`/side` can inherit an unexpected model, and `/model` is unavailable inside the side conversation

Resolved 💬 3 comments Opened May 11, 2026 by miraclebakelaser Closed May 11, 2026

💡 Likely answer: A maintainer (etraut-openai, contributor) responded on this thread — see the highlighted reply below.

What version of Codex CLI is running?

codex-cli 0.130.0

What subscription do you have?

Pro

Which model were you using?

_No response_

What platform is your computer?

Darwin 25.4.0 arm64 arm

What terminal emulator and version are you using (if applicable)?

_No response_

What issue are you seeing?

/side can open a side conversation with a model that does not match the conversation I started it from, and then there is no way to correct it because /model is unavailable inside the side conversation.

What steps can reproduce the bug?

Start Conversation A using gpt-5.5.
Later, Conversation B and choose gpt-5.3-codex-spark.
Return to Conversation A.
Run /side.
Side Conversation A is limited to gpt-5.3-codex-spark.

What is the expected behavior?

When the active conversation is a /side conversation, /model should open the model picker.
The selected model should only apply to the active side conversation, and not change the parent conversation or global/default model.
A side conversation should not unexpectedly inherit a newer global/default model from a different conversation.

Additional information

_No response_

View original on GitHub ↗

3 Comments

etraut-openai contributor · 3 months ago

Thanks for the bug report. Yes, it looks like the side conversation is using the on-disk config for the model selection rather than inheriting it from the parent thread as it should.

/model and most other slash commands are intentionally not available in a side conversation. This is by design.

miraclebakelaser contributor · 3 months ago

Cool, I'm fine with parent model inheritance.

etraut-openai contributor · 3 months ago

This will be addressed in the next release.