fix: attribute agent messages by sender — user DMs no longer look like system notices

[justinchuby]

Problem

Messaging an agent from the Agents page delivered the raw text with no attribution, and persisted the DM as authorType: 'system'. Agents received user messages as if they were system notifications — the Lead, by contrast, already gets a proper [ts] [USER] / source: web-dashboard envelope via buildSteer.

Bonus bug found on the same path: agent→agent DMs via /messages/send were persisted twice — once by the route (correctly, as agent) and again inside sendToAgent (as system).

Fix

• AgentManager.sendToAgent / interruptAgent accept { sender, skipStore }:
  • user sender → same envelope the Lead receives: [<ts>] [USER]\nsource: web-dashboard\n---\n<message>
  • agent sender → [<ts>] [AGENT <id>]\nsource: direct_message\n---\n<message>
  • system / no sender → unchanged passthrough (orchestrator callers unaffected)
  • the persisted DM now carries the real authorType/authorId instead of always system
• /agents/:id/send + /interrupt attribute by caller: requests with X-Agent-Id (MCP tools) → agent sender; otherwise the dashboard user
• /messages/send worker DM path passes skipStore (route already persisted the DM with reply context) — kills the duplicate system copy; channel fan-out keeps storing but with correct agent attribution
• formatTs deduplicated into utils/time.ts (was copy-pasted in LeadManager and Orchestrator; AgentManager is the third consumer)

Test plan

• 4 new attribution tests (user envelope + user-attributed DM, agent envelope, system passthrough, skipStore no-double-persist)
• Updated route-level mocks for the new signature
• Full server suite: 823/823 passing, tsc --noEmit clean, ESLint clean on changed files

🤖 Generated with Claude Code

[Copilot]

Pull request overview

This PR fixes DM sender attribution when steering agents so that user/agent-originated messages are no longer persisted and displayed as system notices, and it eliminates a duplicate DM persistence path in /messages/send. It also deduplicates timestamp formatting into a shared utility and adds tests around attribution + skipStore behavior.

Changes:

• Add sender-aware envelopes + DM persistence attribution to AgentManager.sendToAgent() / interruptAgent() (with skipStore to prevent double persistence).
• Attribute /agents/:id/send and /agents/:id/interrupt by caller (dashboard user vs MCP agent via X-Agent-Id), and fix /messages/send worker DM path to use skipStore.
• Deduplicate formatTs() into src/utils/time.ts and update Lead/Orchestrator to use it; add/adjust tests for the new signature and behavior.

Reviewed changes

Copilot reviewed 9 out of 9 changed files in this pull request and generated 4 comments.

Show a summary per file

File	Description
packages/server/src/agents/AgentManager.ts	Adds sender-aware envelope + DM persistence attribution and skipStore option.
packages/server/src/api/routes/agents.ts	Attributes agent relay messages based on presence of X-Agent-Id.
packages/server/src/api/routes/messages.ts	Uses skipStore on worker DM steering and fixes attribution for channel fan-out.
packages/server/src/utils/time.ts	New shared timestamp formatter used by steer envelopes.
packages/server/src/orchestrator/Orchestrator.ts	Removes local formatTs copy in favor of shared util.
packages/server/src/lead/LeadManager.ts	Removes local formatTs copy in favor of shared util.
packages/server/tests/agents/agent-manager.test.ts	Adds attribution + skipStore regression tests.
packages/server/tests/api/agent-relay.test.ts	Updates mocks/assertions for new sender-aware signature.
packages/server/tests/api/dm-routing.test.ts	Updates assertions for { sender, skipStore } options passed to sendToAgent.

---

💡 Add Copilot custom instructions for smarter, more guided reviews. Learn how to get started.