fix(www): optimize blog author avatar loading

[yamcodes]

Summary

Blog author profile pictures were slow on every render because they:

1. Pointed at github.com/{user}.png, which 302s to avatars.githubusercontent.com with Cache-Control: no-cache
2. Used next/image with unoptimized, so Next never cached or resized them

Changes

• Serve avatars from avatars.githubusercontent.com/{handle}?s={size} (direct 200, no redirect)
• Enable Next.js image optimization (drop unoptimized)
• Add sizes / preload on post avatars (Next.js 16; not deprecated priority)
• Allowlist only avatars.githubusercontent.com in images.remotePatterns

Review follow-ups

• Swapped priority → preload
• Removed site-wide minimumCacheTTL: 31 days (risky for local /assets/*)
• Dropped unused github.com remote pattern

Test plan

• Unit test for getAuthorAvatarUrl
• Load /blog and a post; confirm avatars come from /_next/image?...
• Confirm PFPs render at the expected sizes
• Optimized 32w variant ~1.9KB / ~3ms cache HIT vs ~60–190ms GitHub redirect path

  

[changeset-bot]

⚠️ No Changeset found

Latest commit: 4910e78

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[arkenv-bot]

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Project	Deployment	Review	Updated (Asia/Almaty)
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[pullfrog]

ℹ️ No critical issues — minor suggestions inline.

Reviewed changes

• Avatar host swap — getAuthorAvatarUrl now targets avatars.githubusercontent.com/{handle}?s={size} instead of github.com/{handle}.png, verified to return 200 directly rather than a no-cache 302, with the JSDoc updated to match.
• Blog index avatar — drops unoptimized and adds sizes="20px" so Next optimizes and caches the 20px thumbnail.
• Blog post avatar — drops unoptimized, adds sizes="32px" and priority on both the linked and unlinked variants.
• images.minimumCacheTTL — raised to 31 days (2678400s) in next.config.ts; remotePatterns already allowed both hosts, so no pattern change was needed.
• Unit test — expected URL in blog-author.test.ts updated to the new host/query format.

ℹ️ Nitpicks

• The github.com entry in images.remotePatterns is now unused by next/image — only the two blog call sites referenced github.com/{user}.png, and both now use avatars.githubusercontent.com. Dropping it would tighten the allowlist.

  ^{｜ Fix all ➔ ｜ Fix 👍s ➔ ｜ View workflow run ｜ Using DeepSeek Flash (free via Pullfrog for OSS) ｜ 𝕏}

[pullfrog]

✅ No new issues found.

Reviewed changes

• Addressed prior feedback — commit 4910e78 responds to all three prior findings: both post-avatar priority props swapped to preload, the site-wide minimumCacheTTL: 31 days removed, and the now-unused github.com remotePatterns entry dropped.
• preload is the correct Next 16 API — verified against the pinned next@16.2.6; priority is marked deprecated in favor of preload in get-img-props.d.ts, and both [slug]/page.tsx variants (:79, :90) now use it. Only one renders per request, so there is no double-preload.
• github.com removal is safe — the only remaining github.com references in apps/www are link hrefs (header/star buttons, author profile link), not next/image sources, so tightening the allowlist to avatars.githubusercontent.com breaks nothing.
• Cache behavior — dropping minimumCacheTTL returns optimized images to Next's default TTL, which avoids masking in-place replacements of local /assets/* files while still caching the avatars.

  ^{｜ View workflow run ｜ Using DeepSeek Flash (free via Pullfrog for OSS) ｜ 𝕏}