Feature request: Orchestrator mode toggle for large Codex tasks
Resolved 💬 3 comments Opened May 27, 2026 by aronax777 Closed May 28, 2026
💡 Likely answer: A maintainer (etraut-openai, contributor)
responded on this thread — see the highlighted reply below.
I submitted in-app feedback with this Feedback ID:
no-active-thread-019e6abf-c144-7a70-a7fa-a74f0373a908
Feature request:
Please add an "Orchestrator mode" or "Large task mode" toggle next to Plan mode and Pursue goal in Codex App.
The goal is to support large engineering tasks without polluting the main thread context.
When enabled, Codex should use the current thread as a coordinator:
- create an execution plan first
- split the task into independent subtasks
- identify dependencies and file ownership
- spawn subagents, side threads, worktrees, or cloud tasks where appropriate
- track task status
- keep raw logs, failed experiments, and test output inside worker threads
- return only concise summaries, blockers, decisions, and integration reports to the main thread
This would make Codex much better for large refactors, migrations, multi-module features, frontend/backend/database changes, and long-running engineering goals.
Expected UX:
- toggle: Orchestrator mode / Large task mode
- main thread shows a clean task board
- worker threads handle implementation details
- final output includes changed files, tests run, blockers, risks, and merge order
3 Comments
Additional use case:
This mode would be especially useful when working on real production repositories where a single feature often spans backend, frontend, database migrations, tests, and CI updates.
The main value is not just parallelism, but context isolation:
I think it's unlikely that we'd build a bespoke mode for this concept. In general, we're trying to remove specialized modes rather than add them. Specialized modes are too restrictive. We prefer to give developers the tools they need to build their own preferred and customized workflows. You should be able to build this yourself using existing tools like skills and subagents.
Thanks for the reply.