Codex RTL Helper (Unofficial)

Codex RTL Helper improves Persian, Arabic, Hebrew, and mixed right-to-left/left-to-right text rendering inside the Codex extension for Visual Studio Code.

This is an independent, unofficial community extension. It is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or supported by OpenAI or Microsoft.

Features

• Detects the official openai.chatgpt extension without accidentally targeting itself.
• Uses paragraph-level bidirectional text handling for Persian/English and other mixed text.
• Keeps code blocks, inline code, and editors left-to-right.
• Creates a backup before changing each Codex webview file.
• Can automatically reapply the patch after Codex extension updates.
• Restores original files from the Command Palette or when this extension is uninstalled.

How it works

VS Code does not provide a supported API for one extension to style another extension's webview. This helper therefore adds reversible CSS and a small direction script to the locally installed Codex webview assets.

Before automatic patching is enabled for the first time, the extension displays a consent dialog explaining this behavior. Selecting Codex RTL: Apply Patch manually also records consent.

An update of the Codex extension replaces its webview directory. When automatic patching is enabled, this helper detects the new extension files and patches them again.

Requirements

• Visual Studio Code 1.90.0 or newer.
• The official Codex – OpenAI's coding agent extension (openai.chatgpt).
• A window reload after files are patched, if the Codex panel was already open.

Commands

• Codex RTL: Apply Patch — backs up and patches the installed Codex webview files.
• Codex RTL: Restore Original Files — restores backups and disables automatic patching.

Settings

• codexRtl.mode: auto, rtl, or ltr. The recommended value is auto.
• codexRtl.autoApply: reapply the patch at startup and after Codex updates.
• codexRtl.extensionNamePatterns: fallback name fragments used to locate OpenAI extensions.
• codexRtl.patchCssFiles: patch matching CSS files.
• codexRtl.patchHtmlFiles: patch matching HTML files.

Backups and removal

Backups are stored in .codex-rtl-backup inside the installed Codex extension directory. The restore command copies them back. The uninstall hook also restores all backups and then removes only the helper's backup directories.

Limitations

• This relies on internal Codex webview assets and may need updates when Codex changes its UI structure.
• Applying or restoring a patch may require Developer: Reload Window.
• Restricted filesystem permissions can prevent patching; see the Codex RTL Helper output channel for details.
• The helper changes only local extension assets. It does not change conversation content or files in your workspace.

Privacy

The extension has no telemetry, analytics, account access, or network requests. It does not read workspace files or transmit conversation content. See PRIVACY.md.

Support

Use the GitHub issue tracker or the Q & A section on the Visual Studio Marketplace listing. See SUPPORT.md before reporting a problem.

License

MIT License. See LICENSE.