Codex Desktop: selected text references are not shown in sent user messages/history
What version of the Codex App are you using (From "About Codex" dialog)?
Version 26.506.31421 (2620)
CLI bundled with app: codex-cli 0.130.0-alpha.5
What subscription do you have?
Pro
What platform is your computer?
macOS 26.3.1 arm64
What issue are you seeing?
When using selected text as context in Codex Desktop, the selected text/reference is visible before sending the prompt, but after the message is sent it is not rendered next to, inside, or expandable from the user message in the chat history.
The selected text appears to be attached/model-visible, but the historical chat UI only shows the typed user message. That makes it hard to audit later which selected text was actually attached to a turn, especially in long threads or side conversations.
What steps can reproduce the bug?
- In Codex Desktop, select text from a previous message or rendered chat content.
- Use the selected text as context for a new prompt so it appears in the composer as selected/quoted context.
- Send the prompt.
- Look at the sent user message in the chat history.
Expected behavior
The sent user message should preserve a visible representation of the selected text context, for example inline, adjacent to the message, or as an expandable attachment/reference.
A user should be able to scroll back later and see that the message was sent with selected text context, and inspect what text was selected.
Actual behavior
After sending, the chat history renders only the typed user message. The selected text/reference that was visible before sending is not shown in the sent message UI.
Why this matters
This creates an auditability gap. The model may answer using selected context, but the user cannot later confirm from the visible chat history what context was attached to that turn.
It is especially confusing when the composer originally showed something like:
# Selected text:
## Selection 1
...
## My request for Codex:
...but the sent user-message bubble/history view no longer exposes that selected text context.