The Spotify enrichment worker was auto-starting unconditionally at boot,
hammering /v1/search to match every track in the library against the
Spotify catalog regardless of which metadata source the user had
actually chosen as their primary. Users on Deezer, iTunes, Discogs,
or Hydrabase saw multi-hour 429 bans (typically 14400s) on Spotify
even though they never wanted Spotify-driven enrichment in the first
place — the worker generated dead API traffic the user neither asked
for nor benefited from.
Compounded by Spotify's February 2026 API tightening:
- /v1/search max limit cut from 50 to 10 per request, default from
20 to 5 — every track now needs more pagination, more requests.
- Sustained-rate detection more aggressive — repeated calls over
hours trigger automated long-form bans even when each individual
30-second window is well under the rolling limit.
Result: a user on Deezer would see their Spotify connection get banned
for 4 hours after about 30 tracks of enrichment activity, with no
recourse other than manually pausing the worker each session.
Two-part fix:
1. Boot gate (web_server.py): only auto-start the worker when
`get_primary_source() == 'spotify'`. Otherwise initialize in the
paused state with an explanatory log line. The settings UI manual
unpause control remains functional for users who explicitly want
background Spotify enrichment regardless of primary source.
Boot logic:
- User manually paused (existing config) → stays paused (preserved).
- Primary = 'spotify' → starts running (preserved).
- Primary != 'spotify' → starts paused with log line.
2. Daily budget reduction (core/spotify_worker.py): drop from 3000 to
500 items per calendar day. The 3000 cap was set when /v1/search
returned 50 results per call; now that it caps at 10, each track
needs roughly 5x the API load to find a confident match. 500/day
keeps the worker productive without crossing Spotify's hidden
sustained-rate detection threshold.
The runtime side of the boot gate — auto-pausing when the user
switches primary source mid-session — is out of scope. The settings
UI already exposes the manual toggle, and primary-source switches are
infrequent enough that requiring a manual unpause after the fact is
acceptable.
Full suite: 1355 passing. Ruff clean.
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