Random garbled output and broken layout in iTerm2 on macOS with Codex 0.57 when file-modifying tool calls are executed

Resolved 💬 5 comments Opened Nov 13, 2025 by BobbyWang0120 Closed Feb 23, 2026
💡 Likely answer: A maintainer (github-actions[bot], contributor) responded on this thread — see the highlighted reply below.

What version of Codex is running?

0.57

What subscription do you have?

Pro

Which model were you using?

_No response_

What platform is your computer?

macOS using iTerm2

What issue are you seeing?

When using Codex 0.57 through iTerm2 on macOS, I frequently see random garbled output whenever the assistant's response includes calls to file-modifying tools (e.g., writing or editing files). The content of the reply becomes unreadable junk characters and the interface layout (input box, layout) is broken and scattered. This happens unpredictably, and the response becomes meaningless gibberish. It is a severe issue as the output is unreadable and the UI is corrupted.

What steps can reproduce the bug?

It's difficult to reproduce because the timing seems random. The issue appears when running Codex 0.57 via iTerm2 on a Mac and invoking tool calls that modify or write files as part of the reply. After making several tool calls that modify files, occasionally a reply that includes file operations will render as garbled text and the UI layout becomes misaligned. There is no specific code snippet; the random nature makes reproduction unpredictable.

What is the expected behavior?

Responses that include tool calls to write or edit files should still render correctly in iTerm2. The text should be readable and the interface layout (input box, etc.) should remain intact. No garbled output or broken layout should occur.

Additional information

_No response_

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5 Comments

github-actions[bot] contributor · 9 months ago

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

  • #6578

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etraut-openai contributor · 9 months ago

Have you seen this with previous versions? I'm wondering if this is potentially a regression with 0.57.

guidedways contributor · 9 months ago

I've seen something similar (not this version in particular) when I do /review the review steps include repetition, words smashed into each other and so on. At first I thought the review would fail but seems to be okay otherwise.

BobbyWang0120 · 9 months ago

New finding: When developing my Swift application, I noticed that if I ask Codex to build the project via a CLI command (for example using Xcode's xcodebuild), the output is extremely long and results in garbled output that messes up the interactive interface.

Could the team please investigate whether long CLI outputs are causing this garbled output and UI issues? Thank you!

etraut-openai contributor · 6 months ago

Reviewing old (possibly stale and no-longer-relevant) bug reports.

We haven't received any recent reports of this, so I suspect it's no longer an issue. If you're still seeing this with recent versions, let us know.