Improve RTL language support in Codex conversations
Summary
Reading and writing RTL languages in Codex conversations is currently difficult and confusing.
When using Hebrew or Arabic, the text direction and alignment do not feel natural, especially in longer messages or mixed Hebrew/Arabic/English/code conversations. This makes the conversation harder to read and follow compared with ChatGPT, which handles RTL languages much more comfortably.
Requested improvement
Please add better RTL language support in Codex conversations, similar to the RTL support in ChatGPT.
Ideally, Codex should:
- Display RTL messages, such as Hebrew or Arabic, in a natural right-to-left reading direction.
- Keep English and code-oriented content left-to-right.
- Handle mixed RTL/LTR messages gracefully.
- Preserve readable formatting for code blocks, inline code, terminal output, file paths, diffs, and tables.
Why this matters
Codex is very useful for non-English speakers, but the current RTL experience makes Hebrew and Arabic conversation text hard to read and sometimes hard to understand. Better RTL support would make Codex significantly more usable for Hebrew, Arabic, Persian, Urdu, and other RTL-language users.
Environment
- Codex Desktop app on macOS
- Example languages: Hebrew and Arabic mixed with English and code
3 Comments
I ran into the same issue and built a small open-source workaround for Codex Desktop RTL rendering.
It fixes mixed Arabic/English direction and keeps code blocks LTR:
https://github.com/pawnsmaster/codex-rtl-toolkit
Would be happy to hear if it works for your case too.
Use this:
https://github.com/pooriajahedi/codex-desktop-rtl-macos
I ran into this too and built an open-source workaround for the Codex desktop app:
⭐ https://github.com/mmnaderi/codex-rtl
It patches the app locally, keeps code/file paths readable in LTR, adds smart RTL/force RTL modes, custom RTL fonts/line-height, and can be reverted with npx codex-rtl --restore.
It’s not a replacement for native upstream support, but it may help Arabic/Hebrew/Persian users meanwhile. I’m the author and would love feedback from people affected by this.