Codex Desktop: automatic context compaction cannot be cancelled and can stall long-running tasks

Environment

• Product: Codex Desktop App
• OS: Windows
• App version: 26.519.5221.0
• Date observed: 2026-05-25
• Model: gpt-5.5

Issue

During a long-running analysis session, Codex automatically started compacting the conversation context. The UI remained at 正在自动压缩上下文 ("Automatically compacting context") for more than 1 minute 54 seconds.

There is no visible way to cancel the operation. Sending a message asking Codex to stop compacting does not interrupt it.

Impact

This makes long-running analytical and coding tasks unreliable. Automatic compaction can lose important reasoning context and, when it stalls, prevents continuing the task in the active conversation.

Expected behavior

• Provide an option to disable automatic compaction or make it manual.
• Provide a Cancel button for an in-progress compaction.
• Show meaningful progress or recovery when compaction stalls.
• Preserve task-critical state across compactions.

A screenshot is available showing the UI stuck at 正在自动压缩上下文 after 1m 54s.