Native goal is silently deleted from thread_goals on thread resume / after Voice Live ends

Bug description

A native goal that is created and correctly persisted gets silently deleted when the thread is resumed/rehydrated. After resuming a thread (or after a Voice Live session ends, which triggers the same rehydration path via transcript_tail_flush), get_goal returns null and update_goal(status="complete") fails with:

cannot update goal because this thread has no goal

The app-server emits thread/goal/cleared during the resume, and the row is physically removed from the thread_goals table in ~/.codex/goals_1.sqlite.

Reproduction steps (headless, no voice needed)

1. Create a thread and a goal:

   codex exec "Call create_goal with objective 'canary goal', then call get_goal and print the raw result."
   

   • get_goal returns status: "active".
   • Confirmed in goals_1.sqlite: a row for the new thread_id exists in thread_goals (status active).

2. Resume the same thread:

   codex exec resume <session-id> "Call get_goal and print the raw result."
   

3. While the resumed session is running (before any model turn even completes), the runtime emits:

   app-server event: thread/goal/cleared targeted_connections=0
   

   and the row for that thread_id is deleted from thread_goals. The six pre-existing rows for older threads were untouched.

4. get_goal on the resumed thread returns null.

Observed timeline (2026-08-16, local time)

• 10:51:34 — goal row present in thread_goals (snapshot of the sqlite db).
• 10:52 — codex exec resume started.
• 11:03:37 and 11:08:37 — two thread/goal/cleared events in the runtime logs during the resume.
• 11:14 — goal row gone from thread_goals (second snapshot).

Voice Live variant (original sighting)

When a Voice (realtime) conversation ends, the injected transcript_tail_flush message ("Realtime conversation ended...") is followed by the same goal clearing: goal active before the voice session, get_goal = null right after. This makes goal mode unusable across any voice session boundary.

Additional inconsistency

On the affected thread, create_goal is refused with:

cannot create a new goal because this thread has an unfinished goal; complete the existing goal first

while get_goal returns null — so the "unfinished goal" check used by create_goal reads different state than get_goal/update_goal.

Environment

• codex-cli 0.145.0 (darwin arm64)
• VS Code extension + CLI (codex exec)
• macOS

Expected behavior

Resuming a thread (or ending a Voice Live session) should preserve the thread's active goal, or at minimum surface why it was cleared. Silent deletion makes native goals unusable for any multi-session or voice-interleaved workflow.

Trace the resume/rehydration path and the transcript_tail_flush flow, then compare the state used by create_goal, get_goal, and update_goal with the thread_goals row in goals_1.sqlite. Reproduce the issue with codex exec and resume, observing thread/goal/cleared and the database row. Done means an active goal survives resume and Voice Live termination, with consistent behavior across the goal operations.