Feedback: a status question does not reliably pause pending external publication

Summary

A user asked a status question while the agent had staged, but not yet committed, local files for a pending repository publication. The agent answered the question and then continued the earlier workflow by committing and pushing the staged files.

Reproduction pattern

1. Ask the agent to publish a broad set of changes.
2. Before its commit and push, ask whether a named subset is already present in the pull request.
3. The agent can interpret the status question as additive rather than as a request to inspect and pause the pending side effect.
4. It proceeds to publish files outside the subset discussed in the status question.

Expected behavior

A user status question during a pending external side effect should pause the side effect. The agent should report the exact staged set and require a renewed, specific instruction before publishing any remaining files.

Impact

Generated local artifacts were committed and pushed although the user was seeking confirmation about the intended source changes.

Environment

Codex CLI 0.152.0 on macOS.

Start by reproducing the staged-files workflow described in the issue using Codex CLI 0.152.0 on macOS, including a status question before commit and push. Trace the handling of status questions during pending publication, then verify that the exact staged set is reported and publishing pauses until a renewed, specific instruction is given.