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Show HN: Codex Explorer, a local session manager for Codex CLI

Developer Tobiadefami released Codex Explorer, an open-source local session manager for OpenAI's Codex CLI, enabling users to search, preview, and resume past coding sessions via a terminal user interface. The Rust-based tool indexes session files locally and is available on GitHub under an MIT license.

read2 min views1 publishedJul 9, 2026
Show HN: Codex Explorer, a local session manager for Codex CLI
Image: source

Codex Explorer is a local Codex session manager. The cx

command indexes ~/.codex/sessions/**/*.jsonl

so you can search, preview, and resume old Codex sessions without remembering the exact date.

Codex Explorer is early, work-in-progress software. It is useful today, but the data model and interface are still evolving.

Codex Explorer is an independent project and is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by OpenAI.

  • Rust and Cargo
  • The Codex CLI available as codex

on yourPATH

forcx resume

  • A terminal with TUI support

From this checkout:

cargo install --path . --locked

Cargo installs the cx

binary into ~/.cargo/bin

. Make sure that directory is on your PATH

, then verify the installed command:

cx --version

To reinstall from a newer checkout:

cargo install --path . --locked --force

From GitHub:

cargo install --git https://github.com/Tobiadefami/codex-explorer --locked
cx
cx reindex
cx list
cx search "turnstile worker"
cx show <session-id>
cx resume <session-id>

Run cx

without a command to open the terminal session browser. The browser opens immediately with cached sessions and refreshes the index in the background.

TUI keys:

  • type to search Backspace

edits searchUp

/Down

moves selectiona

shows all projectsp

returns to the current directoryPgUp

/PgDn

scrolls the previewEnter

resumes the selected sessionEsc

quitsq

quits when the search box is empty

cx

stores its search index in your platform data directory under cx/index.sqlite

. On Linux this is typically ~/.local/share/cx/index.sqlite

.

The index is local SQLite data. It contains session metadata, source file paths, titles, searchable text, and full user/assistant message text so cx show

, search, and previews work without reparsing every JSONL file each time. Treat this index as private local data, because Codex sessions may contain prompts, code, file paths, command output, and other sensitive project context. Use --db <PATH>

to write the index somewhere else.

cx

reads Codex session files from ~/.codex/sessions

by default. Use --sessions-dir <PATH>

to index a different directory.

Run tests:

cargo test

Run the full local check before opening a pull request:

cargo fmt --check
cargo test
cargo clippy --all-targets -- -D warnings
cargo package --allow-dirty --no-verify --offline

Run against fixture data:

cargo run -- --db /tmp/cx.sqlite --sessions-dir tests/fixtures reindex
cargo run -- --db /tmp/cx.sqlite search turnstile

MIT

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