## Thinking Path
> - Paperclip is the open source app people use to manage AI agents for
work
> - Agents and boards coordinate through issue-thread interactions
(request_confirmation, ask_user_questions, suggest_tasks, …) that wait
as `pending` cards until someone resolves them
> - Two lifecycle gaps existed: an interaction's creator could not take
back a card it no longer stands behind, and interactions left `pending`
on issues that reached a terminal status lingered forever as
live-looking approval requests
> - Stale pending cards mislead humans (they look actionable), distort
attention/liveness signals, and in the worst case invite acting on a
proposal whose issue is already closed or cancelled
> - This pull request adds an explicit withdraw route for pending
interactions and automatically expires pending interactions when their
issue reaches a terminal status (including a catch-up sweep for issues
closed before this change)
> - The benefit is that interaction cards now faithfully reflect
reality: only genuinely actionable requests stay pending, and creators
can retract requests that events have overtaken
## Linked Issues or Issue Description
Fixes#5787
Refs #7403
Related prior PRs found while searching for duplicates (all overlap
partially; none combine both lifecycle paths or the route-level
authorization used here): #6709 and #7312 (creator-withdraw attempts),
#8169 (terminal expiry), #8081 and #5137 (generalized cancel/expire
endpoints), #6094 (stale confirmation auto-resolve). Related merged
context: #9568 (agent cancel for ask_user_questions), #10119 (tolerating
legacy `withdrawn_by_creator` result outcomes — the reader side of the
outcome this PR writes).
## What Changed
- New route `POST /issues/:id/interactions/:interactionId/withdraw` that
resolves a `pending` interaction to status `withdrawn` with a structured
result (`outcome: "withdrawn"`, optional trimmed `reason`), stamps
`resolvedBy*`/`resolvedAt`, touches the issue, logs activity, and emits
resolved-interaction telemetry
- Withdrawal authorization: board users, the interaction's creator
agent, or the issue's current assignee agent (assignees additionally
pass the standard issue-mutation gate); task-watchdog runs are
explicitly rejected, and authorization-boundary plus low-trust
control-plane checks apply
- Withdrawing an already-resolved interaction returns `409`;
unknown/cross-issue/cross-company interaction ids return `404`
- New service method `expirePendingInteractionsForTerminalIssue`: when
an issue transitions to a terminal status, all of its `pending`
interactions are resolved to `expired` with `outcome: "issue_closed"`,
guarded by a `status = 'pending'` predicate so concurrent resolutions
are not overwritten
- The same expiry runs as a catch-up when interactions are listed on an
already-terminal issue, so cards stranded by issues closed before this
change also get cleaned up; expired request_confirmations are logged
with a distinguishing source
- Shared package: new `withdrawIssueThreadInteractionSchema` validator,
`WithdrawIssueThreadInteraction` type, and `withdrawn` / `issue_closed`
result-outcome support for all interaction kinds (kind-aware result
shapes for `ask_user_questions` and `request_item_verdicts`)
- UI helper `ui/src/lib/issue-thread-interactions.ts` recognizes the new
outcomes for card rendering
- Docs: bundled skill API reference updated with the withdraw endpoint
- Review follow-up: terminal expiry moved from the HTTP route hooks into
`issueService.update`'s status-transition block, so direct service
callers (tree control, recovery, pipelines, status cards) expire pending
cards too; the list-endpoint catch-up remains for issues closed before
this change
- Review follow-up: withdrawing or issue-close-expiring a
`request_confirmation` also settles its linked `tool_action_requests`
row (withdraw -> `cancelled`, issue closed -> `expired`), so a parked
tool call cannot stay approvable after its card is gone
- Review follow-up: interaction cards render dedicated copy for the new
outcomes ("Withdrawn" with the reason, "Expired when issue closed")
instead of falling through to superseded-by-comment / stale-target
variants; withdrawn plan reviews badge as "Withdrawn" rather than
"Changes requested"
## Screenshots
Card states rendered from a local ux-lab harness with mocked data ([full
gallery](https://pages.paperclip.ing/pr-10251-interaction-withdrawal-cards/)):
| Light | Dark |
| --- | --- |
| 
| 
|
## Verification
- `pnpm --filter @paperclipai/shared build` — clean tsc
- `cd server && npx vitest run
src/__tests__/issue-thread-interaction-routes.test.ts` — 22 tests pass,
including new coverage for: creator-agent withdraw success,
non-creator/non-assignee agent 403, watchdog-run 403, double-withdraw
409, and board-user withdraw
- `cd server && npx vitest run
src/services/issue-thread-interactions.test.ts` — 4 tests pass,
including terminal-issue expiry writing `issue_closed` results and
leaving already-resolved interactions untouched
- `cd ui && pnpm typecheck` — clean
- `cd server && npx vitest run src/__tests__/issues-service.test.ts` —
includes a new embedded-Postgres test proving a direct
`issueService.update` terminal transition expires pending interactions
and writes the activity-log entry
- `cd ui && npx vitest run
src/components/IssueThreadInteractionCard.test.tsx` — 32 tests,
including new coverage for withdrawn / issue-closed confirmation and
question cards
- `cd server && npx tsc --noEmit` — matches the pre-existing repo error
baseline exactly (no new errors)
- Manual: `POST /issues/:id/interactions/:interactionId/withdraw` with
`{"reason":"superseded"}` as the creator agent resolves the card to
`withdrawn`; closing an issue with a pending confirmation flips it to
`expired` with `outcome: "issue_closed"`
## Risks
- Interactions on terminal issues now auto-expire (including
retroactively via the list-time catch-up), so consumers that expected to
resolve a pending interaction on a closed issue will get `409`; this is
the intended semantics and matches how the attention feed already wants
to treat dead cards
- New result outcomes (`withdrawn`, `issue_closed`) are written to
stored results; readers were already made tolerant of these outcome
strings in #10119, so mixed-version reads are safe
- No schema/migration changes; per-row conditional updates (`status =
'pending'`) avoid clobbering concurrent resolutions
- Withdrawal is a new mutation surface, but it is strictly narrower than
existing resolve paths (board, creator, or assignee only; watchdog runs
blocked)
## Model Used
Claude Fable 5 (`claude-fable-5`, Anthropic Mythos-class tier) with
extended thinking and agentic tool use (Claude Code harness); commit
authored in a Paperclip-managed engineering session.
## Checklist
- [x] I have included a thinking path that traces from project context
to this change
- [x] I have specified the model used (with version and capability
details)
- [x] I have checked ROADMAP.md and confirmed this PR does not duplicate
planned core work
- [x] I have searched GitHub for duplicate or related PRs and linked
them above
- [x] I have either (a) linked existing issues with `Fixes: #` / `Closes
#` / `Refs #` OR (b) described the issue in-PR following the relevant
issue template
- [x] I have not referenced internal/instance-local Paperclip issues or
links (only public GitHub `#NNN` / `github.com/paperclipai/paperclip`
URLs)
- [x] My branch name describes the change (e.g. `docs/...`, `fix/...`)
and contains no internal Paperclip ticket id or instance-derived details
- [x] I have run tests locally and they pass
- [x] I have added or updated tests where applicable
- [x] I have updated relevant documentation to reflect my changes
- [x] I have considered and documented any risks above
- [x] All Paperclip CI gates are green
- [x] Greptile is 5/5 with no open P2s, recommendations, or follow-ups
- [x] I will address all Greptile and reviewer comments before
requesting merge
---------
Co-authored-by: Paperclip <noreply@paperclip.ing>
f6ab82d490
