Diagnose why 🟢 the LHN disappeared when clicked

[quinthar]

Problem

I see a 🟢 on @ryanldonato's workspace chat:

It's onyx object is:

{
    "chatType": "policyExpenseChat",
    "created": "2024-11-05 11:52:45",
    "currency": "USD",
    "description": "",
    "errorFields": {},
    "hasOutstandingChildRequest": true,
    "hasOutstandingChildTask": false,
    "iouReportID": "7095969102097725",
    "isCancelledIOU": false,
    "isOwnPolicyExpenseChat": false,
    "isPinned": false,
    "isWaitingOnBankAccount": false,
    "lastActionType": "RECEIPTSCANCOMPLETED",
    "lastActorAccountID": "8392101",
    "lastMessageHtml": "",
    "lastMessageText": "",
    "lastReadSequenceNumber": 0,
    "lastReadTime": "2026-05-21 00:56:15.697",
    "lastVisibleActionCreated": "2026-05-05 01:23:45.401",
    "lastVisibleActionLastModified": "2026-05-05 01:23:45.401",
    "managerID": 0,
    "nonReimbursableTotal": 0,
    "oldPolicyName": "",
    "ownerAccountID": 2671946,
    "participants": {
        "1": {
            "notificationPreference": "always"
        },
        "2671946": {
            "notificationPreference": "always"
        },
        "9645353": {
            "notificationPreference": "always"
        },
        "9679724": {
            "notificationPreference": "always"
        },
        "9713816": {
            "notificationPreference": ""
        },
        "10903701": {
            "notificationPreference": "always"
        },
        "19103907": {
            "notificationPreference": ""
        }
    },
    "permissions": [
        "read",
        "write",
        "share"
    ],
    "policyAvatar": "https://d1wpcgnaa73g0y.cloudfront.net/5c729b9ca08577023979a81219e45e73f601b9ee.png",
    "policyID": "137DA25D273F2423",
    "policyName": "Expenses - Expensify US",
    "private_isArchived": "",
    "reimbursableTotal": 0,
    "reportID": "1004947588404001",
    "reportName": "Chat Report",
    "stateNum": 0,
    "statusNum": 0,
    "total": 0,
    "transactionCount": 0,
    "type": "chat",
    "unheldNonReimbursableTotal": 0,
    "unheldTotal": 0,
    "welcomeMessage": "",
    "writeCapability": "all"
}

When I click on it, the GBR disappears:

Screen.Recording.2026-05-23.at.7.25.21.PM.mov

And here's his report JSON after:

{
      "chatType": "",
      "created": "2020-09-28 21:23:26",
      "currency": "USD",
      "description": "",
      "errorFields": {},
      "hasOutstandingChildRequest": false,
      "hasOutstandingChildTask": false,
      "isCancelledIOU": false,
      "isOwnPolicyExpenseChat": false,
      "isPinned": false,
      "isWaitingOnBankAccount": false,
      "lastActionType": "ADDCOMMENT",
      "lastActorAccountID": "1",
      "lastMessageHtml": "Thanks!",
      "lastMessageText": "Thanks!",
      "lastReadSequenceNumber": 32,
      "lastReadTime": "2025-09-10 17:53:56.242",
      "lastVisibleActionCreated": "2025-02-07 00:12:21.155",
      "lastVisibleActionLastModified": "2025-02-07 00:12:21.155",
      "managerID": 0,
      "nonReimbursableTotal": 0,
      "oldPolicyName": "",
      "ownerAccountID": 0,
      "participants": {
            "1": {
                  "notificationPreference": "always"
            },
            "2671946": {
                  "notificationPreference": "always"
            }
      },
      "permissions": [
            "read",
            "write"
      ],
      "policyID": "_FAKE_",
      "private_isArchived": "",
      "reimbursableTotal": 0,
      "reportID": "65297187",
      "reportName": "Chat Report",
      "stateNum": 0,
      "statusNum": 0,
      "total": 0,
      "transactionCount": 0,
      "type": "chat",
      "unheldNonReimbursableTotal": 0,
      "unheldTotal": 0,
      "welcomeMessage": "",
      "writeCapability": "all",
      "hasExportError": false,
      "hasReportBeenReopened": false,
      "hasReportBeenRetracted": false,
      "isExportedToIntegration": false
}

Why did the LHN think there was a GBR, only to realize there isn't when the report was opened?

Issue Owner

Current Issue Owner: @aimane-chnaif

[quinthar]

@MelvinBot do you have any theories on why there would have been a GBR dot in the LHN for Ryan based on the JSON object originally given above, and why it would disappear when the report object is updated to the latter after OpenReport?

[MelvinBot]

Yes — the GBR dot was caused by hasOutstandingChildRequest: true on the first report object. That field directly triggers the "requires attention" (green dot) logic at ReportUtils.ts:4271.

The more interesting question is why it disappears. The two JSON snapshots are not the same report — the reportID changes from 1004947588404001 to 65297187, the chatType changes from policyExpenseChat to empty, policyID goes from a real ID to _FAKE_, and the participant list shrinks from 7 to 2. This looks like the stale DM recovery path kicked in.

Theory: stale DM recovery replaced the report

When navigateToAndOpenReport is called, it calls openReport on the existing chat. If the server responds with a notFound error (e.g., the user lost access to the policy expense chat, or the report was deleted server-side), the revalidation listener at line 2296-2314 fires createAndOpenNewOptimisticChat, which:

1. Builds a brand-new optimistic chat report via buildOptimisticChatReport (explaining policyID: "_FAKE_" and chatType: "")
2. Calls setStaleDMRecoveryTarget to link the old reportID to the new one
3. Opens and navigates to the new report, which uses Onyx.METHOD.SET — completely overwriting the Onyx entry

The new optimistic report naturally has hasOutstandingChildRequest: false (it's a fresh empty chat), so the GBR disappears.

Key evidence from the "after" JSON:

• policyID: "_FAKE_" — hallmark of an optimistic report created client-side
• reportID: "65297187" — a new short-form ID, different from the original
• chatType: "" — not a policy expense chat anymore
• Only 2 participants (accountIDs 1 and 2671946) instead of 7 — matches buildOptimisticChatReport behavior
• created: "2020-09-28" — this might be the original DM between these two participants that was found by getChatByParticipants before the fallback

In short: The original report (1004947588404001) was a policy expense chat with hasOutstandingChildRequest: true, which legitimately triggers a GBR. When clicked, OpenReport likely discovered the report was stale/inaccessible on the server, triggered the stale DM recovery fallback, and replaced it with a fresh optimistic chat that has no outstanding child requests. The GBR disappearing is a side effect of the report being entirely replaced, not of the original GBR being resolved.

The root question for this bug might be: why was a stale/inaccessible policy expense chat persisted in Onyx in the first place, and is the stale DM recovery the right fallback for a policyExpenseChat (vs. a 1:1 DM)?