Let Codex rename the current thread when explicitly asked
Open 💬 5 comments Opened Mar 22, 2026 by taxijjang
💡 Likely answer: A maintainer (github-actions[bot], contributor)
responded on this thread — see the highlighted reply below.
What variant of Codex are you using?
App
What feature would you like to see?
I'd like Codex to rename the current thread when I explicitly ask in natural language, for example:
- "rename this thread to checkout rollback follow-up"
- "change this chat title to MCP investigation"
Today I have to remember and type /rename ... manually.
Proposed behavior:
- expose a current-thread-scoped action/tool the assistant can invoke
- only use it when the user explicitly asks to rename the current thread
- if the user asks to rename the thread but does not provide a name, ask a short follow-up question
- reuse the existing thread rename path instead of adding a separate workflow
This would make thread naming feel like a normal assistant action instead of a slash-command-only workflow.
Additional information
I found related issues, but they seem broader or different:
- CLI-1556 is broader session management
- CLI-205 was about named sessions more generally and is closed
I also looked through the code locally and found existing rename plumbing already in place (/rename, an app-server thread/name/set request, and persisted thread-name updates). This request is specifically about making that functionality assistant-invokable for the current thread.
5 Comments
Potential duplicates detected. Please review them and close your issue if it is a duplicate.
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Thanks for linking #14044.
This issue is slightly different — it’s not about automatic or optional title generation.
This request is specifically about allowing the assistant to explicitly rename the current thread (e.g. via a tool or command), leveraging the existing rename infrastructure.
Keeping this open for that use case.
I would be happy with /rename, especially in the VSCode sidebar.
+1 - this is needed when I have multiple sessions open and I need to quickly remember the topic of that session.
I gave up waiting and did something about it myself.
For anyone interested, I have made a program which allows you to search, read and rename your Codex threads. It's a work in progress, but I use it 20 times a day.
https://github.com/daxliniere/VS-Codex-Thread-Tools-renamer-search