## Why
The TUI treats both an active turn and MCP startup as a running task.
That currently blocks `/resume` and several settings commands even
though they do not compete with turn execution, which is especially
frustrating when MCP startup is slow.
Model, permissions, personality, and service-tier selections already
update thread settings independently of the running turn. Other clients
can send those updates mid-turn, while the current turn continues with
its captured settings. Allowing the same updates from local slash
commands makes the TUI consistent with that existing behavior.
## What changed
- Allow `/resume` while a task is running.
- Allow `/model`, `/permissions`, `/personality`, and service-tier
commands such as `/fast` while a task is running.
- Keep the existing behavior where the active turn uses its captured
settings and updates apply to subsequent turns.
- Exercise the commands under the busy state in the existing TUI tests
and retain coverage for commands that should remain blocked.
## Behavior note
Turn settings such as model selection and reasoning effort are captured
when a turn starts. Changing them during an active turn affects the next
turn, not the turn already in progress. The status bar updates
immediately, so it may temporarily display the newly selected setting
before that setting is actually in effect.
## Verification
- Focused `codex-tui` tests for resume dispatch, settings popups,
`/fast`, and disabled-command behavior.
## Related issues
Closes#19015.
Addresses the next-turn-safe model/reasoning switching portion of
#14356; dedicated shortcuts and the proposed depth meter remain out of
scope.
## Stack
1. [1 of 3] Support long raw TUI goal objectives - #27508
2. **[2 of 3] Support long pasted text in TUI goals** - this PR
3. [3 of 3] Support images in TUI goals - #27510
## Why
Large text pasted into the TUI composer is represented as a paste
placeholder plus pending paste metadata. For `/goal`, preserving only
the visible placeholder is not enough: the agent would see a short
placeholder string instead of the actual pasted text, and the long-text
support from the first PR would never see the payload.
The TUI also needs to avoid writing stale sidecar files when a user
pastes a large block and then deletes its placeholder before submitting
the goal.
## What Changed
- Introduces a TUI `GoalDraft` for goal submissions so `/goal`, `/goal
edit`, and queued goal commands can carry objective text plus text
elements and pending paste payloads.
- Materializes active pasted-text placeholders to `pasted-text-N.txt`
files through the app-server filesystem path introduced in #27508.
- Rewrites active paste placeholders in the persisted objective to file
references, while leaving literal placeholder-looking text alone.
- Filters out deleted paste placeholders so otherwise-small goals do not
require `$CODEX_HOME` or remote filesystem writes.
- Preserves pending paste metadata when a `/goal` command is queued
before a thread exists.
## Verification
- Added goal materialization tests for active paste placeholders,
deleted paste placeholders, and whitespace-only paste payloads.
- Added/updated TUI slash-command tests for large pasted text, queued
`/goal` commands before thread start, and queued oversized goal
behavior.
## Manual Testing
- Used real terminal bracketed-paste sequences through a remote TUI
session. A 1,228-byte multiline paste became `pasted-text-1.txt`; its
first/last lines and byte count matched exactly, and the persisted
objective referenced the server-host path.
- Pasted a large block, deleted its placeholder, and submitted a small
replacement objective. No new directory or sidecar file was created.
- Added two same-length large pastes to one goal. The composer
disambiguated their visible placeholders, and materialization preserved
order and contents in `pasted-text-1.txt` and `pasted-text-2.txt`.
- Submitted a whitespace-only large paste and verified the goal was
rejected as empty without writing a file.
- Submitted a pasted-text replacement while another goal was active,
verified no file was written before confirmation, then canceled and
confirmed the original goal remained unchanged.
- Combined a large paste with enough raw text to exceed 4,000 characters
after placeholder rewriting. The paste sidecar and `goal-objective.md`
were created in the same remote attachment directory, and `/goal edit`
restored the rewritten objective with its sidecar reference.
## Summary
- accept non-empty model-defined reasoning effort values while
preserving built-in effort behavior
- propagate the non-Copy effort type through core, app-server, TUI,
telemetry, and persistence call sites
- preserve string wire encoding and expose an open-string schema for
clients
- update model selection and shortcut behavior for model-advertised
effort values
## Root cause
`ReasoningEffort` gained a string-backed custom variant, so it could no
longer implement `Copy` or rely on derived closed-enum serialization.
Existing consumers still moved effort values from shared references and
assumed a fixed built-in value set.
## Validation
- `just fmt`
- Local tests and compilation were not run per request; relying on CI.
Builds on #23502.
## Why
#23502 adds the app-server `thread/settings/update` API and matching
`thread/settings/updated` notification. The TUI already lets users
change thread-scoped settings such as model, reasoning effort, service
tier, approvals, permissions, personality, and collaboration mode, but
those updates need to flow through the app server so embedded and
connected clients observe the same thread state.
This is a rework (simplification) of PR
https://github.com/openai/codex/pull/22510. It has the same
functionality, but the underlying `thread/settings/update` api is now
simpler in that it no longer returns the effective settings as a
response. Now, clients receive the effective settings only through the
`thread/settings/updated` notification.
## What Changed
This updates the TUI to send `thread/settings/update` whenever those
thread-scoped settings change and to treat the RPC response as the
authoritative acknowledgement. It also routes `thread/settings/updated`
notifications back into cached session state and the visible chat widget
so active and inactive threads stay in sync after app-server-originated
changes.
The implementation is kept to the TUI layer: settings conversion and
merge logic live under `codex-rs/tui/src/app/thread_settings.rs`, with
dispatch/routing hooks in the existing app and chat widget paths.
## Verification
I manually tested using `codex app-server --listen unix://` and then
launching two copies of the TUI that use the same local app server. I
then resumed the same thread on both and verified that changes like plan
mode, fast mode, model, reasoning effort, etc. are reflected "live" in
the second client when modified in the first and vice versa.
## Why
After the terminal-probe work in #23175, fresh-session startup still
waits for `thread/start` before the chat input can become usable. The
chat widget already has the machinery to hold early submissions until a
session is configured, so fresh `thread/start` does not need to stay on
the input-ready hot path.
Refs #16335.
## What
This PR starts fresh app-server threads in a background task, reports
completion through a startup app event, and attaches the primary session
once `thread/start` returns. Resume and fork startup paths remain
synchronous.
## Benchmark
In the local pty startup benchmark, this PR's pre-optimization base
branch, #23175, measured about 152ms median from launch to accepted chat
input. The stacked result measured about 66ms median, for an approximate
additional savings of 85-95ms. For broader context, the original `main`
baseline before either startup optimization was about 250.5ms median. We
also measured Codex 0.117.0 on the same machine at about 64.6ms median,
so the stacked branch is back in the old-startup-time range.
## Stack
1. [#23175: [1 of 2] Optimize TUI startup terminal
probes](https://github.com/openai/codex/pull/23175) — base PR
2. [#23176: [2 of 2] Start fresh TUI thread in
background](https://github.com/openai/codex/pull/23176) — this PR
## Verification
- `cargo test -p codex-tui`
## Why
`chatwidget.rs` is still carrying too many unrelated responsibilities in
one file. #22269 started a five-phase effort to move coherent behavior
domains into focused modules while keeping `chatwidget.rs` as the
composition layer.
This PR is phase 2 of that plan. It extracts the input and submission
flow as a mechanical move before the later protocol, popup/status, and
constructor/orchestration phases.
## What Changed
- Added `codex-rs/tui/src/chatwidget/input_flow.rs` for composer input
results, queued user-message draining, pending-input previews, and
mode-specific submission entry points.
- Added `codex-rs/tui/src/chatwidget/input_submission.rs` for
user-message construction/submission, shell prompt submission,
structured mention resolution, and blocked image draft restoration.
- Added `codex-rs/tui/src/chatwidget/input_restore.rs` for
initial-message submission, pending steer restoration after interrupts,
and thread input snapshot/restore behavior.
- Registered the new modules and removed the moved `ChatWidget` impl
methods from `codex-rs/tui/src/chatwidget.rs`.
## Follow-On Refactor Phases
The five-phase plan from #22269 is:
- Phase 1: mechanical helper and state moves. Completed in #22269.
- Phase 2: extract input and submission flow, including queued user
messages, shell prompt submission, pending steer restoration, and thread
input snapshot/restore behavior. This PR.
- Phase 3: extract protocol, replay, streaming, and tool lifecycle
handling, while preserving active-cell grouping, transcript
invalidation, interrupt deferral, and final-message separator behavior.
- Phase 4: extract settings, popups, and status surfaces, including
model/reasoning/collaboration/personality popups, permission prompts,
rate-limit UI, and connectors helpers.
- Phase 5: clean up the remaining constructor and orchestration code
once the larger behavior domains have moved out, leaving `chatwidget.rs`
as the composition layer.
Charlie Marsh