MSC3856: Threads List API

proposals/3856-threads-list-api.md

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+# MSC3856: Threads List API
+
+An endpoint specific to listing the threads in a room is proposed to solve two
+client problems:
+
+1. Clients wish to display threads ordered by the most recently active.
+2. Clients wish to display a list of threads the user has participated in.
+
+It is currently difficult for clients to sort threads by the most recently
+responded to. Clients can use the [`/messages`](https://spec.matrix.org/v1.3/client-server-api/#get_matrixclientv3roomsroomidmessages)
+API with a filter of `"related_by_rel_types": ["m.thread"]` (as defined in
+[MSC3440](/~https://github.com/matrix-org/matrix-spec-proposals/blob/main/proposals/3440-threading-via-relations.md#fetch-all-threads-in-a-room))
+to fetch the list of threads in a room. This returns the root thread events in
+topological order of those events (either forwards or backwards depending on the
+`dir` parameter).
+
+Each event also includes bundled aggregation, which will include the latest
+event in each thread.
+
+In order to sort threads by the latest event in that thread clients must
+paginate through all of the threads in the room, inspect the latest event from
+the bundled aggregations and attempt to sort them. This can require many round
+trips to the server and is wasteful for both the client and server.
+
+Unfortunately even when a client has all the threads in a room is not able to accurately
+sort the threads since the client lacks the proper topological ordering of events. (The
+closest available information is the `age` or `origin_server_ts` of the events, but this
+is not always correct.)
+
+Additionally, it is currently not possible for a client to query for threads that
+the user has participated in, as defined in
+[MSC3440](/~https://github.com/matrix-org/matrix-spec-proposals/blob/main/proposals/3440-threading-via-relations.md#event-format):
+
+> The user has participated if:
+>
+> * They created the current event.
+> * They created an event with a m.thread relation targeting the current event.
+
+Currently, clients add the requesting user's MXID to the `related_by_senders` filter
+(as defined in
+[MSC3440](/~https://github.com/matrix-org/matrix-spec-proposals/blob/main/proposals/3440-threading-via-relations.md#fetch-all-threads-in-a-room)),
+e.g. `"related_by_senders":["@alice:example.com"]`, but this results in missing
+threads where the user sent the root message and has not yet replied.
+
+## Proposal
+
+### Client-Server endpoint
+
+A new endpoint is proposed to query for threads in a room. This endpoint requires
+authentication and is subject to rate-limiting.
+
+The endpoint returns events, which represent thread roots and includes
+[bundled aggregations](https://spec.matrix.org/v1.3/client-server-api/#aggregations)
+in the response (which includes the "latest event" of each thread, see
+[MSC3440](/~https://github.com/matrix-org/matrix-spec-proposals/blob/main/proposals/3440-threading-via-relations.md#event-format)
+for the format of bundled aggregations of threads).
+
+The returned events are ordered by the latest event of each thread.
+
+#### Request format
+
+```
+GET /_matrix/client/v1/rooms/{roomId}/threads
+```
+
+Query Parameters:
+
+* **`include`**: `enum`
+
+  Whether to include all thread roots in the room or only thread roots which the
+  user has participated in, meaning that the user has created the root event of
+  the thread or replied to the thread (they have created an event with a `m.thread`
+  relation targeting the root event).
+
+  One of `[all, participated]`. Defaults to `all`.
+* **`from`**: `string`
+
+  The token to start returning events from. This token can be obtained from an
+  `next_batch` token returned by a previous request to this endpoint.
+
+  If it is not provided, the homeserver shall return a list of thread roots starting
+  from the most recent visible event in the room history for the requesting user.
+* **`limit`**: Optional: a client-defined limit to the maximum
+  number of threads to return per page. Must be an integer greater than zero.
+
+  Server implementations should impose a maximum value to avoid resource
+  exhaustion.
+
+#### Response format
+
+* **`chunk`**: [`[ClientEvent]`](https://spec.matrix.org/v1.3/client-server-api/#room-event-format) **Required**
+
+  A list of room of events which are the root event of threads. Each event includes
+  bundled aggregations. The order is chronological by the latest event in that thread.
+* **`next_batch`**: `string`
+
+  A token which can be passed back to this endpoint to request additional events.
+
+  If no further events are available (either because we have reached the start
+  of the timeline, or because the user does not have permission to see any more
+  events), this property is omitted from the response.
+
+If the sender of an event is ignored by the current user the results are modified
+slightly. This has two situations:
+
+1. If the ignored user sent the root thread event: the server should return the
+   redacted form of the root event, but otherwise act as normal. This matches the
+   information that a client would have if the threads list was aggregated locally
+   (and generally matches the behavior if a thread root is unavailable, e.g. due
+   to room history visibility).
+2. If the ignored user sent the latest thread event: the server should treat the
+   latest event as not existing and replace it with the latest event from a
+   non-ignored user; with the caveat that the ordering of the threads is not
+   re-arranged due to this replacement.
+
+#### Example request:
+
+```
+GET /_matrix/client/v1/rooms/%21ol19s%3Ableecker.street/threads?
+    limit=25&
+    include=participated
+```
+
+#### Example response:
+
+```json
+{
+  "chunk": [ClientEvent],
+  "next_batch": "..."
+}
+```
+
+### MSC3440 Filtering
+
+This MSC replaces the [event filters added in MSC3440](/~https://github.com/matrix-org/matrix-spec-proposals/blob/main/proposals/3440-threading-via-relations.md#fetch-all-threads-in-a-room)
+(`related_by_rel_types` and `related_by_senders`) as the only known use-case is
+more efficiently solved by this MSC.
+
+## Potential issues
+
+None foreseen.
+
+## Alternatives
+
+### Reusing the `/messages` endpoint
+
+Additional parameters could be added to the `/messages` endpoint to control the
+ordering of the returned results. This would likely not be compatible with all
+the other options available on that endpoint.
+
+Keeping this a separate endpoint also gives the possibility of additional
+threads-specific filtering in the future.
+
+### MSC2836 Threading
+
+[MSC2836](/~https://github.com/matrix-org/matrix-spec-proposals/pull/2836) includes
+a generic `/event_relationships` endpoint, but it is overly complex for
+[MSC3440](/~https://github.com/matrix-org/matrix-doc/pull/3440)-style threads.
+
+MSC2836 attempts to solve a larger problem, including allowing for arbitrary
+branching of threads (and many levels of event relations). MSC3440 forbids creating
+threads off a threaded message, allowing for a simpler design. Additionally, the
+MSC2836 design is more computensively intensive for both clients and servers to
+implement due to the tree-like nature of the query.
+
+A benefit to the MSC2836 design is that it supports querying over federation for
+additional events related to the event in question.
+
+## Security considerations
+
+As with other endpoints that accept a `limit`, homeservers should apply a hard
+server-side maximum.
+
+## Future extensions
+
+It does not seem useful to be able to paginate in reverse order, i.e. starting with
+the thread which was least recently updated. If there becomes a future need of this
+a `dir` parameter could be added which takes an enum value of `[f, b]` defaulting to
+`b` to maintain backwards compatibility with this proposal.
+
+## Unstable prefix
+
+The client-server API will be: `/_matrix/client/unstable/org.matrix.msc3856/rooms/{roomId}/threads`
+
+## Dependencies
+
+N/A