Codex Tabs Personal

Independent Codex editor tabs from Area Tools. An unofficial community extension derived from the MIT-licensed Codex Tabs by chonjh and contributors. Not affiliated with or endorsed by OpenAI or Microsoft.

Open a tab

Install the official OpenAI Codex extension, then use Open Codex Tab in the editor title bar, + Codex in the status bar, or Ctrl+Alt+N (Cmd+Alt+N on macOS). Each action opens a separate editor tab in the current group. Opening tabs does not send prompts or make additional model requests. Authentication, model access, billing and approvals are managed by official Codex.

The opening command uses the VS Code custom-editor API with an internal Codex editor ID and URI. Codex does not guarantee that interface; updates can break it. Tested with Codex 26.1007.21434 on Windows x64. Other versions, Linux and macOS are unverified.

Basic tab opening does not modify another extension's files. The original Open Codex Sidebar button remains unless the optional toolbar adapter is applied.

Switching from Codex Tabs

This edition has its own identity, area-tools.codex-tabs-personal, and codexTabsPersonal commands and settings. Legacy workspace-specific labels and settings are not migrated automatically.

Before activating, uninstall chonjh.codex-tabs from the same VS Code profile and restart normally after active work has finished. Activation stops before registering handlers if the legacy helper is still visible. Keep your workspace and extension storage; no chat deletion is required. Evaluate in a separate VS Code profile first.

Optional recovery and status integration

Custom titles, recovery, introduction handling and status require a separate experimental adapter. UI controls show offline instructions; they do not patch files or reload automatically. Status and sound are off by default. The adapter modifies six official extension files, verifies hashes and backs up originals. Only Codex 26.1007.21434 on Windows x64 is supported. Unknown versions or bytes are rejected.

Finish active chats and close all VS Code windows before installing or rolling back this integration. Use a separate terminal with Node.js installed. Paths assume standard Windows VS Code:

$helper = "$env:USERPROFILE\.vscode\extensions\area-tools.codex-tabs-personal-0.3.2"
$official = "$env:USERPROFILE\.vscode\extensions\openai.chatgpt-26.1007.21434-win32-x64"
$backup = "$env:APPDATA\Code\User\globalStorage\area-tools.codex-tabs-personal\compatibility-0.3.2"
node "$helper\scripts\compatibility.cjs" check $official
node "$helper\scripts\compatibility.cjs" install $official $backup

After restart, enable codexTabsPersonal.experimentalStatus, codexTabsPersonal.hideIntro or codexTabsPersonal.completionSound as needed. Recovery follows observed thread navigation; selecting and restoring a saved conversation through the history UI is not verified end to end. Do not rely on this adapter as your only recovery method.

To roll back, close all VS Code windows first:

node "$helper\scripts\compatibility.cjs" rollback $backup

Retain the backup. Official updates can overwrite patches. Restore any legacy adapter using its own original journal before switching: unknown existing patches are deliberately rejected.

Optional sidebar toolbar button replacement

The toolbar adapter supports exact manifest layouts of Codex 26.1007.21434 and 26.1021.22027. It removes only the native sidebar button from the editor title bar. The native sidebar command remains available. Our Open Codex Tab button opens a tab; other OpenAI logos are not repurposed.

$toolbarBackup = "$env:APPDATA\Code\User\globalStorage\area-tools.codex-tabs-personal\toolbar-0.3.2"
node "$helper\scripts\toolbar.cjs" stage $official $toolbarBackup

Takes effect after a normal VS Code restart. Restore it before uninstalling this helper:

node "$helper\scripts\toolbar.cjs" rollback $official $toolbarBackup

Data and permissions

No runtime npm dependencies, telemetry or network requests of its own. This helper does not read account tokens or copy chat transcripts. Optional integration stores route bindings in Codex workspace storage and tab labels in helper workspace storage. Journals contain backed-up extension code and hashes. Official Codex separately handles chats, account data and network requests.

License and source

MIT; upstream copyright and license retained in LICENSE.txt. A community fork, not an official Codex Tabs update. A matching source archive accompanies this release. A public source repository and dedicated support service are not configured yet.

Development: npm ci --ignore-scripts, npm test. Native regression tests require externally supplied Codex fixtures from test/fixtures/manifest.json; these are not redistributed. Set CODEX_TABS_FIXTURE_DIR to your fixture directory. Package using npm run package -- --out PATH_TO_VSIX.