Slash-command popup lost fuzzy/substring matching in 0.89.0 (now prefix-only) — please add fuzzy fallback or config toggle

[IvanLi-CN]

What version of Codex is running?

codex-cli 0.89.0 (tag: rust-v0.89.0)

What subscription do you have?

N/A (this is a local TUI behavior; occurs before any model call)

Which model were you using?

N/A (not model-dependent)

What platform is your computer?

macOS 15.6.1 (Darwin 24.6.0, arm64)

What terminal emulator and version are you using (if applicable)?

Ghostty 1.2.3 (zsh)

What issue are you seeing?

After upgrading to 0.89.0, the slash-command autocomplete/popup appears to no longer support fuzzy/substring (subsequence) matching.
It now behaves like exact/prefix-only filtering, which makes it hard to discover/trigger commands unless you remember the exact prefix.

Example:

• Typing /ac used to show /compact (because "ac" is a subsequence / substring match), but now it shows no results.

This looks related to openai/codex#9629 (“better sorting of shell commands”), but the current behavior feels more strict than “exact/prefix first, then
fuzzy”: fuzzy seems removed entirely.

What steps can reproduce the bug?

1. Install/upgrade to codex-cli 0.89.0.
2. Start an interactive Codex session.
3. Type /ac in the composer so the slash-command popup is active.
4. Observe the suggestions list.

What is the expected behavior?

Either:

• Keep fuzzy matches as a fallback (e.g. exact > prefix > fuzzy), OR
• If fuzzy matches are considered too noisy, only show fuzzy results when there are no exact/prefix matches, OR
• Provide a config option to choose behavior, e.g.:
  • slash_command_matcher = "prefix" (current)
  • slash_command_matcher = "exact_prefix_fuzzy" (previous/desired)

So that /ac can still surface /compact without breaking the “prefix should win” goal.

What do you see instead?

No suggestions for inputs that rely on fuzzy/substring matching (e.g. /ac does not include /compact).

Additional information

• Related PR: openai/codex#9629
• A prior approach that seemed closer to the desired UX: TUI: rank prefix matches ahead of fuzzy results in slash command popup #9625 (prefix first, then fuzzy), but it was closed in favor of feat: better sorting of shell commands #9629.
• If the change is intentional, it would be helpful to document the new matching semantics in the slash-commands docs / release notes more explicitly
  (since many users treat fuzzy as “autocomplete”).

[etraut-openai]

The behavior in 0.89.0 was changed based on feedback from other users.

[IvanLi-CN]

The behavior in 0.89.0 was changed based on feedback from other users.

I have two custom prompts, one is plan and the other is plan-migrate. I hope that when I input migrate, I can still see /prompts:plan-migrate in the options instead of nothing.

[enerai]

yes, I met the same problem, cannot find my custom prompts anymore.

maybe, are there some specific fuzzy rules for finding custom prompts?

[JoeRoddy]

The behavior in 0.89.0 was changed based on feedback from other users.

@etraut-openai what was the feedback? what was the issue before?

1,000% subjective, but I never had an issue with the old search, and this new one feels absolutely awful as a user.

previously could type specplan, specimplement, etc

now that behavior is completely broken