Check Codex Tabs

Check Codex Tabs

Use this skill to answer Codex tab-status questions from local filesystem data instead of guessing from the visible app UI.

Source Of Truth

Check these locations in order:

1. ~/.codex/state_5.sqlite Use the threads table. archived = 0 is the best local proxy for an open Codex tab or thread.
2. rollout_path from each threads row Open the referenced JSONL transcript, usually under ~/.codex/sessions/..., and inspect the last JSON object.
3. ~/.codex/session_index.jsonl Use only as fallback if the state database is unavailable.
4. ~/Library/Application Support/Codex Ignore for this task unless ~/.codex is missing. It contains app caches, but it is not the fast path for open-thread status.

Do not start with logs_*.sqlite. The logs database is useful for internal debugging, not for quickly classifying tabs.

Fast Workflow

1. Determine the scope first. If the user asks about the current repo, run git rev-parse --show-toplevel and filter threads.cwd to that exact absolute path. If the user asks about all open Codex tabs on the laptop, do not filter by cwd.

2. Prefer the helper script. Run:

   python3 /Users/Henry/.codex/skills/check-codex-tabs/scripts/check_codex_tabs.py
   

   Add --cwd /absolute/repo/root for repo-specific output. Add --active-only when the user only wants unfinished tabs. Add --limit N when the user wants a larger or smaller slice of recent open threads.

3. Fall back to a direct SQLite query if the script is unavailable or you need to inspect raw rows.

4. For each returned row, inspect the last JSON object in rollout_path and classify the tab from that last event.

Manual Query

Use this query for the current repo after resolving the repo root:

select
  datetime(updated_at, 'unixepoch', 'localtime') as updated,
  title,
  cwd,
  rollout_path
from threads
where archived = 0
  and cwd = '/absolute/repo/root'
order by updated_at desc
limit 40;

Run it with:

sqlite3 -header -column ~/.codex/state_5.sqlite "<query above>"

Then inspect the last JSON line in each transcript:

tail -n 1 "$rollout_path"

Status Rules

Use the last rollout event, not the thread title, to decide whether the tab is still active:

• event_msg plus task_complete: done-open
• event_msg plus turn_aborted: interrupted
• anything else as the last event: active
• missing or unreadable rollout file: unknown

Common active signals include last events such as exec_command_end, function_call_output, patch_apply_end, or token_count.

Do not equate archived = 0 with active work. Many tabs remain open after they finish cleanly.

Output

When answering the user:

1. Group the results into Active, Done But Open, and Interrupted Or Unknown.
2. Include each tab's title, cwd, updated time, and the last event you used to classify it.
3. If the user only asked which tabs are still in-flight, report only the Active group.
4. If there are no active tabs in scope, say that explicitly.

Constraints

• Treat unarchived threads as open tabs for this skill's purpose.
• Do not claim to know which tab is frontmost or visually selected in the app.
• Prefer exact cwd matching for repo-specific requests.
• Prefer the helper script over fragile shell pipelines that parse SQLite output with tabs or newlines in titles.
• If state_5.sqlite is missing, search for the newest state_*.sqlite under ~/.codex before falling back to session_index.jsonl.