Codex Desktop: Sources / Web search hover popover blocks the UI
Open 💬 4 comments Opened May 1, 2026 by timurkagor1
💡 Likely answer: A maintainer (github-actions[bot], contributor)
responded on this thread — see the highlighted reply below.
Summary
In Codex Desktop, the Sources / Web search popover appears when hovering near the top-right edge of an assistant answer. It can cover the answer and block interactions until it disappears.
The issue is not that web search or tools are used. Those should remain available. The problem is specifically that this sources popover opens on hover and behaves as a blocking overlay during normal mouse movement.
Steps to reproduce
- Use Codex Desktop and get an answer that includes web search sources.
- Move the mouse near the top-right edge of the answer where the sources affordance appears.
- The
Sourcespopover opens automatically on hover, showingWeb search. - The popover covers part of the UI and blocks interaction until it closes.
Expected behavior
One of these would make the interaction much less disruptive:
- Open the sources popover only on click, not on hover.
- Make the hover popover non-blocking / non-intercepting.
- Add a setting to disable the sources hover popover.
Actual behavior
The popover appears accidentally during normal mouse movement and blocks the working area.
Feedback ID
This was also submitted through Codex Desktop feedback:
019de39b-2cb2-7f30-bc38-535bc586c651
Environment
- App: Codex Desktop
- Platform: macOS
- App version observed locally:
26.429.20946
4 Comments
Potential duplicates detected. Please review them and close your issue if it is a duplicate.
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Additional observation: the UI blocking area appears to behave like an invisible vertical strip whose width matches the popover. If the mouse is moved further left past the vertical line aligned with the popover's left edge, the popover disappears. While the pointer is inside that strip, it is not possible to click controls underneath it, for example the copy-code icon on the far right side of a code block.
This makes the issue feel like more than just a visible tooltip covering content: the popover/hover trigger area seems to intercept pointer events across a vertical region, blocking nearby answer controls.
Correction to the reproduction details: the pointer does not need to be moved specifically to the top-right of the answer. It is enough to move the mouse into the right side of the Codex application. The hover popover / blocking region can appear from the right-side area in general, not only from the upper-right corner.
So the issue is better described as: moving the mouse to the right side of the Codex app can trigger the
Sources / Web searchpopover and its invisible blocking strip, which then prevents clicking right-aligned controls such as the copy-code button.+1 from another Codex Desktop user.
The pinned
Sourcespanel is intrusive and takes persistent screen real estate while adding EXACTLY NO value (web search, "codex" WTF).Please get rid of this crap, it has microsoft enshittification feelz. At least let programmers hide it in settings.