In `WHATSAPP_MODE=bot` the bridge currently drops every fromMe inbound
message — they are all assumed to be echoes of our own /send calls.
That makes it impossible for plugins / agents to detect when a human
owner has typed directly into a customer chat from the same WhatsApp
Business account (e.g. via a linked phone or WhatsApp Web).
This adds an opt-in `WHATSAPP_FORWARD_OWNER_MESSAGES` env var. When
true, the bridge classifies fromMe inbound by looking up `key.id` in a
bounded LRU of recently-sent message IDs (the existing 50-entry echo
suppressor, bumped to 512 and extracted to a testable
`outbound_ids.js` helper). Hits in the LRU are still dropped (echoes);
misses are forwarded to the Python adapter with `fromOwner: true`.
The Python adapter lifts that flag onto
`MessageEvent.metadata["whatsapp_from_owner"]`. `metadata` is a new
free-form dict on the event so future per-platform signals don't each
need their own field. Default behaviour is unchanged: with the env
flag unset, bot mode still drops every fromMe message exactly as
before.
Use cases for downstream consumers:
- Implicit handover activation when the owner replies manually
- Sliding TTL on owner activity (keep an active session alive while
the owner is engaged)
- Audit trails of owner interventions
- Analytics on human-vs-bot reply ratios
Heuristic limitation (documented in code): the LRU is in-memory. After
a bridge restart, in-flight delivery receipts of pre-restart sends will
briefly look like owner-typed for a few seconds until the set is
repopulated. Persisting isn't worth the disk churn — downstream
consumers should treat the flag as best-effort.
Tests:
- tests/gateway/test_whatsapp_from_owner.py (new): adapter sets the
metadata flag iff the bridge payload has `fromOwner: true`; absent
otherwise.
- scripts/whatsapp-bridge/outbound_ids.test.mjs (new): LRU bounds,
eviction order, falsy-id handling.
Backwards compatibility: with the env flag unset, every code path is
identical to before. No existing deployment is affected.
