Support multiple bottom airline/statusline rows in the CLI

Resolved 💬 3 comments Opened Mar 9, 2026 by oxysoft Closed Apr 18, 2026

Summary

Codex CLI should support multiple bottom airline/statusline rows, not just a single footer strip.

Problem

A single bottom row becomes too constrained once the statusline starts carrying more than a few small fields. This makes richer airline/status widgets compete horizontally for a very limited strip of space.

That constraint weakens many otherwise-useful ideas:

  • edited file stacks
  • token/context breakdowns
  • agent/thread badges
  • richer mode/status surfaces
  • animated widgets

Requested behavior

  • allow more than one bottom airline/statusline row in the CLI
  • let rows be configured independently
  • keep the layout stable so row count does not feel like footer jitter
  • support a split where one row carries compact essentials and another row carries richer/contextual widgets

Why this matters

If Codex gets a custom statusline widget API, one-row-only layout will still bottleneck expressiveness. Multi-row support is the layout companion that makes richer widgets actually practical.

Example direction

  • row 1: compact always-on essentials (model, cwd, branch, fast mode, etc.)
  • row 2: richer widgets (edited file stack, token/context composition, active agents, animated progress/status)

Success criteria

  • users can configure more than one bottom airline/statusline row
  • richer widgets no longer have to fight for one cramped horizontal strip
  • the footer remains visually stable and readable

Related context

Companion proposal for extensibility:

  • #14043

Multi-row layout and custom widgets fit together naturally: the widget API expands what can be rendered, and multi-row support gives those widgets enough space to be useful.

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