Add a TUI config option to disable compact multi-command activity and restore per-command output previews

What version of Codex CLI is running?

codex-cli 0.149.0

What subscription do you have?

Pro Lite

Which model were you using?

gpt-5.6 sol

What platform is your computer?

Darwin 25.6.0 arm64 arm

What terminal emulator and version are you using (if applicable)?

Ghostty

Codex doctor report

What issue are you seeing?

Starting with the recent TUI command-activity compaction behavior, multiple successful commands are collapsed into a single entry such as:

• Ran 3 commands · ctrl+t to view transcript

Previously, when Codex executed multiple commands, each command remained visible inline together with a bounded/partial preview of its output.

For example, the previous behavior was roughly:

• Ran git status --short
└ M src/foo.rs

• Ran cargo check
└ Checking foo...
Finished...
… +20 lines (ctrl+t to view transcript)

• Ran rg "some_pattern"
└ src/foo.rs:42:...
src/bar.rs:10:...

This was a useful middle ground: I could continuously see which commands Codex was executing and a few lines of each command's output without flooding the terminal.

The new behavior hides both the individual command names and their output previews when successful commands are grouped. To inspect them I now have to press Ctrl+T, enter the transcript view, find the relevant section, and scroll through it.

I am not asking for full/raw command output to always be displayed. I specifically want the previous bounded preview behavior.

Please add a TUI configuration option that disables multi-command activity compaction and keeps each command plus its bounded output preview visible inline.

For example:

[tui]
compact_command_activity = false

or a more general option such as:

[tui]
command_display = "preview"

Possible modes could be:

• compact: current Ran N commands behavior
• preview: each command + bounded output preview (previous behavior)
• full: full/raw command output

The important requested behavior is preview.

What steps can reproduce the bug?

1. Install/run Codex CLI 0.149.0.
2. Start an interactive Codex TUI session.
3. Ask Codex to perform a task that causes it to execute several successful shell commands in succession.
4. Observe the completed command activity in the normal TUI.

Instead of showing each command and a small preview of its output inline, the commands are grouped into an entry similar to:

• Ran 3 commands · ctrl+t to view transcript

1. Press Ctrl+T.
2. The individual commands and their output are available in the transcript, but require opening a separate view and scrolling through it.

This is reproducible with ordinary repository tasks that cause Codex to run several read/search/test/git commands consecutively.

What is the expected behavior?

There should be a configuration option to preserve the previous per-command inline presentation.

When several commands are executed, I want the normal TUI to show something like:

• Ran git status --short
└ M src/foo.rs

• Ran cargo check
└ Checking foo...
Finished...
… +20 lines (ctrl+t to view transcript)

• Ran rg "some_pattern"
└ src/foo.rs:42:...
src/bar.rs:10:...

Long output should still be truncated/bounded. Ctrl+T can remain available for viewing the complete transcript.

The request is not to remove the new compact UI as the default. Please make it configurable so users who actively monitor Codex's command execution can opt back into the previous inline preview behavior.

Additional information

_No response_