- Drop inaccessible-follow policy TODO items

- Assert inaccessible volume follows stay persisted while hidden from user surfaces

Author: breenyoung

TODO.md

@@ -36,11 +36,6 @@ This file captures follow-up work that should not get lost between releases.
   Current risk: A fresh install with a valid comics mount and no configured libraries can still look superficially similar to a "wrong storage directory" situation.
   Follow-up goal: Reassess the signals used for `storage_mismatch_suspected` once we have another real-world report or a better synthetic repro, and tune the messaging so first-run onboarding is not mistaken for a broken upgrade.
 
-- Decide the long-term policy for inaccessible followed volumes.
-  Context: `user_volume_follows` rows currently remain persisted even if a user's library access or age-rating settings later hide that volume from all user-facing follow surfaces.
-  Current behavior: The follow is filtered out of the `Following` page, the `New from Following` home rail, and direct volume access checks, but the row is not pruned automatically.
-  Follow-up goal: Confirm whether Parker should keep this hidden-and-persisted behavior, surface inaccessible follows in a disabled state, or automatically prune them after some explicit rule.
-
 - Plan a replacement for ColorThief before Pillow 14.
   Context: Full pytest coverage currently emits `DeprecationWarning` from `colorthief==0.2.1` because it calls Pillow's deprecated `Image.Image.getdata`, which is scheduled for removal in Pillow 14 on 2027-10-15.
   Follow-up goal: Decide whether to replace ColorThief, patch/vendor the small palette extraction path, or move Parker's palette generation to a maintained Pillow-based quantization approach before upgrading to Pillow 14.

tests/api/test_home.py

@@ -609,6 +609,56 @@ def test_home_following_arrivals_respects_baseline_formats_and_progress(auth_cli
     assert completed_plain.id not in [item["id"] for item in payload]
 
 
+def test_home_following_arrivals_hides_inaccessible_follows_without_pruning(auth_client, db, normal_user):
+    visible_library, _, visible_volume = _create_series_graph(
+        db,
+        lib_name="home-follow-visible-lib",
+        series_name="Home Follow Visible",
+    )
+    _, _, hidden_volume = _create_series_graph(
+        db,
+        lib_name="home-follow-hidden-lib",
+        series_name="Home Follow Hidden",
+    )
+
+    normal_user.accessible_libraries.append(visible_library)
+    baseline = datetime(2026, 7, 1, tzinfo=timezone.utc)
+
+    visible_new = _add_comic(
+        db,
+        visible_volume,
+        number="2",
+        title="Visible Follow New",
+        created_at=baseline + timedelta(hours=1),
+        format=None,
+    )
+    hidden_new = _add_comic(
+        db,
+        hidden_volume,
+        number="2",
+        title="Hidden Follow New",
+        created_at=baseline + timedelta(hours=2),
+        format=None,
+    )
+
+    db.add_all([
+        UserVolumeFollow(user_id=normal_user.id, volume_id=visible_volume.id, followed_at=baseline),
+        UserVolumeFollow(user_id=normal_user.id, volume_id=hidden_volume.id, followed_at=baseline),
+    ])
+    db.commit()
+
+    response = auth_client.get("/api/home/following-arrivals?limit=10")
+
+    assert response.status_code == 200
+    payload = response.json()
+    assert [item["id"] for item in payload] == [visible_new.id]
+    assert hidden_new.id not in [item["id"] for item in payload]
+    assert db.query(UserVolumeFollow).filter_by(
+        user_id=normal_user.id,
+        volume_id=hidden_volume.id,
+    ).first() is not None
+
+
 def test_home_pinned_libraries_returns_recently_updated_series_by_pin_order(auth_client, db, normal_user):
     first_library = create_library_with_root(db, "Pinned First", "/tmp/pinned-first")
     second_library = create_library_with_root(db, "Pinned Second", "/tmp/pinned-second")

tests/api/test_volumes.py

@@ -492,6 +492,42 @@ def test_following_list_reports_new_arrivals_and_filters_hidden_volumes(auth_cli
     assert item["latest_arrival"]["comic_id"] == new_issue.id
     assert item["latest_arrival"]["title"] == "Visible Follow #11"
     assert item["latest_arrival"]["number"] == "11"
+    assert db.query(UserVolumeFollow).filter_by(
+        user_id=normal_user.id,
+        volume_id=hidden["volume"].id,
+    ).first() is not None
+
+
+def test_following_list_filters_age_restricted_volumes_without_pruning_follows(auth_client, db, normal_user):
+    visible = _create_volume_fixture(db, lib_name="following-safe-lib", series_name="Safe Follow")
+    restricted = _create_volume_fixture(db, lib_name="following-restricted-lib", series_name="Restricted Follow")
+
+    normal_user.accessible_libraries.extend([visible["library"], restricted["library"]])
+    normal_user.max_age_rating = "Teen"
+    normal_user.allow_unknown_age_ratings = False
+
+    for comic in visible["comics"]:
+        comic.age_rating = "Teen"
+    for comic in restricted["comics"]:
+        comic.age_rating = "Mature 17+"
+
+    baseline = datetime(2026, 7, 1, 12, 0, tzinfo=timezone.utc)
+    db.add_all([
+        UserVolumeFollow(user_id=normal_user.id, volume_id=visible["volume"].id, followed_at=baseline),
+        UserVolumeFollow(user_id=normal_user.id, volume_id=restricted["volume"].id, followed_at=baseline),
+    ])
+    db.commit()
+
+    response = auth_client.get("/api/volumes/following")
+
+    assert response.status_code == 200
+    payload = response.json()
+    assert len(payload) == 1
+    assert payload[0]["volume_id"] == visible["volume"].id
+    assert db.query(UserVolumeFollow).filter_by(
+        user_id=normal_user.id,
+        volume_id=restricted["volume"].id,
+    ).first() is not None
 
 
 def test_volume_issues_returns_404_without_access(auth_client, db):