CLI/TUI subagent wait rows show UUIDs instead of nicknames
What version of Codex CLI is running?
codex-cli 0.136.0
What subscription do you have?
Pro20x
Which model were you using?
gpt-5.5 xhigh
What platform is your computer?
24.6.0 arm64 arm
What terminal emulator and version are you using (if applicable)?
iTerm2 3.5.14
Codex doctor report
What issue are you seeing?
The CLI/TUI sometimes renders subagent UUIDs instead of the user-facing nickname.
Example observed output:
``text``
Waiting for 2 agents
└ 019e8d20-9db3-7252-a566-464bf6722f03
019e8d20-9e0f-7593-a55a-9e3bb58c2a8b
This is inconsistent because spawn/finished/closed rows can show nicknames, while the waiting row falls back to raw IDs. It makes multi-agent output hard to read.
What steps can reproduce the bug?
- Start Codex CLI with multi-agent support enabled.
- Ask it to spawn two subagents with user-facing names/roles, for example one explorer and one reviewer.
- Ask the main agent to wait for both subagents.
- Observe the
Waiting for 2 agentsrow in the TUI.
In the affected CLI path, the waiting row may render raw subagent UUIDs instead of the nicknames, even though nickname metadata is already available elsewhere in
the session.
What is the expected behavior?
The CLI/TUI should consistently show the user-facing subagent nickname and role when that metadata is available.
For example:
``text``
Waiting for 2 agents
└ Rawls [explorer]
Erdos
Additional information
I prepared a minimal display-only fix here:
https://github.com/openai/codex/compare/main...47seek:codex:fix-cli-subagent-nicknames
The fix preserves existing nickname/role metadata through app-server collab item state and uses it during TUI rendering.
It does not change:
- subagent lifecycle
- slot/limit behavior
- routing
- spawn/wait/close execution behavior
Validation:
cargo test -p codex-app-server-protocolpassed- targeted TUI wait-begin rendering test passed
- local CLI test confirmed
Waiting for 2 agentsshows names instead of UUIDs
2 Comments
Potential duplicates detected. Please review them and close your issue if it is a duplicate.
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Thanks. This is related to #23588 / #24863, but this report is specifically for the live TUI
Waiting for N agentsrow on 0.136.0.#24863 covered spawn lines, and #23588 covers completion notifications. This issue covers the wait-begin path where the renderer can still fall back to UUIDs when
nickname metadata is not present in the local cache.
I also included a minimal display-only fix here:
https://github.com/openai/codex/compare/main...47seek:codex:fix-cli-subagent-nicknames
Happy to close this as a duplicate if maintainers prefer tracking everything under #23588, but the linked branch includes the wait-row fix as well.