diff --git a/backend/src/routes/admin.ts b/backend/src/routes/admin.ts
index dbe87bf..dd3cfd8 100755
--- a/backend/src/routes/admin.ts
+++ b/backend/src/routes/admin.ts
@@ -266,6 +266,60 @@ async function setItemTags(client: PoolClient, itemId: number, tagIds: number[])
   }
 }
 
+/**
+ * Records uploaded files as an item's images.
+ *
+ * Create and update wrote this loop separately, differing only in where the id
+ * came from and where the sort order started — zero for a new item, one past
+ * the current maximum for an existing one. Both are parameters now.
+ *
+ * It also means the `/uploads/` prefix is written once. That matters more than
+ * it looks: #103 made the stored value the path `uploadUrl` joins an origin
+ * onto, so it is a contract rather than a string, and two places to change it
+ * is one place to forget.
+ */
+async function insertItemImages(
+  client: PoolClient,
+  itemId: number,
+  files: Express.Multer.File[],
+  firstSortOrder: number
+): Promise<void> {
+  // Iterated by entry rather than by index, so there is no possibly-undefined
+  // element to guard — the create path used to fall back to an empty filename,
+  // which would have stored a path pointing at the uploads directory itself.
+  for (const [offset, file] of files.entries()) {
+    await client.query(
+      `INSERT INTO item_images (item_id, image_path, sort_order) VALUES ($1, $2, $3)`,
+      [itemId, `/uploads/${file.filename}`, firstSortOrder + offset]
+    );
+  }
+}
+
+/**
+ * The two optional fields the item form submits as multipart text.
+ *
+ * Both routes parsed them and refused them identically, eight lines each. The
+ * distinction being preserved is that `undefined` means "not submitted", which
+ * update reads as "leave as-is" — so an unparseable value has to be told apart
+ * from an absent one, which is what makes this more than a null check and worth
+ * having in one place.
+ */
+type ParsedItemFields =
+  | { ok: true; categoryId: number | null | undefined; tagNames: string[] | undefined }
+  | { ok: false; error: string };
+
+function readOptionalItemFields(body: Record<string, unknown>): ParsedItemFields {
+  const categoryId = readCategoryId(body.category_id);
+  if (categoryId === undefined && body.category_id !== undefined) {
+    return { ok: false, error: 'invalid category_id' };
+  }
+  const tagNames = readTagNames(body.tags);
+  if (tagNames === undefined && body.tags !== undefined) {
+    return { ok: false, error: 'invalid tags' };
+  }
+  return { ok: true, categoryId, tagNames };
+}
+
 router.get('/items', asyncRoute(async (req: Request, res: Response) => {
   // Same parser and query builder as the storefront, so admin filtering cannot
   // drift from what customers see. The one addition is `status`, which is how
@@ -295,14 +349,9 @@ router.get('/items', asyncRoute(async (req: Request, res: Response) => {
 router.post('/items', uploadImages, asyncRoute(async (req: Request, res: Response) => {
   const { name, description, price } = req.body;
 
-  const categoryId = readCategoryId(req.body.category_id);
-  if (categoryId === undefined && req.body.category_id !== undefined) {
-    return res.status(400).json({ error: 'invalid category_id' });
-  }
-  const tagNames = readTagNames(req.body.tags);
-  if (tagNames === undefined && req.body.tags !== undefined) {
-    return res.status(400).json({ error: 'invalid tags' });
-  }
+  const parsed = readOptionalItemFields(req.body);
+  if (!parsed.ok) return res.status(400).json({ error: parsed.error });
+  const { categoryId, tagNames } = parsed;
 
   const files = (req.files as Express.Multer.File[]) || [];
   const client = await pool.connect();
@@ -313,12 +362,7 @@ router.post('/items', uploadImages, asyncRoute(async (req: Request, res: Respons
       [name, description, Math.round(parseFloat(price) * 100), categoryId ?? null]
     );
     const item = requireRow(rows, 'the item INSERT');
-    for (let i = 0; i < files.length; i++) {
-      await client.query(
-        `INSERT INTO item_images (item_id, image_path, sort_order) VALUES ($1, $2, $3)`,
-        [item.id, `/uploads/${files[i]?.filename ?? ''}`, i]
-      );
-    }
+    await insertItemImages(client, item.id, files, 0);
     if (tagNames) {
       await setItemTags(client, item.id, await resolveTagIds(client, tagNames));
     }
@@ -337,14 +381,9 @@ router.post('/items', uploadImages, asyncRoute(async (req: Request, res: Respons
 router.put('/items/:id', uploadImages, asyncRoute(async (req: Request, res: Response) => {
   const { name, description, price } = req.body;
 
-  const categoryId = readCategoryId(req.body.category_id);
-  if (categoryId === undefined && req.body.category_id !== undefined) {
-    return res.status(400).json({ error: 'invalid category_id' });
-  }
-  const tagNames = readTagNames(req.body.tags);
-  if (tagNames === undefined && req.body.tags !== undefined) {
-    return res.status(400).json({ error: 'invalid tags' });
-  }
+  const parsed = readOptionalItemFields(req.body);
+  if (!parsed.ok) return res.status(400).json({ error: parsed.error });
+  const { categoryId, tagNames } = parsed;
 
   const files = (req.files as Express.Multer.File[]) || [];
   const client = await pool.connect();
@@ -368,13 +407,12 @@ router.put('/items/:id', uploadImages, asyncRoute(async (req: Request, res: Resp
         [req.params.id]
       );
       // COALESCE'd MAX, so the aggregate always returns exactly one row.
-      let nextSort = requireRow(existing, 'the MAX(sort_order) aggregate').max_sort + 1;
-      for (const file of files) {
-        await client.query(
-          `INSERT INTO item_images (item_id, image_path, sort_order) VALUES ($1, $2, $3)`,
-          [req.params.id, `/uploads/${file.filename}`, nextSort++]
-        );
-      }
+      const nextSort = requireRow(existing, 'the MAX(sort_order) aggregate').max_sort + 1;
+      // Number(), as the setItemTags call above already does: a matched route
+      // always has this param, but noUncheckedIndexedAccess cannot know that,
+      // and the helper's typed parameter surfaces what the old inline query's
+      // unknown[] hid.
+      await insertItemImages(client, Number(req.params.id), files, nextSort);
     }
     await client.query('COMMIT');
     const { rows: full } = await pool.query<AdminItemRow>(`${ADMIN_ITEM_SELECT} WHERE i.id = $1`, [req.params.id]);
diff --git a/frontend/src/admin/CategoryTreeSelect.tsx b/frontend/src/admin/CategoryTreeSelect.tsx
index 0586fc0..a1289c1 100644
--- a/frontend/src/admin/CategoryTreeSelect.tsx
+++ b/frontend/src/admin/CategoryTreeSelect.tsx
@@ -5,21 +5,7 @@ import Button from 'antd/es/button';
 import Divider from 'antd/es/divider';
 import message from 'antd/es/message';
 import { Category, createCategory, fetchAdminCategories } from '../api';
-import { buildCategoryTree, CategoryNode } from '../filters';
-
-interface CategoryTreeOption {
-  value: number;
-  title: string;
-  children?: CategoryTreeOption[];
-}
-
-function toTreeData(nodes: CategoryNode[]): CategoryTreeOption[] {
-  return nodes.map((node) => ({
-    value: node.id,
-    title: node.name,
-    children: node.children.length ? toTreeData(node.children) : undefined
-  }));
-}
+import { buildCategoryTree, toCategoryTreeData } from '../filters';
 
 type Props = Readonly<{
   // Supplied by antd's Form.Item. `id` has to be forwarded or the field loses
@@ -40,7 +26,7 @@ export default function CategoryTreeSelect({ value, onChange, id, categories, on
   const [newCategoryName, setNewCategoryName] = useState('');
   const [creating, setCreating] = useState(false);
 
-  const treeData = useMemo(() => toTreeData(buildCategoryTree(categories)), [categories]);
+  const treeData = useMemo(() => toCategoryTreeData(buildCategoryTree(categories)), [categories]);
 
   // Tags can be invented from the item form, so categories should be too —
   // otherwise adding an item in a new category means abandoning a half-filled
diff --git a/frontend/src/components/FilterDrawer.tsx b/frontend/src/components/FilterDrawer.tsx
index efb7b03..84a2f03 100644
--- a/frontend/src/components/FilterDrawer.tsx
+++ b/frontend/src/components/FilterDrawer.tsx
@@ -9,7 +9,7 @@ import Empty from 'antd/es/empty';
 import Switch from 'antd/es/switch';
 import Grid from 'antd/es/grid';
 import type { Category, Tag as ItemTag } from '../api';
-import { ItemFilters, ItemStatus, STATUS_OPTIONS, buildCategoryTree, CategoryNode } from '../filters';
+import { ItemFilters, ItemStatus, STATUS_OPTIONS, buildCategoryTree, toCategoryTreeData } from '../filters';
 
 // One drawer for the storefront and the admin, with the sections that differ
 // driven by props rather than by a second component that would drift (#169).
@@ -37,23 +37,6 @@ type Props = Readonly<{
   showStatus?: boolean;
 }>;
 
-// `value` rather than `key`: this fed an antd `Tree`, which identifies nodes by
-// key, and now feeds a `TreeSelect`, which selects and searches by value. The
-// shape matches the admin's CategoryTreeSelect so the two stay comparable.
-interface CategoryTreeOption {
-  value: number;
-  title: string;
-  children?: CategoryTreeOption[];
-}
-
-function toTreeData(nodes: CategoryNode[]): CategoryTreeOption[] {
-  return nodes.map((node) => ({
-    value: node.id,
-    title: node.name,
-    children: node.children.length ? toTreeData(node.children) : undefined
-  }));
-}
-
 const sectionHeading: React.CSSProperties = {
   margin: '0 0 8px',
   fontSize: 12,
@@ -146,7 +129,7 @@ export default function FilterDrawer({
           // read off highlighting. The admin's CategoryTreeSelect is the same
           // control, so the two screens behave alike.
           <TreeSelect
-            treeData={toTreeData(buildCategoryTree(categories))}
+            treeData={toCategoryTreeData(buildCategoryTree(categories))}
             value={filters.categoryIds}
             onChange={selectCategories}
             multiple
diff --git a/frontend/src/filters.ts b/frontend/src/filters.ts
index 0395058..02d82a5 100644
--- a/frontend/src/filters.ts
+++ b/frontend/src/filters.ts
@@ -219,6 +219,33 @@ export function buildCategoryTree(categories: Category[]): CategoryNode[] {
   return roots;
 }
 
+/**
+ * A category tree in the shape antd's `TreeSelect` reads.
+ *
+ * Beside `buildCategoryTree` because it has the same property: one meaning, so
+ * one implementation. It lived in both `CategoryTreeSelect.tsx` and
+ * `FilterDrawer.tsx` verbatim after #139 copied it rather than sharing it, and
+ * two copies of a mapping is two places for a field to be renamed.
+ *
+ * `value` rather than `key`: a `TreeSelect` selects and searches by value,
+ * where an antd `Tree` identifies nodes by key. `Categories.tsx` builds a third
+ * shape for a real `Tree`, whose title is a React node carrying that screen's
+ * own buttons — genuinely different, and deliberately not folded in here.
+ */
+export interface CategoryTreeOption {
+  value: number;
+  title: string;
+  children?: CategoryTreeOption[];
+}
+
+export function toCategoryTreeData(nodes: CategoryNode[]): CategoryTreeOption[] {
+  return nodes.map((node) => ({
+    value: node.id,
+    title: node.name,
+    children: node.children.length ? toCategoryTreeData(node.children) : undefined
+  }));
+}
+
 // "Furniture / Tables / Coffee Tables" — used on chips and in the admin form so
 // a leaf name like "Vintage" isn't ambiguous between branches.
 export function categoryPath(categories: Category[], id: number): string {