From 5a2f406429e2fe6c471e16394ec53ba20393c95b Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Cameron Cordes <cameronc.dev@gmail.com>
Date: Thu, 30 Apr 2026 01:01:07 +0000
Subject: [PATCH] faces: bbox edits survive when re-detection finds no face
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Moving a tagged bbox off-center (to fine-tune position, or onto a
back-of-head the operator already manually tagged) made
update_face_handler 422 because the re-embed step ran detection on
the new crop and found nothing. Frontend's catch then reverted the
optimistic update — visible as the bbox snapping back the moment the
user released their drag.

The re-embed is a soft contract: a fresh ArcFace vector is preferable,
but the operator's bbox edit is sacred. Now:

  - empty faces[] → keep old embedding, apply the bbox, log info
  - permanent embed error → keep old embedding, apply the bbox, log info
  - bad-bytes embedding → keep old embedding, apply the bbox, log warn
  - transient failure (cuda_oom, engine unavailable) still 503s so
    the operator can retry — those are recoverable and we don't want
    to silently drift cluster math on retries that succeed later

Cost: a slightly stale embedding for the row, which marginally
affects clustering / auto-bind cosine for files re-detected against
this person. Accepted because dropping the user's manual drag every
time the new crop happens to lose detection is a much worse UX —
especially for the force-create rows (back of head, profile) where
re-detection will *always* fail.
---
 src/faces.rs | 26 ++++++++++++++++++++------
 1 file changed, 20 insertions(+), 6 deletions(-)

diff --git a/src/faces.rs b/src/faces.rs
index 5cacf14..6bcce3a 100644
--- a/src/faces.rs
+++ b/src/faces.rs
@@ -2234,6 +2234,17 @@ async fn update_face_handler<D: FaceDao>(
             orientation: None,
             model_version: Some(current.model_version.clone()),
         };
+        // Soft contract on the re-embed: we'd LIKE a fresh ArcFace
+        // vector for the new crop, but the operator's bbox edit is
+        // sacred. If detection finds no face in the new region (they
+        // dragged the box slightly off-center, or moved it to a back-
+        // of-head shot they've already manually tagged), or returns a
+        // bad embedding, we keep the old embedding and apply the bbox
+        // anyway. Cost: stale embedding for that row, which slightly
+        // pollutes clustering for files re-detected against this
+        // person — accepted because dropping the user's drag is a
+        // worse UX. Transient failures (cuda_oom, engine unavailable)
+        // still 503 so the operator can retry once Apollo recovers.
         match face_client.embed(crop_bytes, meta).await {
             Ok(resp) => {
                 if let Some(face) = resp.faces.first() {
@@ -2241,20 +2252,23 @@ async fn update_face_handler<D: FaceDao>(
                         Ok(b) => new_embedding = Some(b),
                         Err(e) => {
                             warn!(
-                                "PATCH /image/faces/{}: bad embedding from face service: {:?}",
+                                "PATCH /image/faces/{}: bad embedding from face service ({:?}); keeping old embedding, bbox still applied",
                                 id, e
                             );
-                            return HttpResponse::BadGateway()
-                                .body("invalid embedding from face service");
                         }
                     }
                 } else {
-                    return HttpResponse::UnprocessableEntity()
-                        .body("no face in new bbox");
+                    info!(
+                        "PATCH /image/faces/{}: no face detected in new bbox — keeping old embedding, bbox still applied",
+                        id
+                    );
                 }
             }
             Err(FaceDetectError::Permanent(e)) => {
-                return HttpResponse::UnprocessableEntity().body(format!("{}", e));
+                info!(
+                    "PATCH /image/faces/{}: embed permanent error ({}); keeping old embedding, bbox still applied",
+                    id, e
+                );
             }
             Err(FaceDetectError::Transient(e)) => {
                 return HttpResponse::ServiceUnavailable().body(format!("{}", e));