Accidental prompts using the Tab key
Resolved 💬 9 comments Opened Feb 26, 2026 by mihaifm Closed Jul 22, 2026
💡 Likely answer: A maintainer (github-actions[bot], contributor)
responded on this thread — see the highlighted reply below.
The Tab key was added as a shortcut to queue prompts. But it also autocompletes paths. It can easily trigger an incomplete prompt when you're just trying to autocomplete a file name. Is there a way to change this behavior?
9 Comments
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Linking #14673 because it frames the broader UX that makes this Tab collision matter.
If Codex supports shell-like path completion directly in the composer for inline path-shaped tokens, then
Tab/ completion behavior needs to be designed as a real first-class interaction instead of colliding with prompt queueing.That means the feature request and the accidental-send/collision issue are really two sides of the same design seam.
I implemented an opt-in version of this on top of current
main.It adds:
Default remains
tab, butenterlets users keep Tab for completion/navigation.Compare view:
https://github.com/openai/codex/compare/main...tick10:fix/configurable-queue-key?expand=1
Commit:
aa04bad3d(feat(tui): add configurable queue key)This preserves current behavior by default and only adds an opt-in config path.
Happy to rework it if there's a preferred contribution path.
Additionally, on many common keyboard layouts, the tab key sits between the caps-lock key (which I use all the time) and the backtick key (which I also use all the time). It's way too easy to accidentally hit the tab key during normal typing, let alone for completions, for it to be used as as a submit action of any sort.
Same here. I’d strongly prefer Tab to be reserved for completion in the interactive CLI: use Codex-native completion when available, and fall back to shell completion when Codex has no candidate. If Tab-to-queue/submit remains supported, it should at least be configurable or disabled by default.
This is extremely annoying!
this is insane ux. first time using this software, guess i'll instant uninstall
If you'd prefer not to use
tabfor queueing, you can use the/keymapeditor to replace the keybinding for the "Queue" action with some other key or key combination.40 years of muscle memory down the drain. Tab either completes or inserts a tab. Nothing else. So broken.