From 8ce8ebc9b8630be931f832043cf0645e2bf415fa Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: limiteinductive <benjamintrom@gmail.com>
Date: Sun, 29 Mar 2026 20:56:45 +0200
Subject: [PATCH] =?UTF-8?q?add=20@mentions=20=E2=80=94=20parsed=20server-s?=
 =?UTF-8?q?ide,=20rendered=20as=20highlighted=20spans?=
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- Backend: parse_mentions() extracts @username from content
- Message API response includes mentions: string[] field
- Frontend: renderContent() highlights @mentions in hot orange
- Works with alphanumeric + hyphens + underscores

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.6 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
---
 crates/colony-types/src/lib.rs           |  1 +
 crates/colony/src/db.rs                  | 11 +++++++++++
 ui/colony/src/components/MessageItem.tsx | 17 ++++++++++++++++-
 3 files changed, 28 insertions(+), 1 deletion(-)

diff --git a/crates/colony-types/src/lib.rs b/crates/colony-types/src/lib.rs
index 97f3ac7..58ca326 100644
--- a/crates/colony-types/src/lib.rs
+++ b/crates/colony-types/src/lib.rs
@@ -44,6 +44,7 @@ pub struct Message {
     pub content: String,
     #[ts(optional)]
     pub metadata: Option<serde_json::Value>,
+    pub mentions: Vec<String>,
     #[ts(optional)]
     pub reply_to: Option<Uuid>,
     pub created_at: DateTime<Utc>,
diff --git a/crates/colony/src/db.rs b/crates/colony/src/db.rs
index ce46580..9b634e8 100644
--- a/crates/colony/src/db.rs
+++ b/crates/colony/src/db.rs
@@ -2,6 +2,16 @@ use chrono::{DateTime, Utc};
 use sqlx::FromRow;
 use uuid::Uuid;
 
+/// Extract @mentions from message content
+fn parse_mentions(content: &str) -> Vec<String> {
+    content
+        .split_whitespace()
+        .filter(|w| w.starts_with('@') && w.len() > 1)
+        .map(|w| w.trim_start_matches('@').trim_end_matches(|c: char| !c.is_alphanumeric() && c != '_' && c != '-').to_string())
+        .filter(|m| !m.is_empty())
+        .collect()
+}
+
 /// DB row types — these map directly to SQL tables.
 /// Separate from API types in colony-types.
 
@@ -87,6 +97,7 @@ impl MessageRow {
             } else {
                 self.content.clone()
             },
+            mentions: parse_mentions(&self.content),
             metadata: self
                 .metadata
                 .as_ref()
diff --git a/ui/colony/src/components/MessageItem.tsx b/ui/colony/src/components/MessageItem.tsx
index 72e2996..cbeed0b 100644
--- a/ui/colony/src/components/MessageItem.tsx
+++ b/ui/colony/src/components/MessageItem.tsx
@@ -26,6 +26,21 @@ function timeAgo(dateStr: string): string {
   return `${Math.floor(hrs / 24)}d`;
 }
 
+function renderContent(text: string) {
+  // Split on @mentions and render them as highlighted spans
+  const parts = text.split(/(@[\w-]+)/g);
+  return parts.map((part, i) => {
+    if (part.startsWith("@")) {
+      return (
+        <span key={i} className="text-primary font-bold cursor-default">
+          {part}
+        </span>
+      );
+    }
+    return part;
+  });
+}
+
 export function MessageItem({ message, replyTarget, onReply }: Props) {
   const [metaOpen, setMetaOpen] = useState(false);
   const isAgent = message.user.role === "agent";
@@ -110,7 +125,7 @@ export function MessageItem({ message, replyTarget, onReply }: Props) {
           {isDeleted ? (
             <span className="italic text-muted-foreground/40">[deleted]</span>
           ) : (
-            message.content
+            renderContent(message.content)
           )}
         </div>