Track terminal TUI redraw lockout of scrolling, selection, and copy

[rblake2320]

Status

Unresolved in the native Codex terminal. Earlier claims that --no-alt-screen was a permanent fix were disproven by controlled retesting and are retracted.

Problem

During active agent rendering, Windows Terminal can remain process/window-responsive while mouse-wheel scrolling, text selection, and copying fail together. Usability returns when active rendering stops. UIA reads and PrintWindow capture continue working, so ordinary liveness checks miss the user-facing failure.

Diagnostic

selfconnect doctor --json `
  --terminal-hwnd <HWND> `
  --terminal-seconds 5 `
  --terminal-interval 0.5 `
  --terminal-log proofs/terminal-health.jsonl `
  --capture-on-risk

SelfConnect records timestamped sizes and SHA-256 fingerprints without terminal contents and can capture a screenshot.

Controlled failed mitigations

Fresh Codex CLI 0.145.0 processes were tested with all of:

codex --no-alt-screen -c tui.animations=false

[tui]
alternate_screen = "never"
raw_output_mode = true
animations = false

The operator still reproduced the lockout. Instrumentation recorded 10/11 buffer transitions in the no-alt controlled run and 7/11 with animations disabled, with zero UIA failures. These settings may reduce some repaint activity but are not a verified repair.

SelfConnect fallback

Commit 07699ff adds:

selfconnect mirror --hwnd <HWND>

This opens a separate read-only, UIA-backed transcript window, normalizes volatile spinner titles, updates only the changed suffix, and preserves the viewport when Follow output is disabled. It restores scroll/select/copy through a companion surface but does not repair Codex itself.

Upstream

OpenAI Codex issue: openai/codex#35654

Remaining SelfConnect work

• Associate mirrors automatically with mesh birth_id and active terminal tabs.
• Persist health transitions and companion lifecycle events.
• Distinguish append-only streaming from destructive same-region redraws.
• Add provider-specific companion behavior for Claude/Gemini.
• Retire the fallback only after an upstream native-terminal fix passes the same controlled test.

[rblake2320]

Correction after controlled retest (2026-07-27)

The previously documented "Permanent Codex fix" was incorrect. This issue remains unresolved in the native terminal.

Controlled reproduction on Windows 11 / Windows Terminal / Codex CLI 0.145.0:

• Fresh process command line included --no-alt-screen -c tui.animations=false.
• %USERPROFILE%\.codex\config.toml also had tui.alternate_screen="never", tui.raw_output_mode=true, and tui.animations=false.
• During a generated 10-paragraph response, SelfConnect Doctor captured 11 UIA samples, 10 text-buffer transitions in the no-alt test and 7 transitions in the no-animation test, zero UIA failures, and screenshots.
• The operator still could not reliably scroll, select, or copy until active rendering stopped.

Therefore --no-alt-screen, raw-output startup, and disabled animations are mitigations only; they are not a verified repair.

SelfConnect commit 07699ff corrects the documentation and adds a separate read-only stable transcript companion:

selfconnect mirror --hwnd <HWND>

That companion restores scroll/select/copy through a separate UIA-backed surface. It does not fix Codex's renderer. Native-terminal resolution remains an upstream Codex issue.