fix(gmail): fix self-reply detection in +reply and +reply-all by malob · Pull Request #685 · googleworkspace/cli

malob · 2026-04-07T08:44:41Z

Description

Fixes self-reply detection for both +reply and +reply-all. When replying to a message sent by the same account, the reply was addressed back to the sender instead of to the original recipients.

The problem

PR #530 added self-reply detection to +reply-all, but it had two gaps:

+reply had no self-reply detection at all. Replying to a self-sent message addressed the reply to the From address (yourself) instead of the original To recipients.
+reply-all only checked two addresses — the primary email (via /users/me/profile) and the resolved --from alias. Any other configured send-as alias was missed, so replying to a message sent from a non-default alias also went to the sender instead of the original recipients.

How it was found

+reply on a real email thread to reply to a self-sent message. The reply was addressed to the sender instead of to the original recipient. Had to be manually re-sent with the correct address.

The fix

The full send-as identity list is now used for self-reply detection, matching Gmail web's behavior:

SelfEmails newtype — pre-lowercased set of the user's email addresses, constructed from sendAs identities filtered by Gmail's treatAsAlias setting. The default identity is always included (Workspace accounts have treatAsAlias: false on the primary, but it is still "self"). Non-default, non-alias addresses (e.g. external send-as) are excluded.
Single sendAs fetch — handle_reply calls fetch_send_as_identities once and shares the result between resolve_sender_with_identities (From resolution + display name enrichment) and SelfEmails::from_identities (self-reply detection + self-exclusion). No duplicate API calls.
build_reply_recipients — new function for plain +reply, parallel to build_reply_all_recipients. Detects self-reply and uses original To recipients with no self-exclusion (Gmail's "follow-up" behavior, per Google's documentation and community expert confirmation).
Graceful degradation — if the sendAs fetch fails for +reply, self-reply detection is disabled with a warning but the reply still works. For +reply-all, it is a hard error since incorrect self-exclusion would produce wrong recipients.

What changed

SelfEmails newtype in mod.rs with from_identities, empty, contains_email, iter
SendAsIdentity gains treat_as_alias field (parsed from Gmail API's treatAsAlias)
resolve_sender_with_identities extracted from resolve_sender for pre-fetched identity sharing
is_self_reply, build_reply_recipients, collect_excluded_emails, build_reply_all_recipients refactored to use &SelfEmails
fetch_user_email removed (replaced by sendAs identity list)
resolve_sender doc comment updated; resolve_sender_from_identities stays private

Verified with real email

Tested against the actual message that triggered the bug:

	To	Result
Installed (broken)	`(yourself)`	Reply addressed to sender instead of original recipients
Fixed build	`(original recipient)`	Reply correctly addressed to the person originally written to

Test coverage

717 total tests (17 new, net +15 after removing fetch_user_email tests). New tests cover:

is_self_reply (5): primary match, alias match, case insensitivity, non-match, empty set fallback
build_reply_recipients (10): self-reply ignoring Reply-To, normal reply using Reply-To, preserve all To including self (no self-exclusion), note-to-self, alias detection, BCC-only fallback to From, extra CC passthrough, graceful degradation with/without Reply-To
SelfEmails (1): treatAsAlias filtering with realistic Workspace data (primary treatAsAlias: false still included)
build_reply_all_recipients (1): BCC-only self-sent produces empty To (documents asymmetry with plain reply)

Note on merge conflicts

This PR and #684 (display name fallback) both touch the People API display name enrichment code in mod.rs. This PR extracts it into resolve_sender_with_identities; #684 changes the endpoint from People API to OAuth userinfo. Whichever merges second will need a straightforward rebase to apply the endpoint change in its new location.

Checklist:

Code follows the AGENTS.md guidelines (no generated google-* crates).
cargo fmt --all applied.
cargo clippy -- -D warnings resolved all warnings.
Tests prove the fix is effective.
Changeset file provided.

When replying to a message you sent, +reply addressed the reply back to yourself instead of the original recipients. The self-reply detection from PR googleworkspace#530 only covered +reply-all and only checked the primary email and resolved alias, missing other send-as identities. Use the full send-as identity list (filtered by treatAsAlias, with the default identity always included) for both self-reply detection and self-exclusion. Fetch identities once and share between sender resolution (resolve_sender_with_identities) and the new SelfEmails type used by is_self_reply and collect_excluded_emails. Plain +reply degrades gracefully if the sendAs fetch fails; +reply-all hard-fails since incorrect self-exclusion would produce wrong recipients. Gmail's self-reply preserves original To verbatim (follow-up behavior, no self-exclusion).

changeset-bot · 2026-04-07T08:44:49Z

🦋 Changeset detected

Latest commit: 831cced

The changes in this PR will be included in the next version bump.

This PR includes changesets to release 1 package

Name	Type
@googleworkspace/cli	Patch

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gemini-code-assist · 2026-04-07T08:44:57Z

Summary of Changes

Hello, I'm Gemini Code Assist¹! I'm currently reviewing this pull request and will post my feedback shortly. In the meantime, here's a summary to help you and other reviewers quickly get up to speed!

This pull request addresses issues with self-reply detection in the Gmail CLI tool. Previously, self-reply detection was limited or missing, leading to replies being incorrectly addressed to the sender instead of the original recipients. The changes introduce a more comprehensive approach to identifying the user's own email addresses, including all send-as aliases, and ensure this information is consistently used to determine correct reply recipients.

Highlights

Self-reply detection: Implemented robust self-reply detection for both +reply and +reply-all by utilizing the full list of send-as identities, respecting Gmail's treatAsAlias setting.
Identity management: Introduced SelfEmails newtype to manage user identities and refactored handle_reply to fetch send-as identities once, sharing them across sender resolution and self-reply logic.
API and logic updates: Added build_reply_recipients for plain +reply to mirror Gmail's follow-up behavior and updated build_reply_all_recipients to use the new identity-based exclusion logic.

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Code Review

This pull request improves self-reply detection for Gmail +reply and +reply-all commands by utilizing all send-as identities and respecting the "treat as alias" setting. It refactors identity fetching to reduce API calls and introduces a SelfEmails helper for consistent email comparison. Feedback suggests sanitizing error messages before terminal output to prevent potential escape sequence injection.

gemini-code-assist · 2026-04-07T08:48:21Z

crates/google-workspace-cli/src/helpers/gmail/reply.rs

+                Err(e) => {
+                    crate::output::warn(&format!(
+                        "Could not fetch send-as identities ({}). If this is a \
+                         reply to your own message, the reply may be addressed \
+                         to you instead of the original recipients.",
+                        e
+                    ));
+                    vec![]
+                }


The error string e should be sanitized before being printed to the terminal to prevent escape sequence injection. This is a security best practice for terminal output.

Suggested change

Err(e) => {

crate::output::warn(&format!(

"Could not fetch send-as identities ({}). If this is a \

reply to your own message, the reply may be addressed \

to you instead of the original recipients.",

e

));

vec![]

}

Err(e) => {

crate::output::warn(&format!(

"Could not fetch send-as identities ({}). If this is a \

reply to your own message, the reply may be addressed \

to you instead of the original recipients.",

crate::output::sanitize_for_terminal(&e.to_string())

));

vec![]

}

crate::output::warn() already calls sanitize_for_terminal on its entire input (output.rs line 79), so the error string is sanitized before reaching the terminal. Adding an explicit sanitize_for_terminal here would double-sanitize.

googleworkspace-bot added the area: core Core CLI parsing, commands, error handling, utilities label Apr 7, 2026

gemini-code-assist bot reviewed Apr 7, 2026

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fix(gmail): fix self-reply detection in +reply and +reply-all#685

fix(gmail): fix self-reply detection in +reply and +reply-all#685
malob wants to merge 1 commit intogoogleworkspace:mainfrom
malob:fix/reply-self-sent

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malob commented Apr 7, 2026

Description

The problem

How it was found

The fix

What changed

Verified with real email

Test coverage

Note on merge conflicts

Checklist:

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