goose/NOTIFICATION_FIXES.md

Notification System Fixes

Summary

Fixed four major issues with the Matrix notification system:

1. Goose assistant responses were triggering notifications (spam)
2. Notifications continued after closing Matrix tabs (stale state)
3. Wrong room notifications were suppressed (legacy pair view bug)
4. "Open Chat" created blank sessions instead of opening existing chats

Changes Made

1. MessageNotification.tsx - Suppress Goose Assistant Responses

Problem: Goose's AI responses in collaborative Matrix sessions were showing as notifications because they come from other users' Goose instances.

Solution: Parse the goose-session-message: content and check the role field. Only show notifications for role: "user" (human messages), suppress role: "assistant" (AI responses).

Code Added (lines ~108-135):

// IMPORTANT: Don't show notifications for Goose assistant responses!
// These are AI responses, not human messages that need notification
// Parse the goose-session-message content to check the role
try {
  if (content.startsWith('goose-session-message:')) {
    const jsonContent = content.substring('goose-session-message:'.length);
    const parsed = JSON.parse(jsonContent);
    
    // Suppress notifications for assistant messages (Goose's responses)
    if (parsed.role === 'assistant') {
      console.log('🔕 Suppressing Goose assistant message notification (AI response, not human):', {
        roomId,
        sender,
        role: parsed.role
      });
      return;
    }
    
    // Only show notifications for user messages (human messages in collaborative sessions)
    console.log('🦆 Goose user message detected (human message in collab session):', {
      roomId,
      sender,
      role: parsed.role
    });
  }
} catch (error) {
  console.warn('Failed to parse goose-session-message content:', error);
  // If parsing fails, fall through to normal notification logic
}

2. MessageNotification.tsx - Fix Stale Tab State in Notification Suppression

Problem: When a Matrix tab is closed, the notification listener still had the old tab state captured in its closure, so it continued suppressing notifications for that room.

Solution: Changed from destructuring shouldSuppressNotification to storing the entire activeSessionHook object, then calling the method fresh each time to get current tab state.

Code Changed (lines ~34-35, ~59, ~144):

// OLD:
const { shouldSuppressNotification } = useActiveSession();
const shouldSuppress = shouldSuppressNotification(roomId, sender);

// NEW:
const activeSessionHook = useActiveSession();
// CRITICAL: Call shouldSuppressNotification fresh each time to get current tab state
// Don't capture it in closure - this ensures we always check against current tabs
const shouldSuppress = activeSessionHook.shouldSuppressNotification(roomId, sender);

This ensures that every time a message arrives, the suppression check uses the current tab state from TabContext, not stale state from when the listener was created.

3. useActiveSession.ts - Remove Buggy Legacy Pair View Suppression

Problem: The legacy /pair view suppression was checking if messageSenderId === currentRecipientId, which incorrectly suppressed notifications from different rooms when the sender ID matched.

Example Bug:

• You're viewing room A with recipient @spence:tchncs.de
• Message arrives from room B, sent by @spence:tchncs.de (you)
• Legacy logic suppressed it because sender matched recipient, even though it's a different room!

Solution: Removed the buggy legacy /pair view suppression logic entirely. The Matrix room check (line ~169) is the correct way to suppress notifications.

Code Removed (lines ~210-220):

// REMOVED:
if (currentView.path.startsWith('/pair') && 
    currentView.matrixRecipientId && 
    messageSenderId === currentView.matrixRecipientId) {
  console.log('🔕 Suppressing notification: message from current pair recipient (legacy)');
  return true;
}

// NOW: Only suppress based on room ID match, not sender ID

4. App.tsx - Fix "Open Chat" to Use Existing Tabs

Problem: Clicking "Open Chat" on a notification always navigated to /pair, which could cause the tab system to re-initialize and lose track of existing tabs. This resulted in creating a blank new session instead of opening the existing chat.

Solution: Check if we're already on the /pair route before navigating. If we are, dispatch the create-matrix-tab event immediately without navigation.

Code Changed (lines ~368-395):

// OLD:
navigate('/pair');
setTimeout(() => {
  const event = new CustomEvent('create-matrix-tab', { detail: { roomId, senderId } });
  window.dispatchEvent(event);
}, 100);

// NEW:
const isOnPairRoute = location.pathname === '/pair' || location.pathname === '/tabs';

if (isOnPairRoute) {
  // Already on pair route - just dispatch the event immediately
  const event = new CustomEvent('create-matrix-tab', { detail: { roomId, senderId } });
  window.dispatchEvent(event);
} else {
  // Navigate to pair view first, then dispatch event
  navigate('/pair');
  setTimeout(() => {
    const event = new CustomEvent('create-matrix-tab', { detail: { roomId, senderId } });
    window.dispatchEvent(event);
  }, 100);
}

This ensures that openMatrixChat in TabContext.tsx can properly check for existing tabs and switch to them instead of creating duplicates.

Testing

1. Test Goose Assistant Suppression:

   • Open a Matrix collaborative session
   • Send a message and wait for Goose to respond
   • ✅ You should NOT see a notification for Goose's response
   • ✅ You should only see notifications for human messages from collaborators

2. Test Tab Close Behavior:

   • Open a Matrix chat tab
   • While viewing it, messages should be suppressed (no notifications)
   • Close the tab
   • Send a message to that room from another device
   • ✅ You should now see a notification (not suppressed)

3. Test Multi-Room Suppression:

   • Open Matrix room A in a tab
   • Receive a message in room B (different room)
   • ✅ You should see a notification for room B
   • ✅ Room B notification should NOT be suppressed just because you're viewing room A

4. Test "Open Chat" from Notification:

   • Receive a notification for a Matrix room
   • Click "Open Chat" on the notification
   • ✅ If the room is already open in a tab, it should switch to that tab
   • ✅ If the room is not open, it should create a new tab with the existing conversation loaded
   • ✅ Should NOT create a blank new session

Impact

• Reduced notification spam: No more constant Goose assistant response notifications
• Correct suppression behavior: Notifications work correctly after closing tabs and across multiple rooms
• Better UX: Users only get notified for actual human messages that need attention
• Proper navigation: "Open Chat" correctly opens existing conversations instead of blank sessions