The automatic context compacting task never finishes. Closing and reopening the application doesn’t work either.

hopefully that means it’s fixed now.

I’m experiencing the same issue suddenly today. I switched to gpt-5.3-codex, and it started working again. I’m thinking it’s a gpt5.4 issue. I will switch back later to check if its resolved.

I get it with gpt-5.3-codex as well. :confused:

I’ll let you know if i run into the same issue with compaction under 5.3

@jonfairbanks It’s working for me under gpt-5.3-codex, it just successfully compacted.

Ha, of course mine completes after I post. Took ~15 minutes.

As we know with any LLM compaction just needs more TLC. While you are welcome to post about compaction issues on this forum, the official place to report or vote on issues is GitHub OpenAI Codex issues tab. There are many open issues for compact .

Yup, same issue with the codex extension in VS code On plus plan, using gpt 5.4 thinking xhigh

The same thing happens in vscode; it gets stuck in that compaction activity with version 5.4.

Thanks for the great information. I’ll write about it in the future.

[image] DevilAAh: I’ll write about it in the future. Can you elaborate? Here are some questions for you, Why is compaction used? Is compaction really the right verb? Is context right?

Automatically compacting context

Codex

EricGT March 12, 2026, 8:40am 14

Can you elaborate?

Here are some questions for you,

Why is compaction used?
Is compaction really the right verb?
Is context right?

Topic		Replies	Views
Error running remote compact task Codex vscode	3	1012	May 15, 2026
Codex client crash: "Unknown parameter: prompt_cache_retention" during context compaction (blocking issue) Codex bugs , codex-app	8	454	April 16, 2026
Compact a Response with Conversations API API responses-api , conversation , compaction	6	322	April 9, 2026
Suggestion: proactive handoff and rescue workflow for Codex compaction failures Codex	0	120	May 22, 2026
Larger context length please Codex codex	4	397	May 15, 2026

Automatically compacting context

Related topics