Codex Desktop Bug Incorrectly Rehydrates Terminated Subagents as Working

palmer-Eormen · ghdev · 2026-08-08

A recent bug in the OpenAI Codex desktop app incorrectly rehydrates completed and aborted subagents as Working upon application restart.

Impact & Details:

Causes false active-agent counts, making it impossible for users to determine if background work actually exists.
Inspected child sessions are actually terminated (backend returns notfound, SQLite state is closed), yet the UI shows them running for days.
In one affected conversation, all 76 completed subagents were displayed as actively working.
Reconstructing numerous historical children also introduces UI/session-loading overhead.

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