context-attachment-manager

New in 0.4: it works in Claude Desktop too. In the Code tab of Claude Desktop, install the plugin and type /cam in a session: the same panel opens in Claude Desktop's built-in browser, next to the conversation. Formerly Codex Attachment Manager; the project was renamed because it no longer works with Codex alone.

Why I built this

I was iterating on image generation with GPT in Codex. After a dozen or so images, the task started failing: the connection kept dropping, and the retries every few minutes never went through. Digging into it, I found that Codex sends every image in the task's history again with every request, and each request had grown to about 44 MB. The only way out was a new task, which meant losing the conversation.

So I wanted to keep the long conversation going and decide, turn by turn, which images the model still gets. Uncheck the ones you no longer need: from the next message on they become short placeholders, and the task and the conversation stay the same. Claude Code also sends the whole history with every request, so 0.4 brings the same panel to Claude Desktop.

Features

• Every image in one list: the panel lists every image in the task (in Codex) or session (in Claude Code), turn by turn: the ones you uploaded and the ones the model viewed or generated, with thumbnails, IDs and sizes. Click one to preview it. In Codex it's a Context Assets tab in the side panel; in Claude Desktop, /cam opens it in the built-in browser.
• Filter by source: with many images, show only some sources: your uploads, PDF pages you commented on in Codex (with the page number and the PDF's name), web page screenshots, and images the model viewed, got from a tool or generated. Filtering changes what you see, never what is sent.
• One click to leave an image out: unchecked images become a short placeholder from the next message on. Toggle single images or a whole turn.
• Duplicates handled: when an identical image is still being sent, the placeholder points to it.
• The model knows why: a note tells the model the images were left out by you to save context, so its earlier answers still stand and it doesn't make up details it can't see.
• The model asks, you decide: when it needs an image, it replies need IMG-xxx. The panel lists what it asked for and jumps to it in one click. A checked image goes back to its place in the conversation, marked with its ID.
• Or let the model pick (new in 0.3): switch on Auto-select at the bottom of the panel, per task or session. Images from earlier turns are then left out by default, and the model fetches the ones it needs by ID, for that turn only. Images you check are pinned and go every turn. The panel shows what the model fetched in the latest turn.
• See the savings: the panel estimates the size of the next request and how much you save compared with sending every image, and warns you when a request could not be rewritten.
• English and Simplified Chinese: the panel, the tab name and the note for the model follow Codex's language, or your system's language when Codex isn't installed.
• Stays on your machine: the plugin sends nothing anywhere besides the requests Codex and Claude Code already make to OpenAI and Anthropic.

How it works

• The plugin runs a small local proxy, the engine, between Codex and OpenAI, and between Claude Code and Anthropic. Before a request goes out, the engine swaps unchecked images for placeholders and adds the note; everything else is forwarded as is, including your sign-in.
• In Codex, installing points Codex at the engine. In Claude Desktop, the plugin points each Claude Code session at the engine when the session starts, and puts it back when the session ends.
• With Auto-select on, the engine does the same for the images of earlier turns you haven't pinned, and the plugin gives the model one tool, cam_view_image, to fetch an image back into the current turn. The placeholders before it stay as they were, so the cached part of the request isn't broken.
• Selections and the Auto-select switch are saved per task or session. Only you can change them; the model can only fetch an image for one turn, and only with Auto-select on.
• The panel doesn't go through the model and costs no tokens. In Codex it's an MCP app in the side panel; in Claude Desktop the engine serves the same page to the built-in browser, on your machine only.

Requirements

• Codex: the Codex desktop app. Tested on Windows with Codex 26.924.
• Claude Desktop: the Code tab, local sessions, signed in with your Claude subscription. Tested on Windows with the Claude Code 2.1.295 that Claude Desktop runs.
• macOS and Linux: CI installs the plugin with Codex's own CLI, starts it, and runs the install and uninstall scripts, but nobody has tried it in the desktop apps on these platforms yet. Issues welcome.
• Node: the plugin uses the Node 24 that ships with Codex, and falls back to node 24 or later on your PATH. Claude Desktop doesn't ship Node, so without Codex, install Node 24 or later.

Install

In Codex, no terminal

1. On Codex's Plugins page, click Add a marketplace, enter chipfighter/context-attachment-manager as the Source, leave the rest empty, and click Add marketplace.
2. Install Context Attachment Manager from the list.
3. Open a task, click Toggle side panel at the top right, open a new tab with +, and choose Context Assets under Plugins and MCPs. If it isn't there, restart Codex once.
4. The panel says the plugin is not enabled yet. Click Enable plugin, then restart Codex.

In Codex, one command

Windows (PowerShell):

irm https://github.com/chipfighter/context-attachment-manager/releases/latest/download/install.ps1 | iex

macOS and Linux:

curl -fsSL https://github.com/chipfighter/context-attachment-manager/releases/latest/download/install.sh | sh

The command installs the plugin with Codex's own CLI and sets up the proxy. Restart Codex afterwards. Run it again later to upgrade.

What installing changes in Codex:

• Adds a marked proxy block to ~/.codex/config.toml, after backing the file up.
• If a proxy is set in your environment variables, adds a marked NO_PROXY block with local addresses only to ~/.codex/.env.
• Nothing else. If you have set openai_base_url yourself, installing stops without writing anything.

In Claude Desktop

Claude Desktop installs plugins only from marketplaces you have added, and adding one from GitHub takes the claude command, Claude Code's command line (setup guide). Once:

claude plugin marketplace add chipfighter/context-attachment-manager

claude plugin install codex-attachment-manager@codex-attachment-manager

Instead of the second command, you can also install it in the Code tab: click + next to the prompt box, choose Plugins, then Add plugin, pick Context Attachment Manager, and install it for your user account. The install ID keeps the project's old name.

Then start a new session in the Code tab. There is nothing to set up: the plugin doesn't edit any settings, and only points that session's own Claude Code process at the engine while it runs.

Usage

In Codex

1. Open Context Assets in the side panel of a task. On a new chat you can open it before the first message; it switches to the task once you send.
2. Uncheck the images you don't want to send anymore. Each change is saved at once and applies from the next message.
3. When the model replies need IMG-xxx for an unchecked image, a bar at the top of the panel lists it. Click the ID to jump to the image and check it.
4. With many images, click the filter button next to refresh and pick the sources to show. A turn's checkbox then covers only the images shown.
5. To let the model pick, switch on Auto-select at the bottom of the panel. Check the images that should go every turn, such as a reference image; the model fetches the others when it needs them. Switch it off to get your own checks back.

In Claude Desktop

1. In a session in the Code tab, type /cam and sen