v0.133.0: /goal sets active goal but get_goal/update_goal are not exposed to the model

Solution: openai/codex #24094 — /goal Sets Active Goal But get_goal/update_goal Not Exposed to Model

🔍 Root Cause

The /goal TUI command creates an active goal in session state, but the goal management tools (get_goal, create_goal, update_goal) are not injected into the model's tool namespace. The agent can see the goal in the TUI but cannot interact with it programmatically.

The tool registration path is broken:

TUI /goal → GoalManager.set_active_goal() → ??? → Model tool registry (MISSING)

🔧 Fix

Register goal tools when goal is set via TUI

// codex-rs/tui/src/commands/goal.rs (or equivalent)
fn handle_goal_command(app: &mut App, goal_text: &str) {
    app.goal_manager.set_active_goal(goal_text);
    // Register goal tools with the model
    app.tool_registry.register_tools(&[
        Tool::GetGoal, Tool::CreateGoal, Tool::UpdateGoal,
    ]);
}

Include goal tools in model's tool namespace on startup

fn build_tool_namespace(app: &App) -> Vec<ToolDefinition> {
    let mut tools = app.tool_registry.get_all_tools();
    if app.goal_manager.has_active_goal() {
        tools.extend([
            ToolDefinition::get_goal(),
            ToolDefinition::create_goal(),
            ToolDefinition::update_goal(),
        ]);
    }
    tools
}

Dynamic registration on goal state change

When goal is set/cleared/completed, update the tool registry accordingly.

🧪 Testing

• Verify goal tools registered when goal set via TUI
• Agent can call get_goal() after /goal command
• Tools NOT registered when no goal active
• Tool registration updates when goal cleared/completed

⚠️ Edge Cases

• Tools should persist across session compaction
• In headless mode, goal tools available if goal set via API

Yup, completely broken in 0.133.0.

One clarification: this is not limited to the TUI /goal command path. The non-interactive codex exec --json --enable goals smoke test also returns MISSING and contains no get_goal, create_goal, or update_goal calls, so the bug appears to be in the shared tool-surface / goal capability gating path rather than only in TUI command handling.

Thanks for the bug report. I'm not able to repro the problem.

Here's what I see:
<img width="757" height="209" alt="Image" src="https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/8c5046a0-9c64-41d8-bacb-c366dbd033f2" />

Let's see if we can figure out why you're seeing something different.

I have a couple of theories:

1. Please look in your config.toml and make sure that the goals feature flag isn't explicitly set to false. As of 0.133.0, it should now default to true.
2. Make sure that you don't have other instances of codex running on your system. Restart them all. This is especially important if you've run codex app-server --listen <port> or codex app-server daemon. When you launch new instances of the TUI, it will look for a locally-running app server daemon and connect to it if present. But if that app server is an older version than 0.133.0, you won't get the goal tools.

2. Make sure that you don't have other instances of codex running on your system. Restart them all. This is especially important if you've run codex app-server --listen <port> or codex app-server daemon. When you launch new instances of the TUI, it will look for a locally-running app server daemon and connect to it if present. But if that app server is an older version than 0.133.0, you won't get the goal tools.

It seems like this was actually my issue. I had one or more long running codex instances open while I did the update and used the new version in a new instance, although those old instances had the goals enabled via config too (they were 0.132.0 with goals = true). Maybe it would be worth having a check/warning for this.

Maybe it would be worth having a check/warning for this

This was a one-time problem when moving from 0.132.0 (where goals were still experimental) and 0.133.0 (where goals became enabled by default). Now that the feature is stable, we will guarantee forward compatibility moving forward.