[App]: Preload project and PR context before the first message in a new task

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Assessment

Difficulty
4/5
Estimated time
3-5 days
Newbie friendliness
48/100
Issue type
Feature
Clarity
Mostly clear
Activity status
Quiet
Tech stack
rust
Domain
desktop

Research direction

Start by locating the App's new-task composer and Environment panel, then trace where project and pull request context is initialized after the first message. Done means the selected repository, branch, pull request, checks, review comments, and local changes are available before the first turn, with loading feedback while they are fetched.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Description

app enhancement session
What variant of Codex are you using?

App

What feature would you like to see?

When creating a new task inside an existing project, Codex Desktop should initialize the project environment and load the associated GitHub pull request context before the first user message is sent.

Currently, the Environment panel — including the current branch, linked pull request, failing checks, and review comments — is populated only after the first message.

This means the first prompt cannot reliably be something concise like:

Fix the failing checks and address the review comments.

The user must first send an unrelated message, wait for the environment to initialize, and only then ask Codex to work with the PR state.

Expected behavior

When a project is already selected, Codex should preload the available environment context while the new-task composer is open, including:

  • repository and current branch;
  • linked pull request;
  • pull request checks;
  • review comments;
  • local changes.

This context should be available to the agent on the first turn, so the first message can immediately reference the visible project and PR state.

A loading indicator in the Environment panel would be fine while this context is being fetched.

Additional information

This would make project tasks behave more like an already initialized development workspace and remove the need for a disposable first message.

For example, when the Environment panel shows a pull request with failing checks and review comments, the user should be able to start a new task with:

Fix the failing checks and address the review comments.

Ideally, this panel should be initialized before the first message so the user can immediately click actions such as Fix for failing checks, instead of having to send a prompt first just to initialize the task and load the pull request context.
Screenshot created with imagegen skill, for reference.

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Dominant language
Rust
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Merged PRs (30d)
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