Fresh Data, Stale Valve

SvelteKit’s load function dependency tracking is runtime, not static. It doesn’t scan your code for url references. It watches what your function actually touches during execution.

export async function load({ locals, url }) {
  if (!locals.user) {
    redirect(302, `/login?redirect=${url.pathname}`);
  }
  return { matters: locals.matters };
}

Not logged in? Function reads url.pathname for the redirect. SvelteKit sees it, marks the load as url-dependent, re-runs on navigation. Logged in? The if block gets skipped, url is never touched, SvelteKit caches the result and stops re-running.

An export button stayed disabled after navigating away from an ineligibility screen. Page refresh fixed it. Client-side navigation didn’t. The layout was returning stale data from the first load because the function never ran again.

The fix is one line:

export async function load({ locals, url }) {
  const _path = url.pathname; // force dependency tracking
  if (!locals.user) {
    redirect(302, `/login?redirect=${_path}`);
  }
  return { matters: locals.matters };
}

Touch url before the branch. Now SvelteKit always sees the dependency.

The irony: unauthenticated users hit the redirect, which reads url, which makes tracking work. The people who’d actually notice the bug are exactly the ones whose code path hides it.