fix(player): keep playing while you browse, with one player that owns the media

[chhoumann]

Summary

Playback no longer depends on which PodNotes view is open. One PlayerController (src/player/PlayerController.ts) owns the single media element in the main window from plugin load to unload, and the player view only renders its state and calls its intents.

• Audio keeps playing while you browse the podcast grid, an episode list or settings, with the PodNotes view closed, and after a popout holding the view closes. Fixes Playback stops when browsing away from the player #355.
• After a restart the last episode shows paused at its saved position. Opening the player no longer starts it. Fixes Opening the restored player after an Obsidian restart starts audio automatically #377.
• Playing another episode before the restored one never overwrites its saved position. Only a loaded episode's position is ever saved. Fixes Saved playback position resets to 0 after a restart and an episode switch #353.
• Commands, timestamp links, context menus, "Play with PodNotes" and the public API work with the view closed. The headphone previous-track capture is unchanged.
• A link to another show's same-titled episode plays that show's episode. The loaded-episode shortcut now compares the feed (or the vault file) as well as the title.
• A data.json change synced from another device never loads, seeks, pauses or advances the queue. It also no longer gets this device's loaded episode written back over the other device's selection: only an explicit play, or the queue advancing at a natural end, writes currentEpisode. While nothing is loaded, a sync refreshes the restored episode and position.
• A queued snapshot plays its own source. Its own vault file plays that file; a registered download plays only when it is a copy of the same media URL; otherwise the stream plays. A missing file is an error, never other audio. A download that finishes mid-play no longer swaps the source.
• time and endTime in links parse strictly (12abc is refused), api.currentTime = NaN or undefined is ignored, and a seek past the end stops 0.25 s short and pauses instead of finishing the episode.
• After a media error, a retry starts where the user last put the position (a seek or a link's time) until that position is saved, and otherwise at the saved progress, including progress a sync brought in meanwhile.
• A link whose feed is still loading never overrides a newer intent: a play, resume, pause, seek, Start or Stop command, media key or OS play/pause, or another link that plays, all win over it, and a stale link shows no error notice. A link refused before its fetch cancels nothing, including a link to a saved private feed whose URL is not on this device.
• Legacy title-only progress keeps working: a record saved without a podcast name resumes the episode, and another show's same-titled record is ignored (PB-06).
• Queue reordering takes the episode, not an index.
• The playback-rate slider shows the real rate. It showed 1.50 at 1x because the slider set its value before its limits.

Every playback store is gone: currentEpisode, currentTime, duration, isPaused, playbackRate, volume, requestedPlaybackTime, activePlaybackSegment, queue.playNext, subscribeQueueToCurrentEpisode, the currentEpisode persistence binding and the republish after a sync. Episode identity stays the released getEpisodeKey (podcast and title) and the Episode snapshot.

Verification

Obsidian 1.13.7 on headless Linux (Xvfb), isolated worktree vault, Node v22.23.2. Feeds are the e2e fixture server and the verify skill's PodNotes Fixture (http://127.0.0.1.nip.io:<port>/feed.xml, 60 s WAV enclosures); video checks used a 60 s WebM made with ffmpeg and "Play as video with PodNotes".

Before (master f7400ba) and after, same journeys. The new journeys in tests/e2e/journey-playback.test.ts fail on master and pass on this branch:

Journey	master	this branch
#355 audio keeps playing on the grid, an episode list and settings	fails: paused on the grid	passes
#353 a restored position survives switching episodes before the player opens	fails: saved {0, 0} over 30 s	passes
Commands, the API and a timestamp link with the view closed	fails: reports playing, nothing advances	passes
A link to another show's same-titled episode	fails: resumes the loaded show's episode	passes
A remote data.json change during playback	fails: local currentEpisode written back over the remote one	passes
#355 an episode that ends while browsing plays the queued one	fails: playback stopped	passes
#377 J-PLAY-11 restart keeps the saved position without autoplay	known-failure marker	plain assertions, passes

The journey "Start playing while a slow link to another show loads keeps playing the paused episode" reproduces V-401's finding: run against the pre-fix controller (head 58b77ee) it fails with the other show's episode playing after the delayed feed arrives; it passes on this head.

Recordings with an on-screen probe of api.isPlaying and api.currentTime:

• Playback stops when browsing away from the player #355 browsing, master: probe freezes at "paused 4.0 s" on the grid, list and settings, then autoplays on the Player tab. screen recording
• Playback stops when browsing away from the player #355 browsing, this branch: "PLAYING" from 0.5 s to 16.7 s across the grid, list and settings. screen recording
• Opening the restored player after an Obsidian restart starts audio automatically #377 restore, master: the API reads 0.0 s until the player mounts, then it autoplays from 30 s. screen recording
• Opening the restored player after an Obsidian restart starts audio automatically #377 restore, this branch: paused at 30.0 s the whole time, no autoplay. screen recording
• View closed, this branch: audio advances with the leaf closed; "Toggle playback" pauses and resumes it; api.stop() pauses it. screen recording

Also checked in Obsidian: headset previous-track capture (existing e2e, with the view closed), a popout holding the view closes while audio keeps playing and data.json stays intact, a reload right after (#370), hiding the main window saves the position at once, a video moved to a popout keeps playing in the main window while the popout shows the artwork, and api.start(); api.stop() in one call leaves the media paused.

Commands on the head commit:

npm run lint            exit 0
npm run format:check    All matched files use the correct format.
npm run typecheck       exit 0
npm run build           exit 0
npm run test            92 files, 1558 tests passed; svelte-check 0 errors, 0 warnings
npm run docs:build      15 pages, internal links valid
npm run size            main.js raw 317,826 (master 315,027, +2,799; budget 330,000)
                        main.js gzip 99,975 (master 99,505, +470; budget 100,000)
npm run test:e2e        11 files, 68 tests passed

git grep -nE "currentTime\.set|isPaused|requestedPlaybackTime|activePlaybackSegment|subscribeQueueToCurrentEpisode|playNext|currentEpisode\.(set|subscribe)|bind:currentTime|bind:paused|<audio|<video" -- src prints nothing: the view-owned media element and its playback store wiring are gone.

Reviewed by an adversarial panel (Claude Opus 5.5 and GPT-6 Astra) over eight rounds on the full diff and each fix diff, and verified independently (V-401 and V-401b, whose findings this head fixes); every accepted finding has a test that fails without its fix.

Release impact

None for storage: no data.json shape change and no migration. settings.currentEpisode is now written only by an explicit selection, so after a sync it keeps the other device's selection instead of this device's loaded episode. The public API (src/API/IAPI.ts) and obsidian://podnotes parameters are unchanged. Behavior differences a user can notice: closing the PodNotes view or a popout no longer stops audio (use Stop or Toggle playback); a seek past the end pauses just before it; isPlaying is also true while an episode is loading.

Fixes #355
Fixes #353
Fixes #377

Note

Replace playback stores with a single PlayerController that keeps playing while browsing

• Adds PlayerController in PlayerController.ts, which owns one main-window media element and one reactive player state. Playback now continues while browsing views, changing settings, or closing the player view
• Removes the player-state stores (current episode, time, duration, paused, volume, rate, segment) from index.ts. All callers — API, URI handler, context menus, EpisodePlayer, settings import — now route through the controller
• Adds selectSource in source.ts, which picks the episode's vault snapshot first, then a matching download, then the stream URL; a missing vault file stays unplayable
• URI handling now distinguishes same-titled episodes by link target, rejects non-numeric timestamps, and cancels stale async feed results
• Docs, e2e journeys, and unit tests are rewritten around controller state and a new FakeMedia mock
• Behavioral Change: startup restores the last episode paused at its saved position; API.isPlaying is true while media loads; forward skips are capped 0.25s before the end and keep playing; importing settings updates the live player's volume and rate

^{Macroscope summarized 8c9ea1a.}

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View logs

[macroscopeapp]

🟡 Medium src/URIHandler.ts:214

A feed request that fails after the user pauses, seeks, or starts another playback still shows “Could not load the podcast feed”; a title miss likewise shows “Episode not found” even though that player intent superseded the request. Those intents invalidate PlayerController’s deferred-play request, not latestRequest, and both notices are handled before play(...) checks that cancellation. Check the controller’s cancellation token before reporting fetch errors or title misses.

🚀 Reply "fix it for me" or copy this AI Prompt for your agent:

In file @src/URIHandler.ts around line 214:

A feed request that fails after the user pauses, seeks, or starts another playback still shows “Could not load the podcast feed”; a title miss likewise shows “Episode not found” even though that player intent superseded the request. Those intents invalidate `PlayerController`’s deferred-play request, not `latestRequest`, and both notices are handled before `play(...)` checks that cancellation. Check the controller’s cancellation token before reporting fetch errors or title misses.