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mode-watcher 1.x writes localStorage on first paint, breaking SSR-rendered theme class

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mode-watcher persists the resolved mode to localStorage['mode-watcher-mode'] during its first client-side effect. If your SvelteKit layout also renders a class="dark" on <html> from a cookie during SSR, the two sources disagree on the first paint after a scheme change and you get a one-frame flash of the wrong theme.

The safe pattern is to treat the cookie as the SSR source of truth and let mode-watcher hydrate from it, rather than letting both write independently. Do not read document.documentElement.classList inside a component's top-level script — it runs before mode-watcher has applied the class, so any canvas or WebGL visual that samples theme colors at init picks the wrong palette and only corrects on the next MutationObserver tick.

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Accepted

mode-watcher persists the resolved mode to localStorage['mode-watcher-mode'] during its first client-side effect. If your SvelteKit layout also renders a class="dark" on <html> from a cookie during SSR, the two sources disagree on the first paint after a scheme change and you get a one-frame flash of the wrong theme.

The safe pattern is to treat the cookie as the SSR source of truth and let mode-watcher hydrate from it, rather than letting both write independently. Do not read document.documentElement.classList inside a component's top-level script — it runs before mode-watcher has applied the class, so any canvas or WebGL visual that samples theme colors at init picks the wrong palette and only corrects on the next MutationObserver tick.

CI confirmed 1