89508 Search - "No content to add" error after clicking Ask Concierge with just a space

[applause-bot]

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Version Number: 9.3.66-1
Reproducible in staging?: Yes
Reproducible in production?: Unable to validate in Prod - Provide reasoning.
If this was caught during regression testing, add the test name, ID and link from BrowserStack: #88727
Email or phone of affected tester (no customers): applausetester+sdodsaf@applause.expensifail.com
Issue reported by: Applause Internal Team
Bug source: Exploratory - Significant User Experience Deterioration
Device used: Mac 26.2 / Chrome
App Component: Search

Action Performed:

1. Go to staging.new.expensify.com
2. Open search.
3. Enter a space.
4. Click Ask Concierge.

Expected Result:

Ask Concierge option should not appear when only a space is entered.

Actual Result:

Ask Concierge option shows up when only a space is entered.
"No content to add" error shows up due to the sent empty message.

Workaround:

Unknown

Platforms:

• Android: App
• Android: mWeb Chrome
• iOS: App
• iOS: mWeb Safari
• iOS: mWeb Chrome
• Windows: Chrome
• MacOS: Chrome Safari

Screenshots/Videos

To be added by Applause Leads

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Applause Internal Information
Exported by: Nathan Lemma
Bug ID: 7144271

[applause-bot]

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[github-actions]

👋 Friendly reminder that deploy blockers are time-sensitive ⏱ issues! Check out the open `StagingDeployCash` deploy checklist to see the list of PRs included in this release, then work quickly to do one of the following:

1. Identify the pull request that introduced this issue and revert it.
2. Find someone who can quickly fix the issue.
3. Fix the issue yourself.

[melvin-bot]

You have been assigned to this deploy blocker because you recently merged this PR: #88727

[melvin-bot]

💬 A slack conversation has been started in #expensify-open-source

[MelvinBot]

Proposal

What is the root cause of that problem?

The "Ask Concierge" option visibility in the search router is controlled by a truthiness check on textInputValue at SearchRouter.tsx:203. Since a space character ' ' is truthy in JavaScript, entering just a space causes both the "Find item" and "Ask Concierge" options to appear. When clicked, the space is passed untrimmed through useAskConcierge.tsx:34 to addComment, which sends the whitespace-only message to the backend. The backend rejects it with "No content to add".

What changes do you think we should make in order to solve the problem?

In SearchRouter.tsx:203, change textInputValue to textInputValue.trim() so the search query items (including Ask Concierge) only appear when meaningful non-whitespace input exists. As defense-in-depth, also add a trim guard at the top of the callback in useAskConcierge.tsx:24 to early-return if the trimmed query is empty.

What alternative solutions did you explore?

Could validate only at the addComment level in Report/index.ts, but that would still leave the UI showing Ask Concierge for whitespace-only input, which is a UX issue regardless of whether the message send is blocked. Trimming at the source (the search router) is cleaner.

Investigation details

Data flow:

1. User types a space → textInputValue = ' '
2. textInputValue is truthy → searchQueryItems array created with Ask Concierge item (line 203)
3. User clicks Ask Concierge → item.searchQuery = ' ' extracted (line 325)
4. askConcierge(' ') → addComment({ text: ' ' }) (useAskConcierge.tsx:30-34)
5. addActions: if (text && !file) passes since ' ' is truthy (Report/index.ts:706)
6. Whitespace message sent to backend → rejected with "No content to add"

Related issue: #89522 is a duplicate of this issue.

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Next Steps for Contributor+ team: Reply with @MelvinBot implement this to create a draft PR, @MelvinBot <your feedback> to refine this analysis, or explain why you are rejecting Melvin's proposal.

[francoisl]

Dupe of #89522?