Codex CLI lets you name sessions and keep a side conversation open

Codex CLI's rust-v0.146.0 release, published July 29, 2026, adds two changes to how you manage threads in a session.

Naming sessions

/new and /clear now take an optional name:

/new investigate-flaky-test
/clear refactor-auth

The name is set through the app server when the new thread starts, and the attached session is updated to match. If setting the name fails, Codex reports the failure in the chat but still attaches the newly created thread — a naming error doesn't block you from continuing.

Switching without closing

Side conversations — a separate thread you branch off to without losing your place in the parent — previously meant choosing between keeping the side conversation and returning to the parent. rust-v0.146.0 adds a configurable toggle_side_conversation TUI action, bound to ctrl-/ by default, that switches between a side conversation and its parent without closing either one. The active binding shows in the footer, and switching is now distinct from closing with ctrl-c. Starting a replacement side conversation from the parent cleans up the previous one; if that cleanup fails, the old side thread is preserved rather than silently lost.

Both changes ship in the same release as thread forking with paginated history and standalone web search for compatible custom model providers. See the Codex CLI sheet for the current command and flag surface.