Codex Crashing? Massive Session Files Could Be The Culprit!

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Codex Session Files: Why Are They So Gigantic and Crashing Your System?

Hey guys, have you ever encountered a situation where your Codex session seems to be stuck in an endless loop of reconnecting, making it impossible to work? I've been there, and it's incredibly frustrating! After a lot of digging around and testing, I discovered a potential culprit: abnormally large session files. These files, intended to store your coding session details, were blowing up in size, leading to all sorts of issues. Let's dive deep into this and see what's causing these massive files and how you might be able to fix it.

Understanding the Problem: The Giant Session File

First off, let's get some context. I was running Codex version 0.61.1-alpha.1, and I'm on a business subscription. The model I was using was the Gpt-5.1-Codex. The big issue I was experiencing was those never-ending reconnections in both the command-line interface (CLI) and the VS Code extension. After trying a bunch of different fixes, I found the root of the problem: a session file that was absolutely enormous. We're not talking about a file that was just a bit bigger, but one that was a whopping 33,000% larger than the next biggest file. Yeah, you read that right – thirty-three thousand percent! This monster file clocked in at a staggering 3.9GB. That's huge!

To figure out what was going on, I had to crack open this behemoth. Since it was all squished onto a single line, I used jq to format it so I could actually read it. When I did, the problem became immediately apparent. This file was packed with every conceivable file path from my workspace. We're talking about every node module path, every pip path, and the path of every single file inside every node module and Python package. And it wasn't just listing these paths once; it was doing it multiple times! This led to a huge amount of data being stored, eventually causing the tool to crash.

The Ghost Commit: The Root Cause

So, what was causing this massive data bloat? The answer, at least in my case, was something called a "Ghost_commit". It seemed like there were 2476 snapshots listing every single untracked file in the repository. Imagine that – every single file, even the ones you wouldn't normally track. This is where the issue started.

The idea behind these snapshots is great. It's meant to help Codex understand your project context better. However, the implementation clearly has some problems when it comes to excluding unnecessary files and folders. This leads to the inclusion of build files, virtual environments (.venv), distribution folders (dist), node modules, and other directories that should be ignored. The whole process becomes inefficient and ends up causing serious performance issues. Ideally, these snapshots should respect your .gitignore file, and if there isn't one, they should automatically exclude these directories.

Reproducing the Bug: Steps to Crash Codex

If you're experiencing similar issues, here's how you might be able to reproduce the bug yourself. It's pretty simple, actually:

  1. Use Codex on a Large Repository: Start with a substantial project with a lot of files.
  2. Include Common Problem Areas: Make sure your repository includes node_modules, .venv, dist, or build folders. These are the typical suspects for causing bloat.
  3. Check the Session File: Look at the jsonl file for your current session, and you might see the same issue. The file should be in your Codex workspace directory, but its exact location could vary based on your setup.

If you see your session file growing excessively, you've likely encountered this bug. And, you are not alone.

Expected Behavior vs. Actual Behavior: What Should Happen?

So, what should Codex actually do? The expected behavior is pretty straightforward:

  • Smart Snapshotting: The session files should only include relevant files, not every single file in your project.
  • Respect .gitignore: The tool needs to respect the .gitignore file. If a file or folder is specified in .gitignore, it shouldn't be included in the session file.
  • Performance: Session files should be reasonably sized. They should not cause performance issues or excessive resource usage.
  • Efficiency: The tool should be efficient in gathering and storing data. It should only store what's absolutely necessary for the task at hand.

What's happening, however, is that this is not the case. Instead, the session files become huge, take up a lot of storage, and cause Codex to be slow, freeze, or have those dreaded reconnection issues.

Additional Considerations and Possible Solutions

Here are some things you can do to try and fix this issue or mitigate its effects:

  1. Check your .gitignore: Make sure your .gitignore file is properly configured to exclude unnecessary files and folders. This is the first and most important step. Make sure your node_modules, .venv, and dist folders are listed in your .gitignore file, among other things.

  2. Limit the Scope: Try to limit the scope of the Codex usage to specific parts of your project. If you're working on a small feature, try only opening the relevant files in your editor. This may help in reducing the size of the session file.

  3. Update Codex: Keep your Codex extension and any related tools up to date. The developers may release updates that fix this issue or improve the way session files are handled.

  4. Monitor the Session File Size: Keep an eye on the size of your session files. If you notice they are growing rapidly, you can investigate the contents to see what's being included. You can use the jq tool to format the jsonl file, which should make it easier to read.

  5. Report the Issue: If you're encountering this problem, consider reporting it to Codex's developers. They'll need to know about these issues so they can be addressed.

  6. Review Node Modules: Sometimes, your node modules might have large files that contribute to the problem. If you have any extremely big packages, you might want to consider alternatives or remove the packages that are unnecessary for your workflow.

  7. Use .codexignore file: If you can't rely on .gitignore, then create a .codexignore file and list the directories and files that you want to avoid.

Conclusion: Keeping Your Codex Sessions Lean

In a nutshell, the abnormally large session files are a real problem that can cause your Codex experience to be unusable. The root cause, in my case, was the inclusion of all files in the repository instead of respecting .gitignore and excluding build artifacts. By understanding the problem, identifying the cause, and taking steps to mitigate it, you can keep your Codex sessions lean and your coding workflow smooth. So, keep an eye on those session file sizes and make sure you're getting the most out of your coding tools! Hope this helps! Happy coding, guys!