Codex Desktop App hangs indefinitely on “Automatically compacting context” even for no-op prompt

What variant of Codex are you using?

Codex Desktop App

What issue are you seeing?

Codex Desktop App can get stuck indefinitely at:

Automatically compacting context

This happens before the actual user prompt is processed. Even sending a no-op test prompt still hangs during the automatic context compaction step.

In my latest repro, I sent a prompt whose entire purpose was to test the context compaction bug:

Do not do anything. This message is only testing the Codex automatic context compaction bug.

The app still entered “Automatically compacting context” and stayed there.

I also tried reducing reasoning effort to the lowest setting and switching the model from GPT-5.5 to GPT-5.4. It did not help. This suggests the problem is not model reasoning effort or the specific model, but the compaction pipeline / session state / handoff path itself.

Actual behavior

• Desktop App triggers automatic context compaction.
• The UI remains stuck on “Automatically compacting context”.
• The prompt is never answered.
• Lowering reasoning effort does not help.
• Switching from GPT-5.5 to GPT-5.4 does not help.
• The current session becomes effectively unusable.

Expected behavior

Automatic context compaction should either:

1. complete and resume the conversation, or
2. fail with a visible, actionable error, or
3. provide a recovery option such as retry, skip compact, create handoff/checkpoint, or open a fresh continuation session.

It should not hang indefinitely with no recovery path.

Why this is especially painful

This is a critical-path failure for Codex Desktop App. Once a long-running coding session reaches this state, the user cannot continue the session, and there is no reliable manual control in the Desktop App equivalent to a safe checkpoint/compact/recovery action.

There are already many related reports around automatic context compaction hanging, failing, or corrupting handoff state. I am filing this additional report because the bug is still reproducible and still makes long Desktop App sessions unreliable.

Please prioritize at least a fail-safe timeout and recovery path for the Desktop App. Even if the underlying compaction request fails, the app should not leave the user trapped in an infinite “Automatically compacting context” state.

Additional context

Known related issues include reports such as:

• #13906
• #14342
• #14346
• #14472
• #18363
• #18720
• #19910

This report is another affected-user repro: no-op prompt, lowest reasoning, GPT-5.5 -> GPT-5.4, still stuck at automatic compaction.