Solves #700
## State of the World Before
Prior to this PR, when users wanted to share file contents with Codex,
they had two options:
- Manually copy and paste file contents into the chat
- Wait for the assistant to use the shell tool to view the file
The second approach required the assistant to:
1. Recognize the need to view a file
2. Execute a shell tool call
3. Wait for the tool call to complete
4. Process the file contents
This consumed extra tokens and reduced user control over which files
were shared with the model.
## State of the World After
With this PR, users can now:
- Reference files directly in their chat input using the `@path` syntax
- Have file contents automatically expanded into XML blocks before being
sent to the LLM
For example, users can type `@src/utils/config.js` in their message, and
the file contents will be included in context. Within the terminal chat
history, these file blocks will be collapsed back to `@path` format in
the UI for clean presentation.
Tag File suggestions:
<img width="857" alt="file-suggestions"
src="https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/397669dc-ad83-492d-b5f0-164fab2ff4ba"
/>
Tagging files in action:
<img width="858" alt="tagging-files"
src="https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/0de9d559-7b7f-4916-aeff-87ae9b16550a"
/>
Demo video of file tagging:
[](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vL4LqtBnqt8)
## Implementation Details
This PR consists of 2 main components:
1. **File Tag Utilities**:
- New `file-tag-utils.ts` utility module that handles both expansion and
collapsing of file tags
- `expandFileTags()` identifies `@path` tokens and replaces them with
XML blocks containing file contents
- `collapseXmlBlocks()` reverses the process, converting XML blocks back
to `@path` format for UI display
- Tokens are only expanded if they point to valid files (directories are
ignored)
- Expansion happens just before sending input to the model
2. **Terminal Chat Integration**:
- Leveraged the existing file system completion system for tabbing to
support the `@path` syntax
- Added `updateFsSuggestions` helper to manage filesystem suggestions
- Added `replaceFileSystemSuggestion` to replace input with filesystem
suggestions
- Applied `collapseXmlBlocks` in the chat response rendering so that
tagged files are shown as simple `@path` tags
The PR also includes test coverage for both the UI and the file tag
utilities.
## Next Steps
Some ideas I'd like to implement if this feature gets merged:
- Line selection: `@path[50:80]` to grab specific sections of files
- Method selection: `@path#methodName` to grab just one function/class
- Visual improvements: highlight file tags in the UI to make them more
noticeable
## Description
This fix resolves a bug where Ctrl+Backspace (hex 0x17) deletes the
entire line when the cursor is positioned after a trailing space.
## Problem
When the user has a line like "I want you to refactor my view " (with a
space at the end) and the cursor is after that space, Ctrl+Backspace
deletes the entire line instead of just removing the word "view".
## Solution
- Added a check to detect if the cursor is after spaces
- Modified the logic to delete only one space at a time in this case
- Added a unit test to verify this behavior
## Tests
All tests pass, including the new test that verifies the corrected
behavior.
---------
Signed-off-by: Alpha Diop <alphakhoss@gmail.com>
Co-authored-by: Thibault Sottiaux <tibo@openai.com>
