tibi-svelte-starter/.agents/skills/tibi-ssr-caching/SKILL.md

name, description

name	description
tibi-ssr-caching	Implement and debug server-side rendering with goja (Go JS runtime) and dependency-based HTML cache invalidation for tibi-server. Use when working on SSR hooks, cache clearing, or the server-side Svelte rendering pipeline.

tibi-ssr-caching

This skill should teach the SSR architecture and implementation pattern used in this repo family, not just describe one demo content setup. The important question is: how is SSR built here, where is responsibility split, and which parts must be adapted per project?

SSR request flow

1. ssr/get_read.js receives a page request and calls lib/ssr-server.js.
2. ssr/get_read.js loads lib/app.server.js and calls app.default.render({ url }).
3. frontend/src/ssr.ts only initializes i18n and delegates rendering to svelte/server.
4. frontend/src/App.svelte owns the actual data loading for both browser and SSR.
5. During SSR, the app calls its normal page-loading path directly inside a typeof window === "undefined" guard.
6. During browser navigation, the same page-loading path is triggered from $effect.
7. API calls made during SSR are tracked as dependency strings (col:id or col:*) and cached in window.__SSR_CACHE__.
8. The rendered HTML + dependency list are stored in the ssr collection.

Responsibility split

• frontend/src/ssr.ts should stay minimal.
• frontend/src/ssr.ts is responsible for SSR bootstrapping only: locale setup, SSR-safe render wrapper, and calling render(App, { props: { url } }).
• The app component should own data loading.
• Hooks under api/hooks/ssr/ should own caching, cache lookup, and cache persistence.
• api/hooks/lib/ssr.js should own the shared API helper that works in both browser and SSR.

If these responsibilities get mixed together, SSR usually becomes harder to reason about and harder for an LLM to modify safely.

Building the SSR bundle

yarn build:server

• Output: api/hooks/lib/app.server.js
• The project no longer uses Babel for SSR.
• The goja-compatible transform happens in esbuild.config.server.js via supported:
  • async-await: false
  • async-generator: false
  • dynamic-import: false
• The SSR build writes directly to api/hooks/lib/app.server.js.
• Remove splitting-related frontend options (outdir, splitting, entryNames, chunkNames, outExtension) from the server build, otherwise esbuild will fail with outfile/outdir conflicts.

Core design rule

• Prefer one shared data-loading path for browser and SSR.
• The browser should trigger it reactively.
• SSR should call that same path explicitly before rendering completes.
• Avoid maintaining a separate SSR-only content-loading implementation unless there is no viable alternative.

In this repo family, the practical pattern is:

• browser: $effect(() => loadContent(...))
• SSR: call the same loadContent(...) once inside a server guard

The main trap is assuming $effect alone is enough for SSR. It is not.

Dependency-based cache invalidation

When content changes, clear_cache.js only invalidates SSR entries that depend on the changed collection/entry:

// Each SSR cache entry stores dependency strings:
{
        path: "/de/ueber-uns",
        content: "...",
        dependencies: ["content:abc123", "navigation:*", "medialib:*"]
}

• col:id means a detail dependency.
• col:* means a list dependency.
• clear_cache.js must handle DELETE robustly, because context.data.id and route params may be missing. Fallback to the last path segment if needed.
• utils.clearSSRCache() must clear:
  • col:* on POST
  • col:id OR col:* on PUT/DELETE
  • everything on manual clear (POST /ssr?clear=1 with no collection context)

How SSR data loading is supposed to work

• Keep frontend/src/ssr.ts thin. It should set up locale state and call render(App, { props: { url } }).
• Do not move application-specific prefetch logic into ssr.ts unless absolutely necessary.
• The app itself should own the page-loading behavior.
• In projects using this starter architecture, the correct pattern is:
  • browser: $effect(() => loadContent(...))
  • SSR: call the same loadContent(...) once inside typeof window === "undefined"
• This keeps SSR and client navigation on one shared code path.
• loadContent(...) must load all data required for a fully rendered page. In this repo that includes both navigation and page content. SSR is incomplete if only the main content entry is loaded.
• Because goja runs the transformed async path synchronously enough for this setup, the direct SSR call works. The problem was the reactive $effect, not the shared async loader itself.

What is project-specific vs. architecture-specific

Architecture-specific rules:

• SSR entry goes through api/hooks/ssr/get_read.js
• HTML caching lives in the ssr collection
• SSR API calls are tracked through context.ssrRequest
• Client hydration reuses window.__SSR_CACHE__
• The app owns its own data-loading logic

Project-specific rules that an LLM must inspect before changing SSR:

• which collections contribute to rendered pages
• which routes should SSR vs. skip SSR
• whether URLs are language-prefixed
• whether DB paths are stored with or without language prefix
• which lookups are required to make a page fully render
• which collections need publication-aware invalidation
• whether there are canonical/alias paths

Do not hardcode demo assumptions into the skill. Instead, use the architecture rules above and inspect the current project's route model, collections, and page-loading code.

SSR route validation

Route validation in config.js controls which paths get SSR treatment. Return:

• 1 to render the requested path as-is
• a string to rewrite to the canonical cache path
• -1 for not found

For projects following this setup, route validation must understand the public URL shape used by the frontend router:

• / and /{lang} are valid SSR roots.
• Public content URLs are language-prefixed (/de/..., /en/...).
• Content entries in the DB are stored without the language prefix in content.path.
• ssrValidatePath() therefore needs to:
  • extract the language prefix from the URL
  • strip it before querying content.path
  • include { lang } in the content query
  • support alternativePaths.path
  • return a canonical language-prefixed URL when the request matched via an alternative path

If this mapping is wrong, SSR may appear to work for root pages while returning 404 or empty content for real CMS pages.

Publication-aware SSR caching

• config.js exports publishedFilter and ssrPublishCheckCollections.
• ssrPublishCheckCollections should include every collection whose publication window can make cached HTML stale.
• In this starter, content is currently included.
• ssr-server.js uses publication.from / publication.to to compute context.ssrCacheValidUntil.
• get_read.js must reject expired cache entries and delete them before rendering anew.

Hydration cache behavior

• api/hooks/lib/ssr.js uses the same API helper for browser and SSR.
• On the server, apiRequest(...) delegates to context.ssrRequest(...).
• On the client, window.__SSR_CACHE__ is checked first for GET requests.
• This means SSR is not just HTML prerendering; it also primes client-side data access.
• If HTML renders but window.__SSR_CACHE__ is missing, the SSR pipeline is incomplete.

What an LLM should inspect first when changing SSR

1. api/hooks/ssr/get_read.js to understand cache lookup, route validation, and template injection.
2. api/hooks/lib/ssr-server.js to understand dependency tracking and SSR-side API behavior.
3. frontend/src/ssr.ts to confirm how the SSR render wrapper is bootstrapped.
4. The top-level app/page-loading surface (for example frontend/src/App.svelte) to see where data is actually loaded.
5. api/hooks/config.js to understand route validation, canonicalization, and publication-aware collections.
6. api/hooks/clear_cache.js plus api/hooks/lib/utils.js to understand invalidation behavior.

This order helps an LLM separate infrastructure problems from app-loading problems.

How to verify SSR correctly

• Do not rely only on the BrowserSync/frontend proxy when debugging SSR.
• Test the SSR API endpoint directly, for example:

curl "http://tibiserver:8080/api/v1/_/<namespace>/ssr?url=/de/ueber-uns"

• Verify all of the following:
  • HTTP status is correct
  • expected page content is present in the HTML
  • all page-critical content is present in the HTML
  • navigation labels are present in the HTML when navigation is part of the app shell
  • window.__SSR_CACHE__ exists
  • no error: comment was injected into the template
  • second request returns X-SSR-Cache: true
  • POST /ssr?clear=1 removes cache entries and the next request is a miss again

Common pitfalls

• Do not document Babel anymore: the current SSR build is esbuild-only.
• goja does not parse every modern syntax feature: dynamic import must be downlevelled in the server build.
• Do not leave frontend build options on the server build: splitting/outdir inherited from the frontend config will break build:server.
• No browser globals: window, document, localStorage etc. don't exist in goja. Guard with typeof window !== "undefined".
• $effect does not solve SSR loading: server-side content must be loaded outside browser-only reactive effects.
• SSR can look healthy while content is missing: a 200 response plus app shell is not enough; always verify actual DB content in the HTML.
• Navigation is part of SSR: if header/footer are missing, the SSR setup is still incomplete even when the page body renders.
• SSR cache can go stale: Always ensure clear_cache.js covers every collection that affects rendered output.
• Do not overfit the skill to demo content: the skill should explain the architecture and where to inspect project-specific route/content rules, not freeze one content model as universal.