Problem

Linking a new agent for the first time is impossible from the UI. In Orchestration → Discover → "Link a new agent", pasting any valid agent ID and clicking Link fails with:

HTTP 404: /contacts/<id>/status: not found

This happens for every agent you have not already linked — i.e. the normal first-contact case.

Root cause

link_session (src/openhuman/agent_orchestration/pairing.rs) pre-checks the relationship via contact_status, which calls GET /contacts/{id}/status. The backend returns 404 when there is no contact relationship yet. contact_status ran that response through map_err(map_err)?, turning the 404 into a hard error that propagated out of link_session before it ever reached the POST /contacts/{id} that sends the request.

Verified against staging: GET /contacts/{id}/status returns 404 pre-link and flips to 200 pending only after a request is sent — so the 404 is expected state, not a failure.

Fix

Treat a 404 from the status pre-check as "none" (no relationship yet) so link_session proceeds to send the request. Other HTTP/transport errors still propagate unchanged. tinyplace::Error::status() returns Option<u16>, so the 404 is matched precisely rather than by string-sniffing.

match client.http().get_agent_auth::<Value>(&contact_path(agent_id, Some("status")), &[]).await {
    Ok(remote) => Ok(remote_status(&remote).unwrap_or_else(|| "none".to_string())),
    Err(e) if e.status() == Some(404) => Ok("none".to_string()), // no relationship yet
    Err(e) => Err(map_err(e)),
}

Testing

• Reproduced the 404 on main in the desktop app against staging.
• Confirmed the contact lifecycle on staging out-of-band (request → pending → accept → accepted), proving the backend path is healthy and the 404 is purely the pre-check.
• With the fix built into the app, the Link action sends the request instead of erroring.

🤖 Generated with Claude Code

Summary by CodeRabbit

• Bug Fixes
  • Improved contact linking by treating contacts without an existing relationship as having a neutral status.
  • Prevented unnecessary errors when no relationship status is available.