Request: Plan Mode

[aehlke]

Please add a feature for researching & planning before executing any changes. We can sort of do it today via prompting in certain ways but it will often dive into making changes right away and lacks a good way to manage or edit a plan before executing on it.

[raiaman15]

Something like "Shift+Tab" to turn it on like other tool.
Maybe, it can maintain a list of TODOs in some AI-PLAN.md file (untracked in git) but maybe in project root itself, as it plans.
Then, once it starts implementation, it goes through the same .md file.

[BlazedToad]

Out of interest how are you doing that currently? I started by using an md and json file and iterated over this a couple of times to improve the plan, however every time it needs to check if something is done or mark it as complete it's just fleshing/bulking out my context massively. Any ideas on how to improve it whilst there isn't a plan function. But yes I'm currently preferring the "other" tool to do things but the subscription model shuts me down pretty quickly in large projects.

[cadamsdotcom]

Hello @bolinfest. Mentioning you as the chief contributor to this repo.

I am wondering what is happening with this FR.

Plan mode is table stakes for Codex.

[cadamsdotcom]

@bolinfest does anyone even read these?

[bolinfest]

@cadamsdotcom we have a bit of a backog right now

[cadamsdotcom]

Thanks for the response - know you’re busy so appreciate it.

Given you say there’s a bit of a backlog, I’m curious how formally it’s being tracked on the open source side. For example - is there a roadmap we can see? Would love to get an idea what you folks are prioritizing!

[NightMachinery]

Out of interest how are you doing that currently? I started by using an md and json file and iterated over this a couple of times to improve the plan, however every time it needs to check if something is done or mark it as complete it's just fleshing/bulking out my context massively. Any ideas on how to improve it whilst there isn't a plan function. But yes I'm currently preferring the "other" tool to do things but the subscription model shuts me down pretty quickly in large projects.

What's the "other" tool?

[aehlke]

What's the "other" tool?

Claude Code.

[brndnmtthws]

This is something Claude Code already does really well. While ChatGPT feels stronger overall in reasoning, Codex still struggles with tool use compared to Claude Code. Having a clearer way to preview and guide what the model intends to do would make it much easier to trust and manage its edits.

Right now, I often feel like I have to babysit it, since it can make messy or incorrect changes. A plan mode would go a long way toward improving that experience. This seems like a relatively high-impact feature that could deliver real value quickly with a bit of afternoon vibing.

[cadamsdotcom]

@bolinfest thanks for engaging in this thread.

Codex's ergonomics don't let GPT-5 shine. We can't trust it to do what it says it will. Plan mode is the clincher that makes Claude Code a useful tool, and it'll be the same for Codex.

We all have our wishlists, and we know you have your roadmap. What will it take for us to convince you?