Remove redundant system messages from issue timeline

[Copilot]

Cleanup System Messages in Issue Timeline ✅ COMPLETE

Issue Requirements

1. ✅ Remove the 'Issue created' system event entirely (it's redundant with the initial issue post)
2. ✅ Remove the 'System' string prefix/label from each message to clean up the UI

Changes Completed

• Remove "Issue reported by..." system event creation in src/services/issues.ts
• Remove "System" label from system message display in src/components/issues/IssueTimeline.tsx
• Update integration tests that expect "Issue created" or "Issue reported by" events
• Update E2E tests that look for "Issue reported by" text
• Fix unit test to not expect createTimelineEvent call
• Resolve merge conflicts with main branch
• Run all tests to validate changes (all passed)
• Run linter and typecheck (passed)
• Create visual documentation of UI changes

Files Modified (6 files)

1. src/services/issues.ts - Removed initial timeline event creation (resolved conflict with main's enhanced reporter name lookup)
2. src/components/issues/IssueTimeline.tsx - Removed "System" author label from UI
3. src/services/issues.test.ts - Fixed unit test expectations
4. src/test/integration/supabase/issues.test.ts - Updated test data
5. src/test/integration/supabase/issue-services.test.ts - Verified no initial events created (resolved conflict with main's test expectations)
6. e2e/smoke/reporter-variations.spec.ts - Removed "Issue reported by" assertions

Merge Conflict Resolution

The main branch had introduced more sophisticated code to look up the actual user's name when creating the timeline event. During the rebase, I resolved conflicts by:

• Keeping my changes that remove the timeline event creation entirely
• Ensuring test expectations align with the removal of the initial event

Visual Impact

Before: Timeline showed redundant "System Issue reported by..." event and "System" prefix on all system messages

After: Clean timeline with:

• No redundant initial event (the issue post itself is the first item)
• No "System" prefix (just the action/change message)
• Better scannability and less visual noise

Benefits

1. Reduced redundancy - initial issue post already shows reporter
2. Cleaner UI - removed unnecessary "System" prefix
3. Better scannability - easier to see what changed
4. Improved focus - emphasis on the action, not the actor

Original prompt

---

This section details on the original issue you should resolve

<issue_title>Cleanup System Messages in Issue Timeline</issue_title>
<issue_description>Refactor system messages in the issue timeline:

1. Remove the 'Issue created' system event entirely (it's redundant with the initial issue post).
2. Remove the 'System' string prefix/label from each message to clean up the UI.</issue_description>

Comments on the Issue (you are @copilot in this section)

• Fixes Cleanup System Messages in Issue Timeline #763

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Project	Deployment	Review	Updated (UTC)
pin-point	Ready	Preview, Comment	Jan 12, 2026 2:58am

[timothyfroehlich]

@copilot merge conflicts

[Copilot]

Pull request overview

This PR removes redundant system messages from issue timelines by eliminating the "Issue reported by..." event that appeared immediately after the initial issue post, and removing the "System" prefix label from all system messages for a cleaner UI.

Changes:

• Removed initial timeline event creation in createIssue() service function
• Updated UI to display system messages without "System" author label
• Updated all tests to verify new behavior and remove assertions for removed functionality

Reviewed changes

Copilot reviewed 6 out of 6 changed files in this pull request and generated no comments.

Show a summary per file

File	Description
src/services/issues.ts	Removed code that created initial "Issue reported by..." timeline event in createIssue()
src/components/issues/IssueTimeline.tsx	Removed "System" author label rendering from system messages
src/services/issues.test.ts	Removed assertion that createTimelineEvent was called during issue creation
src/test/integration/supabase/issue-services.test.ts	Updated tests to verify no initial timeline events are created and removed expectations for "Issue reported by..." messages
src/test/integration/supabase/issues.test.ts	Updated test data to use realistic system message content instead of "Issue created"
e2e/smoke/reporter-variations.spec.ts	Removed E2E assertions checking for "Issue reported by..." text

[Copilot]

@copilot merge conflicts

Resolved the merge conflicts by rebasing onto main (commit 6fde862).

The conflicts were in:

1. src/services/issues.ts - Main branch added enhanced user name lookup for timeline events, but my changes remove the timeline event creation entirely. Resolved by keeping the removal.
2. src/test/integration/supabase/issue-services.test.ts - Main branch expected the timeline event with actual user names, but my changes expect no event. Resolved by keeping the expectation that no event exists.

The branch now needs a force push to update the PR. The local branch is rebased and ready - it's at commit 6fde862 which includes all changes from main plus my timeline cleanup changes.