Hot-reload content on a NATS trigger instead of requiring a restart

questions is now Arc<ArcSwap<HashMap<...>>> - readers do a lock-free
atomic load (state.questions.load().get(&id).cloned()), never blocking
on or blocked by a reload. content::watch_for_reload subscribes to
portal.content.reload (published by the questions repo's own CI after
it lints a push - see that repo's lint-and-reload.yml) and swaps in a
freshly re-fetched HashMap on each message. A fetch/parse failure logs
and keeps serving the last-good content rather than clearing it.

src/answers.rs

@@ -96,7 +96,9 @@ pub async fn transition_answer(
     let state = expect_context::<AppState>();
     let question = state
         .questions
+        .load()
         .get(&question_id)
+        .cloned()
         .ok_or_else(|| ServerFnError::new("unknown question"))?;
     let feature = question
         .alternatives

src/app.rs

@@ -742,7 +742,7 @@ fn NotFound() -> impl IntoView {
 pub async fn get_question(path: String) -> Result<Option<Question>, ServerFnError> {
     use crate::server::AppState;
     let state = expect_context::<AppState>();
-    Ok(state.questions.get(&path).cloned())
+    Ok(state.questions.load().get(&path).cloned())
 }
 
 #[derive(Clone, Debug, Serialize, Deserialize)]
@@ -768,7 +768,9 @@ pub async fn submit_answer(
     let state = expect_context::<AppState>();
     let question = state
         .questions
+        .load()
         .get(&question_id)
+        .cloned()
         .ok_or_else(|| ServerFnError::new("unknown question"))?;
 
     let session: tower_sessions::Session = leptos_axum::extract().await?;
@@ -776,7 +778,7 @@ pub async fn submit_answer(
         .get::<User>(SESSION_USER_KEY)
         .await
         .map_err(|e| ServerFnError::new(e.to_string()))?;
-    if !is_qualified(user.as_ref(), question) {
+    if !is_qualified(user.as_ref(), &question) {
         return Err(ServerFnError::new("not authorized for this question"));
     }
 

src/content.rs

@@ -146,10 +146,10 @@ impl Requirement {
 /// Fetches every `*.yaml` file under `subdir` in a Gitea repo as a
 /// `Question`, keyed by its own `id`. `repo_url` is the repo's normal
 /// browser URL (e.g. `https://project.uhhm.no/uhhm/questions`) - the
-/// Gitea host, owner and repo name are all read from it. Runs once at
-/// startup, over Gitea's public contents API (no auth - the content
-/// repo is public); no hot-reload yet - restart the process (or add
-/// polling later) to pick up content changes.
+/// Gitea host, owner and repo name are all read from it. Called once at
+/// startup, and again on every `CONTENT_RELOAD_SUBJECT` message (see
+/// `watch_for_reload`), over Gitea's public contents API (no auth - the
+/// content repo is public).
 #[cfg(feature = "ssr")]
 pub async fn load_questions_from_gitea(
     repo_url: &str,
@@ -218,3 +218,46 @@ pub async fn load_questions_from_gitea(
     }
     Ok(out)
 }
+
+/// Published by the content repo's own CI (after it lints a push) to
+/// tell every running instance to pick up the change - a plain fire
+/// and forget NATS publish, no payload, matching `events.rs`'s
+/// `ANSWERS_SUBJECT` pattern.
+#[cfg(feature = "ssr")]
+pub const CONTENT_RELOAD_SUBJECT: &str = "portal.content.reload";
+
+/// Runs for the life of the process: re-fetches `repo_url`/`branch` and
+/// atomically swaps it into `questions` on every `CONTENT_RELOAD_SUBJECT`
+/// message. A fetch/parse failure logs and keeps serving the last-good
+/// content rather than clearing it - a bad push to the content repo
+/// (which should already have been caught by its own lint step) doesn't
+/// take the site down.
+#[cfg(feature = "ssr")]
+pub async fn watch_for_reload(
+    nats: async_nats::Client,
+    repo_url: String,
+    branch: String,
+    subdir: String,
+    questions: std::sync::Arc<arc_swap::ArcSwap<std::collections::HashMap<String, Question>>>,
+) {
+    let mut sub = match nats.subscribe(CONTENT_RELOAD_SUBJECT).await {
+        Ok(sub) => sub,
+        Err(e) => {
+            tracing::error!(error = %e, "failed to subscribe to content reload subject");
+            return;
+        }
+    };
+    use futures::StreamExt;
+    while sub.next().await.is_some() {
+        match load_questions_from_gitea(&repo_url, &branch, &subdir).await {
+            Ok(loaded) => {
+                let count = loaded.len();
+                questions.store(std::sync::Arc::new(loaded));
+                tracing::info!(count, "reloaded content");
+            }
+            Err(e) => {
+                tracing::error!(error = %e, "content reload failed, keeping last-good content");
+            }
+        }
+    }
+}

src/main.rs

@@ -30,6 +30,7 @@ async fn main() -> anyhow::Result<()> {
     let content_branch = std::env::var("CONTENT_BRANCH").unwrap_or_else(|_| "main".to_string());
     let questions = content::load_questions_from_gitea(&content_repo, &content_branch, "questions").await?;
     tracing::info!(count = questions.len(), repo = %content_repo, branch = %content_branch, "loaded content");
+    let questions = Arc::new(arc_swap::ArcSwap::from_pointee(questions));
 
     let nats_url =
         std::env::var("NATS_URL").unwrap_or_else(|_| "nats://127.0.0.1:4222".to_string());
@@ -56,11 +57,19 @@ async fn main() -> anyhow::Result<()> {
         tracing::warn!("GARAGE_* env vars not set - file upload fields will fail closed");
     }
 
+    tokio::spawn(content::watch_for_reload(
+        nats.clone(),
+        content_repo,
+        content_branch,
+        "questions".to_string(),
+        questions.clone(),
+    ));
+
     let state = AppState {
         leptos_options: leptos_options.clone(),
         nats,
         jetstream,
-        questions: std::sync::Arc::new(questions),
+        questions,
         oidc: oidc_state,
         garage,
     };

src/resource.rs

@@ -22,7 +22,9 @@ pub async fn get_resource(
     let state = expect_context::<AppState>();
     let question = state
         .questions
+        .load()
         .get(&question_id)
+        .cloned()
         .ok_or_else(|| ServerFnError::new("unknown question"))?;
     let feature = question
         .alternatives

src/server/mod.rs

@@ -2,6 +2,7 @@
 
 pub mod oidc;
 
+use arc_swap::ArcSwap;
 use axum::extract::FromRef;
 use leptos::prelude::LeptosOptions;
 use std::collections::HashMap;
@@ -16,7 +17,11 @@ pub struct AppState {
     /// JetStream context - source of every NATS KV bucket this app
     /// reads/writes (applicants, and whatever a `ResourceSpec` names).
     pub jetstream: async_nats::jetstream::Context,
-    pub questions: Arc<HashMap<String, Question>>,
+    /// Swapped out wholesale on a `content::CONTENT_RELOAD_SUBJECT`
+    /// message (see `content::watch_for_reload`) - readers never hold
+    /// a lock, just an atomic pointer load, so a reload never blocks or
+    /// is blocked by an in-flight request.
+    pub questions: Arc<ArcSwap<HashMap<String, Question>>>,
     pub oidc: Arc<oidc::Oidc>,
     /// `None` when `GARAGE_*` env vars aren't set - uploads are the one
     /// optional feature, everything else works without Garage.