The door opens on the right room: a profile link claims the very first paint — a shell with the asked-for name holds the frame while the registrar answers, the username seeds the avatar's fallback art so no npub prefix or empty circle shows, and an unknown name falls quietly through to the front door

Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <[email protected]>
Claude-Session: https://claude.ai/code/session_019eA8JRq9Wr7z2fRQk99HLi

1 files changed, 26 insertions, 1 deletions

diff --git a/src/features/messages.js b/src/features/messages.js
index ca55334..94e8909 100644
--- a/src/features/messages.js
+++ b/src/features/messages.js
@@ -626,6 +626,11 @@ export function messagesFeature(ctx) {
   // the unlock screen (ui.pubProf gates that surface) — nostr profiles are
   // public data, and Back lands on the app's own front door.
   if (urlProfile) {
+    // Claim the first paint synchronously: these are set before the boot
+    // render, so the visitor sees a profile shell from the first frame —
+    // never a flash of the front door while the registrar lookup runs.
+    ui.pubProf = true;
+    ui.pubProfPending = urlProfile;
     (async () => {
       await new Promise((r) => setTimeout(r, 0)); // never render mid-boot
       let pk = parseNostrPubkey(urlProfile);
@@ -638,10 +643,22 @@ export function messagesFeature(ctx) {
             .then((r) => r.json());
           pk = (j.names || {})[name] || null;
         } catch {}
+        // The username is real display material: seed the light cache (stale,
+        // t:0, so the kind 0 still gets fetched) and the page paints the name
+        // and fallback avatar art immediately instead of an npub prefix and
+        // an empty circle while the relays answer.
+        if (pk && /^[0-9a-f]{64}$/.test(pk)) {
+          warmProfiles();
+          if (!profiles.has(pk)) profiles.set(pk, { name, t: 0 });
+        }
       }
+      ui.pubProfPending = null;
       if (pk && /^[0-9a-f]{64}$/.test(pk)) {
-        if (ui.screen !== 'wallet') ui.pubProf = true;
+        if (ui.screen === 'wallet') ui.pubProf = null; // wallet chrome owns it
         openProfile(pk);
+      } else {
+        ui.pubProf = null; // unknown name: fall through to the front door
+        render();
       }
     })();
   }
@@ -2374,6 +2391,14 @@ export function messagesFeature(ctx) {
         if (ui.pubProf) {
           if (ui.noteThread) return threadScreen();
           if (ui.profilePk) return profileScreen();
+          // resolution in flight: the shell holds the layout with the name
+          // straight off the URL — no spinner, the empty beat reads calmer
+          if (ui.pubProfPending) return h('div', { class: 'col', style: 'gap:16px' },
+            ctx.brandHeader(false),
+            h('div', { class: 'card col', style: 'gap:12px' },
+              h('div', { class: 'row gap6', style: 'align-items:center' },
+                h('div', { class: 'chat-avatar profile-avatar fallback loading' }),
+                h('div', { class: 'chat-title' }, ui.pubProfPending))));
         }
         return null;
       }