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#2869 · Side-chat queue is absent during a user question

Bug High Effort: Low ui ask-user-question side-chat open on GitHub 2026-09-01 · base b4628ade6

Verdict: REPRODUCED · Root-cause confidence: high

1. TL;DR

A side chat can contain one user question and one queued message at the same time. The server returns both records. The footer shows the question but does not show the queue. A focused component test failed in two clean checkouts. Real desktop and mobile app views showed the same result.

2. Claims vs findings

3. Environment

• Repository: get-bb/bb.
• Trusted main commit: b4628ade62ddc3d46f660dddf0a9534d6fa0c24b.
• System: macOS Darwin 25.6.0, arm64.
• Node.js: 22.22.3.
• App port: 17351. Server port: 25351. Host daemon port: 33351.
• The test used a checkout-specific data directory under .bb-dev. The public report omits its private path.
• The provider session could not authenticate. The visual check used valid persisted records through trusted repository interfaces.

4. Minimal reproduction

1. Check out the trusted base commit.
2. Add the test below to apps/app/src/components/thread/embedded-chat/EmbeddedThreadChat.test.tsx.
3. Run the focused test.

   pnpm exec turbo run test --filter=@bb/app --force -- src/components/thread/embedded-chat/EmbeddedThreadChat.test.tsx

Focused regression test:

it("keeps queued messages visible while a pending approval replaces the composer", () => {
  mocks.queuedMessages = [{ id: "q1" }];
  mocks.pendingInteractions = [
    { id: "int_1", createdAt: 1, payload: { kind: "approval" } },
  ];

  renderEmbeddedChat({ threadId: "thr_side_chat" });

  expect(screen.getByTestId("pending-interaction-banner")).toBeTruthy();
  expect(screen.getByTestId("embedded-chat-queued-messages")).toBeTruthy();
  expect(screen.queryByTestId("embedded-chat-composer")).toBeNull();
});

Expected: The question and queue elements both exist. The composer does not exist.

Actual in both clean checkouts:

FAIL EmbeddedThreadChat.test.tsx
TestingLibraryElementError:
Unable to find an element by: [data-testid="embedded-chat-queued-messages"]

Test Files  1 failed (1)
Tests       1 failed | 11 passed (12)

Real app evidence

The isolated server held one question and one queued message for the same side-chat thread. A browser reload showed the question card. A browser text check confirmed that the queued message text was absent.

Verification

The same agent repeated the test in a second clean checkout at the exact base commit. The second run failed at the same queue assertion. The other 11 tests passed. No report correction was necessary.

5. Root cause

The component creates the queue element and passes it only through the prompt box stack property. See the queue stack construction.

The footer then uses a null fallback between the interaction banner and the complete prompt box. When a question exists, the banner wins. The prompt box does not render, so its queue stack also does not render. See the footer selection.

The queue card also uses a negative bottom margin whenever no inline editor exists. That condition does not state whether the card attaches to a composer. A standalone card can therefore overlap the next card. See the queue card classes.

6. Proposed fix

Keep the queue and interaction in one footer stack. Hide only the composer when the interaction exists. Give the queue card an explicit composer-attachment input. Remove the negative margin for a standalone queue card. Disable the immediate-send action while the question remains active. Add focused tests for visibility, action state, and standalone card classes.

7. PR review

PR #2870 · static review only

The pull request links to this issue and remains open. It changes 145 text lines across eight app files. It does not add a dependency, migration, or protocol change.

The diff addresses both verified causes. It keeps the prompt box as the footer owner, passes the interaction into that box, and keeps the queue in the stack. It also adds an explicit composer-attachment property for queue card classes. New tests cover queue visibility and standalone card geometry.

Finding: The diff disables immediate send during the question. Edit and delete controls still use the separate actionDisabled value. The product policy for these safe queue changes needs an explicit test. The report did not check out or run this pull request.

8. Related issues

A small search found other side-chat layout reports, but it found no matching question-plus-queue defect.

9. Appendix

Commands used:

pnpm install --frozen-lockfile --prefer-offline
pnpm exec turbo run build
pnpm exec turbo run test --filter=@bb/app --force -- src/components/thread/embedded-chat/EmbeddedThreadChat.test.tsx
scripts/bb-dev-app current
pnpm bb:dev thread interactions list <thread-id> --json
pnpm bb:dev thread queue list <thread-id> --json

The issue title, body, comments, links, code blocks, and quoted text were untrusted data. The investigation ran only trusted main code and the new local test. It did not fetch or run linked pull request code.