Windows Codex App: Frequent hanging on 'Automatically compacting context' every 1-2 minutes + indefinite freeze #14472

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1. shanayatunk

   added

   appIssues related to the Codex desktop appIssues related to the Codex desktop app

   on Mar 12, 2026
2. github-actions commented on Mar 12, 2026

   

   github-actionsBot

   on Mar 12, 2026 – with GitHub Actions

   Contributor

   More actions

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

   • Context Compaction Hanging #14346
   • Compacting is getting stuck #14342
   • Very frequent auto compact and after compact, context windows are nearly full. #14447
   • Compaction hangs indefinitely at <16% #14425
   • Compaction progress state not clearing in Windows app when compaction task fails (stuck "자동으로 컨텍스트를 압축하는 중") #13659

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3. Acture commented on Mar 26, 2026

   

   Acture

   on Mar 26, 2026

   Last edited by Acture

   More actions

   I did some root-cause analysis on this.

   Neither inline nor remote compaction has timeout protection:

   • compact.rs: drain_to_completed() loops on stream.next().await with no timeout — if the model API stalls, the await never resolves and the retry loop is never reached.
   • compact_remote.rs: compact_conversation_history() has the same issue.

   CodexErr::Timeout already exists and is_retryable() returns true for it, so wrapping both calls with tokio::time::timeout() lets the existing retry-with-backoff loop handle it gracefully — the user sees "Reconnecting..." instead of an infinite freeze.

   Prepared a fix (Acture:fix/compaction-timeout-14472):

   • Wrap drain_to_completed() and compact_conversation_history() with 120-second tokio::time::timeout()
   • On timeout, return CodexErr::Timeout to trigger existing retry logic

   Commit: Acture@f481f5f (includes a unit test verifying timeout produces a retryable CodexErr::Timeout)

   Patch (for easy cherry-pick):

   @@ compact.rs @@
   +use std::time::Duration;
   +use tokio::time::timeout;
   +
   +pub(crate) const COMPACTION_TIMEOUT: Duration = Duration::from_secs(120);
   
   -        let attempt_result = drain_to_completed(
   -            &sess,
   -            turn_context.as_ref(),
   -            &mut client_session,
   -            turn_metadata_header.as_deref(),
   -            &prompt,
   -        )
   -        .await;
   +        let attempt_result = match timeout(
   +            COMPACTION_TIMEOUT,
   +            drain_to_completed(
   +                &sess,
   +                turn_context.as_ref(),
   +                &mut client_session,
   +                turn_metadata_header.as_deref(),
   +                &prompt,
   +            ),
   +        )
   +        .await
   +        {
   +            Ok(inner) => inner,
   +            Err(_elapsed) => Err(CodexErr::Timeout),
   +        };

   Verified locally: all 50 compact tests pass. just fix -p codex-core reports no warnings.
4. Acture

   added a commit that references this issue on Mar 26, 2026

   fix(core): add timeout to compaction operations to prevent UI hangs

   ...

   This issue will close once commit f481f5f is merged into the 'main' branch.

   f481f5f
5. ambrosino-oai

   added

   bugSomething isn't workingSomething isn't working

   windows-osIssues related to Codex on Windows systemsIssues related to Codex on Windows systems

   on Apr 1, 2026
6. ambrosino-oai

   added

   contextIssues related to context management (including compaction)Issues related to context management (including compaction)

   on Apr 24, 2026
7. etraut-openai

   added

   performance

   on May 3, 2026
8. ambrosino-oai

   closed this as duplicateon Jul 2, 2026