What causes "Claude clear goal action is not supported" in slopus/happy?

Upgrade the CLI (and the bundled Claude SDK) to a version that supports goal clearing.

Claude clear goal action is not supported

Error message

Claude clear goal action is not supported

What it means

The server advertises per-action goal capabilities (capabilities.clear / capabilities.edit) in the goal status. If a 'clear' action is requested while capabilities.clear is false/absent, the handler rejects it as unsupported rather than attempting an action Claude cannot perform.

Source

Thrown at packages/happy-cli/src/claude/runClaude.ts:589

    session.rpcHandlerManager.registerHandler('goal-action', async (params: unknown) => {
        const actionParams = params && typeof params === 'object' && !Array.isArray(params)
            ? params as Record<string, unknown>
            : null;
        const command = actionParams ? parseClaudeGoalActionParams(actionParams) : null;
        if (!command) {
            throw new Error('Unsupported Claude goal action');
        }
        if (pendingClaudeGoalAction) {
            throw new Error('Claude goal action already in progress');
        }
        if (!latestClaudeGoalStatus || latestClaudeGoalStatus.status !== 'active') {
            throw new Error('No active Claude goal');
        }

        const capabilities = latestClaudeGoalStatus.capabilities ?? {};
        if (command.type === 'clear' && !capabilities.clear) {
            throw new Error('Claude clear goal action is not supported');
        }
        if (command.type === 'set' && !capabilities.edit) {
            throw new Error('Claude edit goal action is not supported');
        }
        if (currentRunMode !== 'remote') {
            throw new Error('Claude goal action is not ready: remote mode is not active');
        }
        if (!currentSession || currentSession.thinking) {
            throw new Error('Claude goal action is not ready while Claude is thinking');
        }
        if (messageQueue.size() > 0) {
            throw new Error('Claude message queue is busy');
        }

        const slashCommand = command.type === 'clear'
            ? '/goal clear'
            : `/goal ${command.objective}`;
        const mode = currentEnhancedMode();

View on GitHub (pinned to b824cd0a46)

Solutions

Upgrade the CLI (and the bundled Claude SDK) to a version that supports goal clearing.
Use a different mechanism to reset the goal (e.g. set a new goal instead of clearing).
Hide the clear action in the app when capabilities.clear is false.
Check latestClaudeGoalStatus.capabilities to confirm what the session supports before sending actions.

Example fix

// before
await rpc('goal-action', { action: 'clear' });
// after
if (goalStatus?.capabilities?.clear) await rpc('goal-action', { action: 'clear' });

Defensive patterns

Strategy: validation

Validate before calling

if (goalStatus?.status === 'active' && !goalStatus.capabilities?.clear) {
  console.warn('Clearing goals is not supported by this session');
  return;
}

Type guard

function supportsClear(s: { status: string; capabilities?: { clear?: boolean } } | null): boolean {
  return s?.status === 'active' && s.capabilities?.clear === true;
}

Try / catch

try {
  await rpc('goal-action', { action: 'clear' });
} catch (err) {
  if ((err as Error).message.includes('clear goal action is not supported')) {
    logger.warn('Session does not support goal clear — upgrade the CLI/Claude SDK or set a new goal instead');
  } else throw err;
}

Prevention

Gate clear buttons on capabilities.clear from goal status metadata.
Upgrade CLI + bundled Claude SDK when goal features are needed.
Check capabilities after every goal status update.
Fall back to setting a replacement goal when clear is unavailable.

When it happens

Trigger: A 'goal-action' with type 'clear' arrives while the active goal status's capabilities object lacks a truthy clear flag — i.e. the current Claude version/mode does not support clearing goals.

Common situations: Older Claude Code SDK versions lacking the clear-goal feature; a session mode where goal clearing is disabled; client/server version skew where the app shows a clear button the session can't honor.

Related errors

AI-assisted analysis of slopus/happy@b824cd0a46 (2026-08-31). Data as JSON: /api/errors/7566fb83ba859f62. Report an issue: GitHub.