Codex desktop app: First-class file-tree support concerns

What variant of Codex are you using?

App

What feature would you like to see?

Hello,

Codex desktop app makes it easy to switch between projects, and it also makes it easy to switch between chats. That is very useful. As developers, we all famously love context switching.

Since OpenAI presumably has a lot of usage data and OpenAI uses that data to guide product decisions, I wonder whether the usage data has revealed the highly non-intuitive and unexpected pattern: most of the software projects contain files?

If so, I would suggest treating project files as a first-class part of the Codex app experience, of course, not at the expense of project switching.

On the other hand, recent app updates make the Codex app more IDE-like, with the “Plus,” “Files,” and “Folder” icons nicely scattered around the right panel, which is a worrying direction because every Codex app user would surely totally avoid using just the Codex app, and for sure everybody loves switching to bloated VS Code forks for occasional file reviews.

Irony aside, I would like to propose the following solution:

• Make project files a first-class, full-height panel in the Codex app. It should support a keyboard shortcut for toggling the panel on and off. It should work nicely with the existing Cmd+P shortcut, and even more nicely with the area that shows currently open files.

• The panel should be first-class, but optional. In other words, users who want a lightweight, chat-first workflow should not be forced into a permanent file tree, but users who want to work directly with project files should have a proper, integrated project/file view available inside the app.

Additional information

_No response_