| name | codex-history-manager |
| description | Search, read, export, hand off, clone, move, or rebind local Codex history stored under ~/.codex. Use when the user wants to inspect past Codex sessions, bring a thread into another workspace, export transcripts, generate handoff notes, or change a thread's workspace/provider metadata. |
Codex History Manager
Use codex-history-manager when the task is about local Codex history, not general ChatGPT or web chat history.
Codex stores local history in two places:
~/.codex/state_5.sqlite for thread metadata~/.codex/sessions/.../rollout-*.jsonl and ~/.codex/archived_sessions/... for event logs
The bundled CLI is the source of truth for reading and mutating that state:
./codex-history-manager ...
Default workflow
- For discovery, start with
search.
- For context, use
show-thread or handoff.
- For exports, use
export-thread.
- For cross-workspace reuse, prefer
clone-thread over move-thread.
- For writes, run a dry run first, then rerun with
--apply.
- For history body rewrites, always do
plan-dangerous-edit, show the warning and change list to the user, get explicit approval in chat, then run apply-dangerous-edit.
Core commands
- Search threads:
./codex-history-manager search --query "payments"
- Read one thread:
./codex-history-manager show-thread --id <thread-id>
- Export transcript:
./codex-history-manager export-thread --id <thread-id> --format markdown --output /tmp/thread.md
- Create a handoff note:
./codex-history-manager handoff --id <thread-id> --output /tmp/handoff.md
- Plan a dangerous history content rewrite:
./codex-history-manager plan-dangerous-edit --id <thread-id> --find "old" --replace "new" --output /tmp/edit-plan.json
- Clone a thread into another workspace:
./codex-history-manager clone-thread --id <thread-id> --to-cwd /abs/path --dry-run
- Move all threads in one workspace:
./codex-history-manager move-workspace --cwd /abs/src --to-cwd /abs/dst --dry-run
- Clone all threads in one workspace:
./codex-history-manager clone-workspace --cwd /abs/src --to-cwd /abs/dst --dry-run
- Move a thread to another workspace:
./codex-history-manager move-thread --id <thread-id> --to-cwd /abs/path --dry-run
- Rebind provider metadata:
./codex-history-manager change-provider --id <thread-id> --provider openai1 --dry-run
- Rebind provider metadata for one workspace:
./codex-history-manager change-provider-workspace --cwd /abs/path --provider openai1 --dry-run
- Rebind provider metadata for all local threads:
./codex-history-manager change-provider-all --provider openai1 --dry-run
Safety rules
- Never perform a write first. Use the default dry run or pass
--dry-run.
- Only use
--apply after reviewing the plan.
- Prefer cloning over moving unless the user explicitly wants to change ownership.
- Do not hand edit
state_5.sqlite or rollout files if the CLI can do the job.
- If the user asks to modify message content, stop and confirm. You must first produce a dangerous edit plan, present the warning and change list in the conversation, and wait for explicit user approval before running
apply-dangerous-edit.
Read these references only when needed:
