Summary
- Preserve `text_elements` through custom prompt argument parsing and
expansion (named and numeric placeholders).
- Translate text element ranges through Shlex parsing using sentinel
substitution, and rehydrate text + element ranges per arg.
- Drop image attachments when their placeholder does not survive prompt
expansion, keeping attachments consistent with rendered elements.
- Mirror changes in TUI2 and expand tests for prompt parsing/expansion
edge cases.
Tests
- placeholders with spaces as single tokens (positional + key=value,
quoted + unquoted),
- prompt expansion with image placeholders,
- large paste + image arg combinations,
- unused image arg dropped after expansion.
Using terminal with TERM=dumb specifically mean that TUIs and the like
don't work. Ensure that codex doesn't run in these environments and exit
with odd errors like crossterm's "Error: The cursor position could not
be read within a normal duration"
---------
Co-authored-by: Josh McKinney <joshka@openai.com>
Despite good spacing between queued messages and assistant message text:
<img width="462" height="322" alt="Screenshot 2026-01-12 at 4 54 50 PM"
src="https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/e8b46252-0b33-40d2-b431-cb73b9a3bd2e"
/>
Codex has confusing spacing between queued messages and shimmering
status text (making the queued message seem like a sub-item of the
shimmering status text)
<img width="615" height="217" alt="Screenshot 2026-01-12 at 4 54 18 PM"
src="https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/ee5e6095-8fe9-4863-88d2-10472cab8bd6"
/>
This PR changes the spacing between the queued message(s) and shimmering
status text to make it less confusing:
<img width="440" height="240" alt="Screenshot 2026-01-13 at 11 20 36 AM"
src="https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/02dcc690-cbe9-4943-87de-c7300ef51120"
/>
While working on the status/queued spacing change, we noticed two
paste‑burst tests were timing‑sensitive and could fail
on slower CI. We added a small test‑only helper to keep the paste‑burst
state active and refreshed during these tests. This
removes dependence on tight timing and makes the tests deterministic
without affecting runtime behavior.
## Summary
- Make `TextElement` placeholders private and add a text-backed accessor
to avoid assuming `Some`.
- Since they are optional in the protocol, we want to make sure any
accessors properly handle the None case (getting the placeholder using
the byte range in the text)
- Preserve placeholders during protocol/app-server conversions using the
accessor fallback.
- Update TUI composer/remap logic and tests to use the new
constructor/accessor.
This PR fixes a small issue with chained (layered) config.toml file
merging. The old logic didn't properly handle profiles.
In particular, if a lower-layer config overrides a profile defined in a
higher-layer config, the override did not take effect. This prevents
users from having project-specific profile overrides and contradicts the
(soon-to-be) documented behavior of config merging.
The change adds a unit test for this case. It also exposes a function
from the config crate that is needed by the app server code paths to
implement support for layered configs.
- Only use collaboration modes in the tui state to track model and
effort.
- No behavior change without the collaboration modes flag.
- Change model and effort on /model, /collab (behind a flag), and
shift+tab (behind flag)
Continuation of breaking up this PR
https://github.com/openai/codex/pull/9116
## Summary
- Thread user text element ranges through TUI/TUI2 input, submission,
queueing, and history so placeholders survive resume/edit flows.
- Preserve local image attachments alongside text elements and rehydrate
placeholders when restoring drafts.
- Keep model-facing content shapes clean by attaching UI metadata only
to user input/events (no API content changes).
## Key Changes
- TUI/TUI2 composer now captures text element ranges, trims them with
text edits, and restores them when submission is suppressed.
- User history cells render styled spans for text elements and keep
local image paths for future rehydration.
- Initial chat widget bootstraps accept empty `initial_text_elements` to
keep initialization uniform.
- Protocol/core helpers updated to tolerate the new InputText field
shape without changing payloads sent to the API.
- `tui/` and `tui2/` submit `Op::UserTurn` and own full turn context
(cwd/approval/sandbox/model/etc.).
- `Op::UserInput` is documented as legacy in `codex-protocol` (doc-only;
no `#[deprecated]` to avoid `-D warnings` fallout).
- Remove obsolete `#[allow(deprecated)]` and the unused `ConversationId`
alias/re-export.
Fixes#9450
## What
- When a task is running and the skills autocomplete popup is open,
`Esc` now dismisses the popup instead of sending `Op::Interrupt`.
- `Esc` still interrupts a running task when no popup is active.
## Tests
- `cargo test -p codex-tui`
---------
Co-authored-by: prateek <199982+prateek@users.noreply.github.com>
Fixes#9058
## Summary
When the transcript backtrack preview is armed (press `Esc`), allow
navigating to newer user messages with the `→` arrow, in addition to
navigating backwards with `Esc`/`←`, before confirming with `Enter`.
## Changes
- Backtrack preview navigation: `Esc`/`←` steps to older user messages,
`→` steps to newer ones, `Enter` edits the selected message (clamped at
bounds, no wrap-around).
- Transcript overlay footer hints updated to advertise `esc/←`, `→`, and
`enter` when a message is highlighted.
## Related
- WSL shortcut-overlay snapshot determinism: #9359
## Testing
- `just fmt`
- `just fix -p codex-tui`
- `just fix -p codex-tui2`
- `cargo test -p codex-tui app_backtrack::`
- `cargo test -p codex-tui pager_overlay::`
- `cargo test -p codex-tui2 app_backtrack::`
- `cargo test -p codex-tui2 pager_overlay::`
---------
Co-authored-by: Josh McKinney <joshka@openai.com>
### Description
- Remove the now-unused `instructions` field from the session metadata
to simplify SessionMeta and stop propagating transient instruction text
through the rollout recorder API. This was only saving
user_instructions, and was never being read.
- Stop passing user instructions into the rollout writer at session
creation so the rollout header only contains canonical session metadata.
### Testing
- Ran `just fmt` which completed successfully.
- Ran `just fix -p codex-protocol`, `just fix -p codex-core`, `just fix
-p codex-app-server`, `just fix -p codex-tui`, and `just fix -p
codex-tui2` which completed (Clippy fixes applied) as part of
verification.
- Ran `cargo test -p codex-protocol` which passed (28 tests).
- Ran `cargo test -p codex-core` which showed failures in a small set of
tests (not caused by the protocol type change directly):
`default_client::tests::test_create_client_sets_default_headers`,
several `models_manager::manager::tests::refresh_available_models_*`,
and `shell_snapshot::tests::linux_sh_snapshot_includes_sections` (these
tests failed in this CI run).
- Ran `cargo test -p codex-app-server` which reported several failing
integration tests (including
`suite::codex_message_processor_flow::test_codex_jsonrpc_conversation_flow`,
`suite::output_schema::send_user_turn_*`, and
`suite::user_agent::get_user_agent_returns_current_codex_user_agent`).
- `cargo test -p codex-tui` and `cargo test -p codex-tui2` were
attempted but aborted due to disk space exhaustion (`No space left on
device`).
------
[Codex
Task](https://chatgpt.com/codex/tasks/task_i_696bd8ce632483228d298cf07c7eb41c)
Document the backtrack/rollback state machine and invariants between the
transcript overlay, in-flight “live tail”, and core thread state (tui + tui2).
Also adjust behavior for correctness:
- Track a single pending rollback and block additional rollbacks until core responds.
- Defer trimming transcript cells until ThreadRolledBack for the active session.
- Clear the guard on ThreadRollbackFailed so the user can retry.
- After a confirmed trim, schedule a one-shot scrollback refresh on the next draw.
- Clear stale pending rollback state when switching sessions.
---------
Co-authored-by: Josh McKinney <joshka@openai.com>
Summary:
- Add forked_from to SessionMeta/SessionConfiguredEvent and persist it
for forked sessions.
- Surface forked_from in /status for tui + tui2 and add snapshots.
Add support for returning threads by either `created_at` OR `updated_at`
descending. Previously core always returned threads ordered by
`created_at`.
This PR:
- updates core to be able to list threads by `updated_at` OR
`created_at` descending based on what the caller wants
- also update `thread/list` in app-server to expose this (default to
`created_at` if not specified)
All existing codepaths (app-server, TUI) still default to `created_at`,
so no behavior change is expected with this PR.
**Implementation**
To sort by `updated_at` is a bit nontrivial (whereas `created_at` is
easy due to the way we structure the folders and filenames on disk,
which are all based on `created_at`).
The most naive way to do this without introducing a cache file or sqlite
DB (which we have to implement/maintain) is to scan files in reverse
`created_at` order on disk, and look at the file's mtime (last modified
timestamp according to the filesystem) until we reach `MAX_SCAN_FILES`
(currently set to 10,000). Then, we can return the most recent N
threads.
Based on some quick and dirty benchmarking on my machine with ~1000
rollout files, calling `thread/list` with limit 50, the `updated_at`
path is slower as expected due to all the I/O:
- updated-at: average 103.10 ms
- created-at: average 41.10 ms
Those absolute numbers aren't a big deal IMO, but we can certainly
optimize this in a followup if needed by introducing more state stored
on disk.
**Caveat**
There's also a limitation in that any files older than `MAX_SCAN_FILES`
will be excluded, which means if a user continues a REALLY old thread,
it's possible to not be included. In practice that should not be too big
of an issue.
If a user makes...
- 1000 rollouts/day → threads older than 10 days won't show up
- 100 rollouts/day → ~100 days
If this becomes a problem for some reason, even more motivation to
implement an updated_at cache.
Implemented /fork to fork the current session directly (no picker),
handling it via a new ForkCurrentSession app event in both tui and tui2.
Updated slash command descriptions/tooltips and adjusted the fork tests
accordingly. Removed the unused in-session fork picker event.
A thread can now be spawned by another thread. In order to process the
approval requests of such sub-threads, we need to detect those event and
show them in the TUI.
This is a temporary solution while the UX is being figured out. This PR
should be reverted once done
Fixes#7919.
This PR addresses a TUI display bug where the "Worked for" separator
would appear prematurely during the planning stage.
**Changes:**
- Added `had_work_activity` flag to `ChatWidget` to track if actual work
(exec commands, MCP tool calls, patches) was performed in the current
turn.
- Updated `handle_streaming_delta` to only display the
`FinalMessageSeparator` if both `needs_final_message_separator` AND
`had_work_activity` are true.
- Updated `handle_exec_end_now`, `handle_patch_apply_end_now`, and
`handle_mcp_end_now` to set `had_work_activity = true`.
**Verification:**
- Ran `cargo test -p codex-tui` to ensure no regressions.
- Manual verification confirms the separator now only appears after
actual work is completed.
---------
Co-authored-by: Josh McKinney <joshka@openai.com>
We’re introducing a new SKILL.toml to hold skill metadata so Codex can
deliver a richer Skills experience.
Initial focus is the interface block:
```
[interface]
display_name = "Optional user-facing name"
short_description = "Optional user-facing description"
icon_small = "./assets/small-400px.png"
icon_large = "./assets/large-logo.svg"
brand_color = "#3B82F6"
default_prompt = "Optional surrounding prompt to use the skill with"
```
All fields are exposed via the app server API.
display_name and short_description are consumed by the TUI.
A recent change in commit ccba737d26 modified the styling of the
placeholder text (e.g. "Implement {feature}") in the input box of the
CLI, changing it from non-italic to italic. I think this was likely
unintentional. It results in a bad display appearance on some terminal
emulators, and several users have complained about it.
This change switches back to non-italic styling, restoring the older
behavior.
It addresses #9262
This PR changes `codex resume --last` to work consistently with `codex
resume`. Namely, it filters based on the cwd when selecting the last
session. It also supports the `--all` modifier as an override.
This addresses #8700
### What
Add `WebSearchMode` enum (disabled, cached live, defaults to cached) to
config + V2 protocol. This enum takes precedence over legacy flags:
`web_search_cached`, `web_search_request`, and `tools.web_search`.
Keep `--search` as live.
### Tests
Added tests
Disables the default Ctrl+C/Ctrl+D double-press quit UX (keeps the code
path behind a const) while we rethink the quit/interrupt flow.
Tests:
- just fmt
- cargo clippy --fix --all-features --tests --allow-dirty --allow-no-vcs
-p codex-tui
- cargo test -p codex-tui --lib
- Remove legacy Ctrl+K queuing in tui2; Tab is the queue key.
- Make Enter queue when Steer is disabled and submit immediately when
Steer is enabled.
- Add Steer keybinding docs on both tui and tui2 chat composers.
- Don't try to precompute model unless you know it from `config`
- Block `/model` on session configured
- Queue messages until session configured
- show "loading" in status until session configured
Emit the following events around the collab tools. On the `app-server`
this will be under `item/started` and `item/completed`
```
#[derive(Debug, Clone, Deserialize, Serialize, PartialEq, JsonSchema, TS)]
pub struct CollabAgentSpawnBeginEvent {
/// Identifier for the collab tool call.
pub call_id: String,
/// Thread ID of the sender.
pub sender_thread_id: ThreadId,
/// Initial prompt sent to the agent. Can be empty to prevent CoT leaking at the
/// beginning.
pub prompt: String,
}
#[derive(Debug, Clone, Deserialize, Serialize, PartialEq, JsonSchema, TS)]
pub struct CollabAgentSpawnEndEvent {
/// Identifier for the collab tool call.
pub call_id: String,
/// Thread ID of the sender.
pub sender_thread_id: ThreadId,
/// Thread ID of the newly spawned agent, if it was created.
pub new_thread_id: Option<ThreadId>,
/// Initial prompt sent to the agent. Can be empty to prevent CoT leaking at the
/// beginning.
pub prompt: String,
/// Last known status of the new agent reported to the sender agent.
pub status: AgentStatus,
}
#[derive(Debug, Clone, Deserialize, Serialize, PartialEq, JsonSchema, TS)]
pub struct CollabAgentInteractionBeginEvent {
/// Identifier for the collab tool call.
pub call_id: String,
/// Thread ID of the sender.
pub sender_thread_id: ThreadId,
/// Thread ID of the receiver.
pub receiver_thread_id: ThreadId,
/// Prompt sent from the sender to the receiver. Can be empty to prevent CoT
/// leaking at the beginning.
pub prompt: String,
}
#[derive(Debug, Clone, Deserialize, Serialize, PartialEq, JsonSchema, TS)]
pub struct CollabAgentInteractionEndEvent {
/// Identifier for the collab tool call.
pub call_id: String,
/// Thread ID of the sender.
pub sender_thread_id: ThreadId,
/// Thread ID of the receiver.
pub receiver_thread_id: ThreadId,
/// Prompt sent from the sender to the receiver. Can be empty to prevent CoT
/// leaking at the beginning.
pub prompt: String,
/// Last known status of the receiver agent reported to the sender agent.
pub status: AgentStatus,
}
#[derive(Debug, Clone, Deserialize, Serialize, PartialEq, JsonSchema, TS)]
pub struct CollabWaitingBeginEvent {
/// Thread ID of the sender.
pub sender_thread_id: ThreadId,
/// Thread ID of the receiver.
pub receiver_thread_id: ThreadId,
/// ID of the waiting call.
pub call_id: String,
}
#[derive(Debug, Clone, Deserialize, Serialize, PartialEq, JsonSchema, TS)]
pub struct CollabWaitingEndEvent {
/// Thread ID of the sender.
pub sender_thread_id: ThreadId,
/// Thread ID of the receiver.
pub receiver_thread_id: ThreadId,
/// ID of the waiting call.
pub call_id: String,
/// Last known status of the receiver agent reported to the sender agent.
pub status: AgentStatus,
}
#[derive(Debug, Clone, Deserialize, Serialize, PartialEq, JsonSchema, TS)]
pub struct CollabCloseBeginEvent {
/// Identifier for the collab tool call.
pub call_id: String,
/// Thread ID of the sender.
pub sender_thread_id: ThreadId,
/// Thread ID of the receiver.
pub receiver_thread_id: ThreadId,
}
#[derive(Debug, Clone, Deserialize, Serialize, PartialEq, JsonSchema, TS)]
pub struct CollabCloseEndEvent {
/// Identifier for the collab tool call.
pub call_id: String,
/// Thread ID of the sender.
pub sender_thread_id: ThreadId,
/// Thread ID of the receiver.
pub receiver_thread_id: ThreadId,
/// Last known status of the receiver agent reported to the sender agent before
/// the close.
pub status: AgentStatus,
}
```
## Problem
Codex’s TUI quit behavior has historically been easy to trigger
accidentally and hard to reason
about.
- `Ctrl+C`/`Ctrl+D` could terminate the UI immediately, which is a
common key to press while trying
to dismiss a modal, cancel a command, or recover from a stuck state.
- “Quit” and “shutdown” were not consistently separated, so some exit
paths could bypass the
shutdown/cleanup work that should run before the process terminates.
This PR makes quitting both safer (harder to do by accident) and more
uniform across quit
gestures, while keeping the shutdown-first semantics explicit.
## Mental model
After this change, the system treats quitting as a UI request that is
coordinated by the app
layer.
- The UI requests exit via `AppEvent::Exit(ExitMode)`.
- `ExitMode::ShutdownFirst` is the normal user path: the app triggers
`Op::Shutdown`, continues
rendering while shutdown runs, and only ends the UI loop once shutdown
has completed.
- `ExitMode::Immediate` exists as an escape hatch (and as the
post-shutdown “now actually exit”
signal); it bypasses cleanup and should not be the default for
user-triggered quits.
User-facing quit gestures are intentionally “two-step” for safety:
- `Ctrl+C` and `Ctrl+D` no longer exit immediately.
- The first press arms a 1-second window and shows a footer hint (“ctrl
+ <key> again to quit”).
- Pressing the same key again within the window requests a
shutdown-first quit; otherwise the
hint expires and the next press starts a fresh window.
Key routing remains modal-first:
- A modal/popup gets first chance to consume `Ctrl+C`.
- If a modal handles `Ctrl+C`, any armed quit shortcut is cleared so
dismissing a modal cannot
prime a subsequent `Ctrl+C` to quit.
- `Ctrl+D` only participates in quitting when the composer is empty and
no modal/popup is active.
The design doc `docs/exit-confirmation-prompt-design.md` captures the
intended routing and the
invariants the UI should maintain.
## Non-goals
- This does not attempt to redesign modal UX or make modals uniformly
dismissible via `Ctrl+C`.
It only ensures modals get priority and that quit arming does not leak
across modal handling.
- This does not introduce a persistent confirmation prompt/menu for
quitting; the goal is to keep
the exit gesture lightweight and consistent.
- This does not change the semantics of core shutdown itself; it changes
how the UI requests and
sequences it.
## Tradeoffs
- Quitting via `Ctrl+C`/`Ctrl+D` now requires a deliberate second
keypress, which adds friction for
users who relied on the old “instant quit” behavior.
- The UI now maintains a small time-bounded state machine for the armed
shortcut, which increases
complexity and introduces timing-dependent behavior.
This design was chosen over alternatives (a modal confirmation prompt or
a long-lived “are you
sure” state) because it provides an explicit safety barrier while
keeping the flow fast and
keyboard-native.
## Architecture
- `ChatWidget` owns the quit-shortcut state machine and decides when a
quit gesture is allowed
(idle vs cancellable work, composer state, etc.).
- `BottomPane` owns rendering and local input routing for modals/popups.
It is responsible for
consuming cancellation keys when a view is active and for
showing/expiring the footer hint.
- `App` owns shutdown sequencing: translating
`AppEvent::Exit(ShutdownFirst)` into `Op::Shutdown`
and only terminating the UI loop when exit is safe.
This keeps “what should happen” decisions (quit vs interrupt vs ignore)
in the chat/widget layer,
while keeping “how it looks and which view gets the key” in the
bottom-pane layer.
## Observability
You can tell this is working by running the TUIs and exercising the quit
gestures:
- While idle: pressing `Ctrl+C` (or `Ctrl+D` with an empty composer and
no modal) shows a footer
hint for ~1 second; pressing again within that window exits via
shutdown-first.
- While streaming/tools/review are active: `Ctrl+C` interrupts work
rather than quitting.
- With a modal/popup open: `Ctrl+C` dismisses/handles the modal (if it
chooses to) and does not
arm a quit shortcut; a subsequent quick `Ctrl+C` should not quit unless
the user re-arms it.
Failure modes are visible as:
- Quits that happen immediately (no hint window) from `Ctrl+C`/`Ctrl+D`.
- Quits that occur while a modal is open and consuming `Ctrl+C`.
- UI termination before shutdown completes (cleanup skipped).
## Tests
- Updated/added unit and snapshot coverage in `codex-tui` and
`codex-tui2` to validate:
- The quit hint appears and expires on the expected key.
- Double-press within the window triggers a shutdown-first quit request.
- Modal-first routing prevents quit bypass and clears any armed shortcut
when a modal consumes
`Ctrl+C`.
These tests focus on the UI-level invariants and rendered output; they
do not attempt to validate
real terminal key-repeat timing or end-to-end process shutdown behavior.
---
Screenshot:
<img width="912" height="740" alt="Screenshot 2026-01-13 at 1 05 28 PM"
src="https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/18f3d22e-2557-47f2-a369-ae7a9531f29f"
/>