Feature request: let Popout Window hotkey open an independent quick-ask window

Resolved 💬 1 comment Opened Apr 26, 2026 by jianzhangg Closed Jul 1, 2026

What variant of Codex are you using?

App

What feature would you like to see?

I’d like the Popout Window hotkey in the Codex App to optionally open an independent quick-ask window, instead of always inheriting the last-used project/workspace and conversation context.

Current behavior:

  • Triggering the Popout Window hotkey opens a small Codex window.
  • That window reuses the same project/workspace context as the last active session.
  • In practice, it also feels tied to the same working setup instead of behaving like a lightweight temporary entry point.

Why this is a problem:

  • A popout window is often used for a quick question, temporary exploration, or a side investigation.
  • In that workflow, I usually do not want to continue the same project context.
  • I want the popout window to feel isolated, so it does not inherit the main workspace assumptions by default.

What I would like instead:

  • An option for the Popout Window hotkey to open a fresh, independent window
  • That fresh window should have its own:
  • model selection
  • reasoning level
  • project/workspace selection
  • thread/session context
  • It should not automatically reuse the last active project/workspace unless I explicitly choose that mode

Possible product shapes:

  1. A setting like:
  • Popout Window hotkey behavior: Resume last workspace / Open independent quick window
  1. Or a second hotkey/action:
  • one for “resume current context”
  • one for “open clean temporary window”
  1. Or let the popout open with no project selected by default

The key idea is:
The popout window should work better as a lightweight scratchpad / exploratory surface, instead of always being attached to the main ongoing workspace.

Additional information

This request is specifically about the App experience and the current Popout Window hotkey behavior.

The reason I care is that the popout window feels like it should be the fastest way to ask a temporary question or investigate something quickly, but reusing the previous workspace makes it feel less independent than expected.

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