openai / openai/codex

Sub-agent thread opened using `/agent` should show the initial prompt too

Open
#38,102 0 comments 0 reactions 0 assignees View on GitHub

Nobody has claimed this yet.

enhancement
Dominant language
Rust
Stars
125k
Forks
19.5k
PR merge metrics
PR metrics pending

Description

What variant of Codex are you using?

Codex CLI

What feature would you like to see?

Currently, when you switch to a sub-agent thread, you can view the thread and follow it. However, you cannot see the initial prompt passed by the parent thread. This makes it hard to know what the parent thread assigned to this sub-agent thread.

One workaround that I've found is to ask the parent thread directly (often in a /side conversation) what prompt it wrote for the sub-agent. It will happily return the whole prompt verbatim.

Codex CLI should show the user sub-agent prompt in the sub-agent thread because it makes the thread more readable, helps user debug sub-agent execution when needed and just creates a more uniform, no-surprises experience for the Codex CLI user when they switch between the threads.

Additional information

No response

Contributor guide

Open the contributing guide

First steps

  1. Read the whole issue, then the project's contributing guide.
  2. Comment on the issue to say you are picking it up — it saves two people doing the same work.
  3. Fork the repository and make your change on a branch.
  4. Open a pull request that references the issue number.

Research direction

No files or tests are named. Start by locating the Codex CLI entry point for opening or rendering sub-agent threads, then trace how the parent passes the initial prompt. Done means a thread opened with /agent visibly includes the user sub-agent prompt and remains readable when following that thread.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Tech stack
rust
Domain
cli
Issue type
Feature
Difficulty
4/5
Estimated time
3-5 days
Activity status
Quiet
Clarity
Mostly clear
Newbie friendliness
45/100

Get new issues in your inbox

A short digest of beginner-friendly GitHub issues.