Mail list: show who wrote, not everyone involved

The first column listed a thread's `participants`, which the threader builds from
from + to + cc — so every ordinary email read "Sender, You", and the +N badge
beside the avatar counted the user themselves.

`participants` cannot simply be narrowed: the subject-fallback join matches an
incoming message's recipients against it (threader._by_subject), so dropping
recipients would change how mail is threaded. Hence a separate `threads.senders`,
holding only from addresses, newest writer first — which is also the right thing
for a conversation where several people replied.

Migration 0019 backfills it, so existing threads do not wait to be touched again.
The list falls back to `participants` if a row somehow has no senders, rather
than rendering an empty column.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Claude-Session: https://claude.ai/code/session_018SqJYt7jD7oUEkoY68sBZo

backend/app/api/schemas.py

@@ -17,6 +17,7 @@ class ThreadSummary(BaseModel):
     id: uuid.UUID
     subject: str
     snippet: str
+    senders: list[Address]
     participants: list[Address]
     account_ids: list[uuid.UUID]
     message_count: int

backend/app/api/threads.py

@@ -38,6 +38,7 @@ def _summary(thread: Thread, message_count: int | None = None) -> ThreadSummary:
         id=thread.id,
         subject=thread.subject_norm or "(no subject)",
         snippet=thread.snippet,
+        senders=_addresses(thread.senders),
         participants=_addresses(thread.participants),
         account_ids=list(thread.account_ids),
         # Count only the messages this view actually shows (deleted/spam excluded

backend/app/models.py

@@ -152,6 +152,13 @@ class Thread(Base):
     )
     subject_norm: Mapped[str] = mapped_column(Text, nullable=False)
     snippet: Mapped[str] = mapped_column(Text, nullable=False, server_default=text("''"))
+    # Who WROTE in this thread, newest first. Distinct from `participants`, which
+    # also holds recipients because the subject-fallback threading matches on them
+    # (threader._by_subject). The message list shows senders; conflating the two
+    # put "you" next to every sender in the list.
+    senders: Mapped[list[dict[str, str]]] = mapped_column(
+        JSONB, nullable=False, server_default=text("'[]'")
+    )
     participants: Mapped[list[dict[str, str]]] = mapped_column(
         JSONB, nullable=False, server_default=text("'[]'")
     )

backend/app/threading_/threader.py

@@ -197,6 +197,16 @@ async def denormalize_thread(session: AsyncSession, thread_id: uuid.UUID) -> Non
                 seen_emails.add(email)
                 participants.append({"name": addr.get("name", ""), "email": addr.get("email", "")})
 
+    senders: list[dict[str, str]] = []
+    seen_senders: set[str] = set()
+    for msg in messages:  # newest first => most recent writer leads
+        for addr in msg.from_addr:
+            email = (addr.get("email") or "").lower()
+            if email and email not in seen_senders:
+                seen_senders.add(email)
+                senders.append({"name": addr.get("name", ""), "email": addr.get("email", "")})
+
+    thread.senders = senders
     thread.message_count = len(messages)
     thread.unread_count = sum(1 for m in messages if "\\Seen" not in m.flags)
     thread.has_attachments = any(m.has_attachments for m in messages)

backend/migrations/versions/0019_thread_senders.py

@@ -0,0 +1,58 @@
+"""threads.senders — who wrote, as distinct from who was involved
+
+The message list showed a thread's `participants`, which the threader builds from
+from + to + cc because the subject-fallback join matches on recipients. In a list
+that meant every ordinary email read "Sender, You" — and the "+N" badge counted
+the user themselves.
+
+`senders` holds only the from addresses, newest writer first. Backfilled here so
+existing threads do not have to wait to be touched again.
+
+Revision ID: 0019
+Revises: 0018
+Create Date: 2026-09-18
+"""
+
+from __future__ import annotations
+
+from collections.abc import Sequence
+
+from alembic import op
+
+revision: str = "0019"
+down_revision: str | None = "0018"
+branch_labels: str | Sequence[str] | None = None
+depends_on: str | Sequence[str] | None = None
+
+
+def upgrade() -> None:
+    op.execute("ALTER TABLE threads ADD COLUMN senders jsonb NOT NULL DEFAULT '[]'")
+    # Newest writer first, de-duplicated by lower-cased address, matching what
+    # denormalize_thread computes from now on.
+    op.execute(
+        """
+        WITH ranked AS (
+            SELECT m.thread_id,
+                   lower(a->>'email')                        AS email_key,
+                   jsonb_build_object('name', coalesce(a->>'name', ''),
+                                      'email', coalesce(a->>'email', '')) AS addr,
+                   row_number() OVER (PARTITION BY m.thread_id, lower(a->>'email')
+                                      ORDER BY m.internal_date DESC)       AS dup_rank,
+                   max(m.internal_date) OVER (PARTITION BY m.thread_id, lower(a->>'email'))
+                                                                           AS recency
+            FROM messages m
+            CROSS JOIN LATERAL jsonb_array_elements(m.from_addr) AS a
+            WHERE m.thread_id IS NOT NULL AND coalesce(a->>'email', '') <> ''
+        ),
+        collected AS (
+            SELECT thread_id, jsonb_agg(addr ORDER BY recency DESC) AS senders
+            FROM ranked WHERE dup_rank = 1 GROUP BY thread_id
+        )
+        UPDATE threads t SET senders = c.senders
+        FROM collected c WHERE c.thread_id = t.id
+        """
+    )
+
+
+def downgrade() -> None:
+    op.execute("ALTER TABLE threads DROP COLUMN IF EXISTS senders")

frontend/src/components/list/MessageList.tsx

@@ -119,10 +119,12 @@ export function MessageList({
           const selected = selectedId === thread.id;
           const checked = checkedIds.has(thread.id);
           const dimmed = dimmedIds?.has(thread.id) ?? false;
-          const primary = thread.participants[0];
-          const names =
-            thread.participants.map((p) => p.name || p.email).join(",  ") || "(no one)";
-          const extra = Math.max(0, thread.participants.length - 1);
+          // Senders, not participants: the latter includes recipients, so every
+          // ordinary email read "Sender, You" and the +N badge counted the user.
+          const people = thread.senders.length ? thread.senders : thread.participants;
+          const primary = people[0];
+          const names = people.map((p) => p.name || p.email).join(",  ") || "(no one)";
+          const extra = Math.max(0, people.length - 1);
           const avatarBg = `hsl(${hue(primary?.email || primary?.name || "?")} 45% 45%)`;
           const stop = (fn: () => void) => (e: React.MouseEvent) => {
             e.stopPropagation();

frontend/src/lib/types.ts

@@ -31,6 +31,9 @@ export interface ThreadSummary {
   id: string;
   subject: string;
   snippet: string;
+  /** Who wrote in the thread, newest first. The list shows these. */
+  senders: Address[];
+  /** Everyone involved, recipients included — used for threading, not display. */
   participants: Address[];
   account_ids: string[];
   message_count: number;