Show goal-started threads in resume lists by etraut-openai · Pull Request #21489 · openai/codex

etraut-openai · 2026-05-07T05:21:36Z

Fixes #20792

Why

Threads that start with /goal can have useful user-facing starting metadata even before a normal UserMessage appears. Resume listing currently filters out rollouts unless it sees both session metadata and a user-facing start event, and the state metadata path only sets first_user_message from UserMessage. That made /goal-first sessions resumable by id but invisible in codex resume and Desktop recents.

The earlier approach in #20800 attempted to fix this by materializing a synthetic /goal user message. This PR takes a narrower route: treat the already-emitted ThreadGoalUpdated event as metadata-bearing rollout state and derive the preview from the goal objective.

What changed

Persist ThreadGoalUpdated events in the limited rollout stream.
Mark goal updates as thread-metadata affecting and synthesize first_user_message from the first non-empty goal objective.
Update the filesystem resume scan so a non-empty goal objective satisfies the same discoverability check used for user-message-started threads.

Verification

Added coverage for extracting first_user_message from ThreadGoalUpdated.
cargo test -p codex-state
cargo test -p codex-rollout

Manually confirmed the bug (before) and fix (after).

Bug: #20792

…tadata

chatgpt-codex-connector · 2026-05-07T05:22:33Z

Codex Review: Something went wrong. Try again later by commenting “@codex review”.

Provided git ref refs/pull/21489/head does not exist

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etraut-openai · 2026-05-07T07:08:34Z

@codex review

chatgpt-codex-connector · 2026-05-07T07:15:51Z

Codex Review: Didn't find any major issues. Can't wait for the next one!

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jif-oai

Stepping back, I’m still not convinced this is the right shape for the fix. The bug is real, but this makes ThreadGoalUpdated behave like a synthetic first user message across persistence, metadata extraction, and listing, which feels like we’re solving a preview/discoverability problem by widening the meaning of first_user_message.

We should probably model the user-facing preview/discoverability bit directly instead of making goal lifecycle events stand in for user input.
What do you think?

jif-oai · 2026-05-07T09:36:45Z

        | EventMsg::AgentReasoningRawContent(_)
        | EventMsg::PatchApplyEnd(_)
        | EventMsg::TokenCount(_)
+        | EventMsg::ThreadGoalUpdated(_)


For the record, this won't backfill previous sessions but it's fine I guess

jif-oai · 2026-05-07T09:38:28Z

                }
            }
        }
+        EventMsg::ThreadGoalUpdated(event) => {


Won't this have an impact on the title? If a reaul user message arrives after the goal, it will now look like a distinct title and start shwoing up as thread name
Maybe I'm wrong though, I can't repro

Fixes #20792 ## Why `/goal`-first threads are valid resumable threads, but they can be missing from `codex resume` and app recents because discovery depends on metadata derived from a normal first user message. PR #21489 attempted to fix this by using the goal objective as `first_user_message`. Review feedback pointed out that `first_user_message` does more than provide visible text today: it gates listing, supplies preview text, and participates in deciding whether a later title should surface as a distinct thread name. Reusing it for the goal objective could leave a `/goal`-first thread with `first_user_message=<goal>` and `title=<later prompt>`, even though the goal should only provide the initial visible preview. This PR follows that feedback by and keeps the `first_user_message` as is but introduces a new `preview` field to separate concerns. The `preview` field is populated from the first user message or the goal objective. We can extend it in the future to include other sources. ## What Changed - Added internal thread `preview` metadata in `codex-state`, including a SQLite migration that backfills from `first_user_message` and from existing `thread_goals` objectives when needed. - Treated `ThreadGoalUpdated` as preview-bearing metadata so goal-first threads can be listed and searched without mutating `first_user_message`. - Updated rollout listing, state queries, thread-store conversion, and app-server mapping to use preview metadata while continuing to expose the existing public `preview` field. - Preserved title/name distinctness behavior around literal `first_user_message`, so a later normal prompt after `/goal` does not surface as a separate name just because the goal supplied the initial preview. - Preserved compatibility for older/internal metadata writes by deriving preview from `first_user_message` when explicit preview metadata is absent. ## Verification - Manually verified that a thread that starts with a `/goal <objective>` shows up in the resume picker.

Fixes openai#20792 ## Why `/goal`-first threads are valid resumable threads, but they can be missing from `codex resume` and app recents because discovery depends on metadata derived from a normal first user message. PR openai#21489 attempted to fix this by using the goal objective as `first_user_message`. Review feedback pointed out that `first_user_message` does more than provide visible text today: it gates listing, supplies preview text, and participates in deciding whether a later title should surface as a distinct thread name. Reusing it for the goal objective could leave a `/goal`-first thread with `first_user_message=<goal>` and `title=<later prompt>`, even though the goal should only provide the initial visible preview. This PR follows that feedback by and keeps the `first_user_message` as is but introduces a new `preview` field to separate concerns. The `preview` field is populated from the first user message or the goal objective. We can extend it in the future to include other sources. ## What Changed - Added internal thread `preview` metadata in `codex-state`, including a SQLite migration that backfills from `first_user_message` and from existing `thread_goals` objectives when needed. - Treated `ThreadGoalUpdated` as preview-bearing metadata so goal-first threads can be listed and searched without mutating `first_user_message`. - Updated rollout listing, state queries, thread-store conversion, and app-server mapping to use preview metadata while continuing to expose the existing public `preview` field. - Preserved title/name distinctness behavior around literal `first_user_message`, so a later normal prompt after `/goal` does not surface as a separate name just because the goal supplied the initial preview. - Preserved compatibility for older/internal metadata writes by deriving preview from `first_user_message` when explicit preview metadata is absent. ## Verification - Manually verified that a thread that starts with a `/goal <objective>` shows up in the resume picker.

etraut-openai added 2 commits May 6, 2026 21:39

Fix resume listing for goal-started threads

25f704d

Bug: #20792

Merge remote-tracking branch 'origin/main' into etraut/goal-resume-me…

43dc8d9

…tadata

Merge branch 'main' into etraut/goal-resume-metadata-v2

ee4986e

jif-oai reviewed May 7, 2026

View reviewed changes

etraut-openai mentioned this pull request May 9, 2026

Use goal preview metadata for goal-first threads #21981

Merged

etraut-openai closed this May 11, 2026

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Show goal-started threads in resume lists#21489

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etraut-openai commented May 7, 2026

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