Idea: opt-in fresh-session handoff after repeated compactions

[Woptope]

I have been working on a proof-of-concept feature for long-running Codex sessions:

Opt-in automatic fresh-session handoff after repeated context compactions, with a children-only mode for roots that have live subagents.

The idea is simple:

• Let users opt in with auto_new_session_after_compactions = N.
• After N live compactions, Codex asks the current thread to prepare a handoff prompt and continues in a fresh replacement session.
• Keep internal sessions out of the feature.
• Preserve the active persisted goal in replacement sessions.
• If a root has live thread-spawn subagents, optionally keep the root running and let only child subagents hand off to replacement child threads.

That last part matters for multi-agent workflows: replacing the root while it is coordinating live children can disrupt the parent/child lifecycle. Replacing child subagents independently is less disruptive and still refreshes their context.

Fork branch:

• https://github.com/Woptope/codex/tree/auto-new-session-after-compactions

Compare view:

• main...Woptope:codex:auto-new-session-after-compactions

The branch includes implementation, tests, generated schema updates, and docs. I attempted to open a PR, but GitHub returned a CreatePullRequest permission error, and the contributing guide says feature proposals should start as issues unless a PR is invited.

Maintainer-facing proposal issue:

• Feature proposal: opt-in fresh-session handoff after repeated compactions #22641

I am especially interested in feedback from people running long sessions or subagent-heavy workflows:

• Would threshold-based fresh-session handoff be useful in practice?
• Should handoff be root-only, child-only-with-live-subagents, or both?
• Is preserving active goals across replacement threads the behavior you would expect?
• Is this better as a config knob, a command, or both?