New progress bar indicator for context remaining is a downgrade

[guidedways]

What version of Codex CLI is running?

0.119.0-alpha.29

What subscription do you have?

Pro

Which model were you using?

gpt-5.4

What platform is your computer?

macOS

What terminal emulator and version are you using (if applicable)?

iTerm

What issue are you seeing?

Please either allow us to see text based percentage or add text within the progress bar in the center (inverted color) so it's clear what the percentage is, this is super cryptic - at first I thought the white part is the amount left not used, on top I have no idea how much is being used. I like to control when I run /compact in between sessions and now it's impossible to tell.

What steps can reproduce the bug?

NA

What is the expected behavior?

No response

Additional information

No response

[github-actions]

Potential duplicates detected. Please review them and close your issue if it is a duplicate.

• Usage limits always visible #15883
• Status sidebar similar to Opencode #16382

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[etraut-openai]

This was changed in response to user feedback that we received about the old way this was displayed. Users reported that it was easy to confuse the old display with token usage rather than context window usage.

[rebroad]

How about using sextants? 600% more granularity then. Or make it configurable as I'm sure many would prefer deciminal representation.

[doraemonkeys]

I strongly support this request. The new bar-only indicator is a clear usability regression. The old numeric percentage made context usage instantly understandable, while the current UI is ambiguous and forces users to guess.

Please restore the numeric percentage display. At the very least, make it an optional setting so users can choose between the visual bar and an exact percentage.

For people who actively manage context and decide when to run /compact, precise numbers are not a cosmetic detail, they are essential.

[leafney]

Yes, please restore the number percentage display.

[leventov]

Congrats everyone, codex has been "Claudecodified", that is, started to deliver bs "improvements" that are harder to implement (agents want to do something!) but simply net negative.