From 587a462e3ce8e9727f44848a94161fc4883edfae Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: veg <veg@silentio.us>
Date: Sat, 4 Jul 2026 10:00:01 +0000
Subject: [PATCH] fix: read-only invitees auto-join passive

tmux refuses new-session from read-only clients ('client is
read-only'), so an active join for an -r invitee died under set -eu
with a raw tmux error. Detect the R flag on the caller's ACL line in
the existing preflight and fall back to the mirrored view.
---
 party                      | 23 ++++++++++++++++++++---
 tests/96-unauthorized.bats | 22 ++++++++++++++++++++++
 2 files changed, 42 insertions(+), 3 deletions(-)

diff --git a/party b/party
index 062c9f1..6c435a4 100755
--- a/party
+++ b/party
@@ -949,12 +949,29 @@ EOF
 
     # Auth gate. The joiner must already be on the access list (added
     # by the host via `party invite`). Pre-flight here so the user gets
-    # a helpful message instead of an opaque tmux refusal.
-    if ! "$PARTY_TMUX" -S "$RR_SOCKET" server-access -l 2>/dev/null \
-            | awk '{print $1}' | grep -qx "$USER"; then
+    # a helpful message instead of an opaque tmux refusal. For an
+    # unauthorized caller server-access -l prints its refusal on stderr
+    # with EMPTY stdout (and exit 0 — see party_conn_state), so the awk
+    # match comes up empty and we land in the exit-13 branch.
+    acl_line=$("$PARTY_TMUX" -S "$RR_SOCKET" server-access -l 2>/dev/null \
+        | awk -v u="$USER" '$1 == u { print; exit }')
+    if [ -z "$acl_line" ]; then
         echo "party: '$RR_PARTY_NAME', ask $RR_HOST_USER to invite you." >&2
         exit 13
     fi
+    # Read-only invitees cannot create the guest session: tmux refuses
+    # with "client is read-only" (verified 3.3a/3.5a), which would kill
+    # an active join mid-new-session under set -eu. Detect the R flag
+    # on our own ACL line and take the mirrored view instead. Flag
+    # format is "user (R)" on 3.3–3.5 and "user (U,R)" on newer tmux;
+    # both end the flag list in "R)".
+    case "$acl_line" in
+        *"R)"*)
+            if [ "$passive" != 1 ]; then
+                echo "party: you are read-only on '$RR_PARTY_NAME'; joining passive (mirrored view)." >&2
+                passive=1
+            fi ;;
+    esac
 
     if [ "$passive" = 1 ]; then
         # Mirror the host's pane focus, read-only at the tmux client
diff --git a/tests/96-unauthorized.bats b/tests/96-unauthorized.bats
index 65ba671..69eef9e 100644
--- a/tests/96-unauthorized.bats
+++ b/tests/96-unauthorized.bats
@@ -85,3 +85,25 @@ STUB
   [ "$status" -eq 0 ]
   [[ "$output" == *"no parties found"* ]]
 }
+
+@test "read-only invitee joining active falls back to passive with a notice" {
+  # tmux refuses new-session from a read-only client ("client is
+  # read-only", exit 1 — verified 3.3a/3.5a), so an active join for an
+  # -r invitee died mid-command under set -eu. cmd_join must detect the
+  # R flag on its own ACL line and attach passive instead. The unquoted
+  # STUB delimiter is deliberate: $USER expands at write time, \$* at
+  # run time.
+  cat > "$PARTY_TMP/tmux-ro" <<STUB
+#!/bin/sh
+case "\$*" in
+  *"server-access -l"*) printf '%s (R)\nsomehost (W)\n' "$USER"; exit 0 ;;
+esac
+exit 0
+STUB
+  chmod +x "$PARTY_TMP/tmux-ro"
+  export PARTY_TMUX="$PARTY_TMP/tmux-ro"
+  PARTY_DRY_RUN=1 run "$PARTY_BIN" join fiesta
+  [ "$status" -eq 0 ]
+  [[ "$output" == *"read-only"* ]]
+  [[ "$output" == *"attach-session -r -t fiesta"* ]]
+}