Support multiple bottom airline/statusline rows in the CLI
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.
3 Comments
Companion extensibility proposal: #14043 These fit together naturally: #14043 expands what the airline/statusline can render, and this issue expands how much footer layout space those widgets can actually use.
This feature request hasn't received enough upvotes, so I'm going to close it.
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