[Bug]: Codex child rows lose answer text and tool counts
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- Dominant language
- TypeScript
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Description
Area
The Codex provider in apps/server. The bug appears in the web and desktop Agents panel.
Steps to reproduce
- Open a Codex thread and ask it to spawn a native child with a readable task name.
- Ask the child to read a file and return a short answer.
- Check its Agents panel row during the task and after the child becomes idle.
Expected behavior
The row shows the current operation, then the child's answer. It also shows the number of tool calls.
Proposed appearance
These previews use T3's existing row component, fonts, icons, and spacing. The data is synthetic. The proposed code does not yet supply every field shown here.
During work

After the turn

Actual behavior
The row shows assistant message after the child finishes. It shows tokens but no tool count. The child journal contains an answer and tool calls.
At commit ec5ede5e, the collabAgent/item mapping reads command, title, or query for its summary. It ignores agentMessage.text, so an answer becomes a generic item label. Neither this mapping nor the token usage mapping supplies typedUsage.toolUses. AgentsPanel.tsx already displays answer text and tool counts when it receives them.
Version and environment
I reproduced this in T3 Code Alpha 0.0.40 on macOS with Codex CLI 0.154.0. I checked the source at ec5ede5e6a1f2f9d564a5834462f47d1b7e5f0ec.
Impact
Users must leave the Agents panel to read the child's answer or count its tool calls.
Related work
#10185 covers missing model and effort labels. The richer panel used as a reference ran a Claude agent. It does not show that this Codex behavior worked before.
The proposed changes restore message text, describe tool operations, and retry startup metadata reads. They do not yet count tools across restarts or store the final answer separately from progress text. Discussion #11778 describes the remaining work.
An adapter test reproduces the text loss and passes with the change. I have not tested the modified build in the live interface. I left the installed application and its databases unchanged.
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 with the collabAgent/item mapping described in the issue and review AgentsPanel.tsx to see the fields it already renders. Run the adapter test that reproduces the text loss, then verify a Codex child row shows its answer and tool count during work and after the turn.
Written by the indexing model from the issue text.
Assessment
- Tech stack
- typescript
- Domain
- backend, frontend
- Issue type
- Bug
- Difficulty
- 3/5
- Estimated time
- 1-2 days
- Activity status
- Active
- Clarity
- Mostly clear
- Newbie friendliness
- 68/100