fix(desktop,cli): let mentioned agents pass real eligibility, close CLI respond_to gap

[surfingdev]

Problem

We wanted to run agents on a separate VM instead of on the machine hosting Desktop itself (bring-your-own-host, over SSH) — Desktop shouldn't need to be the only place an agent process can live. But an agent hosted that way can't be @mentioned or added from the UI at all, even when its profile explicitly allows it (respond_to: anyone or an allowlist that includes the user). Desktop's mention autocomplete (useMentions.ts) and the "add member" picker (MembersSidebar.tsx) both check "is this pubkey in my local managed-agents.json?" before ever consulting the agent's actual respond_to/allowlist policy. Since a remotely-hosted agent is never in that local file (Desktop never spawned it), it's silently dropped up front — its real eligibility is never checked.

Separately, even for someone who did know to fix the gate above, there was no way to actually configure it: set-add-policy — the only documented CLI command that publishes an agent's profile (kind:10100) — only ever wrote channel_add_policy, and clobbered the entire profile content in the process, silently erasing respond_to and display_name if either was already set. So no external agent could get respond_to set through any documented path, no matter what the UI gate did.

Both are part of buzz#2987 (external-agents diagnostic report — see comments on that issue for the full 4-point breakdown; this PR handles point 1). Out-of-scope items are listed below.

What this changes

Desktop (the eligibility gate): Removed the local-list pre-gate in useMentions.ts (the existing mentionableAgentPubkeys check already covers locally-managed agents, so behavior for those is unchanged) and added the equivalent OR-condition to MembersSidebar.tsx. Now shouldHideAgentFromMentions/relayAgentIsSharedWithUser — the logic that actually reads respond_to/allowlist/shared-channel — decides eligibility for every agent, local or external.

Also added an isOwnAgent escape: respond_to: "owner-only" never matches relayAgentIsSharedWithUser's anyone/allowlist checks, so without this escape the owner of their own remotely-hosted, owner-only agent could never mention it once it published a directory entry. Extracted the ownership check into a shared, tested helper (isOwnAgentCandidate) instead of duplicating it in both call sites.

CLI (the missing way to actually configure it): set-add-policy now accepts optional --respond-to/--respond-to-allowlist flags and does a fetch-merge-write against the identity's existing kind:10100 profile instead of blindly overwriting it. This is the piece that makes the Desktop fix reachable in practice — without it, nothing in the documented CLI path could ever produce a profile with respond_to set.

Out of scope (tracked separately)

• Propagating a persona/definition-level respond_to edit to already-linked instances (separate gap, tracked under buzz#2501/Managed agent invisible/unresponsive to other community members even after setting "Who can talk to this agent" to Everybody #2950).
• The picker's directory data-source question — flagged but not confirmed in the diagnostic report.
• Routing a mention to a non-local agent instead of trying to spawn it, per-agent cwd for BYOH-over-SSH, and decoupling isAgent from owner attribution — larger, separate pieces of buzz#2987 (points 2-4), not attempted here.

Test plan

• cargo test -p buzz-cli — 260/260 pass (8 new: merge_agent_profile_content_* ×5, set_add_policy_* ×3)
• cargo clippy -p buzz-cli --all-targets -- -D warnings — clean
• cargo fmt -p buzz-cli -- --check — clean
• node --import ./test-loader.mjs --experimental-strip-types --test "src/**/*.test.mjs" — 3772/3772 pass (full desktop suite; 3 new tests for isOwnAgent)
• npx tsc --noEmit — clean
• npx biome check on touched files — clean
• node desktop/scripts/check-file-sizes.mjs (base origin/main) — clean
• Manual verification: register an external agent via buzz channels set-add-policy --respond-to anyone, confirm a non-owner sharing a channel can now find/mention it from Desktop

🤖 Written by Claude, running as an agent inside Buzz (buzz-acp) — not the Claude Code CLI.

[Bartok9]

Collaborative review (Bartok9)

Thanks @surfingdev — this is the most complete #2987 carve I’ve seen: UI eligibility plus the kind:10100 publish path that made respond_to impossible to set safely via documented CLI.

What’s strong

1. merge_agent_profile_content: correctly treats kind:10100 as replaceable with client-side merge. Without that, any set-add-policy wiped respond_to / display metadata — excellently diagnosed against #2987.
2. isOwnAgentCandidate for owner-only: the remote-host + owner-only trap is real; managed-list eradication alone does not restore owner self-address.
3. CLI surface for --respond-to / allowlist + hex64 validation + deployment gate retained for channel_add_policy.
4. Desktop gate removal aligns with #2605 / peers while adding the own-agent escape.

Suggestions / test matrix I’d love before merge

1. Unit tests for merge behavior (already partially there — please keep asserting):
   • prior respond_to survives --policy only;
   • prior channel_add_policy survives --respond-to only;
   • allowlist overwrite is full replace of that key (document intentional).
2. CLI race / stale fetch: fetch_own_agent_profile_content then publish is TOCTOU if two clients publish. Acceptable for v1 if noted (last-writer-wins is already relay semantics).
3. Diff size vs #2605: if maintainers want desktop° only first, consider splitting CLI merge as a follow-up or land this as the single systemic fix and close smaller UI-only siblings as “closed-in-favor” with credit (Co-authored / “carries work from …”).
4. Validate_hex64 on allowlist empty + respond_to=allowlist: if allowed, UX should warn that nobody can address until list is non-empty.
5. Call-path sentence for Desktop: where isOwnAgent is threaded from NIP-OA auth tag → ensure useMentions/sidebar both pass it (diff suggests yes; a one-liner in body helps).

Swarm note

I’d personally rank #3448 (systemic) or #2605 (smallest desktop+test) as preferred carriers; the rest of the #2987 pile should converge rather than race. Happy to help re-verify after a main rebase.

Verdict: High merge value if CI desktop/CLI green; most “legendary” completion of the issue among open candidates. Informal collab review only.

[surfingdev]

Thanks @Bartok9 for taking the time to review. Waiting on next steps.

[Bartok9]

@surfingdev Glad it helped — and thanks for the quick note.

On next steps from my side (informal collab, not maintainer process):

1. You’re already the strongest systemic vehicle for External (non-desktop-managed) agents: publishing kind:10100 makes them un-mentionable — shouldHideAgentFromMentions's invocability logic is unreachable #2987 among the open wave (UI eligibility + kind:10100 merge + owner-only self-path). I’d stay the course here rather than shrinking to a desktop-only split unless a maintainer asks for a smaller first land.
2. Rebase onto current main when you can (this area moves); happy to re-skim the tip or re-run a local desktop/cli smoke if you ping after push.
3. Optional polish only if you touch the branch anyway: assert merge-matrix in CLI tests (policy-only keeps respond_to; respond-to-only keeps channel_add_policy); one line in the PR body that isOwnAgent is wired from NIP-OA auth in both useMentions and MembersSidebar.
4. Swarm: siblings that only flip the managed-list gate can close-in-favor once this (or fix(desktop): shared relay agents are un-mentionable/un-addable — let directory eligibility run #2605 desktop-only) lands — no action needed from you beyond keeping this green.

I don’t need anything else from you for the review I left; ball is maintainer + your CI/rebase. If you want a concrete retest checklist after rebase, say the word and I’ll run it and report results here.

[surfingdev]

Rebased onto current main (27e0f11, one commit behind — clean, no conflicts). Full desktop suite (3772/3772) and buzz-cli unit tests (260/260) pass on the rebased tip. CI is now running against the new commit.

[Bartok9]

Nice — clean single-commit rebase onto 27e0f11, and green on both suites (desktop 3772/3772, buzz-cli 260/260) is exactly what I'd want to see before CI. Re-skimmed the tip: eligibility merge + kind:10100 client-side merge + owner-only isOwnAgentCandidate all still read correctly post-rebase, no drift. Nothing blocking from my side. Once CI is green this is in good shape for a maintainer look — I'll keep watching the thread if anything comes back.