Cannot initialize extension in collaborative mode due to missing initials

[ktaletsk]

Description

The extension fails in collaborative mode in JupyterLab 3.6.3 spawned by JupyterHub.

Reproduce

1. Install Jupyter AI extension in JupyterLab Docker image
2. Spawn JupyterLab container with JupyterHub
3. Observe the following message in Jupyter AI's UI

There seems to be a problem with the Chat backend, please look at the JupyterLab server logs or contact your administrator to correct this problem.

4. In JupyterLab container logs, see the following

2023-07-28 04:07:34,802 - SingleUserLabApp - ERROR - Uncaught exception GET /user/<user email>/api/ai/chats?token=<some token> (<ip>)
HTTPServerRequest(protocol='https', host='<JupyterHub URL>', method='GET', uri='/user/<user email>/api/ai/chats?token=<some token> ', version='HTTP/1.1', remote_ip='<ip>')
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/opt/conda/lib/python3.9/site-packages/tornado/websocket.py", line 937, in _accept_connection
    open_result = handler.open(*handler.open_args, **handler.open_kwargs)
  File "/opt/conda/lib/python3.9/site-packages/jupyter_ai/handlers.py", line 137, in open
    current_user = self.get_chat_user().dict()
  File "/opt/conda/lib/python3.9/site-packages/jupyter_ai/handlers.py", line 117, in get_chat_user
    return ChatUser(**asdict(self.current_user))
  File "pydantic/main.py", line 341, in pydantic.main.BaseModel.__init__
pydantic.error_wrappers.ValidationError: 1 validation error for ChatUser
initials
  none is not an allowed value (type=type_error.none.not_allowed)

Expected behavior

Extension loads

Context

• Operating System and version: Linux Ubuntu 22.04
• Browser and version: Edge 112
• JupyterLab version: 3.6.3

Debugging

1. Add self.log.info(self.current_user) into this line

   jupyter-ai/packages/jupyter-ai/jupyter_ai/handlers.py

   Line 116 in 07cfd7c
2. Output is

User(username='<user email>', name='<user email>', display_name='<user email>', initials=None, avatar_url=None, color=None)

3. For whatever reason initials are not returned in my environment and the code is expecting them to not be none
4. I implemented a simple fix to calculate initials based on the username

user = self.current_user
user.initials = user.name[0].capitalize()

if collaborative:
    return ChatUser(**asdict(user))

and it resolved my issue.

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[wolffiex]

The linked patch didn't work for me, I had to do this

            chat_user_kwargs = { 
                # set in case IdentityProvider doesn't return initials, e.g. 
                # JupyterHub (#302) 
                **asdict(self.current_user), 
                "initials": initials, 
            }
            return ChatUser(**chat_user_kwargs)