Fix: prevent duplicate agent session creation and improve error handling in chat initialization

[AshishKumar4]

Summary

Fixes race conditions that can cause duplicate agent session creation during React re-renders and improves error handling for missing initialization data.

Changes

• Add connection status guard before createAgentSession() to prevent duplicate API calls during re-renders
• Add similar guard for existing chat connections in the else branch
• Validate required websocketUrl and agentId fields before establishing WebSocket connection
• Reset connection status to idle on initialization errors to allow retry attempts
• Add cli and debug-tools directories to .gitignore

Motivation

React's strict mode and re-render behavior can cause useEffect hooks to run multiple times. Without proper guards, this could lead to:

1. Multiple API calls to create agent sessions for the same chat
2. Race conditions where multiple WebSocket connections are attempted
3. Inconsistent state if one request fails while another succeeds

Testing

• Create a new chat session and verify only one agent session is created
• Simulate network errors during initialization and verify retry works correctly
• Test reconnection to existing chat sessions
• Verify no duplicate WebSocket connections during rapid navigation

Breaking Changes

None - these are internal guards that don't affect the public API.

[github-actions]

Claude finished @AshishKumar4's task in 1m 28s —— View job

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Code Quality & Security Review

Recommendation: APPROVE ✅

PR Summary

This PR fixes race conditions that can cause duplicate agent session creation during React re-renders and improves error handling by validating required fields before WebSocket connection.

PR Description

• Updated: Yes
• Notes: Added comprehensive Summary, Changes, Motivation, Testing, and Breaking Changes sections

Addressed Issues

• None explicitly linked (appears to be a preventive fix based on observed behavior)

Code Quality

Severity	Issues
Critical	None
High	None
Medium	None
Low	None

Analysis:

• Race condition fix (lines 424-425, 507-509): Correctly sets connectionStatus.current = 'connecting' before async operations to prevent duplicate calls during re-renders
• Validation guards (lines 493-495, 529-531): Properly validates required websocketUrl and agentId fields before proceeding
• Error recovery (lines 539-540): Appropriately resets status to 'idle' on failure to allow retry
• Type safety: No any types introduced; follows existing type patterns
• DRY principle: Changes follow established patterns in the codebase

Security

Severity	Issues
Critical	None
High	None
Medium	None
Low	None

No security concerns - changes are internal state management guards and input validation.

.gitignore Changes

The additions of cli and debug-tools are appropriate for excluding local development tooling from version control.

Testing

• Manual testing recommended:
  • Create new chat sessions and verify single agent session creation
  • Test error recovery and retry behavior
  • Verify existing chat reconnection works correctly
  • Test rapid navigation between chats

Final Recommendation

Approve - This is a well-implemented fix for a legitimate race condition issue. The guards follow React best practices for preventing duplicate effects, and the validation ensures fail-fast behavior with clear error messages. The changes are minimal, focused, and don't introduce any regressions.

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