From 6cfeadd4f0af78fa42a604d5d4da753ecd3c9c87 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: anais <anais@openai.com>
Date: Sun, 21 Jun 2026 11:46:59 -0700
Subject: [PATCH] preserve explicit and legacy thread names

---
 .../external_agent_session_import.rs            |  4 ++--
 codex-rs/thread-store/src/local/helpers.rs      | 17 +++++++++++++++--
 2 files changed, 17 insertions(+), 4 deletions(-)

diff --git a/codex-rs/app-server/src/request_processors/external_agent_session_import.rs b/codex-rs/app-server/src/request_processors/external_agent_session_import.rs
index d4abb155ec..dbffcd44e0 100644
--- a/codex-rs/app-server/src/request_processors/external_agent_session_import.rs
+++ b/codex-rs/app-server/src/request_processors/external_agent_session_import.rs
@@ -221,11 +221,11 @@ impl ExternalAgentSessionImporter {
             },
         };
         rollout_items.retain(is_persisted_rollout_item);
-        let title = title
+        let name = title
             .as_deref()
             .and_then(codex_core::util::normalize_thread_name);
         let metadata = ThreadMetadataPatch {
-            title,
+            name: name.map(Some),
             preview: first_user_message.clone(),
             model_provider: Some(model_provider),
             created_at: Some(now),
diff --git a/codex-rs/thread-store/src/local/helpers.rs b/codex-rs/thread-store/src/local/helpers.rs
index 971eee8d03..870bdb3250 100644
--- a/codex-rs/thread-store/src/local/helpers.rs
+++ b/codex-rs/thread-store/src/local/helpers.rs
@@ -177,12 +177,25 @@ pub(super) fn permission_profile_to_metadata_value(
 }
 
 pub(super) fn thread_metadata_name(metadata: &ThreadMetadata) -> Option<String> {
-    metadata
+    let explicit_name = metadata
         .name
         .as_deref()
         .map(str::trim)
         .filter(|name| !name.is_empty())
-        .map(str::to_string)
+        .map(str::to_string);
+    if explicit_name.is_some() {
+        return explicit_name;
+    }
+
+    // Preserve display names from rows written before explicit names had their own column.
+    let legacy_title = metadata.title.trim();
+    if legacy_title.is_empty()
+        || metadata.first_user_message.as_deref().map(str::trim) == Some(legacy_title)
+    {
+        None
+    } else {
+        Some(legacy_title.to_string())
+    }
 }
 
 pub(super) fn set_thread_name_from_title(thread: &mut StoredThread, title: String) {