Regression: Codex app “For coding” view now hides edited file names and commands behind aggregate summaries

Open 💬 7 comments Opened Apr 27, 2026 by RyanMentley
💡 Likely answer: A maintainer (miraclebakelaser, contributor) responded on this thread — see the highlighted reply below.

What version of the Codex App are you using (From “About Codex” dialog)?

Version 26.422.30944 (2080)

What subscription do you have?

Business

What platform is your computer?

Darwin 25.4.0 arm64 arm

What issue are you seeing?

In the current Codex app UI, using the “For coding” view, the agent’s action log is now collapsed into aggregate summaries such as:

Edited 3 files, explored 2 files, 2 searches
Ran 2 commands

This appears to be a recent regression. Previously, Codex showed the files that were edited by default. Now even the names of edited files are hidden unless I click into the summary.

This makes it harder to supervise the agent live, audit what it changed, and quickly decide whether intervention is needed.

I am not asking for every explored file or every search to be expanded by default. Those can reasonably remain summarized. The main regression is that the UI now hides information that is essential for coding review: which files were edited and which commands were run.

Why this matters

For coding workflows, the minimum useful information is not just “N files edited”; it is which files were edited.

Commands run are also important and should be visible by default because:

  1. Commands can modify repository or system state, even when no file edit is shown directly.
  2. Commands are a key signal of how the agent validated its work, for example by running tests, linters, formatters, type checks, build commands, or ad hoc inspection commands.

Hiding edited files and commands behind extra clicks creates review friction and makes the agent less inspectable. In a coding agent UI, these are not secondary details; they are core audit information.

This is not asking for all command output, diffs, explored files, or search results to be expanded. The request is only that the thread show the edited file paths and command invocations by default.

Expected behavior

In “For coding” mode, Codex should continue to show edited file names and command invocations directly in the thread by default, as it previously did, e.g.:

  • Edited src/foo.ts
  • Edited src/bar.test.ts
  • Ran npm test
  • Ran npm run lint

The aggregate summary can still exist, but it should not hide the edited-file list or the commands run in coding-focused mode.

Actual behavior

The thread now shows only an aggregate summary such as:

Edited 3 files, explored 2 files, 2 searches

To see the actual edited files or commands, I have to click into the summary.

Non-goals

I am not requesting that Codex expand every explored file, every search, full command output, or full diff by default.

Those can remain collapsed or summarized. The specific request is that edited file paths and command invocations remain visible without extra clicks in “For coding” mode.

Related but not exact duplicates

  • #16415 asks for an always-expand-all inspection mode, but this issue is narrower: edited file names and command invocations should be visible by default, even without expanding everything.
  • #19260 is about command/tool output folding. This issue is not primarily about expanding command _output_; it is about showing the command invocations themselves.
  • #18478 is related to review UX around diff visibility, but not specifically this action-log regression.

What steps can reproduce the bug?

This happens in any Codex session in which the agent modifies code or runs commands.

View original on GitHub ↗

7 Comments

miraclebakelaser contributor · 2 months ago

Agree. Although I like the cleanliness of the chat UI, I would appreciate a config allowing users to see a more verbose output.

In my case, I had no idea that codex's browser-use plugin was consistently capturing the wrong region of the screen (https://github.com/openai/codex/issues/19429). It would have been immediately obvious if the screenshots weren't collapsed. Having to click as many as three times to expand a tool output makes agent observability a chore.

theshaneyu · 2 months ago

100% agree. At least a setting for this. It's literally the blocker for me to using the app

guidedways contributor · 2 months ago

@etraut-openai Please allow a setting for this - the codex app is growing on me but this is the main reason that keeps me from replacing the CLI with the app. I am completely blind working within Codex (the app) with all edits collapsed.

guidedways contributor · 2 months ago

<img width="506" height="356" alt="Image" src="https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/d623bc7f-e9b3-4751-8eab-32d99eedc9cb" />

The Review panel is not a replacement for inline edits that you're able to observe and review when using the CLI for instance. My review panel has 484 unstaged files, with thousands of edits (an ongoing session for now 3 days+) - I cannot possible review these changes in the review panel per turn (each turn produces ~50+ file changes) - it also auto-scrolls you back to the top on every change.

The review panel is okay for a final review but we need to observe inline edits as they're being performed.

RyanMentley · 2 months ago

This seems to have gotten even worse in the last few days, with some blocks just saying "Edited _n_ files" and no option to expand it at all. This pretty much completely breaks auditability of what the agent is doing as it works.

<img width="158" height="63" alt="Image" src="https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/6990feda-f5b9-4bd0-adb6-2ce052c1d5a0" />

"See what was edited" is _core_ functionality for a coding agent, and problems like this have me considering alternatives. Codex is a wonderful tool, but to get great results, it needs human guidance. To know how to guide it, I need to be able to see what it's doing.

jonathanlaniado · 2 months ago

@RyanMentley Yes, this is similar to my experience.

See here: #20090 Codex Desktop: expanding "Ran N commands" summary shows blank body

RyanMentley · 1 month ago

Update: [the further regression I described on May 4th](#issuecomment-4374196999) (in which aggregate summaries containing only code edits cannot be expanded) appears to be resolved as of 26.602.40724 at the latest (possibly 26.602.30954 according to some unverified analysis by Codex).

The original issue of the aggregate summaries hiding essential information (which files were edited and which commands were run) behind extra clicks remains.