bird live sync does not persist profile avatar URLs from GraphQL user payloads

[Gatsby1s]

Summary

When syncing live data through the bird transport, Birdclaw creates/updates profile rows for timeline, likes, bookmarks, and mentions authors, but many of those profile rows are persisted without avatar_url. The web UI then falls back to initial/letter avatars even though the raw bird --json-full GraphQL payload contains usable avatar URLs.

Environment

• birdclaw: 0.8.5 installed via Homebrew
• bird: 0.8.0 installed via Homebrew
• transport: bird / Chrome cookie-backed GraphQL
• database: fresh-ish local store without archive import, live sync via birdclaw sync * --mode bird

Reproduction

1. Initialize Birdclaw and configure a bird transport account.
2. Sync live data, for example:

birdclaw sync timeline --mode bird --limit 50 --refresh --json
birdclaw sync likes --mode bird --limit 20 --refresh --json
birdclaw sync bookmarks --mode bird --limit 20 --refresh --json
birdclaw sync mentions --mode bird --limit 20 --refresh --json

3. Inspect profile avatar coverage for synced tweets/collections:

SELECT e.kind,
       COUNT(*) total,
       SUM(CASE WHEN p.avatar_url IS NOT NULL AND p.avatar_url <> '' THEN 1 ELSE 0 END) with_avatar
FROM tweet_account_edges e
JOIN tweets t ON t.id = e.tweet_id
JOIN profiles p ON p.id = t.author_profile_id
GROUP BY e.kind;

SELECT c.kind,
       COUNT(*) total,
       SUM(CASE WHEN p.avatar_url IS NOT NULL AND p.avatar_url <> '' THEN 1 ELSE 0 END) with_avatar
FROM tweet_collections c
JOIN tweets t ON t.id = c.tweet_id
JOIN profiles p ON p.id = t.author_profile_id
GROUP BY c.kind;

Observed before local repair:

home|50|1
mention|3|0
thread_context|6|2
bookmarks|20|0
likes|20|0

The Home UI showed letter/initial placeholders for most authors.

Raw data evidence

Running bird home --following -n 5 --json-full includes avatar URLs under the raw GraphQL user payload, for example:

{
  "core": {
    "user_results": {
      "result": {
        "rest_id": "1197424631398879233",
        "avatar": {
          "image_url": "https://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images/..._normal.jpg"
        },
        "core": {
          "screen_name": "Franktradinglog",
          "name": "Frank trading"
        }
      }
    }
  }
}

So the source data exists; it appears to be dropped or not mapped when normalizing bird live-sync users into profiles.avatar_url.

Expected behavior

When the bird transport receives a GraphQL user object with avatar.image_url, Birdclaw should persist it to profiles.avatar_url for the matching profile_user_<rest_id> row, and the web UI should render real avatars through /api/avatar?....

Local workaround used

I repaired my local DB by parsing bird --json-full outputs for timeline/likes/bookmarks/mentions, extracting (rest_id, avatar.image_url), then backfilling only empty profiles.avatar_url rows.

After backfill:

home|50|50
mention|3|3
thread_context|6|6
bookmarks|20|20
likes|20|20

The UI then rendered /api/avatar?profileId=...&v=https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.twimg.com%2Fprofile_images... images as expected.

Suggested fix

In the bird transport normalization path, map GraphQL user.result.avatar.image_url into the profile upsert model as avatarUrl, preserving existing avatar URLs when the live payload does not include one.

[clawsweeper]

Codex review: keeping this open for maintainer follow-up; there is still a little grit to resolve. Reviewed June 25, 2026, 7:10 PM ET / 23:10 UTC.

Summary
Keep open: current main and the latest release still normalize bird tweet authors without avatar data, and the linked fix remains an open, unmerged pull request that needs review/proof before this issue can close.

Reproducibility: yes. from source inspection: bird tweet normalization does not populate profile_image_url, while the shared profile writer only persists avatars from that field. I did not run a live bird account sync in this checkout.

Root-cause cluster
Relationship: canonical
Canonical: #71
Summary: This issue is the canonical bug report; an open pull request is the candidate fix but has not merged.

Members:

• fixed_by_candidate: Fix bird live-sync profile avatars #75 - The pull request uses closing syntax for this issue and changes the bird avatar normalization path plus regression tests.

Proposal only: this assessment does not dispatch repair, suppress jobs, mutate sibling items, close, or merge anything.

Next step
An open candidate fix already owns the implementation path, so the next action is maintainer review and live-proof handling for that PR rather than a competing repair job.

Review details

Best possible solution:

Review and land a focused fix that maps GraphQL bird avatar URLs into the existing profile_image_url pipeline while preserving stored avatars when the live payload lacks one.

Do we have a high-confidence way to reproduce the issue?

Yes from source inspection: bird tweet normalization does not populate profile_image_url, while the shared profile writer only persists avatars from that field. I did not run a live bird account sync in this checkout.

Is this the best way to solve the issue?

Yes: the narrow maintainable solution is to feed the available GraphQL avatar URL into the existing profile upsert model, not add a separate profile persistence path.

AGENTS.md: not found in the target repository.

Remaining risk / open question:

• The open candidate fix is not merged, so closing this issue now would lose the canonical tracking item for the remaining bug.
• The candidate PR changes bird tweet-backed reads to prefer --json-full; the prior PR review notes that live bird proof is still needed for that external command path.

Codex review notes: model internal, reasoning high; reviewed against 10f98d3fb36a.

Label changes

Label changes:

• add issue-rating: 🦞 diamond lobster: Current issue advisory state selects this label.
• add clawsweeper:source-repro: Current issue advisory state selects this label.
• add clawsweeper:linked-pr-open: Current issue advisory state selects this label.
• add clawsweeper:no-new-fix-pr: Current issue advisory state selects this label.
• add clawsweeper:fix-shape-clear: Current issue advisory state selects this label.
• add clawsweeper:needs-maintainer-review: Current issue advisory state selects this label.
• remove issue-rating: 🐚 platinum hermit: Current issue advisory state no longer selects this label.
• remove clawsweeper:needs-live-repro: Current issue advisory state no longer selects this label.

Label justifications:

• P2: This is a normal-priority live-sync bug that drops available profile metadata while the core sync workflow remains usable.
• impact:data-loss: The issue is about source avatar metadata being silently omitted from persisted profile rows.

Evidence reviewed

Acceptance criteria:

• pnpm test -- src/lib/bird.test.ts src/lib/timeline-live.test.ts src/lib/timeline-collections-live.test.ts src/lib/mentions-live.test.ts
• pnpm run check
• A redacted live bird-backed sync plus SQL/UI check showing profiles.avatar_url populated after the fix

What I checked:

• Current main omits bird tweet avatars: normalizeBirdTweets builds included users from id, username, and name only, so bird tweet payloads do not pass profile_image_url downstream. (src/lib/bird.ts:447, 10f98d3fb36a)
• Existing profile writer already preserves avatar URLs: upsertProfileFromXUser derives profiles.avatar_url from user.profile_image_url and coalesces it with the existing stored avatar, matching the requested persistence path. (src/lib/x-profile.ts:101, 10f98d3fb36a)
• Affected sync surfaces share tweet ingestion: Tweet live ingestion looks up payload.includes.users and sends authors to upsertProfileFromXUser, so timeline, mentions, likes, and bookmarks all depend on the bird normalizer emitting the avatar field. (src/lib/tweet-repository.ts:84, 10f98d3fb36a)
• Latest release and current main still match on relevant files: No relevant file diff exists from v0.8.5 to current HEAD, so the latest release behavior is still present on main for this code path. (10f98d3fb36a)
• Open candidate fix exists but is unmerged: Fix bird live-sync profile avatars #75 references this issue with closing syntax, changes src/lib/bird.ts plus focused tests, and is still open/unmerged. (a0738270f076)
• Feature history provenance: Blame attributes the current normalizeBirdTweets implementation to the v0.8.5 release snapshot, and all-ref history shows earlier bird/live-sync work in the same area. (src/lib/bird.ts:447, b456320a66aa)

Likely related people:

• steipete: Current blame for bird tweet normalization, profile avatar persistence, and tweet ingestion points to Peter Steinberger's v0.8.5 release snapshot, with earlier bird transport and live timeline history under the same author trail. (role: introduced behavior and recent area contributor; confidence: high; commits: b456320a66aa, e413277f1297, aba65a1181e1; files: src/lib/bird.ts, src/lib/x-profile.ts, src/lib/tweet-repository.ts)
• cavit99: Git history shows adjacent work on mentions, likes/bookmarks, pagination, and media preservation in the same live-sync surfaces, though not the specific current avatar mapping line. (role: adjacent sync contributor; confidence: medium; commits: 3fa6c3201475, f90cb71e258c, 3097c1b64b07; files: src/lib/mentions-live.ts, src/lib/timeline-collections-live.ts, src/lib/bird.ts)
• RajvardhanPatil07: The open pull request linked with closing syntax changes the exact bird avatar normalization and regression-test surface for this issue. (role: candidate fix author; confidence: medium; commits: a0738270f076; files: src/lib/bird.ts, src/lib/bird.test.ts, src/lib/timeline-live.test.ts)

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[clawsweeper]

🦞🔧
ClawSweeper is automatically building this issue.

The issue review finished and no active implementation pull request was found.

Automatic implementation progress:

• State: Queued
• Detail: Review complete; no active implementation PR was found. The Codex implementation worker is queued.
• Run: https://github.com/openclaw/clawsweeper/actions/runs/28010252667
• Updated: 2026-06-23T07:38:47.112Z
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