fix: clear imageRef when user provides new image to prevent stale saves

When a user pastes/uploads a new image into a node that already has a
saved imageRef, the externalization logic incorrectly assumes the base64
is just hydrated data and discards it. Clear *Ref fields whenever new
image data is set so the save logic correctly persists the new image.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.6 <noreply@anthropic.com>

src/components/AnnotationModal.tsx

@@ -323,7 +323,7 @@ export function AnnotationModal() {
   const handleDone = useCallback(() => {
     if (!sourceNodeId) return;
     const flattenedImage = flattenImage();
-    updateNodeData(sourceNodeId, { annotations, outputImage: flattenedImage });
+    updateNodeData(sourceNodeId, { annotations, outputImage: flattenedImage, outputImageRef: undefined });
     closeModal();
   }, [sourceNodeId, annotations, flattenImage, updateNodeData, closeModal]);
 

src/components/WorkflowCanvas.tsx

@@ -1143,6 +1143,7 @@ export function WorkflowCanvas() {
                     // Update the selected imageInput node with the pasted image
                     updateNodeData(selectedImageInputNode.id, {
                       image: dataUrl,
+                      imageRef: undefined,
                       filename: `pasted-${Date.now()}.png`,
                       dimensions: { width: img.width, height: img.height },
                     });

src/components/__tests__/AnnotationNode.test.tsx

@@ -347,7 +347,9 @@ describe("AnnotationNode", () => {
 
       expect(mockUpdateNodeData).toHaveBeenCalledWith("test-annotation-1", {
         sourceImage: null,
+        sourceImageRef: undefined,
         outputImage: null,
+        outputImageRef: undefined,
         annotations: [],
       });
     });
@@ -412,7 +414,9 @@ describe("AnnotationNode", () => {
       await waitFor(() => {
         expect(mockUpdateNodeData).toHaveBeenCalledWith("test-annotation-1", {
           sourceImage: "data:image/png;base64,uploadedImage",
+          sourceImageRef: undefined,
           outputImage: null,
+          outputImageRef: undefined,
           annotations: [],
         });
       });

src/components/__tests__/ImageInputNode.test.tsx

@@ -234,6 +234,7 @@ describe("ImageInputNode", () => {
       await waitFor(() => {
         expect(mockUpdateNodeData).toHaveBeenCalledWith("test-image-1", {
           image: "data:image/png;base64,test123",
+          imageRef: undefined,
           filename: "test.png",
           dimensions: { width: 1024, height: 768 },
         });
@@ -406,6 +407,7 @@ describe("ImageInputNode", () => {
 
       expect(mockUpdateNodeData).toHaveBeenCalledWith("test-image-1", {
         image: null,
+        imageRef: undefined,
         filename: null,
         dimensions: null,
       });

src/components/nodes/AnnotationNode.tsx

@@ -37,7 +37,9 @@ export function AnnotationNode({ id, data, selected }: NodeProps<AnnotationNodeT
         const base64 = event.target?.result as string;
         updateNodeData(id, {
           sourceImage: base64,
+          sourceImageRef: undefined,
           outputImage: null,
+          outputImageRef: undefined,
           annotations: [],
         });
       };
@@ -81,7 +83,9 @@ export function AnnotationNode({ id, data, selected }: NodeProps<AnnotationNodeT
   const handleRemove = useCallback(() => {
     updateNodeData(id, {
       sourceImage: null,
+      sourceImageRef: undefined,
       outputImage: null,
+      outputImageRef: undefined,
       annotations: [],
     });
   }, [id, updateNodeData]);

src/components/nodes/ImageInputNode.tsx

@@ -37,6 +37,7 @@ export function ImageInputNode({ id, data, selected }: NodeProps<ImageInputNodeT
         img.onload = () => {
           updateNodeData(id, {
             image: base64,
+            imageRef: undefined,
             filename: file.name,
             dimensions: { width: img.width, height: img.height },
           });
@@ -74,6 +75,7 @@ export function ImageInputNode({ id, data, selected }: NodeProps<ImageInputNodeT
   const handleRemove = useCallback(() => {
     updateNodeData(id, {
       image: null,
+      imageRef: undefined,
       filename: null,
       dimensions: null,
     });

src/store/execution/__tests__/simpleNodeExecutors.test.ts

@@ -61,7 +61,7 @@ describe("executeAnnotation", () => {
 
     await executeAnnotation(ctx);
 
-    expect(ctx.updateNodeData).toHaveBeenCalledWith("ann", { sourceImage: "data:image/png;base64,abc" });
+    expect(ctx.updateNodeData).toHaveBeenCalledWith("ann", { sourceImage: "data:image/png;base64,abc", sourceImageRef: undefined });
   });
 
   it("should pass through image as output when no annotations exist", async () => {
@@ -79,7 +79,7 @@ describe("executeAnnotation", () => {
 
     await executeAnnotation(ctx);
 
-    expect(ctx.updateNodeData).toHaveBeenCalledWith("ann", { outputImage: "data:image/png;base64,abc" });
+    expect(ctx.updateNodeData).toHaveBeenCalledWith("ann", { outputImage: "data:image/png;base64,abc", outputImageRef: undefined });
   });
 
   it("should not overwrite existing annotated outputImage", async () => {
@@ -98,7 +98,7 @@ describe("executeAnnotation", () => {
     await executeAnnotation(ctx);
 
     // Should set sourceImage but NOT overwrite outputImage (it has real annotations)
-    expect(ctx.updateNodeData).toHaveBeenCalledWith("ann", { sourceImage: "data:image/png;base64,abc" });
+    expect(ctx.updateNodeData).toHaveBeenCalledWith("ann", { sourceImage: "data:image/png;base64,abc", sourceImageRef: undefined });
     const calls = (ctx.updateNodeData as ReturnType<typeof vi.fn>).mock.calls;
     const outputCall = calls.find((c: unknown[]) => (c[1] as Record<string, unknown>).outputImage !== undefined);
     expect(outputCall).toBeUndefined();
@@ -120,8 +120,8 @@ describe("executeAnnotation", () => {
 
     await executeAnnotation(ctx);
 
-    expect(ctx.updateNodeData).toHaveBeenCalledWith("ann", { sourceImage: "new-image" });
-    expect(ctx.updateNodeData).toHaveBeenCalledWith("ann", { outputImage: "new-image" });
+    expect(ctx.updateNodeData).toHaveBeenCalledWith("ann", { sourceImage: "new-image", sourceImageRef: undefined });
+    expect(ctx.updateNodeData).toHaveBeenCalledWith("ann", { outputImage: "new-image", outputImageRef: undefined });
   });
 
   it("should do nothing when no images connected", async () => {

src/store/execution/simpleNodeExecutors.ts

@@ -27,11 +27,11 @@ export async function executeAnnotation(ctx: NodeExecutionContext): Promise<void
     const image = images[0] || null;
     if (image) {
       const nodeData = node.data as AnnotationNodeData;
-      updateNodeData(node.id, { sourceImage: image });
+      updateNodeData(node.id, { sourceImage: image, sourceImageRef: undefined });
       // Pass through the image if no annotations exist, or if the previous
       // output was itself a pass-through of the old source image
       if (!nodeData.outputImage || nodeData.outputImage === nodeData.sourceImage) {
-        updateNodeData(node.id, { outputImage: image });
+        updateNodeData(node.id, { outputImage: image, outputImageRef: undefined });
       }
     }
   } catch (err) {

src/store/execution/splitGridExecutor.ts

@@ -55,6 +55,7 @@ export async function executeSplitGrid(ctx: NodeExecutionContext): Promise<void>
           img.onload = () => {
             updateNodeData(childSet.imageInput, {
               image: splitImages[index],
+              imageRef: undefined,
               filename: `split-${Math.floor(index / nodeData.gridCols) + 1}-${(index % nodeData.gridCols) + 1}.png`,
               dimensions: { width: img.width, height: img.height },
             });