Kagi Images intermittently/consistently fails because p.kagi.com is unreachable from my normal network.
DNS:
p.kagi.com -> cdn-kagi.com -> 188.114.96.5, 188.114.97.5
Without VPN: both addresses time out establishing TCP/443. This reproduces with curl and nc, so it is independent of Safari.
Trying 188.114.96.5:443...
ipv4 connect timeout
Trying 188.114.97.5:443...
ipv4 connect timeout
curl: (28) Failed to connect ... port 443
With VPN: the same 188.114.96.5:443 connects immediately, TLS succeeds, and Cloudflare returns HTTP/2:
Connected to p.kagi.com (188.114.96.5) port 443
SSL connection using TLSv1.3
server: cloudflare
cf-ray: ...-MAD
cdn-kagi.com behaves identically.
Cloudflare trace reaches Madrid in both cases:
no VPN: colo=MAD, sliver=050-tier1
VPN: colo=MAD, sliver=010-tier1
I have also reproduced the failure using a cellular hotspot, while using a VPN fixes it.
This appears to be a Cloudflare/network-path issue for the Kagi CDN rather than a browser, DNS, TLS, or Kagi Images frontend problem.