[$125] Send a message button on help site doesn't work

@joekaufmanexpensify

If you haven’t already, check out our contributing guidelines for onboarding and email [email protected] to request to join our Slack channel!

Version Number:
Reproducible in staging?: N
Reproducible in production?: Y
If this was caught during regression testing, add the test name, ID and link from BrowserStack:
Email or phone of affected tester (no customers):
Logs: https://stackoverflow.com/c/expensify/questions/4856
Expensify/Expensify Issue URL:
Issue reported by: @joekaufmanexpensify
Slack conversation (hyperlinked to channel name): #Expensify Bugs

Action Performed:

Load https://help.expensify.com/
Scroll down to Didn't find what you were looking for?
Tap the Send a message button

Expected Result:

If you're signed in, you land on the concierge DM. If not, you're prompted to sign in, then land on the concierge DM.

Actual Result:

You're directed to a dev environment URL (https://dev.new.expensify.com:8082/concierge), which doesn't load.

Workaround:

Unknown

Platforms:

Select the officially supported platforms where the issue was reproduced:

Screenshots/Videos

2026-04-30_08-23-53.mp4

Recording.2792.mp4

View all open jobs on GitHub

Issue Owner

Current Issue Owner: @puneetlath

Upwork Automation - Do Not Edit

Upwork Job URL: https://www.upwork.com/jobs/~022049957471456145777
Upwork Job ID: 2049957471456145777
Last Price Increase: 2026-04-30

Proposal

What is the root cause of that problem?

The help site's Jekyll templates use a conditional in CONST.html that checks jekyll.environment == "production" to decide between the production URL (https://new.expensify.com) and the dev URL (https://dev.new.expensify.com:8082). However, the deployment workflow deployExpensifyHelp.yml:70-71 runs bundle exec jekyll build without setting JEKYLL_ENV=production. Jekyll defaults to "development", so the dev URL branch is always taken — even in the production deployment.

The "Send a message" button in default.html:114-118 uses the resulting CONCIERGE_CHAT_URL, which resolves to https://dev.new.expensify.com:8082/concierge.

What changes do you think we should make in order to solve the problem?

Set JEKYLL_ENV=production in both deployment workflows:

deployExpensifyHelp.yml (line 71): Change the build command to JEKYLL_ENV=production bundle exec jekyll build --source ./ --destination ./_site
deployNewHelp.yml (line 71): Same change — this workflow has the identical issue.

This ensures jekyll.environment evaluates to "production" and MAIN_SITE_URL is set to https://new.expensify.com.

What alternative solutions did you explore? (Optional)

An alternative would be to remove the conditional in CONST.html and always use the production URL, but keeping the environment-based toggle is useful for local development and PR preview builds.

Next Steps for Contributor+ team: Reply with @MelvinBot implement this to create a draft PR, @MelvinBot <your feedback> to refine this analysis, or explain why you are rejecting Melvin's proposal.

@brunovjk

Triggered auto assignment to Contributor-plus team member for initial proposal review - @brunovjk (External)

Proposal

Please re-state the problem that we are trying to solve in this issue.

The "Send a message" button on the help.expensify.com site links to https://dev.new.expensify.com:8082/concierge instead of the production URL https://new.expensify.com/concierge, so clicking it takes users to a dev environment that doesn't load publicly.

What is the root cause of that problem?

The HelpDot site uses a Liquid template constant file to define the base URL, which conditionally sets MAIN_SITE_URL to the dev URL when jekyll.environment is not "production". The problem is that CONCIERGE_CHAT_URL — which is built from MAIN_SITE_URL and then used directly on the "Didn't find what you were looking for?" button in the default layout — is resolving to the dev URL. This means the Jekyll build that produced the currently deployed help site was not built with jekyll.environment=production, so the else branch ran and hardcoded the dev URL.

App/docs/_includes/CONST.html

Lines 1 to 7 in 3210e49

    
           {% if jekyll.environment == "production" %} 
        
               {% assign MAIN_SITE_URL = "https://new.expensify.com" %} 
        
           {% else %} 
        
               {% assign MAIN_SITE_URL = "https://dev.new.expensify.com:8082" %} 
        
           {% endif %} 
        
           {% capture CONCIERGE_CHAT_URL %}{{MAIN_SITE_URL}}/concierge{% endcapture %}

What changes do you think we should make in order to solve the problem?

The else branch in docs/_includes/CONST.html should be removed so that MAIN_SITE_URL always defaults to https://new.expensify.com regardless of the Jekyll environment. The dev URL override serves no real purpose for the public help site — if a developer is running the help site locally, having the concierge link point to production is perfectly acceptable and far safer than accidentally shipping the dev URL to production users. Removing the else branch entirely (leaving only the https://new.expensify.com assignment) eliminates the risk of the wrong URL being deployed again.

App/docs/_layouts/default.html

Lines 112 to 116 in 3210e49

    
           <h2 class="title with-margin">Didn't find what you were looking for?</h2> 
        
           <p class="description">Concierge is here to answer all your questions.</p> 
        
           <a href="{{ CONCIERGE_CHAT_URL }}" target="_blank"> 
        
               <div class="submit-button"> 
        
                   <button class="success">Send a message</button>

What alternative solutions did you explore? (Optional)

N/A

Job added to Upwork: https://www.upwork.com/jobs/~022049957471456145777

Proposal

Please re-state the problem that we are trying to solve in this issue.

On help.expensify.com, the "Send a message" button shown under "Didn't find what you were looking for?" at the bottom of every help article links to https://dev.new.expensify.com:8082/concierge (a developer-only host that does not load for end users) instead of the production URL https://new.expensify.com/concierge. As a result, signed-in users never reach their Concierge DM and signed-out users never reach the sign-in flow.

What is the root cause of that problem?

The href of the "Send a message" button is rendered from a Liquid include that branches on Jekyll's environment, but the production deploy workflow never sets JEKYLL_ENV=production, so the development branch is always taken in the deployed site.

The button is defined in docs/_layouts/default.html and reads its href from the CONCIERGE_CHAT_URL capture defined in docs/_includes/CONST.html:

App/docs/_layouts/default.html

Lines 109 to 119 in 3210e49

    
           <!-- Concierge button at the bottom of the page --> 
        
           {% include CONST.html %} 
        
           <div class="get-help"> 
        
               <h2 class="title with-margin">Didn't find what you were looking for?</h2> 
        
               <p class="description">Concierge is here to answer all your questions.</p> 
        
               <a href="{{ CONCIERGE_CHAT_URL }}" target="_blank"> 
        
                   <div class="submit-button"> 
        
                       <button class="success">Send a message</button> 
        
                   </div> 
        
               </a> 
        
           </div>

https://github.com/Expensify/App/blob/3210e497eb743d6417e13a9e3fbf9a4e13b2c044/docs/_includes/CONST.html#L1-L8

CONST.html selects between https://new.expensify.com and https://dev.new.expensify.com:8082 using {% if jekyll.environment == "production" %}. Per Jekyll's documented behavior, jekyll.environment falls back to the literal string "development" whenever the JEKYLL_ENV environment variable is unset at build time, so the else branch wins and MAIN_SITE_URL becomes https://dev.new.expensify.com:8082.

The Cloudflare Pages production deploy is driven by .github/workflows/deployExpensifyHelp.yml. That workflow invokes bundle exec jekyll build without exporting JEKYLL_ENV (neither at the job env: level nor at the step level), so the production build of help.expensify.com is silently produced as a development build:

App/.github/workflows/deployExpensifyHelp.yml

Lines 29 to 73 in 3210e49

    
           jobs: 
        
             build: 
        
               env: 
        
                 IS_PR_FROM_FORK: ${{ github.event_name == 'pull_request' && github.event.pull_request.head.repo.fork }} 
        
               runs-on: blacksmith-2vcpu-ubuntu-2404 
        
               continue-on-error: true 
        
               steps: 
        
                 - name: Checkout 
        
                   # v6 
        
                   uses: actions/checkout@de0fac2e4500dabe0009e67214ff5f5447ce83dd 
        
                   with: 
        
                     fetch-depth: 0 
        
                 - name: Install pcregrep 
        
                   run: sudo apt-get install -y pcregrep 
        
                 - name: Setup NodeJS 
        
                   uses: ./.github/actions/composite/setupNode 
        
                 - name: Create docs routes file 
        
                   run: ./.github/scripts/createDocsRoutes.sh 
        
                 - name: Check for duplicates and cycles in redirects.csv 
        
                   run: ./.github/scripts/verifyRedirect.sh 
        
                 - name: Enforce that a redirect link has been created 
        
                   run: ./.github/scripts/enforceRedirect.sh 
        
                 - name: Enforce iframe and Cloudflare CDN usage 
        
                   run: ./.github/scripts/enforceVideoFormats.sh 
        
                 - name: Generate allowed URLs whitelist for AI search 
        
                   run: npx ts-node .github/scripts/generateAllowedUrls.ts 
        
                 - name: Set up Ruby 
        
                   # v1.306.0 
        
                   uses: ruby/setup-ruby@c4e5b1316158f92e3d49443a9d58b31d25ac0f8f 
        
                   with: 
        
                     bundler-cache: true 
        
                     working-directory: ./docs 
        
                 - name: Build Jekyll site 
        
                   run: bundle exec jekyll build --source ./ --destination ./_site 
        
                   working-directory: ./docs

Trigger: a user clicks "Send a message" on any article on help.expensify.com. Mechanism: the rendered href is the dev branch of the conditional because the production build was not tagged as such. Impact: navigation lands on dev.new.expensify.com:8082, which is not reachable from outside Expensify's dev environment, so the support entry point is broken.

This also explains why the issue reproduces in production but not in staging in the way the reporter framed it — staging here is the live site, and there is no separate prod-vs-staging gate on JEKYLL_ENV; both deploys behave identically (development), but only the prod help site is what end users hit.

What changes do you think we should make in order to solve the problem?

In .github/workflows/deployExpensifyHelp.yml, set JEKYLL_ENV: production for the "Build Jekyll site" step (or at the job level) so that jekyll.environment evaluates to "production" during the build that ships to help.expensify.com.
Re-run the deploy workflow on main so the rebuilt site contains the corrected href, then verify by viewing-source on any deployed article that the "Send a message" anchor resolves to https://new.expensify.com/concierge.
Leave docs/_includes/CONST.html and docs/_layouts/default.html as-is; the Liquid conditional is correct, only the build environment was missing.
Optional hardening, in the same PR: invert the default in CONST.html so that production is the safe default and jekyll.environment == "development" is the explicit opt-in for local builds. This way a future omission of JEKYLL_ENV cannot regress live users; local bundle exec jekyll serve already sets JEKYLL_ENV=development automatically.

Scope boundaries: the only repo-level change required is in .github/workflows/deployExpensifyHelp.yml; the optional hardening adds a one-line edit to docs/_includes/CONST.html. No application code (src/**), no Mobile-Expensify code, no native code, and no other workflow files are touched. The sister workflow .github/workflows/deployNewHelp.yml (which deploys newhelp.expensify.com) should receive the same JEKYLL_ENV: production treatment in this PR for consistency, since it builds from the same docs/ source. No Jekyll plugins, layouts, redirect rules, or article content are affected.

What alternative solutions did you explore? (Optional)

Hardcoding https://new.expensify.com/concierge in docs/_layouts/default.html and deleting the conditional. Rejected — local Jekyll dev would then lose the convenience of pointing the button at the local dev server, and the existing MAIN_SITE_URL capture is reused elsewhere (the same constants file, intended for additional URLs over time). The right fix is to make the existing branch evaluate correctly in CI, not to delete it.
Detecting the deploy target via site.url (https://help.expensify.com) inside CONST.html instead of jekyll.environment. Rejected — site.url is set in _config.yml and is the same string in PR previews and production, so it cannot distinguish a user-facing build from a local one.
Introducing a separate _config.production.yml overlay. Workable but heavier than necessary; JEKYLL_ENV is the idiomatic Jekyll lever for exactly this branch and adding a second config file is more surface area than the bug warrants.

Proposal

Please re-state the problem that we are trying to solve in this issue.

The help site footer’s “Send a message” button can generate a link to https://dev.new.expensify.com:8082/concierge, so users clicking it are sent to a local/dev NewDot URL instead of the public Concierge route.

What is the root cause of that problem?

docs/_layouts/default.html includes docs/_includes/CONST.html and uses {{ CONCIERGE_CHAT_URL }} for the footer CTA.

In docs/_includes/CONST.html, MAIN_SITE_URL depends on jekyll.environment:

{% if jekyll.environment == "production" %}
    {% assign MAIN_SITE_URL = "https://new.expensify.com" %}
{% else %}
    {% assign MAIN_SITE_URL = "https://dev.new.expensify.com:8082" %}
{% endif %}

However, .github/workflows/deployExpensifyHelp.yml builds the production help site with:

run: bundle exec jekyll build --source ./ --destination ./_site

That command does not set JEKYLL_ENV=production, so Jekyll evaluates jekyll.environment as the default non-production environment and the generated static footer link uses the dev URL.

The app route itself is not the broken layer. src/ROUTES.ts defines ROUTES.CONCIERGE = 'concierge', src/libs/Navigation/linkingConfig/config.ts maps SCREENS.CONCIERGE to that route, and src/pages/ConciergePage.tsx handles /concierge by routing authenticated users to Concierge or unauthenticated users through sign-in.

What changes do you think we should make in order to solve the problem?

Set the Jekyll environment explicitly in .github/workflows/deployExpensifyHelp.yml when building the deployed help site:

- name: Build Jekyll site
  run: JEKYLL_ENV=production bundle exec jekyll build --source ./ --destination ./_site
  working-directory: ./docs

This keeps docs/_includes/CONST.html centralized and preserves its intended local development behavior, while ensuring deployed help builds generate:

href="https://new.expensify.com/concierge"

What alternative solutions did you explore? (Optional)

Hardcoding CONCIERGE_CHAT_URL in docs/_includes/CONST.html would fix this one CTA, but it would only patch the symptom and remove the existing local/dev behavior from the Liquid constants. The deeper issue is that the deployed help workflow is building production static HTML without telling Jekyll it is a production build.

@aswin-s

⚠️ @aswin-s Your proposal is a duplicate of an already existing proposal and has been automatically withdrawn to prevent spam. Please review the existing proposals before submitting a new one.

Proposal

What is the root cause of that problem?

The help.expensify.com footer button is rendered from docs/_layouts/default.html, where the “Send a message” link uses CONCIERGE_CHAT_URL from docs/_includes/CONST.html:

App/docs/_layouts/default.html

Lines 109 to 118 in 3210e49

    
           <!-- Concierge button at the bottom of the page --> 
        
           {% include CONST.html %} 
        
           <div class="get-help"> 
        
               <h2 class="title with-margin">Didn't find what you were looking for?</h2> 
        
               <p class="description">Concierge is here to answer all your questions.</p> 
        
               <a href="{{ CONCIERGE_CHAT_URL }}" target="_blank"> 
        
                   <div class="submit-button"> 
        
                       <button class="success">Send a message</button> 
        
                   </div> 
        
               </a>

CONCIERGE_CHAT_URL is built from MAIN_SITE_URL, and MAIN_SITE_URL only points to https://new.expensify.com when jekyll.environment == "production". Otherwise, it points to https://dev.new.expensify.com:8082:

App/docs/_includes/CONST.html

Lines 1 to 7 in 3210e49

    
           {% if jekyll.environment == "production" %} 
        
               {% assign MAIN_SITE_URL = "https://new.expensify.com" %} 
        
           {% else %} 
        
               {% assign MAIN_SITE_URL = "https://dev.new.expensify.com:8082" %} 
        
           {% endif %} 
        
           {% capture CONCIERGE_CHAT_URL %}{{MAIN_SITE_URL}}/concierge{% endcapture %}

The production help-site deployment builds docs/ with bundle exec jekyll build but does not set JEKYLL_ENV=production, so Jekyll uses its default development environment and the deployed HTML gets the dev Concierge URL:

App/.github/workflows/deployExpensifyHelp.yml

Lines 70 to 72 in 3210e49

    
           - name: Build Jekyll site 
        
             run: bundle exec jekyll build --source ./ --destination ./_site 
        
             working-directory: ./docs

What changes do you think we should make in order to solve the problem?

Set JEKYLL_ENV: production on the Build Jekyll site step in .github/workflows/deployExpensifyHelp.yml.

This keeps the existing CONST.html environment split intact for local docs development, while making the Cloudflare Pages build for help.expensify.com render the production Concierge URL.

Required changes:

Add JEKYLL_ENV: production to the Jekyll build step in .github/workflows/deployExpensifyHelp.yml.
Re-run the deploy workflow so the generated site contains https://new.expensify.com/concierge.

Tests that should be added:

No automated test is necessary for this workflow-only configuration change.
Validate by running the docs build with JEKYLL_ENV=production and confirming the generated Send a message anchor points to https://new.expensify.com/concierge.

Updating .github/workflows/deployNewHelp.yml is not needed for this issue. That workflow builds the separate help/ directory, while the broken CONCIERGE_CHAT_URL include and the affected “Send a message” button are only in docs/.

Removing the development branch from docs/_includes/CONST.html would also prevent the wrong URL from shipping, but it changes the local docs behavior unnecessarily. The root cause is the missing production Jekyll environment in the deploy workflow.

What alternative solutions did you explore? (Optional)

@puneetlath

PR is ready for review @puneetlath

PR is ready for review @puneetlath

Same as above.

Update: PR still under review.

@puneetlath

This issue has not been updated in over 15 days. @puneetlath, @brunovjk eroding to Monthly issue.

P.S. Is everyone reading this sure this is really a near-term priority? Be brave: if you disagree, go ahead and close it out. If someone disagrees, they'll reopen it, and if they don't: one less thing to do!

Update: PR still under review.

This is no longer needed. It was addressed here: #91119

@puneetlath

@puneetlath This issue is still reproducible, Can you please have a look.

Recording.3089.mp4

@m-natarajan

@m-natarajan seems like a new issue. Can you open a new GH issue for it?

@puneetlath

@puneetlath New GH created for this here

	{% if jekyll.environment == "production" %}
	{% assign MAIN_SITE_URL = "https://new.expensify.com" %}
	{% else %}
	{% assign MAIN_SITE_URL = "https://dev.new.expensify.com:8082" %}
	{% endif %}

	{% capture CONCIERGE_CHAT_URL %}{{MAIN_SITE_URL}}/concierge{% endcapture %}

	<h2 class="title with-margin">Didn't find what you were looking for?</h2>
	<p class="description">Concierge is here to answer all your questions.</p>
	<a href="{{ CONCIERGE_CHAT_URL }}" target="_blank">
	<div class="submit-button">
	<button class="success">Send a message</button>

	<!-- Concierge button at the bottom of the page -->
	{% include CONST.html %}
	<div class="get-help">
	<h2 class="title with-margin">Didn't find what you were looking for?</h2>
	<p class="description">Concierge is here to answer all your questions.</p>
	<a href="{{ CONCIERGE_CHAT_URL }}" target="_blank">
	<div class="submit-button">
	<button class="success">Send a message</button>
	</div>
	</a>
	</div>

	jobs:
	build:
	env:
	IS_PR_FROM_FORK: ${{ github.event_name == 'pull_request' && github.event.pull_request.head.repo.fork }}
	runs-on: blacksmith-2vcpu-ubuntu-2404
	continue-on-error: true
	steps:
	- name: Checkout
	# v6
	uses: actions/checkout@de0fac2e4500dabe0009e67214ff5f5447ce83dd
	with:
	fetch-depth: 0

	- name: Install pcregrep
	run: sudo apt-get install -y pcregrep

	- name: Setup NodeJS
	uses: ./.github/actions/composite/setupNode

	- name: Create docs routes file
	run: ./.github/scripts/createDocsRoutes.sh

	- name: Check for duplicates and cycles in redirects.csv
	run: ./.github/scripts/verifyRedirect.sh

	- name: Enforce that a redirect link has been created
	run: ./.github/scripts/enforceRedirect.sh

	- name: Enforce iframe and Cloudflare CDN usage
	run: ./.github/scripts/enforceVideoFormats.sh

	- name: Generate allowed URLs whitelist for AI search
	run: npx ts-node .github/scripts/generateAllowedUrls.ts

	- name: Set up Ruby
	# v1.306.0
	uses: ruby/setup-ruby@c4e5b1316158f92e3d49443a9d58b31d25ac0f8f
	with:
	bundler-cache: true
	working-directory: ./docs

	- name: Build Jekyll site
	run: bundle exec jekyll build --source ./ --destination ./_site
	working-directory: ./docs

[$125] Send a message button on help site doesn't work #89309

Description

Action Performed:

Expected Result:

Actual Result:

Workaround:

Platforms:

Screenshots/Videos

Activity

MelvinBot commented on Apr 30, 2026

Proposal

What is the root cause of that problem?

What changes do you think we should make in order to solve the problem?

What alternative solutions did you explore? (Optional)

melvin-bot commented on Apr 30, 2026

MobileMage commented on Apr 30, 2026

Proposal

Please re-state the problem that we are trying to solve in this issue.

What is the root cause of that problem?

What changes do you think we should make in order to solve the problem?

What alternative solutions did you explore? (Optional)

melvin-bot commented on Apr 30, 2026

KJ21-ENG commented on Apr 30, 2026

Proposal

Please re-state the problem that we are trying to solve in this issue.

What is the root cause of that problem?

What changes do you think we should make in order to solve the problem?

What alternative solutions did you explore? (Optional)

aswin-s commented on Apr 30, 2026

Proposal

Please re-state the problem that we are trying to solve in this issue.

What is the root cause of that problem?

What changes do you think we should make in order to solve the problem?

What alternative solutions did you explore? (Optional)

github-actions commented on Apr 30, 2026

nabi-ebrahimi commented on Apr 30, 2026

Proposal

What is the root cause of that problem?

What changes do you think we should make in order to solve the problem?

What alternative solutions did you explore? (Optional)

30 remaining items

brunovjk commented on May 11, 2026

brunovjk commented on May 22, 2026

brunovjk commented on May 29, 2026

melvin-bot commented on Jun 3, 2026

brunovjk commented on Jun 17, 2026

puneetlath commented on Jun 19, 2026

m-natarajan commented on Jun 25, 2026

puneetlath commented on Jul 8, 2026

m-natarajan commented on Jul 8, 2026

Metadata

Metadata

Assignees

Labels

Type

Projects

Milestone

Relationships

Development

Issue actions