fix(ui): session dropdown shows label instead of key (#45130)

Merged via squash.

Prepared head SHA: 0255e3971b
Co-authored-by: luzhidong <15848762+luzhidong@users.noreply.github.com>
Co-authored-by: altaywtf <9790196+altaywtf@users.noreply.github.com>
Reviewed-by: @altaywtf

CHANGELOG.md

@@ -12,6 +12,7 @@ Docs: https://docs.openclaw.ai
 ### Fixes
 
 - Z.AI/onboarding: detect a working default model even for explicit `zai-coding-*` endpoint choices, so Coding Plan setup can keep the selected endpoint while defaulting to `glm-5` when available or `glm-4.7` as fallback. (#45969)
+- Control UI/chat sessions: show human-readable labels in the grouped session dropdown again, keep unique scoped fallbacks when metadata is missing, and disambiguate duplicate labels only when needed. (#45130) thanks @luzhidong.
 
 ## 2026.3.13
 

ui/src/ui/app-render.helpers.ts

@@ -575,6 +575,7 @@ export function isCronSessionKey(key: string): boolean {
 type SessionOptionEntry = {
   key: string;
   label: string;
+  scopeLabel: string;
   title: string;
 };
 
@@ -625,10 +626,12 @@ export function resolveSessionOptionGroups(
           resolveAgentGroupLabel(state, parsed.agentId),
         )
       : ensureGroup("other", "Other Sessions");
+    const scopeLabel = parsed?.rest?.trim() || key;
     const label = resolveSessionScopedOptionLabel(key, row, parsed?.rest);
     group.options.push({
       key,
       label,
+      scopeLabel,
       title: key,
     });
   };
@@ -643,6 +646,19 @@ export function resolveSessionOptionGroups(
     addOption(row.key);
   }
   addOption(sessionKey);
+
+  for (const group of groups.values()) {
+    const counts = new Map<string, number>();
+    for (const option of group.options) {
+      counts.set(option.label, (counts.get(option.label) ?? 0) + 1);
+    }
+    for (const option of group.options) {
+      if ((counts.get(option.label) ?? 0) > 1 && option.scopeLabel !== option.label) {
+        option.label = `${option.label} · ${option.scopeLabel}`;
+      }
+    }
+  }
+
   return Array.from(groups.values());
 }
 
@@ -673,18 +689,14 @@ function resolveSessionScopedOptionLabel(
   if (!row) {
     return base;
   }
-  const displayName =
-    typeof row.displayName === "string" && row.displayName.trim().length > 0
-      ? row.displayName.trim()
-      : null;
-  const label = typeof row.label === "string" ? row.label.trim() : "";
-  const showDisplayName = Boolean(
-    displayName && displayName !== key && displayName !== label && displayName !== base,
-  );
-  if (!showDisplayName) {
-    return base;
+
+  const label = row.label?.trim() || "";
+  const displayName = row.displayName?.trim() || "";
+  if ((label && label !== key) || (displayName && displayName !== key)) {
+    return resolveSessionDisplayName(key, row);
   }
-  return `${base} · ${displayName}`;
+
+  return base;
 }
 
 type ThemeOption = { id: ThemeName; label: string; icon: string };

ui/src/ui/views/chat.test.ts

@@ -647,4 +647,124 @@ describe("chat view", () => {
     expect(rerendered?.value).toBe("gpt-5-mini");
     vi.unstubAllGlobals();
   });
+
+  it("prefers the session label over displayName in the grouped chat session selector", () => {
+    const { state } = createChatHeaderState({ omitSessionFromList: true });
+    state.sessionKey = "agent:main:subagent:4f2146de-887b-4176-9abe-91140082959b";
+    state.settings.sessionKey = state.sessionKey;
+    state.sessionsResult = {
+      ts: 0,
+      path: "",
+      count: 1,
+      defaults: { model: "gpt-5", contextTokens: null },
+      sessions: [
+        {
+          key: state.sessionKey,
+          kind: "direct",
+          updatedAt: null,
+          label: "cron-config-check",
+          displayName: "webchat:g-agent-main-subagent-4f2146de-887b-4176-9abe-91140082959b",
+        },
+      ],
+    };
+    const container = document.createElement("div");
+    render(renderChatSessionSelect(state), container);
+
+    const [sessionSelect] = Array.from(container.querySelectorAll<HTMLSelectElement>("select"));
+    const labels = Array.from(sessionSelect?.querySelectorAll("option") ?? []).map((option) =>
+      option.textContent?.trim(),
+    );
+
+    expect(labels).toContain("Subagent: cron-config-check");
+    expect(labels).not.toContain(state.sessionKey);
+    expect(labels).not.toContain(
+      "subagent:4f2146de-887b-4176-9abe-91140082959b · webchat:g-agent-main-subagent-4f2146de-887b-4176-9abe-91140082959b",
+    );
+  });
+
+  it("keeps a unique scoped fallback when the current grouped session is missing from sessions.list", () => {
+    const { state } = createChatHeaderState({ omitSessionFromList: true });
+    state.sessionKey = "agent:main:subagent:4f2146de-887b-4176-9abe-91140082959b";
+    state.settings.sessionKey = state.sessionKey;
+    const container = document.createElement("div");
+    render(renderChatSessionSelect(state), container);
+
+    const [sessionSelect] = Array.from(container.querySelectorAll<HTMLSelectElement>("select"));
+    const labels = Array.from(sessionSelect?.querySelectorAll("option") ?? []).map((option) =>
+      option.textContent?.trim(),
+    );
+
+    expect(labels).toContain("subagent:4f2146de-887b-4176-9abe-91140082959b");
+    expect(labels).not.toContain("Subagent:");
+  });
+
+  it("keeps a unique scoped fallback when a grouped session row has no label or displayName", () => {
+    const { state } = createChatHeaderState({ omitSessionFromList: true });
+    state.sessionKey = "agent:main:subagent:4f2146de-887b-4176-9abe-91140082959b";
+    state.settings.sessionKey = state.sessionKey;
+    state.sessionsResult = {
+      ts: 0,
+      path: "",
+      count: 1,
+      defaults: { model: "gpt-5", contextTokens: null },
+      sessions: [
+        {
+          key: state.sessionKey,
+          kind: "direct",
+          updatedAt: null,
+        },
+      ],
+    };
+    const container = document.createElement("div");
+    render(renderChatSessionSelect(state), container);
+
+    const [sessionSelect] = Array.from(container.querySelectorAll<HTMLSelectElement>("select"));
+    const labels = Array.from(sessionSelect?.querySelectorAll("option") ?? []).map((option) =>
+      option.textContent?.trim(),
+    );
+
+    expect(labels).toContain("subagent:4f2146de-887b-4176-9abe-91140082959b");
+    expect(labels).not.toContain("Subagent:");
+  });
+
+  it("disambiguates duplicate grouped labels with the scoped key suffix", () => {
+    const { state } = createChatHeaderState({ omitSessionFromList: true });
+    state.sessionKey = "agent:main:subagent:4f2146de-887b-4176-9abe-91140082959b";
+    state.settings.sessionKey = state.sessionKey;
+    state.sessionsResult = {
+      ts: 0,
+      path: "",
+      count: 2,
+      defaults: { model: "gpt-5", contextTokens: null },
+      sessions: [
+        {
+          key: "agent:main:subagent:4f2146de-887b-4176-9abe-91140082959b",
+          kind: "direct",
+          updatedAt: null,
+          label: "cron-config-check",
+        },
+        {
+          key: "agent:main:subagent:6fb8b84b-c31f-410f-b7df-1553c82e43c9",
+          kind: "direct",
+          updatedAt: null,
+          label: "cron-config-check",
+        },
+      ],
+    };
+    const container = document.createElement("div");
+    render(renderChatSessionSelect(state), container);
+
+    const [sessionSelect] = Array.from(container.querySelectorAll<HTMLSelectElement>("select"));
+    const labels = Array.from(sessionSelect?.querySelectorAll("option") ?? []).map((option) =>
+      option.textContent?.trim(),
+    );
+
+    expect(labels).toContain(
+      "Subagent: cron-config-check · subagent:4f2146de-887b-4176-9abe-91140082959b",
+    );
+    expect(labels).toContain(
+      "Subagent: cron-config-check · subagent:6fb8b84b-c31f-410f-b7df-1553c82e43c9",
+    );
+    expect(labels).not.toContain("Subagent: cron-config-check");
+  });
 });