Repository navigation
[Bug]: Desktop renders reasoning summaries only as generic “Thought” labels #12134
Description
Activity
Laptop:
Mobile:
Triage
Confirmed as a desktop/web rendering issue, not missing session data.
#11784now stores Codexitem/reasoning/summaryTextDeltaasrole: "reasoning"messages. The collapsed desktop row inReasoningTimelineRow(apps/web/src/components/chat/MessagesTimeline.tsx) always labels those"Thought"/"Thinking"and only mountsmessage.textwhen expanded. Currentmainmobile (ThreadReasoningRow) uses the same generic labels.The mobile screenshot is the older compatibility path: clients that do not advertise
reasoningMessages=truegetreasoningremapped tosystem(ActivityPayloadProjection), and mobile then prints that text as a normal message. That is why the same session showsReading release.py,Inspecting function, etc. on mobile and a Thought stack on desktop.Expand should already reveal the summary; the desktop shot is fully collapsed. The real gap is scanability: Codex summaries are the progress headlines, and hiding them behind identical Thought rows makes long desktop turns look stalled.
Next step
Use a truncated first line of
message.textas the collapsed label inReasoningTimelineRowandThreadReasoningRowwhen a short summary exists; keep"Thinking"/"Thought"as the fallback for streaming, empty, or long raw traces. Fix both clients so mobile does not regress when it ships#11784.Closed by merged PR #12302, which adds truncated reasoning previews to collapsed web thought rows and reveals the full summary when expanded.
Reacted by Coy Geek
Area
apps/desktop
Steps to reproduce
The comparison was made using the same project and session,
2026-06-06-repo-fleet/Repo Fleet Recovery Path Defects.Expected behavior
The desktop client should display the human-readable progress summary associated with each entry, consistently with mobile. For example:
Reading release.py,Inspecting function,Refactoring activation flow,Running full tests, andPolling for completion.If the desktop UI intentionally collapses these entries, expanding one should reveal its summary text rather than only a generic label.
Actual behavior
The desktop client renders repeated entries only as
ThoughtorThinking, with no meaningful explanation. The same session in mobile displays the readable summaries.The session data is present: the local T3 Code transcript contains non-empty reasoning-summary messages for this run. This suggests the desktop client is losing or failing to render the summary text, rather than the provider omitting it.
Impact
This makes long-running desktop sessions difficult to follow and can make active work look stalled or broken. It also creates a significant visibility mismatch between desktop and mobile for the same session.
Evidence
I will attach:
Thought/Thinkingentries.Impact level
Major degradation or frequent failure
Version or commit
Desktop and mobile versions were not recorded at capture time.
Environment
macOS desktop client and T3 Code mobile client; Codex provider/model visible in the attached desktop screenshot.
Logs or stack traces
None.
Workaround
Use the mobile client to view the progress summaries. No equivalent desktop workaround is known.