Codex Desktop: support continuous vertical scrolling in PDF sidebar viewer
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- Dominant language
- Rust
- Stars
- 125k
- Forks
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Description
Feature request
Codex Desktop's right-side PDF viewer currently presents PDFs one page at a time. To move between pages, the user has to click the previous/next page controls.
For reading papers, reports, and other multi-page documents, this is much less convenient than the standard PDF interaction used by browsers and macOS Preview.
Desired behavior
Please add a continuous vertical scrolling mode to the PDF sidebar viewer:
- Mouse-wheel scrolling should move naturally through the current page and continue onto the next/previous page.
- Trackpad two-finger scrolling should work the same way.
- Pages should be stacked vertically in a continuous document view rather than requiring explicit page-button navigation.
- The existing previous/next page controls can remain available for quick jumps.
- Ideally, preserve the current scroll/page position when switching away from the PDF and back.
A single-page mode could remain available as an option, but continuous scrolling would be a much better default for document-reading workflows.
Why this matters
Codex is increasingly useful for workflows involving papers, generated reports, specifications, and other PDFs. When reviewing a long PDF alongside a Codex conversation, repeatedly moving the pointer to click a page-navigation icon interrupts reading flow. Continuous trackpad/mouse scrolling would make the sidebar substantially more usable for document-heavy work.
Expected interaction
- Open a multi-page PDF in the right sidebar.
- Scroll downward with the mouse wheel or trackpad.
- When reaching the bottom of page N, scrolling continues directly into page N+1.
- Scroll upward to move back across page boundaries.
This should behave similarly to the continuous-scroll modes in browser PDF viewers and macOS Preview.
Related issues
- #22095 — file viewer scroll-position / keyboard paging behavior
- #26931 — inconsistent PDF viewer behavior depending on how the PDF is opened
Those appear adjacent but do not specifically request continuous vertical cross-page scrolling for PDFs.
Contributor guide
First steps
- Read the whole issue, then the project's contributing guide.
- Comment on the issue to say you are picking it up — it saves two people doing the same work.
- Fork the repository and make your change on a branch.
- Open a pull request that references the issue number.
Research direction
Start by locating the Codex Desktop PDF sidebar viewer and reviewing related issues #22095 and #26931 for existing scrolling and position behavior. Reproduce the current page-at-a-time navigation with a multi-page PDF, then verify that mouse-wheel and trackpad scrolling cross page boundaries while the existing controls remain usable.
Written by the indexing model from the issue text.
Assessment
- Domain
- desktop
- Issue type
- Feature
- Difficulty
- 4/5
- Estimated time
- 3-5 days
- Activity status
- Active
- Clarity
- Mostly clear
- Newbie friendliness
- 48/100