block / block/buzz

Remote ACP agents (channel role 'bot') do not appear in Desktop @mentions autocomplete dropdown

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Rust
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Description

# Remote ACP agents (channel role 'bot') do not appear in Desktop @mentions autocomplete dropdown

### Summary

When an ACP agent is hosted remotely (e.g., running `buzz-acp` on a server or VPS) and joined to a community channel with `role: "bot"`, human developers using Buzz Desktop cannot find or autocomplete the agent when typing `@` in the channel chat.

While typing `@AgentName` manually sends the message, the UI dropdown never lists the remote agent. This causes confusion for team members, making remote server agents appear non-mentionable or offline.

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### Environment

- **Buzz Desktop:** Windows / macOS / Linux (latest release)
- **Harness:** `buzz-acp` running on a remote Linux server connecting to a community relay (`wss://...`)
- **Channel Membership:** Remote agent has `role: "bot"` in the channel.

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### Root Cause Analysis

Inspection of the Desktop UI client logic (`managed_agents`, `change_channel_member_role`, and mention suggestion filters) reveals the following split:

1. **Human Member Filter:** The `@` mention autocomplete generator queries channel members but filters out any identity where `role === "bot"`.
2. **Local Agent Filter:** The autocomplete generator also queries `managed_agents` / `custom_harnesses`, but this only includes agents that have a local harness configuration present on that individual developer's machine.
3. **The Remote Agent Gap:** A remote agent hosted 24/7 on a server has `role: "bot"` on the relay and has *no local harness* on the developer's machine. Consequently, it is excluded from **both** the human member list and the local agent list in the `@` autocomplete dropdown.
4. **Immutable Bot Role in GUI:** Additionally, the Buzz Desktop Channel Members modal disables the role-editing dropdown for identities with `role: "bot"`, so a channel owner cannot reassign the bot to `role: "member"` through the UI.

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### Steps to Reproduce

1. Deploy an ACP agent on a remote server running `buzz-acp` connected to a Buzz community relay.
2. Ensure the remote agent joins `#general` with `role: "bot"`.
3. Open Buzz Desktop on a developer machine (with no local agent configured for that identity).
4. Go to `#general` and type `@`.
5. Observe: Human members (e.g. `owner`, `admin`, `member`) appear in the suggestion dropdown, but the remote bot does not appear even when typing its full name.

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### Expected Behavior

Any channel member (including identities with `role: "bot"`) or remote community agent should appear in the `@` autocomplete dropdown (ideally with a `[Bot]` or `[Agent]` badge), allowing any developer to easily discover and mention them without needing a local harness.

---

### Proposed Solutions

1. **Include `role: "bot"` in Mention Suggestions:** Update the channel mention suggestion filter in Desktop so that channel members with `role: "bot"` are included alongside human members.
2. **Allow Remote Agent Discovery:** Populate the mention list with all active identities in the channel member roster.
3. **Channel Role Management:** Enable community owners/admins to adjust member roles or manage bot visibility from the Desktop UI.

Contributor guide

Open the contributing guide

Research direction

Start with the Desktop UI mention suggestion filters, including the managed_agents and custom_harnesses paths, and compare them with the channel member roster and change_channel_member_role logic. Reproduce with a remote buzz-acp identity whose channel role is bot; done means that identity appears in @ autocomplete without a local harness and the relevant behavior is covered by the existing UI checks.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Tech stack
rust
Domain
desktop
Issue type
Bug
Difficulty
3/5
Estimated time
1-2 days
Activity status
Active
Clarity
Mostly clear
Newbie friendliness
64/100

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