I’d like to suggest a change to the Codex experience.
As Codex becomes increasingly capable of working on multiple coding tasks and projects, I think there is a growing need for a task management layer on top of the existing execution experience.
The current Codex Pet experience is fun, but personally, I would get much more practical value from a Codex Task Board / Agent Control Center that lets me manage, monitor, and organize all of my Codex tasks in one place.
The problem
As I use Codex across more projects, I often have many tasks running or waiting at the same time.
For example, I might have Codex working on:
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Implementing authentication
-
Fixing a payment webhook
-
Refactoring an API client
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Adding unit tests
-
Updating documentation
-
Investigating a CI failure
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Reviewing an existing implementation
-
Preparing a pull request
When there are only one or two tasks, the current workflow is fine.
But once there are many tasks running in parallel, task management becomes the bottleneck.
I need to be able to quickly answer questions like:
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How many Codex tasks are currently running?
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Which tasks are waiting for me?
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Which tasks have completed?
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Which tasks failed?
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Which tasks are blocked?
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Which repository/project does each task belong to?
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Which tasks have created a branch or PR?
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Which tasks need my attention right now?
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What is each Codex agent currently doing?
Currently, it is difficult to get this information at a glance.
Proposed feature: Codex Task Board
I’d love to see a dedicated Codex Task Board or Agent Control Center.
A Kanban-style interface could work very well:
┌──────────────┬──────────────┬──────────────┬──────────────┬──────────────┐
│ BACKLOG │ RUNNING │ NEEDS ME │ REVIEW │ COMPLETED │
├──────────────┼──────────────┼──────────────┼──────────────┼──────────────┤
│ Update docs │ Auth API │ DB decision │ PR #123 │ Webhook │
│ Unit tests │ DB refactor │ Permission │ PR #124 │ API client │
│ Refactor │ CI fixes │ Question │ │ Tests │
└──────────────┴──────────────┴──────────────┴──────────────┴──────────────┘
Each Codex task could be represented as a card.
What could a task card contain?
For example:
┌────────────────────────────────────┐
│ 🔵 Implement OAuth authentication │
│ │
│ Repository │
│ my-company/backend │
│ │
│ Status: Running │
│ Runtime: 18 minutes │
│ │
│ Branch │
│ codex/implement-oauth │
│ │
│ Last activity │
│ Implementing OAuth callback... │
│ │
│ [Open Task] [Stop] [Open Branch] │
└────────────────────────────────────┘
Useful information could include:
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Task name / original prompt
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Repository / project
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Current status
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Branch or worktree
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Start time
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Elapsed time
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Last activity
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Current agent activity
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Relevant commit
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Pull request
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Test status
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Short summary of the current task
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Actions such as Resume / Review / Stop / Archive
The goal would not simply be to create another Kanban UI.
The goal would be to provide a single control center for all Codex work.
A very important status: “Needs Me”
One status that I think would be particularly valuable is:
Needs Me
Sometimes an agent cannot continue without user input.
For example:
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Codex needs me to choose between two implementation approaches
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Codex needs permission
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Codex needs clarification
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Codex encounters a conflict
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Codex needs a configuration value
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Codex has finished implementation and is waiting for review
Instead of discovering these situations one by one, I could simply open Codex and see:
Codex
🟢 8 Running
❓ 2 Need Your Input
👀 3 Need Review
❌ 1 Failed
✓ 14 Completed
That would immediately tell me where my attention is required.
Repository and project filtering
As the number of tasks grows, filtering would also become important.
For example:
Repository
├── frontend
├── backend
├── mobile
└── infrastructure
Status
├── Running
├── Needs Me
├── Review
├── Failed
└── Completed
I could then quickly answer:
“Show me everything currently running in the backend repository.”
Or:
“Show me every Codex task that needs my attention.”
GitHub / Pull Request integration
I think this could become especially powerful if a Codex task were connected to the entire development lifecycle:
Codex Task
↓
Repository
↓
Branch
↓
Commits
↓
Pull Request
↓
Code Review
↓
Merged
For example:
Implement OAuth
Status: Review
Repository:
my-project/backend
Branch:
codex/oauth
Commits:
3
Pull Request:
#184
Tests:
✓ 127 passed
[Open PR]
[Open Task]
[Continue with Codex]
This would make Codex feel less like a collection of independent coding sessions and more like an actual AI software engineering workspace.
Batch management
If I have many tasks, it would also be useful to select multiple tasks and perform actions such as:
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Stop
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Resume
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Archive
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Retry
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Open
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Move to another status
For example:
Select 5 tasks
[Resume] [Stop] [Archive]
This would become increasingly valuable as Codex supports more parallel agents.
Why I think this matters
I think the direction of Codex is increasingly agent-oriented.
The more capable Codex becomes at working independently and in parallel, the less useful it is to think of Codex as just a single coding session.
The new problem becomes:
How do I manage all the work that Codex is doing for me?
In other words:
Codex needs a task management layer, not just an execution interface.
A Task Board could provide that layer.
It could make Codex feel more like:
An AI software engineering workspace where I can manage a queue of work, monitor multiple agents, review their results, and intervene when necessary.
About Codex Pet
I personally would prefer the space currently used by Codex Pet to be used for this kind of functionality.
However, I don’t necessarily mean that Codex Pet must be completely removed.
If the team wants to keep the Pet experience, another possibility would be to make it optional or provide a switch between:
Codex Pet ↔ Codex Task Board
The important part for me is having a proper place to manage multiple Codex tasks.
As Codex becomes more capable of handling parallel work, I think this kind of task-management experience could become an important part of the product.
I’d love to see a Codex Task Board / Agent Control Center considered for the future of Codex.
