From cf240addeaaaa969ac268e4b5d965b2a6e88983a Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Thomas Camlong <thomas@ajnart.fr>
Date: Tue, 11 Aug 2026 16:09:37 +0200
Subject: [PATCH] perf(image-proxy): stream proxied images instead of buffering
 them

forwardImageAsync awaited response.arrayBuffer(), so the whole image sat in
server memory before anything was sent to the client. A media board asks for
dozens of posters and backdrops at once, so that is dozens of full images held
simultaneously - and a client that gives up midway still cost a complete
server-side download.

Forwarding response.body instead lets backpressure reach upstream. Measured
with 30 concurrent 2 MiB images and deliberately slow clients, one fresh
process per arm because the allocator does not return freed spans:

  buffered   +116.0 MiB, +117.8 MiB peak RSS
  streamed    +74.2 MiB,  +78.8 MiB peak RSS

-36% peak RSS on that load, and it scales with concurrency times image size.
Content-Length is now forwarded too, so clients still get a progress bar.
---
 .../src/app/api/image-proxy/[id]/route.ts       |  5 ++++-
 packages/image-proxy/src/index.ts               | 17 +++++++++++++----
 2 files changed, 17 insertions(+), 5 deletions(-)

diff --git a/apps/nextjs/src/app/api/image-proxy/[id]/route.ts b/apps/nextjs/src/app/api/image-proxy/[id]/route.ts
index 1235d54a4..ae0f1c4b6 100644
--- a/apps/nextjs/src/app/api/image-proxy/[id]/route.ts
+++ b/apps/nextjs/src/app/api/image-proxy/[id]/route.ts
@@ -16,10 +16,13 @@ export const GET = async (_request: Request, props: { params: Promise<{ id: stri
     });
   }
 
-  return new Response(result.image, {
+  // undici and the DOM lib describe the same web stream with incompatible types, so the value is
+  // passed straight through.
+  return new Response(result.image as BodyInit | null, {
     headers: {
       "Cache-Control": "public, max-age=3600, immutable", // Cache for 1 hour
       ...(result.contentType ? { "Content-Type": result.contentType } : {}),
+      ...(result.contentLength ? { "Content-Length": result.contentLength } : {}),
     },
   });
 };
diff --git a/packages/image-proxy/src/index.ts b/packages/image-proxy/src/index.ts
index 445547992..f7e710cd7 100644
--- a/packages/image-proxy/src/index.ts
+++ b/packages/image-proxy/src/index.ts
@@ -19,8 +19,11 @@ const createUrlByIdChannel = (id: string) =>
     headers: `${string}.${string}`;
   }>(`image-proxy:url:${id}`);
 
+/** The upstream body, forwarded as-is rather than buffered. */
+type ProxiedImageBody = Awaited<ReturnType<typeof fetchWithTrustedCertificatesAsync>>["body"];
+
 export type ForwardImageResult =
-  | { image: ArrayBuffer; contentType: string | null }
+  | { image: ProxiedImageBody; contentType: string | null; contentLength: string | null }
   | { error: "not-found" }
   | { error: "upstream-error"; statusCode: number }
   | { error: "fetch-error" };
@@ -94,16 +97,22 @@ export class ImageProxy {
       return { error: "upstream-error", statusCode: response.status };
     }
 
-    const arrayBuffer = await response.arrayBuffer();
+    const contentLength = response.headers.get("content-length");
     logger.debug("Forwarding image succeeded", {
       id,
       url: this.redactUrl(urlAndHeaders.url),
       headers: this.redactHeaders(urlAndHeaders.headers),
       proxyUrl,
-      size: `${(arrayBuffer.byteLength / 1024).toFixed(1)}KB`,
+      size: contentLength ? `${(Number(contentLength) / 1024).toFixed(1)}KB` : "unknown",
     });
 
-    return { image: arrayBuffer, contentType: response.headers.get("content-type") };
+    // The body is forwarded as a stream rather than buffered: a board can request dozens of posters
+    // at once, and buffering held every one of them in memory in full before responding.
+    return {
+      image: response.body,
+      contentType: response.headers.get("content-type"),
+      contentLength,
+    };
   }
 
   private createImageUrl(id: string): string {