Users can set a display name (shown instead of username in the message
list, room member list, TopBar, and admin Users tab) and upload a real
avatar, replacing the generated color-initial avatars everywhere a user
appears. Avatars are square-cropped and downscaled to 512px, reusing
app/storage.py's upload primitives from image uploads with a new square
option.
Two deliberate divergences from message-image handling, documented in
backend/README.md: the previous avatar file is deleted on replace/remove
(safe since it's strictly one file per user), and avatar serving is not
room-gated and uses a short cache (identity-addressed and mutable, unlike
a message image's permanent content-addressed URL).
Frontend: new ProfileModal reachable from the TopBar account menu;
AuthContext gains updateUser() so a profile change reflects instantly
everywhere without a refetch.
Images live on the app server's local disk (uploads/), served through an
authenticated, room-membership-gated endpoint since rooms can be private.
Uploads are streamed with a byte-count cap, validated as genuine decodable
images with Pillow (not just a spoofed Content-Type), and downscaled to
2000px on the longer side (except GIF, to preserve animation).
Backend: MessageImage model + nullable Message.content/image_id with a
content-or-image CheckConstraint, upload/serve endpoints in rooms.py, WS
message envelope gains image_id, push notification body says "sent an
image" for image-only messages.
Frontend: Composer gets an attach button with upload progress and a
thumbnail chip; MessageList renders images inline with a click-to-zoom
ImageLightbox.
ksmith