementation may proceed against this record.

4 - When the Total Is Unknown: Folder Download Progress

PRD for replacing NaN% with truthful indeterminate progress when SILO Console downloads a streamed folder ZIP, without changing the server API or ordinary file downloads.

Status: Implemented and verified locally; commit, Console release, and Silo dependency update pending · Priority: P1 · Owner: pgsty/silo-console · Related issue: pgsty/silo#62 · PRD review: Claude Fable 5 (xhigh) — APPROVE · Implementation review: Claude Fable 5 (xhigh), 2026-08-23 — APPROVE, no P0/P1/P2 findings

SILO Console shows NaN% in Downloads / Uploads while downloading a folder. The ZIP normally keeps streaming and the stored objects are intact, but the progress bar has crossed from “unknown” into an invalid determinate state. Users see a full-looking bar, assume the transfer failed or finished, and retry it.

The proposed repair is intentionally narrow:

A download may enter determinate mode only when it has a finite, positive total measured in bytes applicable to that response. Without such a total, it remains indeterminate until completion, failure, or cancellation.

The server keeps streaming ZIPs. Ordinary files keep their percentages. The frontend gains one safe calculation boundary, reuses its existing indeterminate renderer, and closes one missing cancellation transition. This record defines why that is both sufficient and the smallest truthful fix.

The observed failure

The defect is present in the current silo-console v2.1.1, which is embedded by Silo RELEASE.2026-08-06T00-00-00Z.

Reproduction:

  1. Put several objects below a prefix such as folder/.
  2. Stay in the parent listing, select folder/, and click Download.
  3. Open Downloads / Uploads before the transfer finishes.
  4. The row displays NaN%; the ZIP request continues.

The runtime check used a prefix containing about 88.7 MiB and throttled Chromium to preserve the observation window. Two independent downloads produced the same NaN% state.

This is a frontend correctness bug. It is not evidence of corrupted objects, an altered disk format, or a failed S3 GET.

What is actually happening

The visible NaN% is the end of a contract mismatch across three layers.

A prefix has no object size

S3 folders are common prefixes, not stored directory objects. In the listing model, a prefix ends in / and carries size=0. The Console already renders that size as -, correctly treating it as not applicable.

The generated API model marks size as omitempty, so logical zeroes are absent from listing JSON. The single-selection thunk nevertheless passes object.size straight into the download helper: a prefix or zero-byte object therefore supplies undefined at runtime (while synthetic prefix records may supply 0). Neither value is a valid denominator.

A streamed ZIP has no known wire length

The server recognizes the trailing /, recursively lists the objects, then connects a zip.Writer to an io.Pipe. Objects are read, deflated, and copied to the HTTP response as the archive is produced.

That behavior is desirable: the server can send the first bytes without holding the complete archive in memory or on disk. Its consequence is equally deliberate: the final compressed byte length does not exist when headers are sent, so the response has Content-Type: application/zip and a filename, but no Content-Length.

The sum of source object sizes is not a substitute. Source sizes are uncompressed bytes; ProgressEvent.loaded counts response bytes after ZIP compression and framing. They are different units.

A progress event does not imply a computable percentage

The client currently computes every event as:

Math.round((event.loaded / fileSize) * 100)

For a prefix, the denominator is zero or absent. Depending on the value and event, JavaScript produces NaN (loaded / undefined or 0 / 0) or Infinity (positive bytes divided by zero).

The progress callback then writes that non-finite value into Redux and sets waitingForFile=false. That second operation is the decisive state error: the task leaves the existing indeterminate branch merely because an event arrived, not because the event contained a usable total. The determinate progress component receives the invalid value and renders an invalid label.

The complete chain is:

common prefix: size = 0
        |
        v
download(..., fileSize = 0)
        |
        v
streamed deflated ZIP, no Content-Length
        |
        v
event.loaded / 0 => NaN or Infinity
        |
        v
invalid percentage enters Redux; waitingForFile becomes false
        |
        v
determinate ProgressBar renders NaN%

Ordinary non-empty files avoid the defect because the server can stat the object, sets Content-Length, and the list size is positive. If the browser emits a progress event for an empty response, a zero-byte file reaches the same arithmetic boundary as a prefix even though it is a real object; it therefore belongs in the regression contract.

Product contract

The UI needs one honest distinction:

  • Determinate means both transferred bytes and total bytes are known in the same unit.
  • Indeterminate means the request is active but the total is unknown.

This yields four load-bearing invariants:

determinate  => total is finite and total > 0
determinate  => percentage is finite and 0 <= percentage <= 100
unknown total => indeterminate
terminal state => not indeterminate

These invariants are more general than objectPath.endsWith("/"): they cover prefixes, zero-byte files, malformed metadata, and any future unknown-length response without inventing object-type exceptions.

Goals and non-goals

Goals

  1. A folder download never displays NaN%, Infinity%, or a fabricated percentage.
  2. Unknown-length transfers use the existing indeterminate animation.
  3. Known-length ordinary files retain their current percentage behavior.
  4. Completion, failure, and cancellation always leave indeterminate mode.
  5. A zero-byte file never produces a non-finite percentage and still reaches success.
  6. No non-finite or out-of-range download percentage enters Redux.
  7. The fix can ship in Console first and then be consumed by Silo as a dependency update.

Non-goals

  • Do not pre-generate or buffer a complete ZIP on the server.
  • Do not use the sum of uncompressed object sizes as network progress.
  • Do not redesign the entire Object Manager state model.
  • Do not route folders through the current immediately-completing BrowserDownload path.
  • Do not solve the browser memory cost of XMLHttpRequest.responseType="blob" here.
  • Do not change whether a cancelled row remains visible until the user clears it.
  • Do not redesign mid-stream ZIP error signaling after HTTP headers have been sent.
  • Do not modify the S3 API, Console API, object layout, or archive contents.

Those are legitimate follow-ups, but coupling them to this defect would enlarge risk without being necessary to restore truthful progress.

The decision

The minimum production repair has four parts.

D1. Calculate only from a valid total

Add a small pure function, separate from DOM and Redux side effects:

type DownloadProgressEvent = Pick<
  ProgressEvent,
  "loaded" | "lengthComputable" | "total"
>;

export const calculateDownloadPercent = (
  event: DownloadProgressEvent,
  objectSize: number,
): number | null => {
  let total: number | null = null;

  if (Number.isFinite(objectSize) && objectSize > 0) {
    total = objectSize;
  } else if (
    event.lengthComputable &&
    Number.isFinite(event.total) &&
    event.total > 0
  ) {
    total = event.total;
  }

  if (
    total === null ||
    !Number.isFinite(event.loaded) ||
    event.loaded < 0
  ) {
    return null;
  }

  return Math.min(
    100,
    Math.max(0, Math.round((event.loaded / total) * 100)),
  );
};

The source priority preserves compatibility:

  1. A finite positive objectSize retains the current ordinary-file calculation.
  2. If object size is unavailable but the browser declares the response length computable and supplies a finite positive event.total, use it.
  3. Otherwise return null: no truthful percentage exists yet.

The helper’s output contract is complete: either null, or a finite number in [0,100].

D2. Keep unknown totals indeterminate

Change the XHR handler to dispatch only a real percentage:

req.addEventListener("progress", (event) => {
  const percent = calculateDownloadPercent(event, fileSize);

  if (percent !== null) {
    progressCallback(percent);
  }

  // No valid total: preserve waitingForFile=true so the existing UI remains
  // indeterminate instead of manufacturing a determinate value.
});

Download rows already start with waitingForFile=true, and ObjectHandled already renders that state with variant="indeterminate". There is no need to widen Redux to number | null, add another boolean, or change MDS.

When the first valid percentage arrives, the existing updateProgress action stores it and sets waitingForFile=false. When no valid percentage ever arrives, the row remains indeterminate until a terminal action.

D3. Make cancellation terminal

Completion and failure already clear waitingForFile. Cancellation does not. Add the missing transition in cancelObjectInList:

item.waitingForFile = false;

Without that line, the repaired prefix download would remain in the indeterminate rendering branch after abort, masking the Cancelled state. The row continues to follow the current product behavior: it remains as a cancelled record and can be removed manually. Automatic removal is not part of this change.

There is one event-order guard at the XHR boundary as well. abort() first produces readystatechange(DONE, status=0) and only then the abort event; without a status-zero return, the generic DONE branch marks the request failed before onabort can mark it cancelled. DONE/status zero is therefore left to the dedicated onerror or onabort handler, and onabort removes the stored request reference.

D4. Normalize an omitted zero-byte size

The single-selection thunk passes object.size || 0, matching the other download entry point. This restores the API model’s omitted logical zero before the helper checks Blob.size === fileSize, so an HTTP 200 zero-byte object completes at 100% instead of being reported as incomplete.

D5. Keep the server stream unchanged

The folder handler continues to generate a deflated ZIP through io.Pipe and omit Content-Length. No API, archive, storage, or resource-management contract changes.

State machine

State waitingForFile percentage Terminal flag Rendering
Queued / no valid progress yet true 0 none indeterminate
Unknown-total transfer true 0 none indeterminate
Known-total transfer false 0..100 none determinate percentage
Completed false 100 done=true success
Failed false last value failed=true, done=true error
Cancelled false 0 cancelled=true, done=true cancelled

The state does not move back from determinate to indeterminate. If a later event lacks a valid total after a valid percentage was observed, the handler simply retains the last valid value.

Failed and Cancelled both set done=true in the existing reducers. ObjectHandled uses done to change its close button from “abort request” to “remove record”; this repair preserves that behavior. The cancelled Redux value remains 0, while the existing ProgressBarWrapper renders a full orange terminal bar with a Cancelled label because ready=true. That established presentation is not part of this repair.

waitingForFile is not the ideal long-term name for “no computable progress.” Renaming it or replacing the booleans with a discriminated union would improve the model, but that is a separate refactor. In this repair, the field already expresses and renders the required state, so reusing it minimizes compatibility risk.

Why this is sufficient

The repair closes the bug by cases.

Ordinary non-empty file

objectSize > 0, so the helper uses the same denominator as today. The result is finite and clamped, updateProgress enters determinate mode, and completion still sets 100%.

Current streamed folder

objectSize is normalized to 0, while lengthComputable=false and event.total=0. The helper returns null; no invalid action is dispatched, so the row remains indeterminate. Completion sets waitingForFile=false, percentage=100, and done=true.

Future response with a real length

If a proxy or later server implementation provides a trustworthy response total, lengthComputable=true and event.total>0. The same code automatically produces a real percentage without another product change.

Zero-byte file

The omitted listing size is normalized to zero, and both totals are then zero, so an intermediate percentage is mathematically undefined. The row stays indeterminate for its usually brief lifetime; the zero-byte Blob now equals the normalized expected size, and the successful response transitions directly to 100%. 0/0 is never evaluated.

Failure and cancellation

Failure already exits indeterminate. The added cancellation transition does the same on abort. No terminal row can continue to look active merely because its total was unknown.

Mathematically, division occurs only when total belongs to (0, +infinity). The result is then clamped to [0,100]. Therefore neither NaN nor Infinity can cross the calculation boundary into Redux or the determinate renderer.

Rejected alternatives

Buffer the ZIP to obtain Content-Length

The server could generate the complete archive in memory or a temporary file, measure it, and then send it. That would provide an exact wire total, but at the cost of memory or disk pressure, delayed first byte, cleanup complexity, and worse concurrent-download behavior. An observability defect does not justify discarding streaming.

Sum the objects under the prefix

That sum is uncompressed logical data. event.loaded measures compressed response bytes plus ZIP framing. The units differ, so the bar could stop below 100%, exceed 100%, or move according to compression ratio rather than transfer completion. Reject.

Convert invalid progress to 0%

This hides the string but lies about the state: determinate 0% means the total is known and no portion has transferred. Users would still interpret the transfer as stalled. Unknown must remain unknown.

Special-case paths ending in /

That fixes the reported prefix but misses a real zero-byte object, invalid metadata, and other unknown-length responses. The correct boundary is denominator capability, not object type.

Send folders through BrowserDownload

The current large-file path creates an anchor and immediately calls the completion callback after clicking it. It cannot report true completion, console-managed cancellation, or a subsequent HTTP failure. It may be the basis of a later streaming-download design, but today it would replace one lie with another.

Sanitize inside ProgressBar

A generic component guard could be useful defense in depth, but it would leave invalid data in Redux and hide the broken state transition from every other consumer. The primary repair belongs where progress becomes application state.

Introduce percentage: number | null now

A discriminated progress state would be cleaner than the current booleans if the Object Manager were being redesigned. Adding null while retaining waitingForFile, done, failed, and cancelled would instead create more contradictory combinations. Removing the old fields is larger than this bug requires. Reuse the already-rendered indeterminate state now; redesign it separately.

Requirements and acceptance

Functional requirements

  • FR1: An unknown total keeps the task indeterminate.
  • FR2: A finite positive object size preserves ordinary-file percentages.
  • FR3: A finite positive event.total is a fallback only when lengthComputable=true.
  • FR4: Every dispatched percentage is finite and within [0,100].
  • FR5: A zero-byte file never displays non-finite progress and reaches success.
  • FR6: Completion, failure, and cancellation leave indeterminate mode.
  • FR7: Versioned objects, anonymous downloads, previews, and long-filename entry points retain their existing call contract.

Non-functional requirements

  • No new server CPU, memory, disk-buffer, or request cost.
  • No new frontend dependency or build step.
  • No change to the S3 API, Console API, ZIP content, or stored objects.
  • The calculation must be testable without a DOM or live store.
  • TypeScript typecheck and the production frontend build must pass.

Acceptance criteria

  1. While a folder ZIP without Content-Length is active, its row shows an indeterminate animation and no percentage text.
  2. On successful completion, the row reports success/100% and the ZIP can be opened.
  3. A normal non-empty file continues to show finite determinate progress and completes at 100%.
  4. A zero-byte file never shows NaN% or Infinity% and completes successfully.
  5. Cancelling an unknown-total download aborts the request and shows Cancelled, not an active animation.
  6. No download path can place a non-finite or out-of-range percentage in Redux.

Test plan

Pure calculation matrix

Use the existing @playwright/test runner for the pure module rather than adding a test framework. This needs one config-only addition in web-app/playwright.config.ts: a dependency-free unit project, for example with testMatch: /.*\.unit\.ts/. The existing chromium project depends on the auth setup against a live Console at localhost:9090; pure calculation and reducer tests must not be gated by that environment. No new dependency is introduced.

Case loaded objectSize lengthComputable event.total Expected
Ordinary file, halfway 50 100 false 0 50
Common prefix 1024 0 false 0 null
Initial zero over zero 0 0 false 0 null
Response-total fallback 50 0 true 200 25
Zero total is unusable 0 0 true 0 null
Loaded exceeds total 150 100 true 100 100
Invalid object size 10 NaN false 0 null
Omitted zero size 10 undefined false 0 null
Invalid response total 10 0 true Infinity null
Negative loaded -1 100 true 100 null

State tests

Cover the transition contract directly:

  1. A new download starts with waitingForFile=true.
  2. No valid progress action means it remains indeterminate.
  3. Valid progress produces a finite value and waitingForFile=false.
  4. Complete produces done=true, waitingForFile=false, percentage=100.
  5. Failure produces failed=true, done=true, waitingForFile=false.
  6. Cancel produces cancelled=true, done=true, waitingForFile=false, percentage=0.

Browser regression

Use the real Console test instance and Chromium:

  1. Create a temporary bucket with several objects below folder/.
  2. Select the prefix from its parent and start the download.
  3. Apply CDP download throttling so the intermediate state is observable. Throttled runs must raise the default 30-second test timeout with test.setTimeout.
  4. Open Downloads / Uploads and verify that the row exists, has no percentage label, and contains neither NaN% nor Infinity%.
  5. Cancel it and verify the Cancelled terminal state.
  6. Restore network conditions in finally.
  7. Download again without throttling, wait for the browser download, and verify the ZIP.
  8. Repeat the relevant assertions for one ordinary non-empty file and one zero-byte file.
  9. Remove the bucket, objects, downloads, and temporary files in teardown.

The current Playwright project is Chromium-only, so CDP is an acceptable test mechanism. If Firefox or WebKit projects are later enabled, keep the pure and state tests cross-browser and gate only the throttled observation behind the Chromium project.

Implementation boundary

Expected Console changes:

  1. Add downloadProgress.ts containing the pure calculation.
  2. Change Objects/utils.ts to dispatch only a non-null percentage, let status-zero terminal events reach their dedicated handlers, and clean up an aborted request.
  3. Normalize omitted zero sizes in the single-selection thunk.
  4. Change cancelObjectInList to clear waitingForFile.
  5. Add calculation, state, and browser regression coverage using existing dependencies, with a dependency-free unit project in playwright.config.ts.

Expected unchanged code and contracts:

  • The Go folder-download handler and its streaming ZIP.
  • ObjectHandled, ProgressBarWrapper, and MDS.
  • IFileItem.percentage: number and the existing thunk callback types.
  • S3 and Console API routes.
  • Stored object and archive formats.

Delivery and rollback

The fix belongs in pgsty/silo-console, not the Silo server repository where the issue was reported.

Delivery order:

  1. Transfer or cross-reference issue #62 to pgsty/silo-console.
  2. Implement the bounded Console change.
  3. Pass typecheck, production build, pure/state tests, and real browser regression.
  4. Publish a new Console release.
  5. Update Silo’s pinned Console pseudo-version or release dependency.
  6. Build a Silo candidate and repeat folder, ordinary-file, zero-byte, cancel, and ZIP-integrity checks.
  7. Publish Silo and record both affected and fixed versions on the issue.

There is no data migration. If the frontend change regresses, Silo can roll back only the Console dependency; server data and API behavior remain compatible.

Definition of done

  • The calculation returns only null or a finite [0,100] number.
  • Active unknown-total folder downloads render indeterminate.
  • Ordinary files retain determinate progress.
  • Zero-byte files never render invalid progress.
  • Complete, failed, and cancelled rows all leave indeterminate mode.
  • The streamed ZIP and server response contract remain unchanged.
  • Typecheck, production build, and automated regressions pass locally.
  • A Console release is published.
  • Silo updates the Console dependency and passes candidate verification.

Follow-up work

Four adjacent improvements deserve separate design records:

  1. Stream large folder downloads directly to the browser or filesystem instead of holding the full Blob in memory.
  2. Replace the Object Manager’s boolean combination with a discriminated progress/terminal state.
  3. Improve end-to-end integrity and error signaling for ZIP failures after headers have been sent.
  4. Add a generic non-finite-value guard to shared progress components as defense in depth.
  5. Repair the pre-existing Blob JSON error decoder and request-trace cleanup on HTTP failure paths.

None is required to stop the current UI from lying. The next maintenance iteration should first restore the smallest honest contract: known totals get percentages; unknown totals remain unknown.