There used to be a “Ask” button on the Codex web UI, but seems to be gone?
This was very useful to ask questions about a code base before going into coding.
Yes it is currently gone. Sadly…
I hope this is a bug, this feels like a huge downgrade. Before this change was able to talk with the AI about features and sourcecode .. now it instantly starts coding. Huge Huge Downgrade..
Ah sad to hear it’s not just me, big downgrade. It was super useful to be able to ask questions about a codebase via the mobile app on the go, or just use “Ask” as a way to find errors in logic, or plan out ways to implement new features etc.
Going straight into code is not particularly useful.
Yes if its permanent it’s a huuuuge downgrade to my workflow
If its permanent the tool is not useful anymore and we will migrate to the competition.
The ask button was used to break down huge and large features and changes into small digestible tasks with high success rate. Codes is very bad at coding large tasks.
If you now ask to decompose, it does not create handy followup tasks but just text.
The tools is right now literally unusable.
Please fix that bug and reintroduce “ask” and “followup”
They definately need to bring it back, I used it all the time! huge downgrade. I also cant seem to get it to suggest tasks to begin>? anyone else having this issue?
It seems to have also been scrubbed from the website description and docs , so it does feel like this is an intentional decision
If so, that is a huge issue, as this was my go-to workflow
Please bring this back
This sucks - bring it back. This is a huge downgrade.
Such a downgrade, we want the ask button back!
As I expected, you have to be creative and modify your prompt. For example, to something like “Do not make any changes to the code, only perform analysis, suggest executable tasks as output”. But it’s definitely a huge drop in usability.
This is a huge frustration. I really loved the ask feature and felt I got way better results when J asked it a question then had it generate tasks.
going straight to code never works as I intend.
I completely agree. Also, it seems like the feature of Codex to take a detailed plan and turn it into smaller, actionable, tasks that can be run by clicking “Start Task” has also been completely removed. OpenAI, PLEASE give us back these features. Why fix something that isn’t broken?
Without a dedicated analysis mode, Codex Web frequently attempts to write code when we only need review. This is a regression for us.
I will be looking for alternatives to Codex until this is (hopefully) fixed
Disastrous move. Functionality removed. Downgrade. Why!!?
why ?
why ?
ask =>
first i need to understand the problem
and
i need to divide it into small parts so i can have control over it
and
i need generate tasks about them
and
i need to generate PRs for each of them
this is “ask function’s” meaning for me
are we lost it forever ?
Agreed, this is not a great thing to have noticed today. Ask gave me great breaking down of complex tasks which allowed me to manage larger brain dumps more quickly to achievable tasks. I would love to see it return
nah honestly codex has gotten way worse since they took out the ask and code feature. back then you could just ask it something and it would break it down into clear little tasks with clear prompts too and you could run them one by one. it actually did exactly what you told it to now it just jumps straight into coding misses a ton of stuff, and doesn’t really follow instructions from my experience it feels like a big downgrad we really need the old ask and code features back asap.
This is a major flaw. If they removed it thinking Codex was intelligent enough to know if a request was a question or coding task, it definitely is not. Now when I give it a scope to create tasks it just either outputs in text back to me or tries to perform it as a task. It doesn’t actually create the tasks.
OpenAI, fix this please!
