request_user_input is unavailable in Default mode in Codex, preventing option-based user prompts that work in Copilot

[andreszs]

What version of the IDE extension are you using?

openai.chatgpt@26.519.32039

What subscription do you have?

Paid Codex / ChatGPT subscription ($100/month)

Which IDE are you using?

Visual Studio Code 1.121.0 (x64), using the Codex/OpenAI ChatGPT IDE extension.

What platform is your computer?

Microsoft Windows NT 10.0.19045.0 x64

What issue are you seeing?

Summary

Codex should support option-based user input prompts in the normal/default chat workflow, or provide an equivalent supported mechanism. Right now, calling request_user_input fails with:

request_user_input is unavailable in Default mode

This is a serious workflow gap. Native Copilot Chat can present user-choice prompts with buttons/options, but Codex cannot do the same in the default coding workflow, even though this is exactly the kind of interaction an agent needs for safe confirmations and post-edit actions.

Why this matters

After making code changes, an agent often needs to ask for a short confirmation such as:

Restart the browser platform now? Yes / No

This should be a first-class UX pattern. Plain text questions are worse because they are easier to miss, slower to answer, and less structured for the agent. For local development workflows, structured prompts are especially important before actions such as restarting servers, running builds, deploying to a device, or applying optional follow-up steps.

It is very frustrating that this works in native Copilot Chat but not in Codex. Users paying for Codex expect at least parity for basic interactive agent workflows.

What steps can reproduce the bug?

1. Use Codex in the VS Code chat panel in the normal/default coding mode.
2. Ask the agent to show a short user input prompt with two options, for example Yes and No.
3. The agent attempts to call request_user_input.
4. The tool call fails with:

request_user_input is unavailable in Default mode

What is the expected behavior?

Codex should allow structured user input prompts with buttons/options in the default coding workflow, especially for short confirmations. At minimum, Codex should provide a supported equivalent API/tool for this use case.

Additional information

The tool is visible/available to the agent, but when invoked it is rejected by the runtime with:

request_user_input is unavailable in Default mode

So this is not a discoverability problem from the user side; the capability appears to exist but is gated by conversation mode. The user cannot switch modes from the current VS Code Codex panel.

Requested fix

Please make one of these changes:

1. Enable request_user_input in Default mode for simple option prompts.
2. Add a separate confirmation/options tool that is available in Default mode.
3. Expose a clear user-facing way to switch the conversation into a mode where structured input is available.
4. Document the limitation clearly in the Codex UI and tool docs if this is intentional.

The current behavior makes Codex feel less capable than Copilot for a basic interactive agent feature, and it directly hurts paid-user workflows.

Extension screenshot in current mode

[github-actions]

Potential duplicates detected. Please review them and close your issue if it is a duplicate.

• Default Mode needs a safe structured-question path for critical execution decisions #23480
• Suggestion: Interactive choice prompts for user confirmation in Codex CLI/client #23623

Powered by Codex Action

[beyondeye]

This is a serious flaw. I find myself trying from time to time to run my workflows in codex instead of claude code and I always has to turn back to claude code because of this issue.

[aryasaatvik]

you can set enable in config

codex features enable default_mode_request_user_input

[andreszs]

you can set enable in config

codex features enable default_mode_request_user_input

Thanks, that works. I enabled and tested it successfully with a sample prompt upon restarting vscode.

That said, I don’t think it makes sense for the VS Code extension to ship with this behavior effectively blocked by default, especially when prompts are part of the normal Codex interaction model. If a prompt/tool exists and the UI supports it, users shouldn’t need to discover and enable an under-development feature flag manually just to make basic interactive prompts work.