Add “Discuss this question” to side chat for pending Codex questions

What variant of Codex are you using?

App

What feature would you like to see?

When Codex asks the user a structured question, the user should be able to open a contextual side chat to discuss that question with the coding agent before selecting an answer.

A side chat should be able to receive the complete question context—including the question text, available options, option descriptions, recommended answer (while letting the agent know this may not be the best answer), and relevant task context—so the user does not need to manually copy and paste portions of the question.

Problem

Codex sometimes asks questions that require more understanding than can be gained from the short option labels and descriptions.

For example, Codex may ask the user to choose between:

• rotating a secret by creating a new deployment;
• updating the current deployment;
• pinning a provider-specific secret version;
• or relying on the provider’s latest version.

Before choosing, the user may want to ask:

• What are the operational consequences of each option?
• Which option best fits the existing architecture?
• Does this affect in-flight workflow runs?
• Why is one option recommended?
• What would be harder to change later?
• Can you explain this in less technical language?

The existing free-form answer field is not a good substitute for this. Anything entered there is treated as the answer to the question rather than as a request to discuss it.

A normal side chat is also incomplete because the user must manually copy the question, options, descriptions, and surrounding context into that side chat. This is especially cumbersome for long, multi-part questions.

Requested behavior

Add a Discuss this question, Ask about this question, or similar action to structured Codex question dialogs.

Selecting it should:

1. Open a side chat associated with the pending question.
2. Automatically pass the full question context into that side chat.
3. Allow the user to ask follow-up questions without answering or dismissing the original question.
4. Keep the original question pending and visible.
5. Allow the user to return to the question and select an answer after the discussion.
6. Preserve any additional context learned during the side chat when the main task continues.

The contextual side chat should understand that the user is asking about the pending decision, not giving a final answer to it.

Question context

The side chat should receive structured context such as:

• the complete question text;
• all available options;
• option descriptions;
• the recommended option, when one exists;
• why the question was asked;
• relevant findings that led Codex to ask it;
• the current plan or execution stage;
• files, diffs, commands, screenshots, or other evidence associated with the decision;
• whether the answer is required before execution can continue.

Conceptually:

{
  "question": "How should a pinned secret-version rotation become active?",
  "options": [
    {
      "label": "Create a new task version",
      "description": "Preserves immutable deployment semantics."
    },
    {
      "label": "Update the current deployment pointer",
      "description": "Allows secret rotation without changing the task version."
    }
  ],
  "recommendedOption": "Update the current deployment pointer",
  "reasonAsked": "The current deployment model is immutable by task version.",
  "relatedContext": {
    "provider": ["Azure", "Google Cloud"],
    "affectedComponents": [
      "workflow-control-plane",
      "@packages/workflow",
      "workflowctl"
    ]
  }
}

This does not need to be shown to the user as JSON. It illustrates the context the side chat should receive.

Example interaction

Codex asks:

How should a pinned secret-version rotation become active?

The user selects Discuss this question.

A side chat opens with the question already attached.

The user asks:

Why would updating the current deployment pointer be safe for workflows that are already running?

The coding agent explains:

Existing runs have already captured their deployment resource, so changing the current deployment pointer would affect future runs but not alter the deployment used by in-flight runs.

The user asks:

Does that mean the task definition can remain immutable?

After understanding the tradeoff, the user closes or minimizes the side chat and selects the appropriate answer in the original question dialog.

Suggested UI

Possible implementations include:

• a Discuss button beside the question’s submit controls;
• an Ask about this question action in the question menu;
• a chat icon beside each individual option;
• a side pane containing the contextual conversation;
• a compact attached side-chat card that can be expanded;
• an automatically inserted question-context attachment in the side-chat composer.

For multi-question dialogs, the side chat should know which question is currently being discussed. It could also allow the user to discuss the full questionnaire.

Important interaction rules

• Messages in the side chat must not automatically count as the answer.
• Opening the side chat must not dismiss or resolve the question.
• The question timeout should pause while the user is actively discussing it, or the question should clearly remain pending until the user returns.
• The side chat should not accidentally steer or interrupt the main coding task unless the user explicitly requests that.
• The user should be able to ask multiple follow-up questions before deciding.
• The side chat should remain anchored to the exact question even when the main conversation is long.
• The user should not need to quote or manually reconstruct the question context.
• Closing the side chat should return focus to the pending question rather than losing the decision flow.

Why this is useful

This would make structured questions more useful for:

• architecture decisions;
• approval-gated workflows;
• security and permission choices;
• deployment strategy;
• destructive or difficult-to-reverse actions;
• selecting between provider-specific implementations;
• questions containing unfamiliar terminology;
• decisions where the user understands the goal but needs help evaluating technical tradeoffs.

Structured questions work well when the user already understands the choices. They are less effective when the user must first learn enough to make the choice.

A contextual discussion channel would preserve the clarity of structured input while allowing normal conversational explanation.

Relationship to existing issues

This is related to, but different from:

• #18125, which requested side questions that do not affect the main session context;
• #28186 and #34498, which request showing side chats alongside the main conversation;
• #28551, which concerns questions interrupting or replacing user input;
• #22677, which concerns follow-up questions attached to selected text;
• requests to expose structured user-input tools outside Plan mode.

Those issues focus on general side-chat presentation, persistence, input handling, or selected-text follow-ups.

This request is specifically for a side chat that is:

• launched from a pending Codex question;
• automatically supplied with that question’s structured context;
• used to discuss and understand the decision;
• and kept separate from the user’s eventual answer.

Acceptance criteria

• A pending structured question provides a clear Discuss this question action.
• Activating it opens a side chat with the complete question context already attached.
• The user can ask follow-up questions without submitting an answer.
• The original question remains pending and accessible.
• The side chat can explain and compare individual options.
• Returning from the side chat restores the question dialog and its current state.
• The user can then select or type the final answer normally.
• No manual copying and pasting of question text or options is required.
• The feature works for single-question and multi-question dialogs.
• Question auto-resolution does not occur while the user is actively discussing the question.

Non-goals

This request does not require:

• making all side chats permanent;
• changing the semantics of /side or /btw;
• allowing the side chat to answer the question automatically;
• replacing structured questions with ordinary chat;
• changing tool permissions or execution mode;
• adding a generalized branching or thread-management system.

The goal is a focused bridge between structured decision prompts and conversational clarification.

Additional information

_No response_