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Provide a way to view the content of the background terminal #13858

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Provide a way to view the content of the background terminal#13858
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TUIIssues related to the terminal user interface: text input, menus and dialogs, and terminal displayenhancementNew feature or request

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@p81sunshine
p81sunshine
opened on Mar 7, 2026

What variant of Codex are you using?

CLI

What feature would you like to see?

There doesn't seem to be a way to view the full output of a background terminal. How can I inspect its complete content?

Additional information

No response

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  1. p81sunshine
    added
    enhancementNew feature or request
    on Mar 7, 2026
  2. github-actions
    added
    CLIIssues related to the Codex CLI
    TUIIssues related to the terminal user interface: text input, menus and dialogs, and terminal display
    on Mar 7, 2026

  3. github-actions commented on Mar 7, 2026

    @github-actions
    github-actionsBot
    on Mar 7, 2026 – with GitHub Actions
    Contributor

    Potential duplicates detected. Please review them and close your issue if it is a duplicate.

    Powered by Codex Action

  4. etraut-openai
    removed
    CLIIssues related to the Codex CLI
    on Mar 7, 2026
  5. etraut-openai
    changed the title [-]How can I view the full content of the background terminal?[/-] [+]Provide a way to view the content of the background terminal[/+] on Mar 7, 2026

  6. ignatremizov commented on Mar 13, 2026

    @ignatremizov
    ignatremizov
    on Mar 13, 2026

    +1

    /ps

Background terminals

  • ./.venv/bin/python - <<'PY' [...]
  • ./.venv/bin/python - <<'PY' [...]
  • ./.venv/bin/python - <<'PY' [...]

  3 background terminals running · /ps to view · /clean to close

    Is not helpful to understand what is happening

  7. ignatremizov commented on Mar 13, 2026

    @ignatremizov
    ignatremizov
    on Mar 13, 2026

    Implementation spec based on current main:

    This looks fixable as a TUI-only change. The CLI already receives background-terminal output chunks; the main limitation today is that the TUI throws almost all of that away and /ps renders a heavily truncated history cell.

    Current truncation points on main:

    • tui/src/chatwidget.rs
      • UnifiedExecProcessSummary only keeps recent_chunks: Vec<String>
      • track_unified_exec_output_chunk(...) keeps only the last 3 non-empty lines (MAX_RECENT_CHUNKS = 3)
    • tui/src/history_cell.rs
      • /ps only shows the first line of command_display
      • command preview is capped to 80 graphemes before width-based truncation
      • chunk previews are also width-truncated and suffixed with [...]

    Suggested implementation:

    1. Keep the footer summary as-is.

      • background terminal running · /ps to view · /clean to close is fine for the bottom pane.

    2. Change /ps from “insert truncated history cell into transcript” to “open a pager overlay”.

      • Reuse the existing static pager overlay in tui/src/pager_overlay.rs
      • This avoids flooding transcript history and gives proper scrolling for long prompts/output

    3. In tui/src/chatwidget.rs, replace recent_chunks: Vec<String> with a bounded per-process output buffer.

      • A VecDeque<String> line ring buffer is probably enough for an MVP
      • Bound it by total lines and/or bytes per process so memory stays predictable
      • Example target: keep the last 500-2000 lines or ~128-512 KiB per running process
      • No need for a config knob initially

    4. Keep both:

      • a short single-line summary for the footer
      • the full wrapped command text for the /ps overlay

    5. /ps overlay content should render, for each running process:

      • process id if available
      • full command/prompt text, wrapped, not first-line-only
      • buffered output below it, wrapped, not hard-truncated to 3 lines

    6. Nice follow-up, but not required for MVP:

      • when the overlay is open, keep it live by rebuilding from the in-memory process buffers on each draw/tick
      • optionally add per-process sections or jump keys later

    Why this seems low-risk:

    • No protocol change looks necessary for the CLI/TUI path
    • output chunks already reach ChatWidget; they are just summarized too aggressively today
    • the pager overlay already exists and is a better UI primitive than a transcript cell for this job

    So the practical MVP is:

    • store more than 3 recent lines
    • stop using a transcript cell for /ps
    • open a scrollable overlay showing full wrapped command text and buffered output for each running background terminal

  8. ChristopherP1221 commented on Apr 10, 2026

    @ChristopherP1221
    ChristopherP1221
    on Apr 10, 2026

    I've very recently switched from windsurf to codex and I'm missing this capability already. There is something strangely satisfying watching the actions stream by, whether you're in the loop or not. It's also a great way to catch and steer codex in a different direction if you're in a live troubleshooting session.

  9. nathan-chappell commented on Apr 16, 2026

    @nathan-chappell
    nathan-chappell
    on Apr 16, 2026

    It's not a perfect solution, but a useful workaround for some may be to have logs be routed to a file (for instance, I just told codex to add a rotating file handler for my python app that I'm working on so tests give me an additional artifact for observation)

  10. Hexman768 commented on Apr 20, 2026

    @Hexman768
    Hexman768
    on Apr 20, 2026

    +1, I would love to see the behavior also, it would be especially helpful in scenarios where the background terminal gets stuck or has a strange error when running commands.

  11. p81sunshine commented on Apr 23, 2026

    @p81sunshine
    p81sunshine
    on Apr 23, 2026
    Author

    It seems to be resolved by using ctrl+t in the newest version of codex

  12. onyedikachi23 commented on May 27, 2026

    @onyedikachi23
    onyedikachi23
    on May 27, 2026

    It seems to be resolved by using ctrl+t in the newest version of codex

    This works but doesn't show the terminal output always. The panel opened from that command isn't smooth at all. Scrolling and display don't look good.

    I prefer how Kiro IDE does it by showing you the terminal activities live in a normal IDE terminal panel. I can run my own commands in the terminal session, stop or kill that session easily. It's like owning full control of the terminal and the agent uses or creates new ones at will.

  13. zakinadhif commented on Jul 24, 2026

    @zakinadhif
    zakinadhif
    on Jul 24, 2026

    Claude Code already have this, when will Codex CLI have it :)

  14. etraut-openai
    marked A way to view full output of background terminals #16935 as a duplicate of this issue on Aug 6, 2026

  15. sean-cortical commented on Aug 18, 2026

    @sean-cortical
    sean-cortical
    on Aug 18, 2026

    This is what I like the most about vs-code's copilot is that it opens a regular terminal that i can auth in if i need, and see whats happening so i can remain in control

  16. etraut-openai commented on Oct 12, 2026

    @etraut-openai
    etraut-openai
    on Oct 12, 2026
    Contributor

    /ps is implemented.

  17. etraut-openai
    closed this as completedon Oct 12, 2026
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