codex - 💡(How to fix) Fix Ctrl+F does not move the cursor forward in the Codex composer in vscode [2 comments, 2 participants]

What version of the IDE extension are you using?

26.417.40842

What subscription do you have?

On macOS, Ctrl+F does not move the cursor forward by one character inside the Codex chat/composer input.

Which IDE are you using?

VS Code

What platform is your computer?

macOS

What issue are you seeing?

Ctrl+F can not move the cursor right while focusing on the textarea of Codex in vscode

What steps can reproduce the bug?

Summary

On macOS, Ctrl+F does not move the cursor forward by one character inside the Codex chat/composer input.

This is unexpected because Ctrl+F is a standard macOS / Emacs-style text navigation shortcut (forward-char) and it works correctly in VS Code's built-in AI Chat input on the same machine.

Environment

• VS Code: [your VS Code version]
• OpenAI / Codex extension: 26.417.40842
• OS: macOS [your macOS version]

Steps to reproduce

1. Open the Codex chat/sidebar in VS Code
2. Focus the message composer/input box
3. Type some text
4. Press Ctrl+F

Expected behavior

The text cursor should move one character to the right, consistent with standard macOS text navigation behavior and consistent with VS Code's built-in AI Chat input.

Actual behavior

Nothing happens.

Additional notes

• This is reproducible in the Codex composer, but not in VS Code's built-in AI Chat input on the same machine.
• That suggests the issue is specific to the Codex composer/editor layer rather than a global VS Code keybinding problem.
• From local debugging, this seems related to the Codex composer using a custom webview/editor input path that does not currently handle macOS / Emacs-style cursor navigation keys such as Ctrl+F.
• A local experiment suggested that handling Ctrl+F directly in the composer/editor keydown path restores the expected behavior.

Possible direction

It may be worth making the Codex composer match standard macOS text navigation behavior for shortcuts like:

• Ctrl+F → forward-char
• Ctrl+B → backward-char
• Ctrl+A → beginning-of-line
• Ctrl+E → end-of-line

What is the expected behavior?

• Ctrl+F → forward-char
• Ctrl+B → backward-char
• Ctrl+A → beginning-of-line
• Ctrl+E → end-of-line

Additional information

The Codex composer appears to use a custom webview editor instead of Monaco/native editor keybindings, and it does not currently handle standard macOS/Emacs-style Ctrl+F cursor navigation inside the composer.