Feature request: assistant-suggested quick action buttons / option chips

Open 💬 0 comments Opened May 15, 2026 by zigpac

Summary

Please consider adding assistant-suggested quick action buttons / option chips to Codex App conversations.

In many agent workflows, after Codex completes a step, there are usually a few obvious next actions. Today these actions have to be typed manually, even when the assistant can clearly suggest safe next steps.

Desired behavior

Allow the assistant to return a small structured set of suggested next actions, rendered as clickable buttons/chips below the assistant message.

For example, an assistant response could include something like:

<options>
  <option>Run tests</option>
  <option>Review diff</option>
  <option>Create PR</option>
</options>

The Codex App UI could render these as buttons. Clicking one would send that option as the next user message.

Why this is useful

This pattern works very well in Telegram bots and other agent wrappers using inline keyboards. It is especially useful for long-running or multi-step coding workflows where the next action is often one of a few standard choices:

  • Run tests
  • Review diff
  • Commit changes
  • Create PR
  • Continue implementation
  • Open preview
  • Explain changes
  • Pause / resume / clear a goal
  • Retry with a different approach

For non-technical or semi-technical users, option chips reduce friction and make the agent easier to steer without requiring users to know the exact command or wording.

Relation to Codex workflows

This would be particularly helpful for:

  • /goal sessions
  • multi-step code migrations
  • frontend design iteration
  • debugging loops
  • review / commit / PR workflows
  • plugin or skill workflows
  • any flow where Codex wants user confirmation before proceeding

Possible implementation

A minimal version could support 2-4 text actions per assistant message.

A later version could support structured actions, for example:

{
  "options": [
    {
      "label": "Run tests",
      "prompt": "Run the test suite and summarize failures."
    },
    {
      "label": "Create PR",
      "prompt": "Create a pull request for the current branch."
    }
  ]
}

Even simple text-only option chips would already be very useful.

Benefits

  • Reduces friction for common next actions
  • Makes long-running Codex workflows easier to control
  • Helps users avoid typing the wrong command
  • Improves discoverability of Codex features like /goal, reviews, commits, and PR flows
  • Makes Codex more approachable for users who are not full-time terminal power users

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