Plan mode makes active /goal look stuck because continuation is suppressed silently #20656

What version of Codex CLI is running?

Current openai/codex CLI/TUI behavior observed from a user reproduction plus code inspection on main.

What platform is your computer?

macOS / Darwin, Codex CLI TUI.

What issue are you seeing?

When Goals and collaboration modes are enabled, setting or viewing an active /goal while the TUI is in Plan mode makes the goal look active, but no autonomous goal continuation starts. From the user's perspective it appears to just sit there.

The confusing part is that the UI reports the goal as active and only shows goal-management commands, while the footer still says Plan mode:

Goal
Status: active
Objective: ...
Time used: 0s
Tokens used: 0

Commands: /goal pause, /goal clear

• Goal active Objective: ... Time: 11m.
...
Plan mode (shift+tab to cycle)

What steps can reproduce the bug?

1. Enable experimental Goals and collaboration modes, e.g. [features] goals = true and collaboration_modes = true or the equivalent experimental UI toggles.
2. Start Codex CLI TUI.
3. Switch to Plan mode, for example with /plan or Shift+Tab.
4. Run /goal <objective> or run bare /goal with an existing active goal.
5. Observe that the TUI says the goal is active, but no goal continuation starts while Plan mode remains active.

What is the expected behavior?

The UI should not leave users with an apparently active-but-idle goal state. At minimum, the /goal confirmation and bare /goal summary should explain that active goals do not auto-continue in Plan mode and that the user needs to switch out of Plan mode. A stronger alternative would be to prevent/rescope active goal creation/resume while Plan mode is active, or prompt to switch modes.

What is the actual behavior?

The TUI confirms Goal active and shows only /goal pause / /goal clear style hints. It does not mention that Plan mode suppresses goal continuation, so the active goal looks stuck.

Code evidence

The core behavior appears intentional: codex-rs/core/src/goals.rs has should_ignore_goal_for_mode(mode) -> mode == ModeKind::Plan, and the goal continuation candidate path logs skipping active goal continuation while plan mode is active.

The TUI surfaces do not explain that policy:

• codex-rs/tui/src/app/thread_goal_actions.rs reports Goal {status} with goal_usage_summary(...) after setting/resuming a goal.
• codex-rs/tui/src/chatwidget/goal_menu.rs renders the bare /goal summary and active-goal commands without a Plan-mode caveat.
• codex-rs/tui/src/chatwidget.rs hides the goal footer indicator when a collaboration-mode indicator such as Plan mode is present, so the footer does not resolve the conflict either.

Related but not duplicates found during search:

• Setting a goal is not working with Failed to set thread goal: thread/goal/set failed in TUI #20598 is a /goal set failure (thread/goal/set failed) rather than this active-but-suppressed Plan mode state.
• Feature request: add plan_mode_model config override for Plan mode #19343 / Add plan_model Configuration for /plan Mode #13206 are Plan mode model/config requests.