diff --git a/app/src/lib/icon.jsx b/app/src/lib/icon.jsx
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..7c41d5f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/app/src/lib/icon.jsx
@@ -0,0 +1,17 @@
+// Renders an imported `.svg` icon URL as a currentColor mask-icon (see `.tek-icon`
+// in global.css), or passes a text glyph through unchanged. Used at render sites
+// whose data arrays mix SVG icons with non-emoji text symbols (arrows, geometric
+// bullets, ✓/✗). Icons are imported per use site as plain `.svg` files — this is a
+// thin render switch, not a name-keyed icon registry.
+export function iconNode(value, style) {
+  if (typeof value === 'string' && value.endsWith('.svg')) {
+    return (
+      <span
+        className="tek-icon"
+        aria-hidden="true"
+        style={style ? { ['--i']: `url("${value}")`, ...style } : { ['--i']: `url("${value}")` }}
+      />
+    );
+  }
+  return value;
+}