Feature request: Built-in session storage dashboard, backups, and safe bulk cleanup

What variant of Codex are you using?

CLI and App

What feature would you like to see?

Codex needs a supported session-storage control surface, not only single-session deletion.

On 2026-08-16, a privacy-safe scan of my Linux machine found:

• 938 local Codex sessions using 42,254,816,761 bytes (~39.4 GiB)
• 732 subagent sessions using 24,349,191,222 bytes (~22.7 GiB)
• one session file close to 9.5 GB

I would like Codex to provide both a built-in UI and a stable machine-readable CLI/API for:

• reporting total session storage and grouping it by project, source type, age, and size
• distinguishing main sessions, subagents, active writers, pinned sessions, and orphaned records
• exporting selected sessions before cleanup
• copying sessions while preserving the paths required for restoration
• safely deleting selected or filtered sessions in batches
• configuring global and per-session quotas or retention policies
• warning before session storage exhausts the disk

Suggested commands could include:

codex sessions list --json
codex sessions storage --json
codex sessions export <id...> --output <path>
codex sessions delete --ids-file <path> --force
codex sessions prune --older-than <duration> --source subagent --dry-run

The destructive path should re-check active writers and locks immediately before deletion, explain which resume data and associated artifacts will be removed, and fail closed if safety cannot be established.

I built a localhost-only prototype to test this workflow. It scans multiple CODEX_HOME roots, shows storage by project and source type, exports ZIP backups with a manifest, preserves provider-relative paths for migration, protects active/writer-locked/pinned/recent/unindexed sessions, and delegates Codex deletion to codex delete --force instead of unlinking JSONL files directly.

The prototype demonstrates the UX, but it still has to read internal SQLite and JSONL layouts. A supported listing/export/batch-delete interface would let external tools avoid depending on unstable internal storage details.

Additional information

Related issues:

• #34061 documents extreme disk growth from subagent session logs.
• #28187 tracks deletion, retention, and cleanup UX.
• #8784 requested codex delete <session>, which now addresses individual deletion but not discovery, backup, storage accounting, or safe bulk cleanup.

This request is specifically for a supported end-to-end session lifecycle interface shared by the CLI and App, including storage accounting, export/backup, and batch operations. It is broader than adding another delete button.

I have intentionally omitted transcript contents, project paths, usernames, and session IDs.

Start by reviewing related issues #34061, #28187, and #8784, then inspect the existing codex delete --force entry point and session storage layouts. Compare the requested CLI commands with current behavior; done means a supported CLI/API and shared UI can account for, export, and safely batch-delete sessions while protecting active writers, locked, pinned, recent, and unindexed records.