Codex Desktop GitHub prompt settings fields clear after save despite being persisted

Open 💬 2 comments Opened May 2, 2026 by rvanmelle
💡 Likely answer: A maintainer (github-actions[bot], contributor) responded on this thread — see the highlighted reply below.

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

Codex Desktop 26.429.30905 (2345)

What subscription do you have?

Enterprise

What issue are you seeing?

In Codex Desktop settings, the GitHub prompt fields appear to clear immediately after saving. The text does not remain visible in the UI, which makes it look like the prompt was lost.

I reproduced this with both:

  • GitHub / pull request prompt
  • GitHub / commit message prompt

Local inspection shows the values were actually persisted to ~/.codex/.codex-global-state.json:

  • git-pr-instructions was present after saving the pull request prompt
  • git-commit-instructions was present after saving the commit message prompt

So the likely bug is that the settings UI is not rehydrating/rendering these saved values after save, even though persistence succeeds.

Steps to reproduce

  1. Open Codex Desktop settings.
  2. Go to the GitHub/Git prompt settings section.
  3. Enter text in the pull request prompt field.
  4. Save.
  5. Observe that the entered text disappears from the UI.
  6. Repeat with the commit message prompt field.
  7. Inspect ~/.codex/.codex-global-state.json and observe that the values exist under git-pr-instructions / git-commit-instructions.

Expected behavior

After saving, the fields should continue to display the saved prompt text. Reopening settings should also show the persisted prompt text.

Actual behavior

The text disappears from the settings UI after save, making it look like the prompt was discarded. The backing state file contains the saved value.

Environment

  • macOS 26.3.1 (a), arm64
  • Codex Desktop 26.429.30905 (2345)
  • Codex CLI available locally: 0.128.0

View original on GitHub ↗

2 Comments

github-actions[bot] contributor · 3 months ago

Potential duplicates detected. Please review them and close your issue if it is a duplicate.

  • #20615

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rvanmelle · 3 months ago

Additional observation after restarting Codex Desktop:

  • After closing and reopening the app, the previously saved pull request prompt appears correctly in the UI.
  • I have not re-edited and re-saved the field after restart.

This narrows the bug: the prompt is persisted and startup hydration appears to work. The broken behavior is the immediate post-save UI state, where the field clears/disappears and makes the save look unsuccessful until the app is restarted.