Someone with no profile picture paints as their punk from the first frame after a reload, not a blank circle that turns into one.

Faceless answers were never persisted (they'd evict real faces from the
150-row profile blob), so every reload re-asked and showed the loading
circle until the relays said "nothing". A small pubkey->time list now
remembers them: no kind 0 on two asks running (a cold relay isn't enough),
or a kind 0 naming nothing; finding a face takes them off it.

room-faces-test --refresh: reload inside the coinos room, faces keyed by
author — 2 changed (wait→punk) before, 0 after.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5.5 <[email protected]>
Claude-Session: https://claude.ai/code/session_01Du1qT1wbkYwYK6zkGH79Rp

2 files changed, 62 insertions, 4 deletions

diff --git a/src/features/messages.js b/src/features/messages.js
index 38bc899..a86d0a9 100644
--- a/src/features/messages.js
+++ b/src/features/messages.js
@@ -555,6 +555,29 @@ export function messagesFeature(ctx) {
     profilesWarmed = true;
     const cached = profilesDisk();
     for (const [pk, p] of Object.entries(cached)) if (!profiles.has(pk)) profiles.set(pk, p);
+    // someone known to have no face paints their punk from the first frame,
+    // instead of a blank circle that turns into one when the relays answer
+    for (const [pk, t] of Object.entries(facelessDisk())) {
+      if (!profiles.has(pk)) profiles.set(pk, { name: null, picture: null, t, miss: 1 });
+    }
+  }
+  // People with no face: no kind 0 on two asks running, or one naming
+  // nothing. Kept apart from the profile blob (whose 150 rows are for real
+  // faces) as a small pubkey -> time map; one found with a face leaves it.
+  const FACELESS_MAX = 1000;
+  let facelessBlob = null, facelessFlush = null;
+  const facelessDisk = () => (facelessBlob ||= wallet.loadFeatureState('profilesFaceless', {}) || {});
+  function markFaceless(pk, on) {
+    const s = facelessDisk();
+    if (on ? s[pk] : !s[pk]) return;
+    if (on) s[pk] = Date.now(); else delete s[pk];
+    if (facelessFlush) return;
+    facelessFlush = setTimeout(() => {
+      facelessFlush = null;
+      const keys = Object.keys(s);
+      if (keys.length > FACELESS_MAX) for (const k of keys.sort((a, b) => s[a] - s[b]).slice(0, keys.length - FACELESS_MAX)) delete s[k];
+      wallet.saveFeatureState('profilesFaceless', s);
+    }, 500);
   }
   // The persisted profile blob (names, faces, thumbnails) lives parsed in
   // memory and is written back once per burst: a batch of thirty profiles
@@ -592,9 +615,10 @@ export function messagesFeature(ctx) {
     wallet.saveFeatureState('profiles', s);
   }
   function persistProfile(pk, p) {
-    // A faceless answer is not a fact worth writing down — persisting
-    // {name:null, picture:null} rows only evicts real faces from the cap and
-    // spreads a cold-relay miss across sessions.
+    // A faceless answer is not a fact worth writing down here — persisting
+    // {name:null, picture:null} rows only evicts real faces from the cap.
+    // (It goes on the faceless list instead.)
+    if (p && p.eventAt) markFaceless(pk, !p.name && !p.picture);
     if (!p || (!p.name && !p.picture)) return;
     const s = profilesDisk();
     s[pk] = { name: p.name || null, picture: p.picture || null, nip05: p.nip05 || null, lud16: p.lud16 || null,
@@ -927,7 +951,11 @@ export function messagesFeature(ctx) {
       for (const pk of pks) {
         if (found.has(pk)) continue;
         const prev = profiles.get(pk);
-        profiles.set(pk, { ...(prev || {}), t: Date.now(), miss: ((prev && prev.miss) || 0) + 1 });
+        const miss = ((prev && prev.miss) || 0) + 1;
+        profiles.set(pk, { ...(prev || {}), t: Date.now(), miss });
+        // twice running: not a cold relay, they have none (never someone
+        // whose face we do know)
+        if (miss >= 2 && !(prev && (prev.name || prev.picture))) markFaceless(pk, true);
       }
       scheduleRepaint();
     } finally {
diff --git a/tools/room-faces-test.js b/tools/room-faces-test.js
index 8c39e59..706691b 100644
--- a/tools/room-faces-test.js
+++ b/tools/room-faces-test.js
@@ -31,6 +31,10 @@ try {
   await sleep(process.argv.includes('--no-hover') ? 1500 : 6000);
   const face = () => [...document.querySelectorAll('.chat-log .chat-row > .chat-avatar:not(.spacer), .chat-log .chat-row > .hat-wrap > .chat-avatar')]
     .map((a) => a.classList.contains('ava-img') ? 'pic' : a.querySelector('img.punk') ? 'punk' : a.classList.contains('loading') ? 'wait' : 'other');
+  // name -> face state, per author (rows stream in, so positions shift)
+  const keyed = () => { const o = {}; for (const r of document.querySelectorAll('.chat-log .chat-row')) {
+    const a = r.querySelector(':scope > .chat-avatar:not(.spacer), :scope > .hat-wrap > .chat-avatar'); const n = r.querySelector('.chat-meta')?.firstElementChild?.textContent;
+    if (a && n) o[n] = a.classList.contains('ava-img') ? 'pic' : a.querySelector('img.punk') ? 'punk' : a.classList.contains('loading') ? 'wait' : 'other'; } return o; };
   await page.evaluate((fs) => {
     const face = new Function('return ' + fs)();
     const mo = new MutationObserver(() => { if (!window.__first && document.querySelector('.chat-log .chat-row')) { window.__first = face(); window.__firstAt = performance.now(); } });
@@ -49,6 +53,32 @@ try {
   check('the room opens with its messages', (first || []).length > 0);
   check('no face paints as a punk and then turns into a picture', flips === 0, flips + ' flipped');
   check('the tap waits no more than a moment', at - t0 < 2500, Math.round(at - t0) + 'ms');
+
+  if (process.argv.includes('--refresh')) {
+    // a reload inside the room: every face as it will stay, from the first
+    // frame — a known-faceless member is their punk at once, not a blank
+    // circle that turns into one. (Wait out the second ask that confirms
+    // who has no profile.)
+    await sleep(25000);
+    await page.evaluateOnNewDocument((fs, ks) => {
+      const face = new Function('return ' + fs)();
+      const keyed = new Function('return ' + ks)();
+      const mo = new MutationObserver(() => { if (!window.__first && document.querySelector('.chat-log .chat-row')) { window.__first = face(); window.__firstBy = keyed(); } });
+      addEventListener('DOMContentLoaded', () => mo.observe(document.body, { childList: true, subtree: true }));
+    }, face.toString(), keyed.toString());
+    await page.reload({ waitUntil: 'domcontentloaded' });
+    for (let i = 0; i < 100 && !(await page.evaluate(() => !!window.__first)); i++) await sleep(100);
+    await sleep(6000);
+    const f2 = await page.evaluate(() => window.__first);
+    const l2 = await page.evaluate(new Function('return (' + face.toString() + ')()'));
+    const byName = await page.evaluate(new Function('return (' + keyed.toString() + ')()'));
+    const firstBy = await page.evaluate(() => window.__firstBy);
+    const changedWho = Object.keys(firstBy || {}).filter((k) => byName[k] && firstBy[k] !== byName[k] && !(firstBy[k] === 'punk' && byName[k] === 'other'));
+    if (changedWho.length) console.log('   changed:', changedWho.map((k) => k + ' ' + firstBy[k] + '→' + byName[k]).join(', '));
+    const changed = changedWho.length;
+    console.log('   after reload, first paint:', JSON.stringify(tally(f2)), ' settled:', JSON.stringify(tally(l2)));
+    check('after a reload in the room, no face changes once painted', !!f2 && changed === 0, changed + ' changed');
+  }
 } finally { await browser.close(); server.stop(true); }
 function tally(a) { const o = {}; for (const x of a || []) o[x] = (o[x] || 0) + 1; return o; }
 console.log(ok ? '\n✅ a room opens with its faces' : '\n❌ failed');