openclaw - 💡(How to fix) Fix Emit sessions.changed for store-mutating in-chat commands (/name, /goal)

Summary

Store-mutating in-chat slash commands that change session metadata do not broadcast a sessions.changed event. As a result, already-open session lists (web session picker, TUI, SDK subscribers) stay stale until the next reload/refresh.

This was surfaced by the Codex review on #88581 (the new /name command, P2). It is not specific to /name — the peer command /goal behaves identically. Both write the session store directly through the auto-reply command pipeline, which has no gateway broadcast context.

Current behavior

• /name <topic> (and /goal …) update SessionEntry fields in the store and persist them correctly.
• Open clients only see the change after a reload, because no sessions.changed event is emitted for command-driven metadata changes.
• By contrast, the sessions.patch RPC (used by the web admin/session-picker inline rename) does emit sessions.changed via emitSessionsChanged.

Why it isn't a one-line fix

There is currently no single call site that has both the command reply result and the gateway broadcast context:

• The reply pipeline (getReplyFromConfig) runs deep in the auto-reply / infra layer. Its caller (src/infra/heartbeat-runner.ts, web wrapper src/library.ts) has no broadcastToConnIds / session-subscriber registry in scope.
• The broadcast context (broadcastToConnIds + session-event subscribers) lives in src/gateway/server-chat.ts closures (the lifecycle sessions.changed broadcasts around lines ~526 and ~1199), but those closures do not invoke the reply pipeline.
• emitSessionsChanged in src/gateway/server-methods/sessions.ts (~line 316) is module-private.

Proposed approach (for discussion)

Thread a "session metadata changed" signal from the command handler up to a place that has broadcast context, then emit sessions.changed for all store-mutating commands uniformly:

1. In the command handler, tag the resulting ReplyPayload with a metadata marker (e.g. a new optional field on ReplyPayloadMetadata, set via setReplyPayloadMetadata, carrying { sessionKey, reason: "command-metadata" }).
2. Bubble that marker up through getReplyFromConfig's return to a caller that holds gateway broadcast context.
3. At that site, read getReplyPayloadMetadata(reply) and call a (newly exported/shared) emitSessionsChanged-equivalent.

This is a cross-layer gateway change with non-trivial blast radius on core event semantics, so it deserves a dedicated design rather than being folded into the small /name command PR (#88581).

Acceptance criteria

• /name and /goal (and any future store-mutating chat command) emit sessions.changed so open web/TUI/SDK session lists update live, without reload.
• Event payload matches the existing sessions.patch shape (includes sessionKey + updated row incl. label).
• Tests assert the broadcast is emitted for command-driven metadata changes (model on src/gateway/server.sessions.list-changed.test.ts).
• Docs in docs/tools/slash-commands.md updated to state live refresh once implemented (currently documents refresh-on-reload).

References

• PR #88581 (/name command) — documents the current refresh-on-reload limitation.
• Codex P2 review finding on #88581 (commands-name.ts, no sessions.changed emit).
• src/gateway/server-methods/sessions.ts emitSessionsChanged; src/auto-reply/reply-payload.ts metadata helpers.

Note for maintainers/triagers: suggested labels — enhancement, gateway. (Opened by a non-triage contributor who cannot set labels.)