[FR] Allow anonymous user to sign in to save their chat

[msukkari]

Chats from anonymous users are saved in the DB but not associated with a user, and anonymous users can't view their chat history. Enable an anonymous user to log in while in a chat session to enable them to save the chat into their newly created user.

[Pallavikumarimdb]

Hi! @brendan-kellam @msukkari , I’d like to work on this issue and wanted to share a proposed approach.
After looking through the current auth and anonymous-access flow, anonymous access is supported at the org level.

Proposed approach:

1. Anonymous session identity

• Generate a stable anonymous session ID (UUID v4) on first load for unauthenticated users.
• Store it in a cookie so it persists across refreshes and tabs within the same browser.
• Use this ID to associate chats created while the user is anonymous.

2. Chat ownership (minimal schema change)

• Since Chat.createdById is nullable and there is currently no alternative
  identifier for anonymous users, introduce an optional field on Chat
  (e.g. anonSessionId) to temporarily associate chats with an anonymous session.
• Authenticated chats continue to use createdById as-is.

3. Login / signup migration

• On successful login or signup, read the anonymous session ID from the cookie.
• Migrate all chats associated with that ID to the authenticated user
  (assign createdById, clear the anonymous session ID).
• Clear the anonymous session cookie after migration.
• Migration is scoped to the current browser/session and is idempotent.

Would appreciate your feedback on this approach before I start!
Happy to discuss any concerns or alternative approaches.

[brendan-kellam]

Hey @Pallavikumarimdb thanks for the input! I think this approach makes sense. Where do you foresee the migration taking place?

[Pallavikumarimdb]

Hi @brendan-kellam I’d expect the migration to happen server-side immediately after a successful login or signup, once we have a concrete userId.

• Read the anonymous session ID from the request cookies.
• In the same request lifecycle (or a small follow-up action), migrate any chats associated with that anonymous ID by assigning createdById and clearing the anonymous ID.
• Then clear the anonymous session cookie.

[msukkari]

Not sure if relevant here but something to note here is how this plays with the anonymous user ID generated with/for posthog. Would be great if these were correlated somehow