BUG Live reinitialization discards unsaved converter working-copy edits

[romanlutz]

Describe the bug

A successful live reinitialization silently replaces manually edited text in the Chat converter working copy with the original composer text. An administrator applying configuration in another tab can therefore discard another user's unsent work.

The original composer text and saved conversation history survive. The lost text is the distinct text the user entered only in the working copy. This was reproduced both with a Base64 pipeline and independently with no converter configured, so it is not limited to an incompatible converter or a stale generated preview.

Severity: P1 / High, because user-entered text is lost without a warning or recovery copy. Observed after the live-reinitialization feature in #2833.

Steps/Code to Reproduce

Use an isolated, single-process local development instance with live reinitialization enabled in the saved configuration:

enable_live_reinitialization: true

Use a configured target that will retain the same registry identity after reinitialization. No external provider request is needed to reproduce the text loss.

1. Open Chat and select that target.
2. Enter Original summary: compare two invented support tickets. in the composer without sending it.
3. Open Converters. Replace the Working input text with UNSAVED HUMAN EDIT: Keep the detailed comparison and the next action; this text exists only in the converter working copy. Do not add a converter or send the message.
4. Keep the Chat tab open. In another administrator tab, open Configuration and click Reinitialize PyRIT.
5. Confirm Reinitialize PyRIT in the all-users confirmation dialog, using valid saved sources.
6. Wait for reinitialization to succeed and for Chat to become ready again.
7. Inspect the Working input field in the original tab.

Expected Results

The user-authored working-copy text remains available after a successful runtime generation change. Generated conversion results may be invalidated or require reconversion, but that should not discard manual edits.

A regression test should cover both a working copy with an existing converter pipeline and one with no converter configured.

Actual Results

Field	Before reinitialization	After reinitialization
Composer	Original summary: compare two invented support tickets.	Unchanged
Working input	UNSAVED HUMAN EDIT: Keep the detailed comparison and the next action; this text exists only in the converter working copy.	Original summary: compare two invented support tickets.
Configured target	Same registered target	Same registered target
Runtime result	Ready	New generation, ready, successful apply

There was no warning before the replacement. The original composer cannot recover the deleted edit because it never contained that text.

The generation-change effect in useChatConverters.ts, lines 176-190 clears workingInputs together with generated stage results and applied values. User-authored working text needs to be preserved separately from those invalidated results.

Screenshots

Captured in the September 25 catch-up audit artifacts, not uploaded to this issue:

• daily-2026-09-25-catchup/manual/runtime-manual-edit-before.png
• daily-2026-09-25-catchup/manual/runtime-manual-edit-lost-after.png
• Independent before/after observations: daily-2026-09-25-catchup/manual/runtime-generation-followup.json

The steps and observed values above are self-contained; the artifact files are not required to reproduce the problem.

Versions

• OS: Windows, x86-64.
• Browser: Chromium through Playwright; focused reproduction at 1440 x 900.
• Python: CPython 3.14.4, uv-managed environment.
• PyRIT: 1.2.0.dev0, editable source checkout at c32546a1e3d069ea9794df31ded86e17487dcf2a.
• Local-only backend with in-memory persistence and an unchanged configured target identity. No live external provider was used.
• Full pyrit.show_versions() output was not captured.

[github-actions]

Thanks for the feedback! A maintainer will take a look soon.

[ManoharPaturi]

picked this up, fix in #2873: the generation-change branch in useChatConverters now preserves workingInputs and only clears the generated results. two regression tests added, both fail on main.