[BUG] Escape key suspends Codex session

Resolved 💬 3 comments Opened Sep 28, 2025 by brandontan Closed Jan 17, 2026

💡 Likely answer: A maintainer (etraut-openai, contributor) responded on this thread — see the highlighted reply below.

Summary

Pressing the Escape key once while using Codex CLI immediately suspends the active session.

Steps to Reproduce

Launch a Codex CLI coding session.
Press the Escape key.

Expected Behavior

Escape should dismiss the current prompt or simply be ignored, but the session should continue running.

Actual Behavior

The entire Codex session is suspended right after pressing Escape.

Environment

Client: Codex CLI (latest release as of 2025-09-28)
Host OS: macOS 15.6.1 (24G90)
Shell: zsh

Additional Context

Reproduces consistently
No in-progress command or modal when the key is pressed

View original on GitHub ↗

3 Comments

brandontan · 11 months ago

See screenrecording

!Image

appcypher · 9 months ago

In my case it suspends and crashes the CLI on the slightest interaction. I have reinstalled codex-cli, deleted ~/.codex and I my CLI still crashes. It is practically unusable for me.

How are people using this?

etraut-openai contributor · 7 months ago

Closing out old bugs.