## Problem
Chat titles revert to the fallback truncated title after briefly showing
the AI-generated title. Even reloading the page doesn't help — the
correct title flashes then gets overwritten.
## Root Cause
Single bug, two symptoms.
In `processChat` (`coderd/chatd/chatd.go`), the `chat` variable is
passed by value. The flow:
1. `processChat(ctx, chat)` receives `chat` with the initial fallback
title (truncated first message).
2. Inside `runChat`, `maybeGenerateChatTitle` generates an AI title,
writes it to the DB via `UpdateChatByID`, and publishes a `title_change`
event. **The DB has the correct title.** The client briefly displays it.
3. `runChat` returns. The **deferred cleanup** in `processChat`
publishes `publishChatPubsubEvent(chat, StatusChange)` — but `chat` here
is the original value copy that still has the **old fallback title**.
4. The frontend receives the `status_change` SSE event and
**unconditionally applies `title` from every event kind** (see
`AgentsPage.tsx` line ~305: `title: updatedChat.title`). This overwrites
the correct AI title with the stale fallback.
**Why reload doesn't help:** If the chat is still processing when the
page reloads, `listChats` loads the correct title from the DB, but then
the deferred `status_change` event arrives moments later and clobbers
it. The title was always in the DB — it was the pubsub event that kept
overwriting it.
## Fix
Re-read the chat from the database in the deferred cleanup before
publishing the final `status_change` event, so it carries the current
(AI-generated) title.
When injecting system instructions into the chat prompt, include:
1. **Operating system** and **working directory** from the
`workspace_agents` table
2. **Home-level instructions** from `~/.coder/AGENTS.md` (existing
behavior)
3. **Project-level instructions** from `<pwd>/AGENTS.md` (new)
The XML tag is renamed from `<coder-home-instructions>` to
`<system-instructions>` since it now carries more than just the home
instruction file.
### Example output (both files present)
```xml
<system-instructions>
Operating System: linux
Working Directory: /home/coder/coder
Source: /home/coder/.coder/AGENTS.md
... home instructions ...
Source: /home/coder/coder/AGENTS.md
... project instructions ...
</system-instructions>
```
### Example output (no AGENTS.md files)
```xml
<system-instructions>
Operating System: linux
Working Directory: /home/coder/coder
</system-instructions>
```
### Changes
- **`coderd/chatd/instruction.go`**:
- Renamed types: `homeInstructionContext` → `agentContext`, added
`instructionFile` struct
- Extracted `readInstructionFileAtPath` shared helper
- Added `readWorkingDirectoryInstructionFile` to read `<pwd>/AGENTS.md`
- Replaced `formatHomeInstruction` with `formatInstructions` that
renders both files under `<system-instructions>`
- **`coderd/chatd/chatd.go`**:
- Renamed `resolveHomeInstruction` → `resolveInstructions`; now reads
both home and pwd instruction files
- `resolveAgentContext` returns `agentContext` (renamed from
`homeInstructionContext`)
- pwd file read is skipped gracefully if directory is empty or file
doesn't exist
- **`coderd/chatd/instruction_test.go`**:
- Added `TestReadWorkingDirectoryInstructionFile` (success, not-found,
empty-directory)
- Replaced `TestFormatHomeInstruction` with `TestFormatInstructions`
covering all combinations
- Added ordering test (`AgentContextBeforeFiles`) to verify OS/pwd
appear before file sources
## Summary
The `chattool` `list_templates` tool previously returned all templates
in a single response with no popularity signal. On deployments with many
templates (e.g. 71 on dogfood), this wastes tokens and makes it hard for
the AI to pick the right template for broad user questions.
## Changes
Single file: `coderd/chatd/chattool/listtemplates.go`
- **`page` parameter** — optional, 1-indexed, 10 results per page
- **Popularity sort** — queries
`GetWorkspaceUniqueOwnerCountByTemplateIDs` to get active developer
counts, then sorts descending (most popular first). The DB query returns
templates alphabetically, so this explicit sort is needed.
- **`active_developers`** — included on each template item so the agent
can see the signal
- **Pagination metadata** — `page`, `total_pages`, `total_count` in the
response so the agent knows there are more results
- **Updated tool description** — tells the agent that results are
ordered by popularity and paginated
## Frontend
No frontend changes needed. The renderer already reads `rec.templates`
and `rec.count` from the response — the new fields (`page`,
`total_pages`, `total_count`) are additive and safely ignored.
Kyle Carberry