Codex Monitor HUD — a real-time Windows overlay for Codex App, CLI, and VS Code

[LH-03]

I wanted one simple thing: when I have several Codex tasks running at the same time, I want to be able to glance at the screen and see what they are doing without constantly switching between windows.

So I built Codex Monitor HUD, a lightweight always-on Windows overlay for Codex.

It currently supports:

• Codex App / Desktop
• Codex CLI
• Codex in VS Code
• an isolated Codex CLI profile using a separate CODEX_HOME (I use this for a DeepSeek-backed setup)

For each running task, the HUD can show things like:

• active / idle / finished state
• token usage
• context usage
• cache hit rate
• model and source
• multiple tasks as a list or floating bubbles

The implementation is intentionally local-first. It reads Codex's local session records rather than proxying API traffic or talking to each frontend through a separate API.

It does not store prompts, replies, tool output, or a conversation archive, and it does not use telemetry or a cloud account.

That architecture also produced an unexpected result: VS Code Codex sessions were already readable by the HUD before I explicitly supported VS Code. I mainly had to distinguish their session metadata from Codex Desktop correctly.

Some other local Codex clients may already work for the same reason, although their source badge may be wrong. I documented the unverified cases in the repository.

The project is deliberately narrower than tools such as AgentsView. I am not trying to build a full session database or analytics dashboard — the goal is simply to keep the current state of my Codex tasks visible while I work.

Windows 10/11 x64, MIT licensed.

GitHub:
https://github.com/LH-03/codex-monitor-hud

Feedback on the session detection approach, compatibility with other Codex clients, or the HUD itself is welcome.