Replace compaction notifications with system notifications #5218

katzdave · 2025-10-16T21:28:33Z

Replace compaction notifications with more general system notifications. Deletes a bunch of compaction specific state in the client + the REST route for manual compaction.

The client sends a manual compact trigger message in the stream that the agent detects + processes. This makes the auto-compact + manual compact code nearly identical on the backend, with just some differences in the messaging + whether or not we resume the conversation.

The only downside with this approach is the compaction message shows up in the chat + message stream but I think we could avoid that in a follow up with some kind of way to inject additional metadata.

This also adds two types of SystemNotifications

Inline just triggers special rendering ('compaction complete') etc.
ThinkingMessage is also very lightweight; this must be at the end of the stream, and if it's detected there, the client will replace the thinking message with that. This does not actually change the thinking state of the client.

compaction_system_notify.mp4

* 'main' of github.com:block/goose: Break compaction back into check_ and do_ compaction (#5212) fix: revert built app name to uppercase Goose (#5206) feat: add Code Documentation Generator recipe (#5121) (#5125) Revert "feat: enhance goose to search sessions for easy recall (#5177)" (#5209)

* 'main' of github.com:block/goose: Rewrite extension management tools (#5057) fix: re-sync package-lock.json (#5235) docs: Hacktoberfest MCP youtube short entry to community-content.json (#5150) feat: add schedule button to recipe entries (#5217) Autocompact threshold UI cleanup (#5232) fix: correct schema for openai tools (#5229)

* 'main' of github.com:block/goose: docs: provide more clarity in tagging step of releases (#5269) docs: add GOOSE_DEBUG environment variable (#5265) Lifei/UI parameter input (#5222) turn off WAL (#5203) Skip subagents for gemini (#5257) Revert "Standardize Session Name Attribute" (#5250) improve provider request logging a bit (#5236) Fix OpenAI empty choices panic (#5248) Revert "Rewrite extension management tools" (#5243) Standardize Session Name Attribute (#5085) Docs: Include step-by-step model configuration instructions for first… (#5239) Delete message visibility filter (#5216) delete flaky pricing integration tests (#5207) chore: upgrade most npm packages to latest (#5185) Release/1.11.0 (#5224)

* 'main' of github.com:block/goose: Feat/smart task organizer recipe (#5032) docs: `goose recipe open` command (#5264)

katzdave · 2025-10-20T22:02:32Z

Hmm actually what I've found is using the REST for manual compaction seems to create a lot of friction; needed a way on the client to control the thinking state.

Having it send a stream message instead, which puts it in the agent loop so it can share a closer code path with auto-compact + out of context compact.

* 'main' of github.com:block/goose: fix: include Windows GNU CLI artifact in releases (#5276) Fix bedrock tool call error response (#5067) fix: do not load active extensions when no extensions in the recipe (#5282) Fix pagination - fetch all open issues, not just first 100 Fix label case sensitivity - use lowercase labels Add GitHub Health Dashboard workflow (#5286) live testing script (#5263) escaping markdown fixing syntax Add GitHub Health Dashboard workflow Fix extension manager resource deadlock (#5066) add new prompt for memory extension (#4945) feat: Stable system prompt and tool ordering for more cache hits (#5192) Remove gtag analytics error (#5268)

* 'main' of github.com:block/goose: roll back vite and electron package upgrades breaking canary win and linux (#5292) Revert "Revert "Rewrite extension management tools"" (#5273) improvement: propagate McpErrors directly into ToolCallResult (#5289)

alexhancock · 2025-10-21T18:44:27Z

UX question: does it work to type "Please compact this conversation" the same way it does if the message is auto-inserted by clicking the button?

If it could, I actually don't even think of that as an issue for the UX compared to now, and opens up a nice way to tell it to compact without taking hands off keyboard.

DOsinga · 2025-10-21T20:10:19Z

crates/goose/src/agents/agent.rs

-            session_metadata.as_ref(),
-        )
-        .await;
+        let is_manual_compact = unfixed_conversation.messages().last().is_some_and(|msg| {


this seems rather convoluted; I think it is because you want the manual compaction to use the same stream as we do for the agent reply? what was wrong with the old way?

The old way triggered from REST vs a stream. It just made it a lot more complicated to keep the client in the right 'thinking' state. It also sent the client's view of the messages and used that which would cause a bit of rendering jitter when we did history replaced.

Could maybe split these more, but I think it's generally fine, main differences here are messaging + whether or not we continue the stream.

DOsinga · 2025-10-21T20:10:50Z

crates/goose/src/agents/agent.rs

+                            yield AgentEvent::Message(
+                                Message::assistant().with_system_notification(
+                                    SystemNotificationType::InlineMessage,
+                                    "Context limit reached. Attempting to compact and continue conversation...",


remove attempt, or even do we need two messages here?

I think the system notification is still nice to render, because you'll see that. Removing attempt; it should confidently succeed!

DOsinga · 2025-10-21T20:12:21Z

crates/goose/src/context_mgmt/mod.rs

-    final_token_counts.push(compaction_marker_tokens);
-
    // Add the summary message (agent_visible=true, user_visible=false)
    let summary_msg = summary_message.with_metadata(MessageMetadata::agent_only());


do we still need this block below? I thought we had already deleted that

The assistant_message? The summary is a user message historically; I think we could make it an agent one and then we don't need this. Just don't want the conversation to end in a user message unless we're trying to continue.

DOsinga · 2025-10-21T20:14:46Z

crates/goose/src/conversation/message.rs

        assert!(metadata.agent_visible);
    }
+
+    #[test]


DOsinga · 2025-10-21T20:20:57Z

ui/desktop/src/utils/thinkingMessage.ts

@@ -0,0 +1,20 @@
+import { Message } from '../api';
+import { ChatState } from '../types/chatState';
+export function getThinkingMessage(messages: Message[], chatState: ChatState): string | undefined {


I think this should live in messages.ts. it should probably not take the chatState at all though, thinking is a property of the messages. in fact since when you call this you already check on message count and chat state, it could just be a property on a single message

DOsinga · 2025-10-21T21:00:38Z

ui/desktop/src/components/sessions/SessionHistoryView.tsx

              </Button>
            </div>
          ) : filteredMessages?.length > 0 ? (
-            <ContextManagerProvider>


hurray! I think this causes rerenders

DOsinga · 2025-10-21T21:01:25Z

ui/desktop/src/hooks/useMessageStream.ts


+                    const hasThinkingMessage = newMessage.content.some(
+                      (content) =>
+                        content.type === 'systemNotification' &&


I think this pattern appears in a bunch of places; as suggested below, let's just create a method in messages.ts

katzdave · 2025-10-22T17:50:06Z

UX question: does it work to type "Please compact this conversation" the same way it does if the message is auto-inserted by clicking the button?

If it could, I actually don't even think of that as an issue for the UX compared to now, and opens up a nice way to tell it to compact without taking hands off keyboard.

Yeah it does. I considered /compact to mirror the cli but that didn't look as nice.

I think a future feature that could be cool is running a fast model on user messages to determine specific intents such as compaction or recipe generation.

* 'main' of github.com:block/goose: Fix gemini again (#5308) fix: synchronize local message state after conversation compaction (#5315) docs: replace broken links with working links (#5266) Add Web Accessibility Auditor recipe to cookbook (#5318) To do mcp tutorial (#5317) workflows: add a manual trigger option to pr-smoke-test (#5302) documenting `goose recipe list` command (#5278)

Resolved merge conflicts in generated OpenAPI files by regenerating with just generate-openapi. 🤖 Generated with [Claude Code](https://claude.com/claude-code) Co-Authored-By: Claude <[email protected]>

* main: Replace compaction notifications with system notifications (#5218) Diagnostics (#5323) Fix gemini again (#5308) fix: synchronize local message state after conversation compaction (#5315) docs: replace broken links with working links (#5266)

…message # By Better-Boy (3) and others # Via GitHub * 'main' of github.com:block/goose: Create recipe dir on save (#5337) docs: Update Discord link (#5335) [recipe workflow]: Fix `Invalid revision range` error (#5334) Add tech-article-explainer recipe (#5333) doc: added beta banner for old blog post (#5332) feat: add code refactor recipe (#5320) Security audit recipe (#5319) feat: add generate commit message recipe (#5326) fix: remove dependency on gsap library (#5330) feat: dynamically load ollama models (#5309) fix: skip temperature for goose-gpt-5 model (#5311) Replace compaction notifications with system notifications (#5218) # Conflicts: # crates/goose/src/agents/agent.rs

* main: (77 commits) Fix legacy import (#5343) Unify loading goose messages and usechatstream determines chat state (#5306) Docs: goose session export and goose session import (#5267) Create recipe dir on save (#5337) docs: Update Discord link (#5335) [recipe workflow]: Fix `Invalid revision range` error (#5334) Add tech-article-explainer recipe (#5333) doc: added beta banner for old blog post (#5332) feat: add code refactor recipe (#5320) Security audit recipe (#5319) feat: add generate commit message recipe (#5326) fix: remove dependency on gsap library (#5330) feat: dynamically load ollama models (#5309) fix: skip temperature for goose-gpt-5 model (#5311) Replace compaction notifications with system notifications (#5218) Diagnostics (#5323) Fix gemini again (#5308) fix: synchronize local message state after conversation compaction (#5315) docs: replace broken links with working links (#5266) Add Web Accessibility Auditor recipe to cookbook (#5318) ...

Signed-off-by: Blair Allan <[email protected]>

katzdave added 27 commits October 16, 2025 13:36

first wave refactor

15224fb

rename conversation compacted content

a795429

fmt

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undo rename

af08051

rm some comments

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rm compactioncheckresult

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rm autocompactresult

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massive rename fun

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continue renames

97aa4ab

massive code delete

3689708

clean up reply

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force user only on system notifications

c2139de

update notificiaiton

b0e1dd3

client side compact msg

293a696

fix typecheck

85d446e

experimental big thinking msg change

a3c5278

simplify slightly

8acc16c

Merge branch 'main' of github.com:block/goose into dkatz/system-notify

46e8c14

* 'main' of github.com:block/goose: Feat/smart task organizer recipe (#5032) docs: `goose recipe open` command (#5264)

cli support

e1c9b62

msg string

44f1674

fmt

2f623d4

minor cleanup

ecb523a

rm a couple more comments

22db6f8

setMessage cleanup in progress

9151686

katzdave added 2 commits October 20, 2025 18:08

big change -> client streams compact message

4925dba

remove messy do_compaction abstraction

dfddf3e

katzdave added 5 commits October 21, 2025 11:21

minor deletes

ab83a4c

clippy and rename

80380bc

delete manual compact routes

b60a69f

katzdave requested review from DOsinga and alexhancock October 21, 2025 16:58

katzdave marked this pull request as ready for review October 21, 2025 16:58

katzdave added 2 commits October 21, 2025 13:50

openapi fix

cb1f51c

lowercase

b94efe5

DOsinga approved these changes Oct 21, 2025

View reviewed changes

katzdave added 4 commits October 21, 2025 23:05

fixes wave 1

a8ff2ec

review pt 2

0841d8c

Review pt 2

85aeda0

resolved merge conflicts

a3130ef

katzdave and others added 4 commits October 22, 2025 13:55

fix clippy diff

e7c106f

Merge main into dkatz/system-notify

d1b3f30

Resolved merge conflicts in generated OpenAPI files by regenerating with just generate-openapi. 🤖 Generated with [Claude Code](https://claude.com/claude-code) Co-Authored-By: Claude <[email protected]>

fmt

f32364f

katzdave merged commit 23412e2 into main Oct 22, 2025
13 checks passed

katzdave deleted the dkatz/system-notify branch October 22, 2025 20:09

BlairAllan pushed a commit to BlairAllan/goose that referenced this pull request Oct 25, 2025

Replace compaction notifications with system notifications (block#5218)

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Signed-off-by: Blair Allan <[email protected]>

github-actions bot mentioned this pull request Nov 5, 2025

chore(release): release version 1.13.0 (minor) #5582

Merged

BlairAllan pushed a commit to BlairAllan/goose that referenced this pull request Nov 29, 2025

Replace compaction notifications with system notifications (block#5218)

07d0aa7

Signed-off-by: Blair Allan <[email protected]>

Replace compaction notifications with system notifications #5218

Replace compaction notifications with system notifications #5218

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katzdave commented Oct 16, 2025 • edited Loading Uh oh! There was an error while loading. Please reload this page.

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katzdave commented Oct 20, 2025

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katzdave commented Oct 22, 2025

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katzdave commented Oct 16, 2025 •

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