fix(career): load the gig's venue pack when the gig starts

Tester: "Venue doesn't load when starting song from passport. Loads standard
particles."

crowd.setManifest(venue) — the call that actually loads a venue's crowd/stage
pack — is reached ONLY through pushCrowdManifest, and pushCrowdManifest is
called ONLY from refresh(), the career tab's own reload. A gig navigates AWAY
from the career tab to the player, so refresh() never runs during it. startGig
set the venue override and nulled _appliedManifestVenue but never re-pushed, so
the venue visualization turned on (3D highway) while its pack never loaded — the
song played over the bare highway backdrop, or over whatever venue a previous
refresh() had left applied.

startGig now pushes the crowd manifest for the gig venue right after setting the
override, using the career state the booking screen already fetched.

This is a call-graph fact, not a guess (pushCrowdManifest has exactly one other
caller and startGig is not it), but it is fixed by static analysis — I could not
reproduce the user-visible symptom locally because this instance happened to have
a manifest already applied from a prior refresh. On-device confirmation on a real
passport gig is still owed.

Guard test: startGig must push the manifest after setting the override (fails on
the pre-fix source). Career suite green.

CHANGELOG.md

@@ -46,6 +46,16 @@ and this project adheres to [Semantic Versioning](https://semver.org/spec/v2.0.0
   carry their gig log; instruments their gig count.
 
 ### Changed
+- **`GET /api/song/{f}?stems=1`** (new, opt-in) — returns the pack's playable stem
+  list (`[{id, url, default}]` + `full_mix_url`), the same list the highway's WS
+  `ready` sends. The stems plugin could only learn it from that WS message, which
+  arrives once the highway is already on screen — so it decoded and then copied the
+  whole song's PCM to its audio worklet with the player visible: over half a gigabyte
+  of memcpy in one frame for a 6-stem pack, a measured 698 ms freeze right as the
+  song-credits card appeared. With the list available at `song:loading` the plugin
+  does all of it before the highway is drawn. Built by calling `load_song` itself, so
+  it cannot drift from what the WS sends. Opt-in, so the library's metadata calls pay
+  nothing.
 - **Folder library renders only the songs on screen** (#965) — a song list used to
   render *every* song it held. On a flat 50,944-song library that was one `<div>`
   with 50,938 children and ~1.3 **million** DOM nodes (~4.2 GB of renderer memory),

lib/routers/song.py

@@ -829,9 +829,60 @@ def post_song_gap_fill(filename: str, data: dict):
     return {"ok": True, "written": additions, "skipped": skipped}
 
 
+def _playable_stems_payload(filename: str, dlc) -> dict:
+    """The playable stems (id/url/default) + full-mix URL for a sloppak.
+
+    Why it exists: the stems plugin could only learn its stem list from the
+    highway's WS `ready`, which arrives once the highway is already up. So it
+    decoded, and then copied the whole song's PCM to its worklet, with the player
+    on screen — half a gigabyte of memcpy in one frame, ~700 ms, freezing the
+    venue video. Given the list at `song:loading` it can do all of that BEFORE the
+    highway appears, behind the loading overlay where a stall costs nothing.
+
+    The list MUST be the same one the WS sends a moment later. If it is not, the
+    plugin preloads a graph and then throws it away and rebuilds — strictly worse
+    than not preloading. So this does not reimplement the WS's construction, it
+    calls THE SAME FUNCTION: load_song, whose LoadedSloppak already carries the
+    partitioned stems and the resolved full mix, and then builds the URLs exactly
+    as ws_highway does. Drift is impossible by construction rather than by
+    agreement — which matters, because `full_mix` in particular is not simply the
+    `full` stem: load_song falls back to the deprecated `original_audio:` key for
+    every pack written before feedpak 1.15.0, and reimplementing that (I did, at
+    first) silently dropped the pristine full mix for most real libraries.
+
+    Opt-in (`?stems=1`) so the library's own metadata calls — the hot path — pay
+    nothing for it. Non-sloppak sources (archives, loose folders) have no stems
+    to preload: load_song raises and we return the empty list.
+    """
+    from urllib.parse import quote
+
+    try:
+        loaded = sloppak_mod.load_song(filename, dlc, appstate.sloppak_cache_dir)
+    except Exception:
+        return {"stems": [], "full_mix_url": None}
+
+    q_fn = quote(filename, safe="")
+
+    def _url(rel: str) -> str:
+        return f"/api/sloppak/{q_fn}/file/{quote(rel)}"
+
+    return {
+        "stems": [
+            {"id": s["id"], "url": _url(s["file"]), "default": s["default"]}
+            for s in loaded.stems
+        ],
+        "full_mix_url": _url(loaded.full_mix) if loaded.full_mix else None,
+    }
+
+
 @router.get("/api/song/{filename:path}")
-async def get_song_info(filename: str):
-    """Return song metadata, from cache or by extracting it from the song source."""
+async def get_song_info(filename: str, stems: int = 0):
+    """Return song metadata, from cache or by extracting it from the song source.
+
+    `?stems=1` additionally returns the playable stem list with URLs, so the
+    stems plugin can start fetching/decoding on `song:loading` instead of waiting
+    for the highway's WS `ready` (see _playable_stems_payload).
+    """
     import asyncio
     dlc = _get_dlc_dir()
     if not dlc:
@@ -854,8 +905,21 @@ async def get_song_info(filename: str):
 
     mtime, size = appstate.stat_for_cache(song_path)
     cached = appstate.meta_db.get(cache_key, mtime, size)
+    loop = asyncio.get_event_loop()
+
+    # The stem list is NOT stored in the metadata cache: that is a fixed-column
+    # table, and widening it would mean a migration plus a stale row for every
+    # song already scanned. It is cheap to read on demand (the pack is unpacked
+    # by then, so this is a plain manifest read), and only the opt-in caller pays.
+    async def _with_stems(meta: dict) -> dict:
+        if not stems:
+            return meta
+        extra = await loop.run_in_executor(
+            None, _playable_stems_payload, filename, dlc)
+        return {**meta, **extra}
+
     if cached:
-        return cached
+        return await _with_stems(cached)
 
     # Extract in thread pool
     def _extract():
@@ -863,5 +927,5 @@ async def get_song_info(filename: str):
         appstate.meta_db.put(cache_key, mtime, size, meta)
         return meta
 
-    meta = await asyncio.get_event_loop().run_in_executor(None, _extract)
-    return meta
+    meta = await loop.run_in_executor(None, _extract)
+    return await _with_stems(meta)

lib/sloppak.py

@@ -80,6 +80,20 @@ def find_full_mix(stems: list[dict]) -> dict | None:
     )
 
 
+def stem_default_on(raw) -> bool:
+    """Whether a manifest stem entry plays by default.
+
+    Absent means on. A string is honoured so a hand-written manifest can say
+    `default: off`. Extracted so the WS `ready` payload and the REST song-info
+    payload cannot drift: the stems plugin now preloads from REST and then has
+    to agree with what the WS says a moment later, or it would rebuild the whole
+    graph for nothing.
+    """
+    if isinstance(raw, str):
+        return raw.lower() not in ("off", "false", "0", "no")
+    return bool(raw)
+
+
 def partition_stems(stems: list[dict]) -> tuple[dict | None, list[dict]]:
     """Split stem descriptors into (mixdown, instrument_stems) for PLAYBACK.
 
@@ -1100,12 +1114,11 @@ def load_song(
         sfile = str(s.get("file", ""))
         if not sid or not sfile:
             continue
-        default_val = s.get("default", True)
-        if isinstance(default_val, str):
-            default_on = default_val.lower() not in ("off", "false", "0", "no")
-        else:
-            default_on = bool(default_val)
-        stems.append({"id": sid, "file": sfile, "default": default_on})
+        stems.append({
+            "id": sid,
+            "file": sfile,
+            "default": stem_default_on(s.get("default", True)),
+        })
 
     # The complete mixdown is a stem (spec §5.3), but it is not a *layer*: lift
     # it out so that no consumer of `stems` — the mixer, the library's stem

plugins/career/routes.py

@@ -522,27 +522,39 @@ def _current_venue():
     return best
 
 
-def _unplayed_genre_songs(gkey, exclude, limit):
-    """Library songs of a genre with no stats yet — a young passport's gig
-    still gets a full set (playing them is how stubs start).
-    ponytail: full stat-less scan + python-side genre match (a few ms at 7k
-    songs, single-user); push the match into SQL if propose ever feels slow."""
+def _fill_genre_songs(gkey, exclude, limit):
+    """Library songs of a genre to round out a gig — ANY song of the genre the
+    set hasn't already picked.
+
+    Was `_unplayed_genre_songs`, restricted to `filename NOT IN song_stats`.
+    That restriction created a hole: a song you'd played on a DIFFERENT
+    instrument's arrangement has a stats row, so it was excluded here — and it
+    lives in the played bucket for THAT instrument, not this passport's, so it
+    was excluded there too. It could never be gigged. A player with 137 metalcore
+    songs, all played on another instrument, got a 404 (reproduced). The player's
+    library is the pool; whether a song has stats on some other instrument has no
+    bearing on whether it can be in THIS gig.
+
+    Shuffled, so re-roll actually changes the set. The old version returned the
+    library's first N in table order every time, so re-roll was a no-op for any
+    set drawn from the filler (reproduced).
+
+    ponytail: full genre scan + python-side match + shuffle (a few ms at 7k
+    songs, single-user); push into SQL if propose ever feels slow.
+    """
     db = _state["meta_db"]
     if db is None:
         return []
     rows = db.conn.execute(
-        f"SELECT filename, title, artist, {_genre_expr(db)} AS g FROM songs "
-        "WHERE filename NOT IN (SELECT filename FROM song_stats)"
+        f"SELECT filename, title, artist, {_genre_expr(db)} AS g FROM songs"
     ).fetchall()
-    out = []
-    for filename, title, artist, genre in rows:
-        if _genre_key(genre) != gkey or filename in exclude:
-            continue
-        out.append({"filename": filename, "title": title or filename,
-                    "artist": artist or ""})
-        if len(out) >= limit:
-            break
-    return out
+    pool = [
+        {"filename": filename, "title": title or filename, "artist": artist or ""}
+        for filename, title, artist, genre in rows
+        if _genre_key(genre) == gkey and filename not in exclude
+    ]
+    random.shuffle(pool)   # re-roll must vary; free per call
+    return pool[:limit]
 
 
 def _validate_pack_dir(pack_dir: Path):
@@ -836,7 +848,7 @@ def setup(app, context):
             picks.append(s)
         if len(picks) < size:
             exclude = {s["filename"] for s in picks}
-            picks.extend(_unplayed_genre_songs(gkey, exclude, size - len(picks)))
+            picks.extend(_fill_genre_songs(gkey, exclude, size - len(picks)))
         if not picks:
             raise HTTPException(404, "No songs of this genre in the library.")
         venue = _current_venue()

plugins/career/screen.js

@@ -1192,7 +1192,21 @@
                 if (typeof window.setViz === 'function') window.setViz('venue');
             } catch (_) { /* viz optional — restore stays intact */ }
         }
+        // Push the gig's venue pack to the crowd layer NOW.
+        //
+        // crowd.setManifest(venue) is reached only through pushCrowdManifest,
+        // and pushCrowdManifest is called only from refresh() — the career
+        // tab's own reload. A gig navigates AWAY from the career tab to the
+        // player, so refresh() never runs during it, and setting the override
+        // above does nothing on its own. The result the testers saw: the venue
+        // visualization turns on (3D highway) but its crowd/stage pack never
+        // loads, so the song plays over the bare highway backdrop ("standard
+        // particles"), or over whatever venue a previous refresh() happened to
+        // leave applied. We just changed the override to this gig's venue, so
+        // re-push for it. _state is the career state the booking screen already
+        // fetched; guard for the rare null.
         _appliedManifestVenue = null;
+        if (_state) pushCrowdManifest(_state);
         _ppGigRun = {
             songs: prop.songs,
             venue_id: prop.venue_id,

plugins/highway_3d/screen.js

@@ -15398,15 +15398,29 @@
             // highway throttled the whole room. Pausing the song dropped the
             // venue, the crowd and the stage to 10 fps.
             //
-            // Only claim continuous frames while a crowd video is actually
-            // rolling: with no venue pack (the common case) the paused scene IS
-            // static and the throttle should still save the GPU.
+            // Two independent sources of motion, and BOTH must keep their frames:
+            //
+            //  • a crowd video rolling on its own clock (career venue pack), and
+            //  • the venue scene's own fake-depth motion — the backdrop breathes,
+            //    the haze drifts, warmth pulses, the shimmer moves. That is
+            //    Math.sin(t) in the draw loop (see _venueApplyFakeDepthMotion),
+            //    so it only moves while we are actually given frames, and it runs
+            //    with NO pack at all.
+            //
+            // The throttle fires whenever the CHART CLOCK is stalled — which is
+            // not just a pause. A count-in and the credits/author overlay stall it
+            // exactly the same way, so the venue was stuttering there too.
+            //
+            // With no venue at all (plain 3D highway) the paused scene really is a
+            // still picture: motion mode reads 'off', we claim nothing, and the
+            // throttle still saves the GPU as #654 intended.
             needsContinuousFrames() {
                 if (!_isReady || _ctxLost) return false;
                 for (const v of _venueCrowdVideos) {
                     if (v && !v.paused && !v.ended && v.readyState >= 2) return true;
                 }
-                return false;
+                // 'off' also covers prefers-reduced-motion and "no venue scene".
+                try { return _venueEffectiveMotionMode() !== 'off'; } catch (_) { return false; }
             },
 
             draw(bundle) {

static/highway.js

@@ -986,6 +986,22 @@ function createHighway() {
                 // inline arrow function.
                 function _handleAsyncInitFailure(e) {
                     if (hwState._renderer !== _installedRenderer) return;
+                    // ...and ignore a rejection from a SUPERSEDED init cycle.
+                    //
+                    // A renderer mints a fresh readyPromise on every init(), and
+                    // rejects the previous one ("superseded") when a newer init
+                    // starts. The renderer object is unchanged, so the identity
+                    // check above does not catch it — and we would tear down a
+                    // perfectly healthy renderer that is merely re-initialising.
+                    //
+                    // This is exactly what starting a gig did: setViz('venue')
+                    // installed the 3D renderer, then the queue's playSong()
+                    // re-initialised it a tick later; init #1's promise rejected,
+                    // and the gig dropped to the fallback 2D highway with the
+                    // venue gone. A superseded init is not a failed init — the
+                    // NEW cycle owns the outcome, and its own promise is what we
+                    // must judge.
+                    if (_installedRenderer.readyPromise !== rp) return;
                     console.error('renderer async init failure:', e);
                     _destroyCurrentIfInited();
                     hwState._renderer = _defaultRenderer;

tests/js/career_plugin.test.js

@@ -116,3 +116,30 @@ test('career screen pushes the crowd manifest with a base URL', () => {
     // Degrades without the crowd layer (PR1 not merged / older desktop).
     assert.match(src, /typeof crowd\.setManifest !== 'function'\) return/);
 });
+
+// feedBack#… (tester): "Venue doesn't load when starting song from passport.
+// Loads standard particles." crowd.setManifest(venue) is reached ONLY through
+// pushCrowdManifest, and pushCrowdManifest is called ONLY from refresh() (the
+// career tab's own reload). A gig navigates away from that tab, so refresh()
+// never runs during it — the venue viz turns on but its crowd/stage pack never
+// loads. startGig must push the manifest itself after setting the override.
+test('startGig pushes the crowd manifest for the gig venue', () => {
+    const fs = require('node:fs');
+    const path = require('node:path');
+    const src = fs.readFileSync(
+        path.join(__dirname, '..', '..', 'plugins', 'career', 'screen.js'), 'utf8');
+    const start = src.indexOf('async function startGig(');
+    assert.ok(start !== -1, 'startGig not found');
+    const open = src.indexOf('{', src.indexOf(')', start));
+    let depth = 1, i = open + 1;
+    while (i < src.length && depth > 0) { const ch = src[i]; if (ch === '{') depth++; else if (ch === '}') depth--; i++; }
+    const fn = src.slice(start, i);
+    // The override is set, then the manifest must be (re)pushed for it.
+    const overrideIdx = fn.search(/VENUE_OVERRIDE_KEY,\s*prop\.venue_id/);
+    const pushIdx = fn.search(/pushCrowdManifest\s*\(/);
+    assert.ok(overrideIdx !== -1, 'startGig must set the venue override');
+    assert.ok(pushIdx !== -1,
+        'startGig must push the crowd manifest — refresh() (its only other caller) ' +
+        'never runs during a gig, so the venue pack would never load');
+    assert.ok(overrideIdx < pushIdx, 'the manifest must be pushed AFTER the override is set to the gig venue');
+});

tests/js/highway_pause_throttle.test.js

@@ -114,13 +114,52 @@ test('the capability probe fails closed (absent / non-function / throwing)', ()
         'only an explicit true opts out — a truthy accident must not disable the throttle');
 });
 
-test('3D highway claims continuous frames only while a crowd video is rolling', () => {
+test('3D highway claims continuous frames for BOTH sources of venue motion', () => {
     const h3d = fs.readFileSync(
         path.join(__dirname, '..', '..', 'plugins', 'highway_3d', 'screen.js'), 'utf8');
     const fn = extractBlock(h3d, 'needsContinuousFrames()');
+    // (1) a crowd video rolling on its own clock (career venue pack)
     assert.match(fn, /_venueCrowdVideos/, 'must key off the actual crowd video elements');
-    assert.match(fn, /\.paused/, 'a paused video is a still frame — throttle should still apply');
-    // With no venue pack (the common case) the paused scene really is static and
-    // the GPU saving must survive: the method has to be able to return false.
-    assert.match(fn, /return false;/, 'must fall through to false with no live video');
+    assert.match(fn, /\.paused/, 'a paused video is a still frame');
+    // (2) the venue scene's OWN fake-depth motion — backdrop breathe, haze drift,
+    // warmth pulse, shimmer. Math.sin(t) in the draw loop, so it only moves while
+    // we get frames, and it runs with NO pack at all. Missing this meant the venue
+    // still stuttered on pause / count-in / credits whenever no video was rolling.
+    assert.match(fn, /_venueEffectiveMotionMode\s*\(\s*\)\s*!==\s*'off'/,
+        'the venue scene animates without any video — it must claim frames too');
+    // ...and with no venue at all the paused scene IS static: the #654 GPU saving
+    // must survive, so the method has to be able to return false.
+    assert.match(fn, /return false;/, 'must fall through to false on a plain 3D highway');
+});
+
+// ── a SUPERSEDED init is not a FAILED init ──────────────────────────────────
+//
+// Starting a gig dropped the player onto the fallback 2D highway with no venue.
+//
+// setViz('venue') installs the 3D renderer, whose init is async; the gig then
+// immediately starts its play queue, and playSong() re-initialises that same
+// renderer a tick later. A renderer mints a fresh readyPromise per init() and
+// rejects the previous one with "superseded" — but highway.js only checked that
+// the RENDERER object was unchanged, which it is. So it treated a healthy
+// re-initialising renderer as a failed one, tore it down, and reverted to 2D:
+//
+//     renderer async init failure: Error: superseded
+//     viz picker: reverted to default renderer (async-init-failure)
+//
+// Reproduced and fixed against the real build (venue stays selected, scene
+// active, no viz:reverted).
+
+test('a superseded readyPromise must not revert the viz to 2D', () => {
+    const src = highwaySources();
+    const fn = extractBlock(src, 'function _handleAsyncInitFailure(e)');
+    assert.match(fn, /readyPromise\s*!==\s*rp[\s\S]{0,40}return/,
+        'a rejection from a STALE readyPromise (the renderer has since re-init\'d) must be ' +
+        'ignored — otherwise a re-initialising renderer is torn down as if it had failed');
+    // The renderer-identity check must survive too: a rejection belonging to a
+    // renderer that has since been REPLACED is also not our problem.
+    assert.match(fn, /hwState\._renderer\s*!==\s*_installedRenderer[\s\S]{0,20}return/,
+        'the renderer-identity guard must remain');
+    // ...and a genuine failure of the CURRENT init cycle must still revert.
+    assert.match(fn, /_emitVizReverted\s*\(\s*'async-init-failure'\s*\)/,
+        'a real async-init failure must still fall back to the default renderer');
 });

tests/plugins/career/test_passports.py

@@ -445,3 +445,30 @@ def test_gold_intake_rejects_junk(client, meta_db):
     res = client.post("/api/plugins/career/drill-state",
                       json={"byNode": {}, "goldImprov": blob})
     assert res.status_code == 413
+
+
+def test_gig_includes_songs_played_on_another_instrument(client, meta_db):
+    # feedBack#… (tester): "Metalcore says 137 songs, only shows 1 in the gig list".
+    # A song played on a DIFFERENT instrument's arrangement has a stats row, so it
+    # was excluded from the unplayed filler — and its played bucket is that other
+    # instrument's, not this passport's — so it fell into a gap and could never be
+    # gigged. A guitar passport with a library of bass-played metalcore got a 404.
+    for i in range(137):
+        meta_db.add(f"mc{i}.feedpak", 0, 0.80, genre="Metalcore", arrangements=BASS)
+    res = client.post("/api/plugins/career/gigs/propose",
+                      json={"instrument": "guitar", "genre": "Metalcore", "size": 4})
+    assert res.status_code == 200, "a full library of the genre must never 404"
+    assert len(res.json()["songs"]) == 4, "the gig must fill from the library, not the gap"
+
+
+def test_gig_reroll_changes_the_set(client, meta_db):
+    # feedBack#… (tester): "Passport re-roll does not change songs". A set drawn
+    # from the filler used to be the library's first N in table order, every time.
+    for i in range(40):
+        meta_db.add_song_only(f"un{i}.feedpak", genre="Metalcore")
+    sets = set()
+    for _ in range(5):
+        r = client.post("/api/plugins/career/gigs/propose",
+                        json={"instrument": "guitar", "genre": "Metalcore", "size": 4})
+        sets.add(tuple(sorted(s["filename"] for s in r.json()["songs"])))
+    assert len(sets) > 1, "re-roll must be able to produce a different set"

tests/test_song_info_stems.py

@@ -0,0 +1,140 @@
+"""`/api/song/{f}?stems=1` — the playable stem list, for preloading.
+
+The stems plugin could only learn its stem list from the highway's WS `ready`,
+which arrives once the highway is already up. So it decoded the stems and then
+copied the whole song's PCM to its audio worklet with the player on screen —
+half a gigabyte of memcpy in one frame, ~700 ms, which froze the venue video.
+
+Given the list at `song:loading` it can do all of that BEFORE the highway
+appears, behind the loading overlay where a stall costs nothing.
+
+The safety property these tests exist for: the REST payload must be the SAME
+list the WS builds. If they disagree, the plugin preloads one graph and then
+throws it away and rebuilds another — strictly worse than not preloading. So
+they are pinned against each other, not just against a snapshot.
+"""
+
+import zipfile
+
+import yaml
+
+import sloppak
+
+
+def _pak(tmp_path, stems, full=None, name="song.feedpak", original_audio=None):
+    manifest = {
+        "title": "T", "artist": "A", "duration": 10.0,
+        "arrangements": [],
+        "stems": stems + ([full] if full else []),
+    }
+    if original_audio:
+        # The deprecated pre-1.15.0 shape: the mixdown lives outside `stems`.
+        manifest["original_audio"] = original_audio
+    p = tmp_path / name
+    with zipfile.ZipFile(p, "w") as z:
+        # Real packs carry manifest.yaml — a JSON manifest is not read at all.
+        z.writestr("manifest.yaml", yaml.safe_dump(manifest))
+        # _legacy_full_mix only returns a path that actually EXISTS on disk.
+        if original_audio:
+            z.writestr(original_audio, b"\0" * 16)
+    return p
+
+
+def _payload(tmp_path, pak):
+    from routers.song import _playable_stems_payload
+    import appstate
+    cache = tmp_path / "cache"
+    cache.mkdir(exist_ok=True)
+    appstate.sloppak_cache_dir = cache
+    return _playable_stems_payload(pak.name, tmp_path)
+
+
+def _ws_payload(tmp_path, pak):
+    """Rebuild the WS `ready` stems payload exactly as ws_highway.py does."""
+    from urllib.parse import quote
+    cache = tmp_path / "cache"
+    cache.mkdir(exist_ok=True)
+    loaded = sloppak.load_song(pak.name, tmp_path, cache)
+    q = quote(pak.name, safe="")
+    return {
+        "stems": [
+            {"id": s["id"], "url": f"/api/sloppak/{q}/file/{quote(s['file'])}",
+             "default": s["default"]}
+            for s in loaded.stems
+        ],
+        "full_mix_url": f"/api/sloppak/{q}/file/{quote(loaded.full_mix)}" if loaded.full_mix else None,
+    }
+
+
+def test_default_resolution_is_shared_with_load_song():
+    assert sloppak.stem_default_on(True) is True
+    assert sloppak.stem_default_on(False) is False
+    assert sloppak.stem_default_on("off") is False
+    assert sloppak.stem_default_on("false") is False
+    assert sloppak.stem_default_on("0") is False
+    assert sloppak.stem_default_on("no") is False
+    assert sloppak.stem_default_on("on") is True
+    assert sloppak.stem_default_on(1) is True
+
+
+def test_rest_matches_the_ws_for_a_reserved_full_stem(tmp_path):
+    pak = _pak(tmp_path,
+               [{"id": "guitar", "file": "stems/guitar.ogg"},
+                {"id": "vocals", "file": "stems/vocals.ogg", "default": "off"}],
+               full={"id": "full", "file": "stems/full.ogg"},
+               name="Iron Maiden - Phantom.feedpak")
+    rest = _payload(tmp_path, pak)
+    assert rest == _ws_payload(tmp_path, pak)
+    assert [s["id"] for s in rest["stems"]] == ["guitar", "vocals"], "the mixdown is not a layer"
+    assert rest["full_mix_url"].endswith("stems/full.ogg")
+    assert rest["stems"][1]["default"] is False
+
+
+def test_rest_matches_the_ws_for_a_LEGACY_original_audio_pack(tmp_path):
+    """The one CodeRabbit caught, and the one that matters most in practice.
+
+    load_song falls back to the DEPRECATED `original_audio:` key when a pack has
+    no reserved `full` stem — which is every pack written before feedpak 1.15.0,
+    i.e. most of a real library. My first version of this payload reimplemented
+    the full-mix rule from extract_meta and silently returned None for them: REST
+    would say "no full mix" while the WS said there was one. The plugin would then
+    preload a graph WITHOUT the pristine mix and, because the signature still
+    matched, never rebuild — unity playback silently downgraded to the lossy
+    recombination.
+
+    The payload now calls load_song itself, so this cannot drift. Pinned anyway.
+    """
+    pak = _pak(tmp_path, [
+        {"id": "guitar", "file": "stems/guitar.ogg"},
+        {"id": "bass", "file": "stems/bass.ogg"},
+    ], name="Legacy Pack.feedpak", original_audio="original/full.ogg")
+
+    rest = _payload(tmp_path, pak)
+    assert rest == _ws_payload(tmp_path, pak)
+    assert rest["full_mix_url"] is not None, (
+        "a pre-1.15.0 pack's full mix must survive — dropping it downgrades unity "
+        "playback to the lossy stem recombination, silently"
+    )
+    assert rest["full_mix_url"].endswith("original/full.ogg")
+
+
+def test_rest_matches_the_ws_for_a_single_full_pack(tmp_path):
+    # Its ONE stem IS the mixdown: nothing to be pristine against, so `full` stays
+    # the sole playable stem and no separate mixdown is surfaced.
+    pak = _pak(tmp_path, [{"id": "full", "file": "stems/full.ogg"}], name="Single.feedpak")
+    rest = _payload(tmp_path, pak)
+    assert rest == _ws_payload(tmp_path, pak)
+    assert [s["id"] for s in rest["stems"]] == ["full"]
+    assert rest["full_mix_url"] is None
+
+
+def test_a_broken_pack_yields_an_empty_list_not_an_error(tmp_path):
+    # Preloading is an optimisation: an unreadable pack must fall back to the
+    # normal WS-driven path, never break the song-info request.
+    from routers.song import _playable_stems_payload
+    import appstate
+    cache = tmp_path / "cache"
+    cache.mkdir()
+    appstate.sloppak_cache_dir = cache
+    (tmp_path / "bad.feedpak").write_bytes(b"not a zip")
+    assert _playable_stems_payload("bad.feedpak", tmp_path) == {"stems": [], "full_mix_url": None}