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Automation runs are spawned as siblings of the thread that created them #3060

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Description

@Techno911

What happens now

An automation created from inside a thread ("watch this board every morning", "run this check at 18:00") spawns each run as a top-level thread in the sidebar. The thread that set the automations up sits above a pile of siblings that cannot be collapsed and do not read as its work: after a day of running, five sibling rows say "Morning watch" and nothing connects them to the thread that asked for them.

Threads spawned by bb thread spawn from inside a thread do land under their parent, so the sidebar already knows how to show this — automations are the surface that misses it.

What I would expect

Runs of an automation that was set up from a thread appear under that thread, collapsible with it, the same as any other thread spawned from it.

Prototype

The row already records created_by_thread_id, so the fix is passing it through:

// plugins/automations/src/run.ts, executeAgentRun
await bb.sdk.threads.spawn({
  projectId: args.automation.projectId,
  // ...
  ...(args.automation.createdByThreadId === null
    ? {}
    : { parentThreadId: args.automation.createdByThreadId }),
});

An automation created outside any thread (from the project view) stays parentless, which is the current behaviour and the right one there.

Covered by three tests in the fork: the parent is passed, an automation with no creating thread stays parentless, and later runs keep the same parent. Happy to open a PR.

Activity

  1. added theissue type on Sep 4, 2026
  2. added
    threadsTurns, timeline, messaging, forks
    automationsBuilt-in plugin: automations
    confirmed-reproBug reproduced again from a clean trusted checkout; see linked report
    on Sep 4, 2026
  3. bb-slop-cop commented on Sep 4, 2026

    @bb-slop-cop
    Contributor

    🚨 SLOP COP 🚨 · new-issue-autopilot

    • Classification: Bug · Priority Medium · Effort Low · labels threads, automations
    • Report: https://get-bb.github.io/reports/issues/3060.html
    • Verdict: REPRODUCED · high confidence · reproduction label confirmed-repro
    • Root cause: The automation dispatcher persists the creator thread ID but omits it from the thread spawn request.
    • Fix: Parent automation runs to their creating threads #3061 — focused regression failed before and passed after; all 82 automations tests and typecheck pass; 47 changed text lines across 2 files.
  4. SawyerHood commented on Sep 4, 2026

    @SawyerHood
    Collaborator

    Not sure I want to do this since it might outlive the thread. maybe this should be a setting though hmmm

  5. changed the issue type fromtoon Sep 4, 2026
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