feat: title sessions by subject, not workflow step (#11135)

Co-authored-by: Douwe Osinga <douwe.osinga@gmail.com>

crates/goose/src/prompts/session_name.md

@@ -1,7 +1,19 @@
-Generate a short title (four words or less) that describes the topic of the user's messages. 
+Generate a short title (four words or less) for this conversation.
+
+Title what the work is ABOUT, not the mechanical activity. Many conversations share the same workflow steps (creating a PR, setting up a worktree, drafting an email, summarizing a document); a good title carries the distinguishing subject instead — a ticket or issue ID, feature name, customer or company, person, document, event, or project.
+
+Rules:
+- If a ticket or issue identifier (like ABC-123) appears in the messages, include it in the title. Use identifiers found only in hints when the messages make their relevance clear.
+- Prefer names of companies, projects, or documents over generic activity words.
+- Prefer a company or project name over a person's name when both are present.
+- If there is genuinely no distinguishing subject, a plain activity title is fine — never invent specifics that are not present.
+
 Reply with only the title, nothing else. Do not show your reasoning.
 
 Examples:
 - "how do I reverse a list in python?" → Python list reversal
+- "set up a git worktree for BOT-1565 session auto titles" → BOT-1565 session auto-titles
+- "open the payments repo and create a PR for the refund timeout fix" → Refund timeout fix
+- "help me draft a follow-up email about the renewal" (hints mention Acme) → Acme renewal follow-up
+- "summarize this spreadsheet" (attached "Q3 pipeline.xlsx") → Q3 pipeline summary
 - "what's the weather in Tokyo?" → Tokyo weather
-- "explain how transformers work in ML" → ML transformers explained

crates/goose/src/providers/cli_common.rs

@@ -57,8 +57,6 @@ pub(crate) fn generate_simple_session_description(
             })
         })
         .map(|text| {
-            // Strip the wrapper added by generate_session_name so we get
-            // the actual user content. First strip the optional background context section.
             let text = text
                 .rfind(SESSION_NAME_BEGIN_MARKER)
                 .and_then(|idx| text.get(idx..))

crates/goose/src/session/session_manager.rs

@@ -638,8 +638,14 @@ impl SessionManager {
         };
 
         if should_generate_name {
-            let name =
-                generate_session_name(provider.as_ref(), &model_config, id, &conversation).await?;
+            let name = generate_session_name(
+                provider.as_ref(),
+                &model_config,
+                id,
+                &conversation,
+                Some(session.working_dir.as_path()),
+            )
+            .await?;
             return Ok(Some(self.system_generated_name_update(id, name).await?));
         }
         Ok(None)

crates/goose/src/session/session_naming.rs

@@ -1,3 +1,4 @@
+use std::path::Path;
 use std::sync::LazyLock;
 
 use anyhow::Result;
@@ -70,8 +71,6 @@ fn extract_short_title(text: &str) -> String {
     text.to_string()
 }
 
-/// Returns the first 3 user messages as strings for session naming,
-/// filtering out assistant-only content (e.g. preprompt blocks).
 fn get_initial_user_messages(messages: &Conversation) -> Vec<String> {
     messages
         .iter()
@@ -88,36 +87,14 @@ fn get_initial_user_messages(messages: &Conversation) -> Vec<String> {
         .collect()
 }
 
-/// Extracts preprompt context (assistant-audience blocks) from the first user message.
-/// These are content blocks visible to the assistant but not the user.
-fn get_preprompt_context(messages: &Conversation) -> String {
-    messages
-        .iter()
-        .filter(|m| m.role == rmcp::model::Role::User)
-        .take(1)
-        .flat_map(|m| m.content.iter())
-        .filter_map(|c| {
-            // If this block is NOT visible to the user, it's preprompt/assistant-only content
-            if c.filter_for_audience(rmcp::model::Role::User).is_none() {
-                c.as_text().map(|s| s.to_string())
-            } else {
-                None
-            }
-        })
-        .collect::<Vec<_>>()
-        .join("\n")
-}
-
-/// Generate a session name/description based on the conversation history
-/// Creates a prompt asking for a concise description in 4 words or less.
 pub(crate) async fn generate_session_name(
     provider: &dyn Provider,
     model_config: &goose_providers::model::ModelConfig,
     session_id: &str,
     messages: &Conversation,
+    working_dir: Option<&Path>,
 ) -> Result<String> {
     let context = get_initial_user_messages(messages);
-    let preprompt_context = get_preprompt_context(messages);
     let system = crate::prompt_template::render_template(
         "session_name.md",
         &std::collections::HashMap::<String, String>::new(),
@@ -127,18 +104,21 @@ pub(crate) async fn generate_session_name(
         SESSION_NAME_BEGIN_MARKER, SESSION_NAME_END_MARKER, SESSION_NAME_SUFFIX,
     };
 
-    let preprompt_section = if preprompt_context.is_empty() {
+    let hint = working_dir
+        .and_then(Path::file_name)
+        .and_then(|folder| folder.to_str())
+        .map(|folder| format!("working folder: {folder}"))
+        .unwrap_or_default();
+    let hints_section = if hint.is_empty() {
         String::new()
     } else {
         format!(
-            "---BEGIN BACKGROUND CONTEXT (for understanding only, do NOT base the title on this)---\n{}\n---END BACKGROUND CONTEXT---\n\n",
-            preprompt_context
+            "---BEGIN HINTS (optional signals like the working folder; use them only when they match the subject of the messages)---\n{hint}\n---END HINTS---\n\n"
         )
     };
-
     let user_text = format!(
         "{}{}\n{}\n{}\n\n{}",
-        preprompt_section,
+        hints_section,
         SESSION_NAME_BEGIN_MARKER,
         context.join("\n"),
         SESSION_NAME_END_MARKER,