---
issue: 060
title: "Frontend contacts-popover reads userId from non-existent localStorage 'user' key"
severity: high
domain: Chat
labels: [bug, frontend]
status: open
created: 2026-05-30
source: Full Codebase Audit 2026-05-30
---

# Frontend contacts-popover reads userId from non-existent localStorage 'user' key

**Severity:** high
**Domain:** Chat
**Labels:** bug, frontend

## Description

`src/layouts/components/contacts-popover.tsx:61` reads `currentUserId` from `localStorage.getItem('user')`, but no part of the auth flow writes a `'user'` key to localStorage. The result is always `null`, breaking any per-user contact filtering in the popover.

## Options

1. Use the auth context (`useAuthContext`) to get the real user id.
2. Decode the user id from the access token claims.
3. Add a real `'user'` object to storage on login and read it here.

## Recommendation

Pull `currentUserId` from the live auth context rather than a non-existent storage key. Requires confirming the canonical user-id field name in the auth context.

## Affected Files

- `frontend/src/layouts/components/contacts-popover.tsx:61`

## References

- [Full Codebase Audit 2026-05-30](../09%20-%20Audits/Full%20Codebase%20Audit%20-%202026-05-30.md) — DEC-13