feat(channels): per-channel MentionRequiredInThread with mention-triggered backfill - #1798
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Aaronontheweb merged 14 commits intoAug 7, 2026
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Adds the OpenSpec change per-channel-mention-required-in-thread with proposal, design, six spec deltas, and tasks. Planning only; no runtime code. The change makes MentionRequiredInThread a per-channel value, reuses the existing thread-history backfill on a mention, seeds the value at channel-add time, and deletes the connector-wide bool from #1783 (never deployed, so no migration).
…ector bool Replaces the connector-wide MentionRequiredInThread bool (never deployed) with a per-channel MentionRequiredInThreadByChannel map on the Slack, Discord, and Mattermost channel options, plus a MentionRequiredInThreadFor(channelId) resolver that defaults to false for unmapped channels. The three conversation actors resolve the per-channel value and pass the resolved bool into the unchanged, pure routing policies. Updates the config schema (adds the per-channel map, removes the connector bool) and adds per-channel binding/resolution tests. Implements OpenSpec tasks group 2 (config storage) and group 3 (routing gate).
When MentionRequiredInThread is on for a channel, the conversation actor forwards only mentions to the thread binding actor, so each inbound is a deliberate re-entry. The binding actor now re-arms the existing deferred thread-history hydration on such an inbound, guarded on no in-flight turn (cursor not lagging) to preserve the PR #733 no-duplicate invariant, so the mention catches up on the gap the tap held. Applies to the Slack, Discord, and Mattermost binding actors, reusing the existing fetch / gap-computation / prompt-injection-gate / merge path (no new fetch path, no new watermark). Adds a Slack integration test proving a second mention on the same live actor re-fetches (fetchCount 1 -> 2 with no restart); Discord and Mattermost use the identical re-arm. Implements OpenSpec tasks group 4 (backfill re-trigger).
Updates the config reference (docs/spec/configuration.md), the three channel integration pages, slack-acl-policy.md, and the adding-a-channel runbook to describe the per-channel MentionRequiredInThreadByChannel map and the removal of the connector-wide bool. The netclaw-operations skill covers operational tasks (scheduling, doctor, approvals, MCP), not channel config, so no skill change is warranted. Implements OpenSpec tasks group 6.
…config Adds a per-channel MentionRequiredInThread control to the netclaw config Channels editor, mirroring the ChannelAudiences per-channel machinery for a bool map (MentionRequiredInThreadByChannel): - The EditAudience leaf shows 'Mention required in thread: On/Off' and toggles it with Space; Enter persists it alongside the audience. - The add-channel step seeds the rule from the assigned audience (Team/Public -> on; Personal/DM -> off). - Name->id canonicalization remaps the mention map like audiences, so a rule set on a channel name is not silently dropped when the name resolves to its id. - Adds a config round-trip test and a native smoke tape (config-mention-thread) registered in the light suite. Implements OpenSpec tasks group 5.
The config-mention-thread tape is a config-writing tape, so it requires a paired semantic assertion. Adds tests/smoke/assertions/config-mention-thread.sh, which verifies Slack.MentionRequiredInThreadByChannel.C01 = true after the leaf toggle + apply. Marks OpenSpec tasks groups 5-6 and quality gates 7.1-7.4 done.
…pecs and archive openspec archive synced the six delta specs into openspec/specs/ (7 added requirements, 3 modified across netclaw-input-adapters, thread-history-backfill, the three socket specs, and channel-audience-tui) and moved the completed change to openspec/changes/archive/2026-08-07-per-channel-mention-required-in-thread. Closes out OpenSpec task group 7 (quality gates + close-out): full solution build clean, routing/backfill/TUI tests green, slopwatch 0 issues, copyright headers verified, and the full native smoke light suite (23 tapes + 9 scenarios) green including the new config-mention-thread tape.
Replace the _pendingCursor* null check with a dedicated _turnInFlight flag in the Slack, Discord, and Mattermost binding actors. The cursor is set only for inbounds with a parseable ordering key, so a null-key in-flight turn left the cursor unset and let a following mention re-arm hydration mid-turn -- the concurrency the PR #733 invariant prevents. _turnInFlight is set on every enqueue (live inbound and hydration backfill), independent of the ordering key, and cleared at TurnCompleted and on pipeline reinit so an abandoned turn cannot leave it stuck. Document two accepted trade-offs of the reuse-based backfill in the re-arm comment: one thread-history fetch per mention on an active thread, and a mention in the in-flight window adopts chatter on the next idle mention.
…ns list Remove the per-channel EditAudience leaf. The list edited a channel's audience inline already, so the leaf only re-presented one field; its sole unique job was the mention toggle. Make the list the single per-channel editor. On the Channels & Permissions list a real channel row now shows the audience cycler plus an arrow-free 'Require @mention: On/Off' field. Space toggles the rule on the focused row and autosaves, like the left/right audience toggle. A description line under the list follows the cursor and explains the selected row's audience and mention state. A DM row shows audience only; the rule does not apply to one-to-one messages. Delete BuildEditAudience, HandleEditAudienceKey, OpenSelectedChannelAudience, the leaf-only view-model state, and the EditAudience screen. Enter on the list now only activates the Add/Done rows. Rewrite the config-mention-thread smoke tape to toggle on the list row instead of the leaf; the paired assertion is unchanged (C01 persists true). Update the view-model tests to the list flow.
The list footer legend lost its [Enter] binding when the mention toggle was added, but Enter still activates the Add/Done rows. Restore [Enter] Done so the footer and the secondary hint line agree. Drop the [a] accelerator from the footer to keep it within terminal width; the hint line still documents it. Addresses a code-review finding. The paired finding (raw channel ID no longer shown after removing the detail leaf) is intentionally not fixed: the list deliberately hides raw IDs for resolved channels (see the Channels_ChannelPermissions_RendersResolvedDiscordLabelWithoutRawId test).
Aaronontheweb
commented
Aug 7, 2026
| "AllowDirectMessages": { "type": "boolean" }, | ||
| "MentionRequiredInDm": { "type": "boolean" }, | ||
| "MentionRequiredInThread": { "type": "boolean" }, | ||
| "MentionRequiredInThreadByChannel": { "type": "object", "additionalProperties": { "type": "boolean" } }, |
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Flagged this and I think we're opening a new design issue for it, but basically Channel should be a rich object and have all of these properties (audience, mention required, etc) - not a bunch of parallel arrays. This is a bit of config smell.
Aaronontheweb
enabled auto-merge (squash)
August 7, 2026 21:10
Aaronontheweb
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August 7, 2026 21:39
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Summary
This change makes
MentionRequiredInThreada per-channel setting. It is a "tap"on how a chat channel pushes messages to the LLM. When the tap is on for a
channel, un-mentioned thread messages stop auto-flowing to the bot after the
first mention. Each new mention re-runs the existing thread-history backfill, so
the bot catches up on everything since its last reply.
The feature changes only what makes the LLM respond. It adds no new security
mechanism. The existing backfill already applies live multi-party access rules.
Why
In a busy team thread, the bot replies to every message once it joins. An
operator wants the bot to stay quiet until someone mentions it, then read the
gap and respond. This is the direct-message "mention required" behavior applied
to non-DM channels, scoped per channel.
What changed
MentionRequiredInThreadByChannel(aDictionary<string, bool>), which mirrorsthe existing
ChannelAudiencesper-channel map. An unset channel keeps today'sbehavior (off).
RoutingPolicy.Evaluate. When the tap is on, an un-mentioned thread messageroutes to Ignore.
re-arms the existing one-shot hydration path
(
BuildInputWithDeferredHydrationAsync/ApplyDeferredHydrationAsync). No newbackfill mechanism was added.
Team/Public channels and off for Personal/DM. The value comes from the audience
the operator gives.
netclaw config. On the Channels & Permissions list, each channel rowcarries an arrow-free
Require @mention: On/Offfield thatSpacetoggles andautosaves, next to the
←/→audience cycler. A description line under the listfollows the cursor and explains the selected channel's audience and mention
state. The old per-channel detail leaf is removed: the list is now the single
per-channel editor (see Config design: model channels as rich objects instead of parallel keyed collections #1801).
not migrated. It was never released, so no config carries it.
Scope
Slack, Discord, and Mattermost binding actors and connector options.
In-flight re-arm guard
The re-arm uses a dedicated
_turnInFlightflag as the "no in-flight turn"signal. The prior cursor field is set only for inbounds with a parseable
ordering key, so a null-key turn could let a following mention re-hydrate
mid-turn (the concurrency the PR #733 invariant blocks).
_turnInFlightis seton every enqueue (live inbound and hydration backfill), independent of the
ordering key, and cleared at
TurnCompletedand on pipeline reinit so anabandoned turn cannot leave it stuck.
Testing
Netclaw.Actors.Tests: routing-policy, options-defaults, andSlack-thread-backfill integration tests, including a same-live-actor
re-hydration case. All Channels-namespace tests pass (878).
Netclaw.Cli.Tests: per-channel config view-model and save tests pass (suitegreen, 1314). The mention round-trip proves load-surfacing on the channel row
plus both autosave directions (off stores as absence, on stores true).
config-mention-thread(list-basedSpacetoggle, no leaf)with a paired assertion that
Slack.MentionRequiredInThreadByChannel.C01persists true.
dotnet slopwatch analyze: 0 issues. Copyright headers present.OpenSpec
Change
per-channel-mention-required-in-threadis implemented and archived; thedelta specs are synced to
openspec/specs/.Related