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Codex Desktop: keep active tasks visible in a persistent sidebar section #33730

Description

@vorojar

What variant of Codex are you using?

Codex Desktop app

What feature would you like to see?

When the sidebar contains many projects and tasks, it becomes difficult to find a task that is still running—especially when several tasks are active across different projects at the same time.

Today, active tasks are mixed into the normal project/thread hierarchy. They may be outside the visible scroll area or hidden inside a collapsed project, so checking progress often means scanning multiple projects and long task lists.

Please add a persistent, global Active tasks section to the sidebar. For example, it could be pinned at the bottom (or top) of the sidebar and remain visible while the rest of the task list scrolls.

Suggested behavior:

  • Show every task/thread with a currently running turn, across all projects.
  • Keep the section visible even when its project is collapsed or outside the current scroll position.
  • Clicking an item should immediately navigate to that task.
  • Show a compact state such as running, waiting for approval/input, or reconnecting.
  • Remove the item when the turn reaches a terminal state.
  • If there are no active tasks, hide or collapse the section.

The exact placement is flexible; the important part is having a stable, one-click way to locate all in-progress tasks.

Why this matters

Codex encourages parallel, long-running work. A typical workflow may have several tasks running in different projects while the user continues working elsewhere. In a crowded sidebar, the tasks that need attention are harder to find than completed history.

A persistent active-task area would turn the sidebar into a lightweight task monitor and make parallel sessions much easier to supervise without changing the existing project organization.

Expected behavior

At any time, I can see all currently active tasks in one stable sidebar location and jump to any of them with one click, regardless of project, sidebar scroll position, or whether the project is collapsed.

Additional information

This is specifically about discoverability and navigation for active tasks in the Desktop app, rather than general thread pinning or multi-window support.

I searched for existing issues around active/running sessions, sidebar navigation, pinned tasks, and multi-task workflows. I found related requests such as #33205 (multi-window workflows), but not this persistent active-task switcher request.

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    appIssues related to the Codex desktop appenhancementNew feature or requestsessionIssues involving session (thread) management, resuming, forking, naming, archiving

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