feat(desktop-messages): keep agents addressed across messages

[tellaho]

Category: new-feature
User Impact: Users can keep selected agents addressed across consecutive messages without retyping their handles.

Problem: Repeated conversations with agents require manually typing the same mentions on every turn, which adds friction and makes recipients easy to omit.

Solution: The composer can now keep agents automatically addressed per channel, either from the mention controls or after a successful inline mention. Addressed agents remain visible in the toolbar, apply to channel threads, survive send failures safely, and never cross community boundaries.

Changes

File changes

desktop/src-tauri/src/events/message_tags.rs
Preserves the automatic-address marker on validated mention reference tags.

desktop/src/features/channels/ui/ChannelPane.tsx
Wires the appropriate channel, thread, inbox, or forum composer context without leaking audiences across surfaces.

desktop/src/features/communities/useCommunityInit.ts
Clears composer audience state when the active community changes.

desktop/src/features/forum/ui/ForumComposer.tsx
Wires the appropriate channel, thread, inbox, or forum composer context without leaking audiences across surfaces.

desktop/src/features/forum/ui/ForumComposerAutocompletes.tsx
Wires the appropriate channel, thread, inbox, or forum composer context without leaking audiences across surfaces.

desktop/src/features/home/ui/InboxDetailPane.tsx
Wires the appropriate channel, thread, inbox, or forum composer context without leaking audiences across surfaces.

desktop/src/features/messages/lib/agentAddressMention.d.mts
Defines helpers and types for marked automatic-address mention tags.

desktop/src/features/messages/lib/agentAddressMention.mjs
Defines helpers and types for marked automatic-address mention tags.

desktop/src/features/messages/lib/agentAddressMention.test.mjs
Covers the automatic-address behavior and its failure, keyboard, layout, or persistence boundaries.

desktop/src/features/messages/lib/applyEditTagOverlay.mjs
Preserves automatic-address metadata when edited message tags are overlaid.

desktop/src/features/messages/lib/applyEditTagOverlay.test.mjs
Covers the automatic-address behavior and its failure, keyboard, layout, or persistence boundaries.

desktop/src/features/messages/lib/autoPinMentionedAgentsPreference.test.mjs
Covers the automatic-address behavior and its failure, keyboard, layout, or persistence boundaries.

desktop/src/features/messages/lib/autoPinMentionedAgentsPreference.ts
Stores the preference that keeps explicitly mentioned agents addressed for later messages.

desktop/src/features/messages/lib/extractMentionPersonas.ts
Separates persona recipients from the composer mention orchestration.

desktop/src/features/messages/lib/persistentAgentAudience.test.mjs
Covers the automatic-address behavior and its failure, keyboard, layout, or persistence boundaries.

desktop/src/features/messages/lib/persistentAgentAudience.ts
Maintains bounded, in-memory, channel-scoped automatic agent audiences.

desktop/src/features/messages/lib/useMentionSelection.ts
Centralizes mention picker selection state and agent-first selection behavior.

desktop/src/features/messages/lib/useMentions.ts
Exposes explicit picker origins and selection controls while preserving inline mention behavior.

desktop/src/features/messages/ui/ComposerAddressControls.test.mjs
Covers the automatic-address behavior and its failure, keyboard, layout, or persistence boundaries.

desktop/src/features/messages/ui/ComposerAddressControls.tsx
Renders compact addressed-agent avatars and the automatic-mention management entry point.

desktop/src/features/messages/ui/MentionAutocomplete.test.mjs
Covers the automatic-address behavior and its failure, keyboard, layout, or persistence boundaries.

desktop/src/features/messages/ui/MentionAutocomplete.tsx
Adds automatic-mention controls and options to the existing mention picker.

desktop/src/features/messages/ui/MessageAgentAddressPrefix.tsx
Shows which agents were automatically addressed on a sent message.

desktop/src/features/messages/ui/MessageComposer.tsx
Integrates automatic audiences, picker controls, accessible feedback, shortcuts, and send behavior.

desktop/src/features/messages/ui/MessageComposer.types.ts
Defines the simplified channel audience context shared by composer hosts.

desktop/src/features/messages/ui/MessageComposerToolbar.tsx
Places automatic-address controls in the composer toolbar without crowding narrow layouts.

desktop/src/features/messages/ui/MessageRow.tsx
Displays automatic-address metadata alongside sent message content.

desktop/src/features/messages/ui/MessageThreadPanel.tsx
Wires the appropriate channel, thread, inbox, or forum composer context without leaking audiences across surfaces.

desktop/src/features/messages/ui/composerAgentKeyboard.test.mjs
Covers the automatic-address behavior and its failure, keyboard, layout, or persistence boundaries.

desktop/src/features/messages/ui/persistentAgentAudienceHosts.test.mjs
Covers the automatic-address behavior and its failure, keyboard, layout, or persistence boundaries.

desktop/src/features/messages/ui/useAddressMentionPulse.test.mjs
Covers the automatic-address behavior and its failure, keyboard, layout, or persistence boundaries.

desktop/src/features/messages/ui/useAddressMentionPulse.ts
Provides success and failure animation signals for addressed-agent controls.

desktop/src/features/messages/ui/useAgentAddressLockPicker.test.mjs
Covers the automatic-address behavior and its failure, keyboard, layout, or persistence boundaries.

desktop/src/features/messages/ui/useAgentAddressLockPicker.ts
Coordinates adding, removing, and announcing automatically addressed agents.

desktop/src/features/messages/ui/useAlwaysAddressShortcut.ts
Implements the platform-aware shortcut for toggling automatic addressing.

desktop/src/features/messages/ui/useAutoPinMentionedAgents.ts
Promotes successfully sent inline agent mentions and provides a single undoable notification.

desktop/src/features/messages/ui/useComposerMentionPicker.ts
Opens the mention picker without rewriting the current draft.

desktop/src/features/messages/ui/useMentionSendFlow.helpers.test.mjs
Covers the automatic-address behavior and its failure, keyboard, layout, or persistence boundaries.

desktop/src/features/messages/ui/useMentionSendFlow.helpers.ts
Merges automatic and inline recipients, marks outgoing tags, and restores failed sends safely.

desktop/src/features/messages/ui/useMentionSendFlow.ts
Merges automatic and inline recipients, marks outgoing tags, and restores failed sends safely.

desktop/src/features/messages/ui/usePersistentAgentMentionHydration.ts
Removes the prior draft-text hydration approach now that automatic audiences stay at composer ingress.

desktop/src/features/settings/ui/AgentsSettingsPanel.tsx
Replaces the old global behavior with explicit composer-level automatic-mention controls.

desktop/src/features/settings/ui/PreventSleepSettingsCard.tsx
Replaces the old global behavior with explicit composer-level automatic-mention controls.

desktop/src/shared/lib/keyboard-shortcuts.ts
Defines the user-facing automatic-address keyboard shortcut label.

desktop/src/shared/ui/VideoReviewCommentMarkdown.tsx
Allows automatic-address prefixes to compose with video review timecodes.

desktop/tests/e2e/persistent-agent-audience.spec.ts
Covers the automatic-address behavior and its failure, keyboard, layout, or persistence boundaries.

Reproduction Steps

1. Open a channel with one or more agents and open the mention picker from the composer.
2. Select an agent for automatic mentions, then send several messages without retyping the handle; confirm the agent remains in the composer control and receives each message.
3. Mention another agent inline, send successfully, and confirm the agent becomes automatically addressed; use the notification's Undo action to reverse it.
4. Open a thread in the same channel and confirm the same addressed agents are available there.
5. Remove an agent from the composer control and confirm later messages stop addressing it.
6. Switch communities and confirm addressed agents do not carry into the other community.

Screenshots

All states below use the dark Buzz theme with a selected lilac accent.

Addressed composer

Selected agents stay visible at the composer ingress without adding handles to the draft.

Open mention menu

The @ ingress opens the existing mention menu and shows which agents are already addressed.

Mention options

The inline options pane controls whether a successful one-time agent mention carries into later messages.

Agent settings

The same preference is available in Settings → Agents → Conversations.

[tellaho]

AI-generated update (Carl 🤖)

A blocking ordering issue allowed delayed auto-promotion—or an older toast’s Undo action—to overwrite a newer explicit audience choice.

Fixed in 79a734f1a07758a7df12cc7abb3a238491c710e4 by carrying the audience revision captured at send start through completion and applying both promotion and Undo only when that revision is still current. Added regressions for delayed promotion after an explicit pin/remove and stale Undo after a remove/re-add sequence.

Validation at 79a734f1a07758a7df12cc7abb3a238491c710e4:

• desktop TypeScript: passed
• desktop package tests: 5,325/5,325 passed
• file-size ratchet and git diff --check: passed
• pre-push desktop check, typecheck, and test gates: passed

[tellaho]

AI-generated update (Carl 🤖)

A remaining transactional Undo blocker meant a mixed promotion could remove an agent that was already addressed before the send.

Fixed in 449890dd599bc87723bf3687fc6308b6d52398f6: promotion now returns the exact newly added pubkeys with its revision, and pulse, toast copy, and Undo operate only on that atomic delta. Added a regression proving pre-addressed A survives promotion and Undo of new B.

Validation at 449890dd599bc87723bf3687fc6308b6d52398f6:

• desktop TypeScript: passed
• focused audience suite: 12/12 passed
• file-size ratchet and git diff --check: passed
• pre-push desktop check, typecheck, and full desktop test gates: passed

[tellaho]

🤖 AI update: CI exposed a stale E2E selector that still depended on the settings copy replaced by this PR. Commit 4a5d6e19190a9a1ce439c2c4bb5a0a2c86dfc281 now targets the stable automatic-mentions settings row and its secondary-copy element instead of matching obsolete prose.

Validation: the exact failed Playwright case passed locally (profile.spec.ts, “shows agent runtimes in agent settings”, 1/1), and git diff --check passed. The pre-push full desktop suite reached 5,325/5,326 before an unrelated Node loader-hook failure in useRetainedProjectGitViews.test.mjs; because the changed E2E test had already passed directly, I pushed the scoped fix without rerunning that gate.

[jedwards27]

:bot: Jude’s code review agent

Reviewed base 025425591ed67518a63870316f1473ffd02dd520 through exact head 1764e95668dbb0cffeb0a5bcb15d37e006c3eda4 against the PR intent, VISION.md, and TESTING.md. I found no material correctness, integration, security, or product/UI issue requiring changes.

The persistent audience remains scoped by owner and channel, with threads intentionally sharing their channel audience. Community/identity replacement resets the relevant store boundary. Successful sends promote recipients only when the captured audience revision is still current; failures restore only the safe matching composer state; explicit removal records an unpinned recipient rather than silently re-locking it. The Tauri boundary accepts only normalized mention tags with the exact optional agent-address marker, so this does not broaden relay kinds or schema.

Validation at this exact head:

• Desktop JS suite: 5,326 passed, 0 failed
• pnpm typecheck: passed
• pnpm check: completed with only unrelated/pre-existing warnings and infos
• cargo test --workspace: passed (one intentional performance test ignored)
• pnpm build:e2e: passed; rebuilt artifact contained the new mention-picker trigger
• focused persistent-audience E2E: one clean 12/12 run, plus an independent 11/12 run where the explicit-removal case intermittently restored stale draft text; isolated repetition was 4/5 passing
• rebuilt-artifact light, dark, and narrow-layout screenshots inspected
• GitHub Desktop core/build, smoke/integration E2E, release candidate, Rust lint, Windows Rust, and DCO checks are green

The intermittent focused-E2E failure is verification debt worth tracking: the addressed-agent state was correctly removed, but prior draft text reappeared. It was not established as a deterministic product regression and does not outweigh the source-path, full-suite, and independent workflow evidence here. Initial broad focused-run failures in two environments were discarded because stale/foreign E2E artifacts were serving on the test port; those contaminated runs are not evidence.

Approval applies only to 1764e95668dbb0cffeb0a5bcb15d37e006c3eda4; any new head requires delta review.