›_ Codex Issues
Codex Issues / #23181

Clarify resume hints for renamed threads

Resolved 💬 4 comments Opened May 17, 2026 by kchung1995 Closed Jul 21, 2026
💡 Likely answer: A maintainer (etraut-openai, contributor) responded on this thread — see the highlighted reply below.

What variant of Codex are you using?

CLI / TUI

What feature would you like to see?

When a thread is renamed, this message gets displayed:
"Thread renamed to {thread-name}, to resume this thread run codex resume {thread-name}"
Which does not work. In fact, duplicates among threads' names are allowed, so we cannot point a specific thread with its name. We have to give the thread id instead.

Also, regardless of renaming a thread, exiting the thread displays:
"To continue this session, run codex resume {thread-id}"
Which, I think, looks awkward.

I think we would need to polish a bit so:

  1. /rename displays correct guide (unless we change the behaviour).
  2. /exit also mentions the thread name if it's renamed.

For example, /rename may display
"Thread renamed to {thread-name}. To resume this thread run codex resume, then select {thread-name}({thread-id})"

/exit may display
"To continue this session, run codex resume, then select {thread-name} ({thread-id})".

Additional information

<img width="891" height="96" alt="Image" src="https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/3e2009c1-9d63-4fd5-9f73-29029e4bb1a9" />

A screenshot for Codex guiding to run codex resume {thread-name}, which is tried and failed.

View original on GitHub ↗

4 Comments

etraut-openai contributor · 3 months ago

Thanks for the suggestion. This will be included in a future update.

Alek2077 · 3 months ago

Confirmed this is still confusing in codex-cli 0.132.0.

After renaming, Codex shows:
"Thread renamed to some thread name. To resume this thread run codex resume, then select some thread name (019e4473-0d50-7120-dbcb-280c0dfd51d3)"

Two problems remain:

  1. This still reads like a pasteable command hint, especially with the current inline/cyan rendering.
  2. If resuming by thread name directly, multi-word names require shell quoting:

codex resume 'some thread name'

Without quotes, the command fails because the shell splits the title into multiple arguments.

So the message is better than the old incorrect codex resume <thread-name> hint, but it still does not clearly explain the actual executable options:

  • codex resume, then select the thread
  • codex resume <thread-id>
  • codex resume '<multi-word thread name>'

I also have a screenshot of the current rendering that makes the hint look even more like an executable command example.

<img width="1362" height="81" alt="Image" src="https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/7bd031eb-4452-4d1a-b05d-febe4113ec73" />

Necmttn · 2 months ago

The hint should separate display name from stable resume id.

I would always show the UUID as the copyable command target, and treat the thread name as picker/search text. Example: Thread renamed to "foo". Resume with codex resume <id>, or run codex resume and search "foo".

That avoids shell-quoting bugs and duplicate-name ambiguity without removing the friendly name.

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_Generated with ax._

etraut-openai contributor · 1 month ago

Merged PR #23234 directly addresses the issue: named threads show <name> (<thread-id>) in picker guidance, while unnamed threads retain direct codex resume <thread-id> guidance. Any copy or quoting polish can be a follow-up.