Autocomplete after '@' drops '@' when pressing Tab

Codex should usually recognize files with @ when sending the prompt. What challenges did you observe without @ for files?

@seratch, thank you for your comment.

I understand that the @filename format is how Codex recognizes files, and that's exactly what I want to use.

The issue I'm reporting is that when I type @ followed by a file path and press Tab for completion, the @ gets removed:

# Input
$ codex "@READ[Tab]

# Current behavior (bug)
$ codex "README.md"     # @ is removed

# Expected behavior
$ codex "@README.md"    # @ should be preserved

I'm starting my input with @ because I want to use that notation, but the completion removes it, forcing me to manually re-add the @ every time.

Yep. Preserving the @ prefix after accepting a suggestion ensures you can continue modifying the path without having to jump back to the beginning and manually reinsert the @. This makes editing smoother.

I’ve opened a quick PR to address this: Fix: Preserve @ prefix in file path autocomplete #2839

I can see where having the @ is helpful to edit an existing path.

Though I don't know if the @ is helpful for the model: it feels more likely to confuse it.

Perhaps a better solution would be to annotate this internally so the composer "knows" the string was autocompleted and restarts the autocomplete logic when you start editing that text again, though admittedly that makes bookkeeping complex.

@easong-openai what do you think here?

"@filename" ideally would explicitly tell the model that the file is available via read tool, maybe even proactively tell the file size and number of lines.

The use of @ should be documented!

The use of @ should be documented!

@newptcai If you use the /mention command, it basically just inserts the @, so it's somewhat discoverable that way:

/mention  mention a file

https://github.com/openai/codex/blob/3f8184034f12e2c03013273505259999acd03423/codex-rs/tui/src/chatwidget.rs#L820-L822

Can it be fixed? or what is the proper way to tag files?

@etraut-openai correct me if I'm wrong but there is no way to tag a file right now and have the agent immediately read it? There is a /mention command but this just inserts a @ character. From what I understand the @ character only enables autocomplete but it does not read the file into the agent's context when used.

If this is correct then @mkusaka should probably rename the issue.

i kind of want this behaviour is there any plans on fixing this awkward dropping of the "@" everytime i press tab??