Codex adds hover navigation rail and longer thread history in desktop update

• OpenAIDevs' update thread says Codex desktop now handles long conversations with smoother scrolling and position preservation, so jumping around no longer loses your place.
• According to OpenAIDevs' follow-up, thread switching now does less background work, local history goes deeper without loading everything at once, and archived chats are easier to scroll and delete.
• OpenAIDevs' settings post also expanded Settings search, reorganized appearance and host filtering, and made custom-provider controls easier to find.
• OpenAIDevs' zoom-alignment demo shows tooltips, dialogs, menus, drag previews, and autocomplete staying aligned when the app zoom level changes.
• OpenAIDevs' clipboard update adds Markdown-preserving paste into Slack and fixes UI hangs on large pasted blocks, while one Windows user said the app now feels lighter in day-to-day use.

You can watch the hover rail demo, skim the broader Codex mobile GA post, and even spot a new DigitalOcean plugin mention in the surrounding Codex rollout. The weirdly specific bonus feature is a dedicated Pets settings panel, buried inside OpenAIDevs' settings update.

OpenAI spent most of this update on conversation length. OpenAIDevs' main thread and OpenAIDevs' long-thread post both center on smoother scrolling plus keeping your place inside long sessions.

The new navigation rail sits behind the left gutter. Hover to preview nearby turns, click to jump, and skip the usual full-thread scroll.

The second chunk is about loading less state up front. According to OpenAIDevs' follow-up, thread switching now does less background work, deeper local history loads incrementally, and archive management got its own cleanup pass.

That matches the product summary from reach_vb's roundup, which grouped faster thread switching, deeper local history, and easier archive management into the same batch.

Settings got broader search coverage and a clearer layout. OpenAIDevs' settings post lists four concrete changes:

• Search now covers more controls.
• Appearance controls are easier to parse.
• Host filtering is clearer.
• Custom-provider settings are easier to find.

The same batch also fixes a classic desktop-app annoyance. In OpenAIDevs' zoom-alignment demo, tooltips, dialogs, menus, selection bubbles, drag previews, and autocomplete all stay attached to the right UI element when zoom changes.

The most practical quality-of-life fix might be clipboard handling. OpenAIDevs' clipboard update says copied Codex output now keeps bullets, bold text, code formatting, and links when pasted into Slack.

The same update also fixes three smaller paper cuts:

• Large pasted text blocks no longer hang the UI.
• Draft text survives thread handoff.
• Pasted image previews support arrow-key navigation.

This desktop patch landed inside a broader Codex push. OpenAIDevs' mobile GA post says Codex in the ChatGPT mobile app is now generally available with one-to-one device pairing, notifications, goals, side chat, file previews, and inline review comments.

In the same week, reach_vb's Thursday post noted that Codex Remote reached general availability and that a DigitalOcean plugin can provision a Droplet, configure SSH, and connect it back to the Codex app as a remote workspace.