Allow interactive prompts to wait indefinitely instead of auto-selecting a recommended answer

Open 💬 1 comment Opened Jun 29, 2026 by JWilson45

Problem

When Codex CLI asks an interactive question that requires user preference (for example, choosing between implementation options), it will eventually time out and automatically continue with a recommended answer.

This is problematic if the user steps away from their computer for a few minutes. By the time they return, the decision has already been made on their behalf.

Expected behavior

Once Codex asks a question that requires user input, it should be possible to configure it to wait indefinitely (or for a user-configurable timeout) before proceeding.

Examples:

  • Wait forever until the user responds.
  • Configurable timeout (5 min, 15 min, 1 hour, Never).
  • Disable automatic selection of a recommended answer after a timeout.

Why this would help

Many users are happy for Codex to make technical implementation decisions autonomously, but when it explicitly asks for a preference, that indicates the decision belongs to the user.

Automatically answering its own question defeats the purpose of asking it in the first place and makes it easy to lose control of architectural or stylistic decisions after stepping away from the keyboard.

This feature would preserve the current autonomous workflow while giving users who prefer interactive control the option to keep pending questions open until they respond.

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