/status context usage is hidden or unusable when side panels are open #24403

What version of the Codex App are you using?

26.519.41501

What subscription do you have?

Pro

What platform is your computer?

Microsoft Windows NT 10.0.19045.0 x64

What issue are you seeing?

In Codex Desktop on Windows, the documented /status command is not a reliable way to inspect context usage when any right-side panel is open.

The app docs describe /status as showing the thread ID, context usage, and rate limits. In practice, the status window/popover appears to be hidden or displaced when a side panel is open, including:

• document view
• side chat
• file viewer
• subagent view

I can open /status temporarily, but it auto-closes as soon as I interact with the window. This means that in normal side-panel workflows, context usage is effectively inaccessible.

This also makes the side-chat case worse: I cannot find any way to inspect side-chat context usage at all. Even if /status is intended to replace the removed always-visible context indicator for normal threads, it does not appear to provide a usable fallback while working in side chats or other side-panel views.

This appears to be a regression in context visibility. Previously, context usage was conveniently visible, supporting management of long-running work without interrupting the flow. In the current Codex Desktop build, the documented fallback is either unavailable, hidden, or unusable in common UI states.

What steps can reproduce the bug?

1. Open Codex Desktop on Windows.
2. Open an existing thread.
3. Open any right-side panel, such as document view, side chat, file viewer, or subagent view.
4. Run /status.
5. Observe whether the status window/popover is visible and usable.
6. Click or interact elsewhere in the Codex window.
7. Observe that the status window auto-closes, making it impossible to inspect context usage while working in that panel.

Side-chat-specific variant:

1. Open an existing thread.
2. Start a side chat.
3. Send several messages in the side chat.
4. Run /status while the side chat is focused.
5. Observe that there is no clear way to inspect the side chat’s own context usage.

What is the expected behavior?

/status should remain visible and usable regardless of whether a side panel is open.

When a side chat is focused, Codex should expose context usage for the side chat itself, or clearly show both parent-thread and side-chat context usage.

Acceptable fixes may include:

• /status opens in a stable modal or panel that is not hidden by side panels.
• /status in a side chat shows the side chat’s own context usage.
• /status clearly distinguishes parent-thread context usage from focused side-chat context usage.

Or, ideally:

• A compact, always-visible context indicator is restored on a per-chat basis.

Additional information

This is related to context visibility, but it is not just a request to restore the old always-visible main-thread context meter (although that feature is sorely missed for reasons I'd be happy to explain if asked).

The specific problem here is that the documented /status workaround is not usable in common side-panel workflows, and side chats appear to have no context-usage visibility fallback.