docs: disable ai session naming by dianed-square · Pull Request #7194 · block/goose

dianed-square · 2026-02-13T00:34:19Z

Summary

This PR documents the new GOOSE_DISABLE_SESSION_NAMING environment variable.

Documentation updates:

documentation/docs/guides/environment-variables.md:
- Add GOOSE_DISABLE_SESSION_NAMING to "Session Management"
documentation/docs/guides/sessions/session-management.md:
- Add tip in "Name Session" section
- Update CLI tab to sync with current behavior
documentation/docs/tutorials/headless-goose.md:
- Add export GOOSE_DISABLE_SESSION_NAMING=true to the headless/CI pre-config snippet
- ONLY added line 123 and edited line 126!

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This PR was created or reviewed with AI assistance

Testing

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dianed-square · 2026-02-13T00:37:13Z

documentation/docs/tutorials/headless-goose.md

@@ -1,325 +1,326 @@
---


This complete file compare view is due to CRLF → LF line ending normalization (likely from my editor settings on mac)

github-actions · 2026-02-13T00:37:29Z

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2026-02-17 18:11 UTC

Copilot

Pull request overview

This PR documents the GOOSE_DISABLE_SESSION_NAMING environment variable, which allows users to disable automatic AI-generated session naming. This is particularly useful in CI/CD pipelines and headless automation scenarios where the extra model call for generating session names is unnecessary overhead.

Changes:

Added GOOSE_DISABLE_SESSION_NAMING to the Session Management section of environment variables documentation
Added a tip in the session-management guide explaining when to use this variable
Updated the headless goose tutorial's pre-configuration example to include this setting

Reviewed changes

Copilot reviewed 3 out of 3 changed files in this pull request and generated 2 comments.

File	Description
documentation/docs/guides/environment-variables.md	Added new environment variable to the Session Management table and examples section
documentation/docs/guides/sessions/session-management.md	Added tip box linking to the new environment variable documentation
documentation/docs/tutorials/headless-goose.md	Added environment variable to the pre-configuration code snippet with explanation

Copilot · 2026-02-13T00:37:46Z

documentation/docs/tutorials/headless-goose.md

+export GOOSE_DISABLE_SESSION_NAMING=true
+```
+
+The `CONTEXT_STRATEGY` and `MAX_TURNS` settings help manage conversation limits, while `GOOSE_MODE` set to `auto` allows for non-interactive execution. `GOOSE_DISABLE_SESSION_NAMING` avoids the extra background model call used to generate a session name and keeps the default "CLI Session" name.


The default session name mentioned here as "CLI Session" may not be accurate for all cases. Based on the CLI documentation in session-management.md (line 107), the CLI defaults to a timestamp format "YYYYMMDD_", not "CLI Session". The "CLI Session" or "New Chat" names appear to be specific to the desktop UI. Consider clarifying which default applies in which context, or simply state "keeps the default name" without specifying what it is.

Suggested change

The `CONTEXT_STRATEGY` and `MAX_TURNS` settings help manage conversation limits, while `GOOSE_MODE` set to `auto` allows for non-interactive execution. `GOOSE_DISABLE_SESSION_NAMING` avoids the extra background model call used to generate a session name and keeps the default "CLI Session" name.

The `CONTEXT_STRATEGY` and `MAX_TURNS` settings help manage conversation limits, while `GOOSE_MODE` set to `auto` allows for non-interactive execution. `GOOSE_DISABLE_SESSION_NAMING` avoids the extra background model call used to generate a session name and keeps the default session name for your environment.

Verified "CLI Session" for CLI in testing, which is the context for this topic:
~ goose session list
Available sessions:
20260212_13 - Disable session naming docs - 2026-02-12 23:33:48 UTC
20260212_23 - Spanish goat vocabulary - 2026-02-12 23:30:49 UTC
20260212_22 - New Chat - 2026-02-12 23:30:34 UTC
20260212_21 - Tokyo time query - 2026-02-12 23:10:04 UTC
20260212_20 - CLI Session - 2026-02-12 23:09:13 UTC
20260212_19 - Session Name 1 - 2026-02-12 23:04:14 UTC
20260212_18 - CLI Session - 2026-02-12 23:01:21 UTC
...

Copilot · 2026-02-13T00:37:46Z

documentation/docs/guides/environment-variables.md

 | `GOOSE_MAX_TURNS` | [Maximum number of turns](/docs/guides/sessions/smart-context-management#maximum-turns) allowed without user input | Integer (e.g., 10, 50, 100) | 1000 |
 | `GOOSE_SUBAGENT_MAX_TURNS` | Sets the maximum turns allowed for a [subagent](/docs/guides/subagents) to complete before timeout. Can be overridden by [`settings.max_turns`](/docs/guides/recipes/recipe-reference#settings) in recipes or subagent tool calls. | Integer (e.g., 25) | 25 |
 | `CONTEXT_FILE_NAMES` | Specifies custom filenames for [hint/context files](/docs/guides/context-engineering/using-goosehints#custom-context-files) | JSON array of strings (e.g., `["CLAUDE.md", ".goosehints"]`) | `[".goosehints"]` |
+| `GOOSE_DISABLE_SESSION_NAMING` | Disables automatic AI-generated session naming (avoids the background model call and keeps the "CLI Session" or "New Chat" default) | "1", "true" (case-insensitive) to enable | false |


The default session name mentioned as "CLI Session" or "New Chat" may not be accurate for all cases. According to the CLI documentation in session-management.md, the CLI defaults to a timestamp format "YYYYMMDD_", not "CLI Session". The "CLI Session" or "New Chat" names appear to be specific to the desktop UI. Consider simplifying to "keeps the default name" without specifying what that default is, since it varies by interface.

Suggested change

| `GOOSE_DISABLE_SESSION_NAMING` | Disables automatic AI-generated session naming (avoids the background model call and keeps the "CLI Session" or "New Chat" default) | "1", "true" (case-insensitive) to enable | false |

| `GOOSE_DISABLE_SESSION_NAMING` | Disables automatic AI-generated session naming (avoids the background model call and keeps the default session name) | "1", "true" (case-insensitive) to enable | false |

Added this detail for predictability, esp. for automation. Will let reviewer weigh in.

dianed-square · 2026-02-13T00:38:59Z

documentation/docs/tutorials/headless-goose.md

+export GOOSE_CONTEXT_STRATEGY=summarize
+export GOOSE_MAX_TURNS=50
+export GOOSE_MODE=auto
+export GOOSE_DISABLE_SESSION_NAMING=true


Added:

Line 123: export GOOSE_DISABLE_SESSION_NAMING=true

Line 126: GOOSE_DISABLE_SESSION_NAMING avoids the extra background model call used to generate a session name and keeps the default "CLI Session" name.

…ions-fallback * 'main' of github.com:block/goose: docs: stream subagent tool calls (#7280) Docs: delete custom provider in desktop (#7279) Everything is streaming (#7247) openai: responses models and hardens event streaming handling (#6831) docs: disable ai session naming (#7194)

* origin/main: (49 commits) chore: show important keys for provider configuration (#7265) fix: subrecipe relative path with summon (#7295) fix extension selector not displaying the correct enabled extensions (#7290) Use the working dir from the session (#7285) Fix: Minor logging uplift for debugging of prompt injection mitigation (#7195) feat(otel): make otel logging level configurable (#7271) docs: add documentation for Top Of Mind extension (#7283) Document gemini 3 thinking levels (#7282) docs: stream subagent tool calls (#7280) Docs: delete custom provider in desktop (#7279) Everything is streaming (#7247) openai: responses models and hardens event streaming handling (#6831) docs: disable ai session naming (#7194) Added cmd to validate bundled extensions json (#7217) working_dir usage more clear in add_extension (#6958) Use Canonical Models to set context window sizes (#6723) Set up direnv and update flake inputs (#6526) fix: restore subagent tool call notifications after summon refactor (#7243) fix(ui): preserve server config values on partial provider config save (#7248) fix(claude-code): allow goose to run inside a Claude Code session (#7232) ...

disable ai session naming

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dianed-square requested a review from a team as a code owner February 13, 2026 00:34

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Copilot started reviewing on behalf of dianed-square February 13, 2026 00:34 View session

dianed-square commented Feb 13, 2026

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dianed-square commented Feb 13, 2026

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sync cli tab with current behavior

1b86666

blackgirlbytes approved these changes Feb 17, 2026

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dianed-square added this pull request to the merge queue Feb 17, 2026

Merged via the queue into main with commit 295377c Feb 17, 2026
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dianed-square deleted the docs/disable-ai-session-naming branch February 17, 2026 18:04

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docs: disable ai session naming#7194

docs: disable ai session naming#7194
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	The `CONTEXT_STRATEGY` and `MAX_TURNS` settings help manage conversation limits, while `GOOSE_MODE` set to `auto` allows for non-interactive execution. `GOOSE_DISABLE_SESSION_NAMING` avoids the extra background model call used to generate a session name and keeps the default "CLI Session" name.
	The `CONTEXT_STRATEGY` and `MAX_TURNS` settings help manage conversation limits, while `GOOSE_MODE` set to `auto` allows for non-interactive execution. `GOOSE_DISABLE_SESSION_NAMING` avoids the extra background model call used to generate a session name and keeps the default session name for your environment.

	\| `GOOSE_DISABLE_SESSION_NAMING` \| Disables automatic AI-generated session naming (avoids the background model call and keeps the "CLI Session" or "New Chat" default) \| "1", "true" (case-insensitive) to enable \| false \|
	\| `GOOSE_DISABLE_SESSION_NAMING` \| Disables automatic AI-generated session naming (avoids the background model call and keeps the default session name) \| "1", "true" (case-insensitive) to enable \| false \|

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