Pop-Out Chat Panel for VS Code Extension
Resolved 💬 3 comments Opened Mar 17, 2026 by gvanto Closed Mar 17, 2026
💡 Likely answer: A maintainer (etraut-openai, contributor)
responded on this thread — see the highlighted reply below.
What variant of Codex are you using?
IDE Extension
What feature would you like to see?
(from https://github.com/openai/codex/discussions/3021)
Feature Overview:
I’d love a “Pop Out to Window” option for the ChatGPT (Codex) panel in VS Code—similar to how you can float or detach the Terminal.
Rationale:
- Space crunch: When working with long code blocks or in multi-turn strategy sessions, the docked panel is too tight.
- UX benefits: Floating windows enhance focus, especially on ultrawide/multi-monitor setups.
- Familiar workflow: Terminal panels already offer this behavior—why not the chat agent?
Proposed Behavior:
- Add a menu item or button to “Pop Out to Window”
- Allow users to resize/float the chat in a separate window
- Include a “Dock Back” option or keyboard shortcut for easy toggling
Why It Matters:
This would significantly improve usability for deep coding workflows and make long-format chats ergonomic.
Additional information
This would greatly improve this extension to compete with Gemini Code Assist (and alike) extensions (which all feature popout agent window)
3 Comments
Pop-out windows are not supported by VS Code for extensions. It was limitations like this that informed our decision to create a new Codex desktop app. The Codex desktop app supports this feature (and many others).
So how does Roo Code do the popout (or open in window outside of the panel) then?
<img width="782" height="422" alt="Image" src="https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/4a76bfd5-74b7-4e91-9016-0ca1ed076fd6" />
Even claude code can open a chat in new window.