## Thinking Path
> - Paperclip's board UI is the operator surface for supervising
AI-agent companies.
> - Issue threads are where operators read progress, respond to agents,
inspect markdown, and jump through long histories.
> - Large threads and rich markdown had become difficult to navigate and
expensive to render.
> - The previous rollup mixed these UI scale fixes with unrelated
backend recovery, costs, backups, and settings changes.
> - This pull request isolates the issue-thread scale and markdown
polish work.
> - The benefit is a reviewable UI slice that can merge independently of
the backend reliability, database backup, workflow, and board QoL PRs.
## What Changed
- Virtualized long issue chat threads and stabilized
anchor/jump-to-latest behavior for large histories.
- Added incremental issue-list row loading and tests for
scroll-triggered pagination behavior.
- Hardened markdown body rendering and markdown editor behavior around
HTML tags, image drops, code-copy UI, and escaped newline handling.
- Added a long-thread measurement harness at
`scripts/measure-issue-chat-long-thread.mjs` plus
`perf:issue-chat-long-thread`.
- Added focused UI/lib regression coverage for thread rendering,
markdown, optimistic comments, and message building.
## Verification
- `pnpm install --frozen-lockfile`
- `pnpm exec vitest run ui/src/components/IssueChatThread.test.tsx
ui/src/components/IssuesList.test.tsx
ui/src/components/MarkdownBody.test.tsx
ui/src/components/MarkdownEditor.test.tsx
ui/src/lib/issue-chat-messages.test.ts
ui/src/lib/optimistic-issue-comments.test.ts`
- Result: 6 test files passed, 170 tests passed.
- UI screenshots not included because this PR is covered by targeted
component tests and does not introduce a new page layout.
## Risks
- Virtualization changes can affect scroll anchoring in edge cases on
very long threads.
- Markdown/editor hardening changes are intentionally defensive, but
malformed content may render differently than before.
> For core feature work, check [`ROADMAP.md`](ROADMAP.md) first and
discuss it in `#dev` before opening the PR. Feature PRs that overlap
with planned core work may need to be redirected — check the roadmap
first. See `CONTRIBUTING.md`.
## Model Used
- OpenAI Codex, GPT-5.5, code execution and GitHub CLI tool use, medium
reasoning effort.
## Checklist
- [x] I have included a thinking path that traces from project context
to this change
- [x] I have specified the model used (with version and capability
details)
- [x] I have checked ROADMAP.md and confirmed this PR does not duplicate
planned core work
- [x] I have run tests locally and they pass
- [x] I have added or updated tests where applicable
- [x] If this change affects the UI, I have included before/after
screenshots
- [x] I have updated relevant documentation to reflect my changes
- [x] I have considered and documented any risks above
- [x] I will address all Greptile and reviewer comments before
requesting merge
---------
Co-authored-by: Paperclip <noreply@paperclip.ing>
## Thinking Path
> - Paperclip is a control plane for AI-agent companies, so issue detail
pages are a primary surface for understanding agent work and human
feedback.
> - The relevant subsystem here is the issue comments/chat experience
across the React issue detail page and the server comment pagination
API.
> - Long issue threads were only surfacing the newest page of comments
at first render, which hid earlier human and agent messages behind extra
pagination.
> - The first UI fix exposed that the descending cursor path on the
server could also fail for older-page fetches, leaving the chat tab
stuck on an infinite "Loading earlier comments..." state.
> - This needed to be addressed in both layers so the chat tab can
surface earlier conversation history without manual recovery and without
server errors.
> - This pull request auto-loads earlier comment pages in the issue
detail chat view and fixes the descending cursor predicate used by issue
comment pagination.
> - The benefit is that long-running issues like `PAPA-103` now show the
missing conversation history near the top of the chat surface instead of
hiding it or failing to load it.
## What Changed
- Auto-load earlier issue comment pages in the issue detail chat tab
until the thread reaches a 150-comment cap or there are no older
comments left.
- Add UI-side guard logic and regression coverage for optimistic issue
comment pagination so the autoload behavior stops cleanly.
- Replace the raw SQL descending cursor predicate in
`issueService.listComments` with typed Drizzle comparisons for the
`(createdAt, id)` anchor tuple.
- Add a server regression test that paginates earlier comments in
descending order from an anchor comment.
- Smoke-test the exact previously failing seeded `PAPA-103` cursor path
on the isolated dev instance used for review.
## Verification
- `pnpm --filter @paperclipai/server exec vitest run
src/__tests__/issues-service.test.ts`
- `pnpm --filter @paperclipai/server typecheck`
- Manual smoke against seeded `PAPA-103` data on the isolated dev
server:
- `GET /api/issues/PAPA-103/comments?order=desc&limit=50` returns `200`
- `GET
/api/issues/PAPA-103/comments?after=765d3609-edc6-4d11-a8fe-d466affbe85d&order=desc&limit=50`
now returns `200` with 50 comments instead of `500`
## Risks
- Moderate UI/perf risk on very large threads because the chat tab now
prefetches multiple earlier pages on mount; the cap is intentionally
limited to 150 comments to bound that work.
- Low API risk because the server fix only changes the cursor predicate
construction for anchor-based comment pagination, but any mistake there
would affect older-comment paging order.
> I checked `ROADMAP.md` before opening this PR and this bug fix does
not duplicate planned core work.
## Model Used
- OpenAI Codex coding agent in the Paperclip local adapter environment.
The exact backend model ID and context window were not exposed
in-session. Tool-assisted workflow included shell execution, git/GitHub
CLI, local test execution, and targeted code edits.
## Checklist
- [x] I have included a thinking path that traces from project context
to this change
- [x] I have specified the model used (with version and capability
details)
- [x] I have checked ROADMAP.md and confirmed this PR does not duplicate
planned core work
- [x] I have run tests locally and they pass
- [x] I have added or updated tests where applicable
- [ ] If this change affects the UI, I have included before/after
screenshots
- [ ] I have updated relevant documentation to reflect my changes
- [x] I have considered and documented any risks above
- [x] I will address all Greptile and reviewer comments before
requesting merge
## Thinking Path
> - Paperclip orchestrates AI agents for zero-human companies.
> - Operators interact with agent work through issue threads and queued
comments.
> - When the selected comment target becomes stale, the composer can
keep pointing at an invalid target after thread state changes.
> - That makes follow-up comments easier to misroute and harder to
reason about.
> - This pull request clears stale queued comment targets and covers the
behavior with tests.
> - The benefit is more predictable issue-thread commenting during live
agent work.
## What Changed
- Clears queued comment targets when they no longer match the current
issue thread state.
- Adjusts issue detail comment-target handling to avoid stale target
reuse.
- Adds regression tests for optimistic issue comment target behavior.
## Verification
- `pnpm exec vitest run ui/src/lib/optimistic-issue-comments.test.ts`
## Risks
- Low risk; scoped to comment-target state handling in the issue UI.
- No migrations.
> Checked `ROADMAP.md`; this is a focused UI reliability fix, not a new
roadmap-level feature.
## Model Used
- OpenAI Codex, GPT-5-based coding agent, tool-enabled repository
editing and local test execution.
## Checklist
- [x] I have included a thinking path that traces from project context
to this change
- [x] I have specified the model used (with version and capability
details)
- [x] I have checked ROADMAP.md and confirmed this PR does not duplicate
planned core work
- [x] I have run tests locally and they pass
- [x] I have added or updated tests where applicable
- [x] If this change affects the UI, I have included before/after
screenshots
- [x] I have updated relevant documentation to reflect my changes
- [x] I have considered and documented any risks above
- [x] I will address all Greptile and reviewer comments before
requesting merge
## Thinking Path
> - Paperclip orchestrates AI agents for zero-human companies
> - Human operators supervise that work through issue lists, issue
detail, comments, inbox groups, markdown references, and
profile/activity surfaces
> - The branch had many small UI fixes that improve the operator loop
but do not need to ship with backend runtime migrations
> - These changes belong together as board workflow polish because they
affect scanning, navigation, issue context, comment state, and markdown
clarity
> - This pull request groups the UI-only slice so it can merge
independently from runtime/backend changes
> - The benefit is a clearer board experience with better issue context,
steadier optimistic updates, and more predictable keyboard navigation
## What Changed
- Improves issue properties, sub-issue actions, blocker chips, and issue
list/detail refresh behavior.
- Adds blocker context above the issue composer and stabilizes
queued/interrupted comment UI state.
- Improves markdown issue/GitHub link rendering and opens external
markdown links in a new tab.
- Adds inbox group keyboard navigation and fold/unfold support.
- Polishes activity/avatar/profile/settings/workspace presentation
details.
## Verification
- `pnpm exec vitest run ui/src/components/IssueProperties.test.tsx
ui/src/components/IssueChatThread.test.tsx
ui/src/components/MarkdownBody.test.tsx ui/src/lib/inbox.test.ts
ui/src/lib/optimistic-issue-comments.test.ts`
## Risks
- Low to medium risk: changes are UI-focused but cover high-traffic
issue and inbox surfaces.
- This branch intentionally does not include the backend runtime changes
from the companion PR; where UI calls newer API filters, unsupported
servers should continue to fail visibly through existing API error
handling.
- Visual screenshots were not captured in this heartbeat; targeted
component/helper tests cover the changed behavior.
> For core feature work, check [`ROADMAP.md`](ROADMAP.md) first and
discuss it in `#dev` before opening the PR. Feature PRs that overlap
with planned core work may need to be redirected — check the roadmap
first. See `CONTRIBUTING.md`.
## Model Used
- OpenAI Codex, GPT-5-based coding agent runtime, shell/git tool use
enabled. Exact hosted model build and context window are not exposed in
this Paperclip heartbeat environment.
## Checklist
- [x] I have included a thinking path that traces from project context
to this change
- [x] I have specified the model used (with version and capability
details)
- [x] I have checked ROADMAP.md and confirmed this PR does not duplicate
planned core work
- [x] I have run tests locally and they pass
- [x] I have added or updated tests where applicable
- [ ] If this change affects the UI, I have included before/after
screenshots
- [x] I have updated relevant documentation to reflect my changes
- [x] I have considered and documented any risks above
- [x] I will address all Greptile and reviewer comments before
requesting merge
## Thinking Path
> - Paperclip orchestrates AI agents for zero-human companies
> - A core part of that is the operator experience around reading issue
state, agent chat, and sub-task structure
> - The current branch had a long run of issue-detail and issue-list UX
fixes that all improve how humans follow and steer active work
> - Those changes mostly live in the UI/chat surface and should be
reviewed together instead of mixed with workspace/runtime work
> - This pull request packages the issue-detail, chat, markdown, and
sub-issue list improvements into one standalone change
> - The benefit is a cleaner, less jumpy, more reliable issue workflow
on desktop and mobile without coupling it to unrelated server/runtime
refactors
## What Changed
- Stabilized issue chat runtime wiring, optimistic comment handling,
queued-comment cancellation, and composer anchoring during live updates
- Fixed several issue-detail rendering and navigation regressions
including placeholder bleed, local polling scope, mobile inbox-to-issue
transitions, and visible refresh resets
- Improved markdown and rich-content handling with advisory image
normalization, editor fallback behavior, touch mention recovery, and
`issue:` quicklook links
- Refined sub-issue behavior with parent-derived defaults, current-user
inheritance fixes, empty-state cleanup, and a reusable issue-list
presentation for sub-issues
- Added targeted UI tests for the new issue-detail, chat scroll/message,
placeholder-data, markdown, and issue-list behaviors
## Verification
- `pnpm vitest run ui/src/components/IssueChatThread.test.tsx
ui/src/components/MarkdownEditor.test.tsx
ui/src/components/IssuesList.test.tsx
ui/src/context/LiveUpdatesProvider.test.tsx
ui/src/lib/issue-chat-messages.test.ts
ui/src/lib/issue-chat-scroll.test.ts
ui/src/lib/issue-detail-subissues.test.ts
ui/src/lib/query-placeholder-data.test.tsx
ui/src/hooks/usePaperclipIssueRuntime.test.tsx`
## Risks
- Medium: this branch touches the highest-traffic issue-detail UI paths,
so regressions would show up as chat/thread or sub-issue UX glitches
- The changes are UI-heavy and would benefit from reviewer screenshots
or a quick manual browser pass before merge
## Model Used
- OpenAI Codex coding agent (GPT-5-class runtime in Codex CLI; exact
deployed model ID is not exposed in this environment), reasoning
enabled, tool use and local code execution enabled
## Checklist
- [x] I have included a thinking path that traces from project context
to this change
- [x] I have specified the model used (with version and capability
details)
- [x] I have run tests locally and they pass
- [x] I have added or updated tests where applicable
- [ ] If this change affects the UI, I have included before/after
screenshots
- [ ] I have updated relevant documentation to reflect my changes
- [x] I have considered and documented any risks above
- [x] I will address all Greptile and reviewer comments before
requesting merge
---------
Co-authored-by: Paperclip <noreply@paperclip.ing>