Host-readable absolute --image paths render as broken thumbnails in project threads

[brsbl]

Summary

bb thread spawn (and related thread commands) document --image as accepting a “host-readable absolute or uploaded attachment image path.” An absolute image path is accepted and reaches the agent, but the thread task/message renders a broken thumbnail when the thread belongs to a project.

The prompt-delivery contract and timeline-display contract disagree.

Reproduction

1. Put a valid PNG at an absolute path readable by the target thread host, for example /tmp/reference.png.

2. Spawn a project thread with that image:

   bb thread spawn <project/thread options> --image /tmp/reference.png "Inspect this reference"

3. Open the spawned thread.

Expected

• The agent receives the image.
• The task/message card displays the image thumbnail and lightbox normally.

Actual

• The agent receives the image.
• The task/message card shows a broken-image icon and the filename instead of the image.

Uploading the image through bb project attachment upload first and passing its returned project-relative path renders correctly.

Confirmed mechanism

The persisted prompt input contains an absolute local-image path:

{ "type": "localImage", "path": "/tmp/reference.png" }

The timeline resolver checks projectId before checking whether the path is absolute, so every non-URL image in a project thread is rewritten as a project-attachment content URL:

bb/apps/app/src/lib/user-attachment-images.ts

Lines 3 to 22 in 2cfd2b5

	export function toUserAttachmentImageSrc(
	pathOrUrl: string,
	projectId?: string,
	): string {
	if (/^(https?:|data:|blob:)/i.test(pathOrUrl)) {
	return pathOrUrl;
	}
	if (projectId) {
	return buildProjectAttachmentContentUrl(projectId, pathOrUrl);
	}
	if (/^file:/i.test(pathOrUrl)) {
	return pathOrUrl;
	}
	const normalized = pathOrUrl.replaceAll("\\", "/");
	if (/^[a-zA-Z]:\//.test(normalized)) {
	return `file:///${encodeURI(normalized)}`;
	}
	if (normalized.startsWith("/")) {
	return `file://${encodeURI(normalized)}`;

That endpoint only serves paths contained within <dataDir>/attachments/<projectId>; an absolute host path is rejected as escaping the project attachment directory:

bb/apps/server/src/services/projects/attachments.ts

Lines 63 to 99 in 2cfd2b5

	function projectAttachmentDir(dataDir: string, projectId: string): string {
	return join(dataDir, "attachments", projectId);
	}
	function resolveAttachmentPath(
	attachmentDir: string,
	relativePath: string,
	): string {
	const normalizedRelativePath = normalize(relativePath.replaceAll("\\", "/"));
	const resolvedAttachmentDir = resolve(attachmentDir);
	const resolvedCandidatePath = resolve(
	resolvedAttachmentDir,
	normalizedRelativePath,
	);
	if (resolvedCandidatePath === resolvedAttachmentDir) {
	throw new ApiError(
	400,
	"invalid_request",
	"Attachment path must refer to a file inside the project directory",
	);
	}
	const resolvedPath = resolveContainedPath({
	rootPath: resolvedAttachmentDir,
	candidatePath: resolvedCandidatePath,
	});
	if (resolvedPath) {
	return resolvedPath;
	}
	throw new ApiError(
	400,
	"invalid_request",
	"Attachment path escapes project directory",
	);

Meanwhile, the CLI explicitly advertises absolute host-readable paths:

bb/apps/cli/src/commands/thread/spawn.ts

Lines 208 to 218 in 2cfd2b5

	.option(
	"--file <path>",
	"Pass a host-readable absolute or uploaded attachment file path (repeatable)",
	collectOption,
	[],
	)
	.option(
	"--image <path>",
	"Pass a host-readable absolute or uploaded attachment image path (repeatable)",
	collectOption,
	[],

Suggested contract

Normalize host-readable image paths into durable project attachments before persisting/displaying the prompt input, or provide a correctly authorized host-file rendering path. The first option would keep timeline rendering durable after the original host file moves or disappears.

Acceptance criteria

• A valid absolute --image path accepted by thread spawn/tell/fork renders in the resulting project-thread timeline.
• The agent and the UI resolve the same image bytes.
• Existing uploaded project-relative attachments, HTTP/data/blob images, and non-project threads continue to work.
• Remote-host paths are covered rather than assuming the bb server and execution host share a filesystem.
• Regression coverage exercises the CLI/server prompt boundary and the timeline image-source resolution.

Verified against origin/main at 2cfd2b5df57daeed51ea544b54a8869bbec1c478.

[SawyerHood]

Reproduction & root-cause report: https://get-bb.github.io/reports/issues/2449.html

• Verdict: REPRODUCED · root-cause confidence: high
• Root cause (short): The server stores an absolute localImage path, but the project timeline sends it to an endpoint that accepts only stored attachments.
• Proposed fix: Before prompt storage, read each absolute localImage from the selected host and store its bytes as a project attachment. Persist the returned relative path across spawn, tell, fork, deferred sends, and queued messages.
• Caveats: The live test used one local execution host. It did not test a different machine. PR Persist absolute prompt images as durable attachments #2579 appeared after the workflow selected an empty PR set, so this report does not review it.

The report has copy-paste repro steps, screenshots where the bug is visual, code permalinks at the base commit, and repro artifacts. It was independently re-run by a second agent (see its Verification section).

AGENT GENERATED: by GPT-5.6-Sol