Add /restart to reinitialize Codex and resume the current thread

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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
Active
Tech stack
rust
Domain
cli

Research direction

Start by reviewing the tested implementation on the feat/restart-session branch and trace the CLI/TUI slash-command, shutdown, relaunch, and thread-resume entry points it changes. Run the relevant tests from that branch and verify that /restart preserves the working directory and conversation, reinitializes MCP connections, and avoids replaying the original prompt or attachments.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Description

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

CLI / TUI

What feature would you like to see?

Add a /restart slash command that performs the equivalent of:

  1. Running /quit and completing the normal shutdown sequence.
  2. Relaunching Codex in the same working directory.
  3. Resuming the current thread automatically.

Some MCP servers occasionally fail to initialize, load their tools, or begin working within an active Codex session. Even when the MCP configuration is correct, the only reliable recovery is often to:

  1. Quit Codex.
  2. Relaunch it from the same directory.
  3. Resume the same session manually.

After relaunching, the affected MCP tools load and work normally. This workaround requires several unnecessary steps just to restore the MCP tools.

The /restart command should:

  • wait for normal session shutdown and cleanup;
  • preserve the current working directory;
  • resume the same thread and conversation context;
  • reinitialize components normally initialized during startup, including MCP connections;
  • avoid replaying the original prompt or attached images;
  • avoid requiring the user to find and select the session manually.

This differs from /new, which starts a new conversation. /restart should preserve the current conversation while providing the same recovery behavior as quitting Codex, relaunching it, and resuming the session.

Additional information

A similar request was opened in #33370, but that discussion was clarified as requesting a fresh conversation context while retaining the existing process.

This proposal has the opposite session behavior: preserve the current thread and context while performing the equivalent of a clean quit and resume.

I have a tested implementation available on the feat/restart-session branch of my fork and would be happy to submit a pull request if the Codex team would like the contribution.

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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