We've recently standardized a [feature maturity
model](https://developers.openai.com/codex/feature-maturity) that we're
using in our docs and support forums to communicate expectations to
users. This PR updates the internal stage names and descriptions to
match.
This change involves a simple internal rename and updates to a few
user-visible strings. No functional change.
## Summary
Adds /personality selector in the TUI, which leverages the new core
interface in #9644
Notes:
- We are doing some of our own state management for model_info loading
here, but not sure if that's ideal. open to opinions on simpler
approach, but would like to avoid blocking on a larger refactor
- Right now, the `/personality` selector just hides when the model
doesn't support it. we can update this behavior down the line
## Testing
- [x] Tested locally
- [x] Added snapshot tests
Keep an unmasked base collaboration mode and apply the active mask on
demand. Simplify the TUI mask helpers and update tests/docs to match the
mask contract.
## Summary
- Replace the plan‑implementation prompt with a standard selection
popup.
- “Yes” submits a user turn in Execute via a dedicated app event to
preserve normal transcript behavior.
- “No” simply dismisses the popup.
<img width="977" height="433" alt="Screenshot 2026-01-22 at 2 00 54 PM"
src="https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/91fad06f-7b7a-4cd8-9051-f28a19b750b2"
/>
## Changes
- Add a plan‑implementation popup using `SelectionViewParams`.
- Add `SubmitUserMessageWithMode` so “Yes” routes through
`submit_user_message` (ensures user history + separator state).
- Track `saw_plan_update_this_turn` so the prompt appears even when only
`update_plan` is emitted.
- Suppress the plan popup on replayed turns, when messages are queued,
or when a rate‑limit prompt is pending.
- Add `execute_mode` helper for collaboration modes.
- Add tests for replay/queued/rate‑limit guards and plan update without
final message.
- Add snapshots for both the default and “No”‑selected popup states.
## Summary
Support updating Personality mid-Thread via UserTurn/OverwriteTurn. This
is explicitly unused by the clients so far, to simplify PRs - app-server
and tui implementations will be follow-ups.
## Testing
- [x] added integration tests
## Summary
Adds the `/permissions` command, with a (usually) shorter set of
permissions. `/approvals` still exists, for backwards compatibility.
<img width="863" height="309" alt="Screenshot 2026-01-20 at 4 12 51 PM"
src="https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/c49b5ba5-bc47-46dd-9067-e1a5670328fe"
/>
## Testing
- [x] updated unit tests
- [x] Tested locally
## Summary
When we send multiple assistant messages, reset the timer so "Worked for
2m 36s" is the time since the last time we showed the message, rather
than an ever-increasing number.
We could instead change the copy so it's more clearly a running counter.
## Testing
- [x] ran locally
<img width="903" height="732" alt="Screenshot 2026-01-21 at 1 42 51 AM"
src="https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/bb4d827b-3a0e-48ba-bd6a-d8cd65d8e892"
/>
## 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.
- 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.
Summary:
- Add forked_from to SessionMeta/SessionConfiguredEvent and persist it
for forked sessions.
- Surface forked_from in /status for tui + tui2 and add snapshots.
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.
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>
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
- 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
## 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"
/>
## **Problem**
Codex’s TUI uses a single “task running” indicator (spinner + Esc interrupt hint)
to communicate “the UI is busy”. In practice, “busy” can mean two different
things: an agent turn is running, or MCP servers are still starting up. Without a
clear contract, those lifecycles can interfere: startup completion can clear the
spinner while a turn is still in progress, or the UI can appear idle while MCP is
still booting. This is user-visible confusion during the most important moments
(startup and the first turn), so it was worth making the contract explicit and
guarding it.
## **Mental model**
`ChatWidget` is the UI-side adapter for the `codex_core::protocol` event stream.
It receives `EventMsg` events and updates two major UI surfaces: the transcript
(history/streaming cells) and the bottom pane (composer + status indicator).
The key concept after this change is that the bottom pane’s “task running”
indicator is treated as **derived UI-busy state**, not “agent is running”. It is
considered active while either:
- an agent turn is in progress (`TurnStarted` → completion/abort), or
- MCP startup is in progress (`McpStartupUpdate` → `McpStartupComplete`).
Those lifecycles are tracked independently, and the bottom-pane indicator is
defined as their union.
## **Non-goals**
- This does not introduce separate UI indicators for “turn busy” vs “MCP busy”.
- This does not change MCP startup behavior, ordering guarantees, or core
protocol semantics.
- This does not rework unrelated status/header rendering or transcript layout.
## **Tradeoffs**
- The “one flag represents multiple lifecycles” approach remains lossy: it
preserves correct “busy vs idle” semantics but cannot express *which* kind of
busy is happening without further UI changes.
- The design keeps complexity low by keeping a single derived boolean, rather
than adding a more expressive bottom-pane state machine. That’s chosen because
it matches existing UX and minimizes churn while fixing the confusion.
## **Architecture**
- `codex-core` owns the actual lifecycles and emits `codex_core::protocol`
events.
- `ChatWidget` owns the UI interpretation of those lifecycles. It is responsible
for keeping the bottom pane’s derived “busy” state consistent with the event
stream, and for updating the status header when MCP progress updates arrive.
- The bottom pane remains a dumb renderer of the single “task running” flag; it
does not learn about MCP or agent turns directly.
## **Observability**
- When working: the spinner/Esc hint stays visible during MCP startup and does
not disappear mid-turn when `McpStartupComplete` arrives; startup status
headers can update without clearing “busy” for an active turn.
- When broken: you’ll see the spinner/hint flicker off while output is still
streaming, or the UI appears idle while MCP startup status is still changing.
## **Tests**
- Adds/strengthens a regression test that asserts MCP startup completion does
not clear the “task running” indicator for an active turn (in both `tui` and
`tui2` variants).
- These tests prove the **contract** (“busy is the union of turn + startup”) at
the UI boundary; they do not attempt to validate MCP startup ordering,
real-world startup timing, or backend integration behavior.
Fixes#7017
Signed-off-by: 2mawi2 <2mawi2@users.noreply.github.com>
Co-authored-by: 2mawi2 <2mawi2@users.noreply.github.com>
Co-authored-by: Josh McKinney <joshka@openai.com>
Sending a message during /review interrupts the review, whereas during
normal operation, sending a message while the agent is running will
queue the message. This is unexpected behavior, and since /review
usually takes a while, it takes away a potentially useful operation.
Summary
- Treat review mode as an active task for message queuing so inputs
don’t inject into the running review turn.
- Prevents user submissions from rendering immediately in the transcript
while the review continues streaming.
- Keeps review UX consistent with normal “task running” behavior and
avoids accidental interrupt/replacement.
Notes
- This change only affects UI queuing logic; core review flow and task
lifecycle remain unchanged.
### Problem
Ctrl+T transcript overlay can omit in-flight coalesced tool calls because it
renders only committed transcript cells while the main viewport can render the
current in-flight ChatWidget.active_cell immediately.
### Mental model
The UI has both committed transcript cells (finalized HistoryCell entries) and
an in-flight active cell that can mutate in place while streaming, often
representing a coalesced exec/tool group. The transcript overlay renders
committed cells plus a render-only live tail derived from the current active
cell. The live tail is cached and only recomputed when its cache key changes,
which is derived from terminal width (wrapping), active-cell revision
(in-place mutations), stream continuation (spacing), and animation tick
(time-based visuals).
### Non-goals
This does not change coalescing rules, flush boundaries, or when active cells
become committed. It does not change tool-call semantics or transcript
persistence; it is a rendering-only improvement for the overlay.
### Tradeoffs
This adds cache invalidation complexity: correctness depends on bumping an
active-cell revision (and/or providing an animation tick) when the active cell
mutates in place. The mechanism is implemented in both codex-tui and codex-tui2,
which keeps behavior consistent but risks drift if future changes are not
applied in lockstep.
### Architecture
App special-cases transcript overlay draws to sync a live tail from ChatWidget
into TranscriptOverlay. TranscriptOverlay remains the owner of committed
transcript cells; the live tail is an optional appended renderable.
HistoryCell::transcript_animation_tick() allows time-dependent transcript output
(spinner/shimmer) to invalidate the cached tail without requiring data mutation.
### Observability
Manual verification is to open Ctrl+T while an exploring/coalesced active cell
is still in-flight and confirm the overlay includes the same in-flight tool-call
group the main viewport shows. The overlay is kept in sync by App passing an
active-cell key and transcript lines into TranscriptOverlay::sync_live_tail; the
key must change when the active cell mutates or animates.
### Tests
Snapshot tests validate that the transcript overlay renders a live tail appended
after committed cells and that identical keys short-circuit recomputation. Unit
tests validate that active-cell revision bumps occur on specific in-place
mutations (e.g. unified exec wait cell command display becoming known late) so
cached tails are invalidated.
## Documentation patches (module, type, function)
### Module-level docs (invariants + mechanisms)
- codex-rs/tui/src/app_backtrack.rs:1
- codex-rs/tui/src/chatwidget.rs:1
- codex-rs/tui/src/pager_overlay.rs:1
- codex-rs/tui/src/history_cell.rs:1
- codex-rs/tui2/src/app_backtrack.rs:1
- codex-rs/tui2/src/chatwidget.rs:1
- codex-rs/tui2/src/pager_overlay.rs:1
- codex-rs/tui2/src/history_cell.rs:1
### Type-level docs (cache key + invariants)
- codex-rs/tui/src/chatwidget.rs (ChatWidget.active_cell_revision, ActiveCellTranscriptKey)
- codex-rs/tui/src/pager_overlay.rs (TranscriptOverlay live tail storage model)
- codex-rs/tui/src/history_cell.rs (HistoryCell::transcript_animation_tick, UnifiedExecWaitCell::update_command_display)
- Mirrored in codex-rs/tui2/src/chatwidget.rs, codex-rs/tui2/src/pager_overlay.rs, codex-rs/tui2/src/history_cell.rs
### Function-level docs (why/when/guarantees/pitfalls)
- codex-rs/tui/src/app_backtrack.rs (overlay_forward_event)
- codex-rs/tui/src/chatwidget.rs (active_cell_transcript_key, active_cell_transcript_lines)
- codex-rs/tui/src/pager_overlay.rs (sync_live_tail, take_live_tail_renderable)
- codex-rs/tui/src/history_cell.rs (transcript_animation_tick, UnifiedExecWaitCell::update_command_display)
- Mirrored in codex-rs/tui2 equivalents where present
### Validation performed
- cd codex-rs && just fmt
- cd codex-rs && cargo test -p codex-tui
- cd codex-rs && cargo test -p codex-tui2
## Design inconsistencies / risks
- Cache invalidation is a distributed responsibility: any future in-place active
cell transcript mutation that forgets to bump active_cell_revision (or expose
an animation tick) can leave the transcript overlay live tail out of sync with
the main viewport.
- TranscriptOverlay tail handling assumes a structural invariant that the live
tail, when present, is exactly one trailing renderable after the committed cell
renderables; if renderable construction changes in a way that violates that
assumption, tail insertion/removal logic becomes incorrect.
- codex-tui and codex-tui2 duplicate the live-tail mechanism; the documentation
is aligned, but the implementation can still drift unless changes continue to
be applied in lockstep.
Agent wouldn't "see" attached images and would instead try to use the
view_file tool:
<img width="1516" height="504" alt="image"
src="https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/68a705bb-f962-4fc1-9087-e932a6859b12"
/>
In this PR, we wrap image content items in XML tags with the name of
each image (now just a numbered name like `[Image #1]`), so that the
model can understand inline image references (based on name). We also
put the image content items above the user message which the model seems
to prefer (maybe it's more used to definitions being before references).
We also tweak the view_file tool description which seemed to help a bit
Results on a simple eval set of images:
Before
<img width="980" height="310" alt="image"
src="https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/ba838651-2565-4684-a12e-81a36641bf86"
/>
After
<img width="918" height="322" alt="image"
src="https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/10a81951-7ee6-415e-a27e-e7a3fd0aee6f"
/>
```json
[
{
"id": "single_describe",
"prompt": "Describe the attached image in one sentence.",
"images": ["image_a.png"]
},
{
"id": "single_color",
"prompt": "What is the dominant color in the image? Answer with a single color word.",
"images": ["image_b.png"]
},
{
"id": "orientation_check",
"prompt": "Is the image portrait or landscape? Answer in one sentence.",
"images": ["image_c.png"]
},
{
"id": "detail_request",
"prompt": "Look closely at the image and call out any small details you notice.",
"images": ["image_d.png"]
},
{
"id": "two_images_compare",
"prompt": "I attached two images. Are they the same or different? Briefly explain.",
"images": ["image_a.png", "image_b.png"]
},
{
"id": "two_images_captions",
"prompt": "Provide a short caption for each image (Image 1, Image 2).",
"images": ["image_c.png", "image_d.png"]
},
{
"id": "multi_image_rank",
"prompt": "Rank the attached images from most colorful to least colorful.",
"images": ["image_a.png", "image_b.png", "image_c.png"]
},
{
"id": "multi_image_choice",
"prompt": "Which image looks more vibrant? Answer with 'Image 1' or 'Image 2'.",
"images": ["image_b.png", "image_d.png"]
}
]
```
Elevated Sandbox NUX:
* prompt for elevated sandbox setup when agent mode is selected (via
/approvals or at startup)
* prompt for degraded sandbox if elevated setup is declined or fails
* introduce /elevate-sandbox command to upgrade from degraded
experience.
**Before:**
```
Error loading configuration: value `Never` is not in the allowed set [OnRequest]
```
**After:**
```
Error loading configuration: invalid value for `approval_policy`: `Never` is not in the
allowed set [OnRequest] (set by MDM com.openai.codex:requirements_toml_base64)
```
Done by introducing a new struct `ConfigRequirementsWithSources` onto
which we `merge_unset_fields` now. Also introduces a pair of requirement
value and its `RequirementSource` (inspired by `ConfigLayerSource`):
```rust
pub struct Sourced<T> {
pub value: T,
pub source: RequirementSource,
}
```
With `config.toml`:
```
model = "gpt-5.1-codex"
```
(where `gpt-5.1-codex` has `show_in_picker: false` in
[`model_presets.rs`](https://github.com/openai/codex/blob/main/codex-rs/core/src/models_manager/model_presets.rs);
this happens if the user hasn't used codex in a while so they didn't see
the popup before their model was changed to `show_in_picker: false`)
The upgrade picker used to not show (because `gpt-5.1-codex` was
filtered out of the model list in code). Now, the filtering is done
downstream in tui and app-server, so the model upgrade popup shows:
<img width="1503" height="227" alt="Screenshot 2026-01-06 at 5 04 37 PM"
src="https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/26144cc2-0b3f-4674-ac17-e476781ec548"
/>
### What
Builds on #8293.
Add `additional_details`, which contains the upstream error message, to
relevant structures used to pass along retryable `StreamError`s.
Uses the new TUI status indicator's `details` field (shows under the
status header) to display the `additional_details` error to the user on
retryable `Reconnecting...` errors. This adds clarity for users for
retryable errors.
Will make corresponding change to VSCode extension to show
`additional_details` as expandable from the `Reconnecting...` cell.
Examples:
<img width="1012" height="326" alt="image"
src="https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/f35e7e6a-8f5e-4a2f-a764-358101776996"
/>
<img width="1526" height="358" alt="image"
src="https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/0029cbc0-f062-4233-8650-cc216c7808f0"
/>
Add `ctrl+g` shortcut to enable opening current prompt in configured
editor (`$VISUAL` or `$EDITOR`).
- Prompt is updated with editor's content upon editor close.
- Paste placeholders are automatically expanded when opening the
external editor, and are not "recompressed" on close
- They could be preserved in the editor, but it would be hard to prevent
the user from modifying the placeholder text directly, which would drop
the mapping to the `pending_paste` value
- Image placeholders stay as-is
- `ctrl+g` explanation added to shortcuts menu, snapshot tests updated
https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/4ee05c81-fa49-4e99-8b07-fc9eef0bbfce
