“Message navigation rail” for long Codex tasks (Desktop + CLI)

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Assessment

Difficulty
5/5
Estimated time
Over a week
Newbie friendliness
35/100
Issue type
Feature
Clarity
Mostly clear
Activity status
Quiet
Tech stack
rust
Domain
cli, desktop

Research direction

Start by mapping the existing message navigation and session views in the Desktop app and CLI. Define how user-query markers, interactive selection, scroll synchronization, and a return-to-latest action should work in both variants. Done means users can locate each query, jump to its turn, and see which turn is current.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Description

app CLI enhancement session TUI
What variant of Codex are you using?

App, CLI

What feature would you like to see?
Summary

In long Codex tasks, it’s hard to quickly jump between earlier user prompts. I’d like Codex to support a ChatGPT-like message navigation rail that indexes each user query and lets me jump to it instantly, while highlighting the current turn as I scroll.

Problem / Motivation

When a session becomes long (many turns, large outputs, multi-step tasks), scrolling to find a specific user prompt or the start of a subtask is slow and error-prone. I often need to review a previous query to clarify scope, compare decisions, or resume work.

Additional information
Requested UX (Desktop app)

  • Show a right-side “navigation rail” with markers for each user query/turn.

  • Clicking a marker scrolls/jumps to that turn.

  • The marker for the currently visible turn is highlighted (scroll-sync).

Requested UX (CLI)

  • Provide a quick way to list and jump to user queries within the current session (e.g., a “timeline/index” view).

  • Support interactive selection (arrow keys / fuzzy search) and jump to the selected turn.

  • Keep the “current turn” indicator visible while navigating (or provide an easy “back to latest” action).

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Dominant language
Rust
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Forks
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Avg merge
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Merged PRs (30d)
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