Dynamic semantic chat titles that follow the active task

[ElbertePlinio]

Summary

Make PickForge chat titles follow the work as it evolves instead of naming only the first prompt.

Current behavior already provides a strong base: chatAutoName.ts derives a title from the first meaningful prompt, accepts OSC 2 terminal titles, and stops after a manual rename. The missing piece is durable title ownership plus controlled refreshes later in the conversation.

Product decision

This is PickForge-owned behavior, not a required skill or MCP tool.

• Skills can improve wording but cannot reliably mutate host UI.
• MCP is the wrong default direction: title updates are host/session metadata, not a work tool the model should remember to call.
• Provider integrations may emit title suggestions (OSC, ACP/session metadata, native events), but PickForge owns precedence, persistence, throttling, and manual override.
• v1 makes no hidden background LLM call and adds no title-generation cost. It derives from user-owned task text and provider title signals. A tiny/hosted semantic title generator can be evaluated later.

Feature flag

Ship behind dynamicChatTitles, default off. Flag-off builds preserve the current title behavior and storage semantics.

• merged behind flag dynamicChatTitles
• tested on main with flag on
• enabled in the target release
• flag removed after shipping enabled

Title policy

Precedence:

1. User rename — locks the title.
2. Provider/session title signal — accepted only while auto-owned.
3. PickForge local auto-title — fallback.

Refresh triggers:

• first meaningful user prompt;
• a provider plan/replan/title event;
• every 3 completed meaningful user turns, using the latest task-defining user text;
• never during streaming; commit at a stable turn boundary.

Guardrails:

• Persist title source: default | auto | user, plus title_updated_at.
• Do not rename when the normalized candidate is unchanged or generic.
• Preserve existing title limits and casing/acronym behavior.
• Manual rename wins across restarts.
• Add “Resume automatic titles” beside manual rename controls.
• Update every visible projection consistently: project/chat list, active header, and terminal/window title where applicable.
• Never use tool output, file contents, secrets, hidden prompts, or assistant speculation as title source text.

Implementation plan

Keep this as one reviewable PR; migration and behavior are tightly coupled.

• Add chat title provenance/timestamp migration and narrow database writes.
• Move in-memory manual/auto ownership into persisted chat metadata.
• Add milestone-based refresh policy to native agent chats.
• Feed debounced OSC/provider title signals through the same policy.
• Add “Resume automatic titles” UI.
• Add deterministic unit tests for precedence, restart persistence, cadence, generic prompts, and manual lock.
• Add one VRT/update for the rename control if its rendered state changes.
• Update docs/releases/UNRELEASED.md after behavior is proven.
• PR/review.

Acceptance

• A new chat gets a useful title from the first meaningful task, not greetings/filler.
• After 3 more meaningful completed user turns, a materially different task updates an auto-owned title.
• Plan/replan or provider title events can refresh an auto-owned title without waiting for cadence.
• A manual rename survives restart and is never overwritten.
• Re-enabling automatic titles allows future refreshes without creating a new chat.
• Terminal and native agent chats use the same ownership rules.
• No extra model request, MCP call, or skill installation is required.

Validation

• bun run test:unit -- chatAutoName
• focused database migration tests
• bun run build
• bun run vrt when rendered controls change

[ElbertePlinio]

Implementation started.

Wave 1:

• Branch: feat/dynamic-chat-titles-210
• Scope: complete persisted title ownership + milestone refresh PR
• Worktree: isolated

Status: In progress
Blocked: none
Next: implement migration, policy, tests, and focused VRT if rendered controls change.

[ElbertePlinio]

Owner decision: all new behavior ships default-off for pre-release dogfooding.

Flag: dynamicChatTitles

Lifecycle:

• merged behind dynamicChatTitles (default off)
• tested on main with flag on
• enabled in the target release
• flag removed after shipping enabled

Flag off must preserve current title behavior and storage semantics.

[ElbertePlinio]

PR opened: https://github.com/pickforge/pickforge/pull/217

Status: implementation is complete and awaiting the automatic opening review.

Validation completed: 123 focused frontend title/workspace/agent/mock/flag tests; Rust CAS, migration, and Drift reconciliation tests; bun run build; Tauri cargo check; focused dropdown VRT without snapshot updates; provider-diverse review findings addressed.

Next action: await review.

[ElbertePlinio]

Lifecycle clarification: PR #217 is linked with Refs #210; this issue remains open for the planned dogfood, enablement, and eventual flag-removal lifecycle. Immediate next action remains awaiting the opening review.

[ElbertePlinio]

Review update:

• Opening Codex round reviewed dbe8e04633 and found five valid P2 concurrency/ownership/cadence issues.
• Fixes pushed in c1f9de6: monotonic manual + ownership CAS, flag-toggle ownership preservation, legacy-title resume, and initial-prompt turn tracking.
• Validation: 127 focused title/flag tests, focused Rust DB CAS test, frontend build, and Tauri cargo check.

Status: awaiting Codex round 2 and CI on the fixed HEAD.
Blocked: none.

[ElbertePlinio]

Merged: https://github.com/pickforge/pickforge/pull/217

• Implementation merged behind dynamicChatTitles (default off).
• Reviewed clean HEAD: c1f9de62ff after two Codex rounds; all five opening P2 findings fixed and threads resolved.
• CI green: cargo + tsc + build, Windows remote auth, visual regression.
• Squash commit on main: 21b843ea24.

Issue remains open for flag lifecycle.
Next: dogfood on main with dynamicChatTitles enabled, then record results before release enablement/removal.

[ElbertePlinio]

Dogfood checkpoint complete on merged main (09a6517, includes #217) with dynamicChatTitles=true.

• 127 focused frontend tests passed
• 3 focused Rust CAS/migration/reconciliation tests passed
• Manual rename → durable user ownership → Resume automatic titles → durable auto ownership passed in the browser Tauri mock
• Flag-off menu omitted Resume automatic titles and preserved legacy behavior
• Clean worktree; no generated artifacts

Native packaged GUI was not required for the ownership contracts; DB/IPC behavior is covered by Rust tests and the stateful Tauri mock. Lifecycle checkbox marked complete.

Next: select the target release for default enablement; flag removal remains required after the enabled release proves stable.