AI Workflow

Why codex-resume Uses a TUI

A decision note on building a Windows-friendly TUI for searching and resuming OpenAI Codex CLI local sessions.

May 17, 2026

Context

Codex CLI session logs exist locally as JSONL files, but finding the right session requires better browsing, sorting, and preview than raw file inspection.

Design Choices

  • Use the native Codex resume command and add only the missing discovery layer.
  • Sort by timestamps inside JSONL instead of file mtime so summary generation does not disturb ordering.
  • Keep dependencies light and Windows-friendly by relying mostly on Node.js built-ins.

Result

The result is a small command-line tool with doctor, list, index, and resume flows for quickly finding the right Codex session.