TUI status line current-dir shows workspace root, not effective command cwd

Resolved 💬 1 comment Opened May 8, 2026 by are-scenic Closed May 9, 2026

What version of Codex CLI is running?

codex-cli 0.129.0

What platform is your computer?

Linux x86_64

What issue are you seeing?

The TUI status line item named current-dir appears to show the session/project/workspace root, not the effective working directory used for shell commands.

In my session, the status line showed ~, because the Codex session root was /home/<user>. However, the agent was running commands with an effective working directory of ~/Documents/ObsidianVault.

That creates two different directory concepts:

  • project/workspace root: ~
  • effective command working directory: ~/Documents/ObsidianVault

The status-line label current-dir makes this look like the command cwd, but it appears to be the workspace root.

Steps to reproduce

  1. Start or resume a Codex CLI session with project root set to the home directory.
  2. Have the agent run commands in a subdirectory using its command workdir, for example ~/Documents/ObsidianVault.
  3. Observe that the status line still displays ~ via current-dir.
  4. Ask the agent to run pwd; it reports the subdirectory.

Expected behavior

Either:

  • rename the existing status-line item from current-dir to something like workspace-root or project-root, or
  • add a separate status-line item for the effective command cwd, e.g. working-dir / command-cwd.

A clear display could be:

project: ~ · cwd: ~/Documents/ObsidianVault

Actual behavior

The status line displays ~, which is the project/workspace root, while commands can be executed in a different effective cwd.

Additional information

This is primarily a UI clarity issue. The command execution itself works; the confusing part is that current-dir sounds like shell cwd but appears to mean workspace root.

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