04e63dfb2e fix: persist first referrer across app boundaries (#42768)
## Summary

Fixes GROWTH-625.

Preserves first-touch attribution across app boundaries by persisting
external referrer context at the edge and consuming it on Studio's
initial pageview.

When users come from an external source to www/docs and then navigate to
Studio, Studio often only sees the internal `supabase.com` hop. This
change preserves the original external context so first-touch
attribution is retained.

## What changed

- **Shared first-referrer cookie utilities**
(`packages/common/first-referrer-cookie.ts`):
- `isExternalReferrer`, `buildFirstReferrerData`,
`serializeFirstReferrerCookie`, `parseFirstReferrerCookie`
- `hasPaidSignals` — detects click IDs (gclid, fbclid, etc.) and paid
utm_medium values
- `shouldRefreshCookie` — centralizes stamp-or-skip decision for all
apps
- `stampFirstReferrerCookie` — shared middleware helper used by all apps
(extracted from duplicated inline logic)
- **Edge middleware on all apps** — stamps cookie for external visitors,
refreshes on paid signals:
  - `apps/www/middleware.ts` (simplified to use shared helper)
  - `apps/docs/middleware.ts` (simplified to use shared helper)
  - `apps/studio/proxy.ts` (integrated into existing proxy file)
- **Docs middleware matcher** — broadened from `/reference/:path*` to
all non-static paths so the first-referrer cookie is stamped on all docs
pages, not just reference paths
- **Telemetry** — Studio consumes cookie on initial pageview
(`packages/common/telemetry.tsx`). `handlePageTelemetry` refactored from
7 positional params to an options object for readability.
- **Tests** — 22 unit tests covering all utilities and edge cases
(including direct-navigation scenario)

## Behavior

- Writes `_sb_first_referrer` cookie when:
  - cookie is not already set and request has an external referrer, OR
- cookie exists but incoming URL has paid traffic signals (click IDs or
paid utm_medium)
- Cookie: 365-day TTL, `domain=supabase.com`, `sameSite=lax`,
`secure=true` in production
- On first Studio pageview, if current referrer is internal and cookie
has external context:
  - use persisted external referrer
  - apply persisted UTM/click-id/landing-url attribution props
- Measurement properties: `first_referrer_cookie_present`,
`first_referrer_cookie_consumed`

## Manual testing

1. Visit `supabase.com/pricing?utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc` from an
external referrer (or use DevTools to set a `Referer` header)
2. Check `_sb_first_referrer` cookie is set in Application > Cookies
3. Navigate to Studio (`supabase.com/dashboard`)
4. In PostHog (or browser network tab), verify the first `$pageview`
event has:
   - `first_referrer_cookie_present: true`
   - `first_referrer_cookie_consumed: true`
   - `$utm_source: "google"`, `$utm_medium: "cpc"`
   - `$referrer` points to the external source, not `supabase.com`
5. Verify subsequent route changes do NOT include
`first_referrer_cookie_*` properties

## Review feedback addressed

- Added `secure: true` flag on production cookies (Pam's first comment)
- Fixed inaccurate JSDoc on `utms` field — keys retain `utm_` prefix
(Pam's fourth comment)
- Added test coverage for edge cases: malformed URLs, multi-cookie
headers, http:// referrers (Pam's sixth comment)
- Docs matcher broadening: fast-path exit on cookie-exists check keeps
overhead minimal, exclusion list is correct
- Extracted shared middleware helper to eliminate duplication across 3
apps
- Refactored `handlePageTelemetry` from positional params to options
object
- Removed redundant null check in `hasPaidSignals`
- Added direct-navigation test case
- Deleted dead `apps/learn/middleware.ts`
- Fixed studio build: integrated cookie stamping into existing
`proxy.ts` (Next.js 16 rejects both middleware.ts and proxy.ts)

---------

Co-authored-by: pamelachia <26612111+pamelachia@users.noreply.github.com>
Co-authored-by: Pamela Chia <pamelachiamayyee@gmail.com>
2026-02-23 13:31:39 -08:00
2026-02-11 09:50:11 +01:00
2026-02-19 16:11:36 -03:30
2025-06-17 11:08:46 +02:00
2024-01-10 13:34:41 +01:00
2021-07-25 12:45:26 +08:00
2023-03-11 19:47:56 +01:00

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