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Codex Issues / #33407

Regression: Codex Desktop has no persistent context/token usage indicator

Open 💬 2 comments Opened Jul 15, 2026 by BrecherSudder
💡 Likely answer: A maintainer (github-actions[bot], contributor) responded on this thread — see the highlighted reply below.

Summary

Codex Desktop no longer shows a persistent, user-visible context and token usage indicator comparable to the Codex CLI/TUI status display.

The information is operationally important in long-running tasks: users need to know the active model, current context-window pressure/remaining budget, cumulative input and output token totals, and when compaction is approaching or has occurred.

Environment

  • Codex Desktop: 26.707.9981.0
  • Codex CLI installed locally: 0.144.4
  • OS: Windows
  • Model available in the CLI: gpt-5.6-sol

Steps to reproduce

  1. Open Codex Desktop.
  2. Start or open any task.
  3. Look near the composer, model selector, and task/status controls.
  4. There is no persistent context/token usage indicator or tooltip.

Actual behavior

The Desktop UI does not expose the live context-window usage, remaining context, input/output token totals, or a persistent model/status display. The CLI/TUI provides this information through its status UI, but the Desktop app does not provide an equivalent passive display.

Expected behavior

Restore an opt-in or always-visible Desktop status indicator, ideally near the composer or model selector, with:

  • Active model/provider
  • Current context usage and remaining effective context window
  • Cumulative input, cached-input, and output token totals
  • Clear separation between current context-window occupancy and cumulative session/thread totals
  • Compaction status or a warning before automatic compaction

This is not merely a cosmetic preference; without the indicator, users cannot reliably decide when to compact, fork, or start a new task before context pressure affects work quality.

Related reports

Similar reports were filed as #23794, #23591, and #18201. This report confirms that the problem persists in a newer Desktop build.

View original on GitHub ↗

2 Comments

github-actions[bot] contributor · 1 month ago

Potential duplicates detected. Please review them and close your issue if it is a duplicate.

  • #32531

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mictub · 12 days ago

Adding another data point from macOS / Codex Desktop.

The menu-bar item lost most of its operational value for my workflow once token/context spending was removed from the visible UI. Right now it mostly acts as task navigation, but the reason I kept it visible was passive awareness of context pressure and token usage during long-running coding sessions.

This is not just a cosmetic preference. In Codex Desktop, token/context visibility is what lets me decide when to compact, fork, start a new task, or avoid adding more large context before quality starts degrading. The hidden /status command is useful as a workaround, but it is not a replacement for persistent passive visibility.

My local config already has desktop.show-context-window-usage = true, but the current Desktop UI still does not restore the kind of always-visible token/context spending view that used to make the menu-bar/status UI useful.

Please restore an opt-in persistent meter in the composer, task chrome, or menu-bar popover. Ideally it should show current context-window usage/remaining budget, cumulative input/output/cached token spend, and compaction status.