### Motivation
Exposes a per-thread / per-turn `personality` override in the v2
app-server API so clients can influence model communication style at
thread/turn start. Ensures the override is passed into the session
configuration resolution so it becomes effective for subsequent turns
and headless runners.
### Testing
- [x] Add an integration-style test
`turn_start_accepts_personality_override_v2` in
`codex-rs/app-server/tests/suite/v2/turn_start.rs` that verifies a
`/personality` override results in a developer update message containing
`<personality_spec>` in the outbound model request.
------
[Codex
Task](https://chatgpt.com/codex/tasks/task_i_6971d646b1c08322a689a54d2649f3fe)
In order to make Codex work with connectors, we add a built-in gateway
MCP that acts as a transparent proxy between the client and the
connectors. The gateway MCP collects actions that are accessible to the
user and sends them down to the user, when a connector action is chosen
to be called, the client invokes the action through the gateway MCP as
well.
- [x] Add the system built-in gateway MCP to list and run connectors.
- [x] Add the app server methods and protocol
## Summary
Support updating Personality mid-Thread via UserTurn/OverwriteTurn. This
is explicitly unused by the clients so far, to simplify PRs - app-server
and tui implementations will be follow-ups.
## Testing
- [x] added integration tests
### Summary
We now rely purely on `item/commandExecution/requestApproval` item to
render pending approval in VSCE and app. With v2 approach, it does not
include the actual cmd that it is attempting and therefore we can only
use `proposedExecpolicyAmendment` to render which can be incomplete.
### Reproduce
* Add `prefix_rule(pattern=["echo"], decision="prompt")` to your
`~/.codex/rules.default.rules`.
* Ask to `Run echo "approval-test" please` in VSCE or app.
* The pending approval protal does show up but with no content
#### Example screenshot
<img width="3434" height="3648" alt="Screenshot 2026-01-21 at 8 23
25 PM"
src="https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/75644837-21f1-40f8-8b02-858d361ff817"
/>
#### Sample output
```
{"method":"item/commandExecution/requestApproval","id":0,"params":{
"threadId":"019be439-5a90-7600-a7ea-2d2dcc50302a",
"turnId":"0",
"itemId":"call_usgnQ4qEX5U9roNdjT7fPzhb",
"reason":"`/bin/zsh -lc 'echo \"testing\"'` requires approval by policy",
"proposedExecpolicyAmendment":null
}}
```
### Fix
Inlude `command` string, `cwd` and `command_actions` in
`CommandExecutionRequestApprovalParams` so that consumers can display
the correct command instead of relying on exec policy output.
## Summary
#9555 is the start of a rename, so I'm starting to standardize here.
Sets up `model_instructions` templating with a strongly-typed object for
injecting a personality block into the model instructions.
## Testing
- [x] Added tests
- [x] Ran locally
This PR adds support for chained (layered) config.toml file merging for
clients that use the app server interface. This feature already exists
for the TUI, but it does not work for GUI clients.
It does the following:
* Changes code paths for new thread, resume thread, and fork thread to
use the effective config based on the cwd.
* Updates the `config/read` API to accept an optional `cwd` parameter.
If specified, the API returns the effective config based on that cwd
path. Also optionally includes all layers including project config
files. If cwd is not specified, the API falls back on its older behavior
where it considers only the global (non-project) config files when
computing the effective config.
The changes in codex_message_processor.rs look deceptively large. They
mostly just involve moving existing blocks of code to a later point in
some functions so it can use the cwd to calculate the config.
This PR builds upon #9509 and should be reviewed and merged after that
PR.
Tested:
* Verified change with (dependent, as-yet-uncommitted) changes to IDE
Extension and confirmed correct behavior
The full fix requires additional changes in the IDE Extension code base,
but they depend on this PR.
## Summary
- Keep `request_user_input` in the tool list but reject it at runtime in
Execute/Custom modes with a clear model-facing error.
- Add a session accessor for current collaboration mode and enforce the
gate in the request_user_input handler.
- Update core/app-server tests to use Plan mode for success and add
Execute/Custom rejection coverage.
## Summary
- Make `TextElement` placeholders private and add a text-backed accessor
to avoid assuming `Some`.
- Since they are optional in the protocol, we want to make sure any
accessors properly handle the None case (getting the placeholder using
the byte range in the text)
- Preserve placeholders during protocol/app-server conversions using the
accessor fallback.
- Update TUI composer/remap logic and tests to use the new
constructor/accessor.
## Summary
This PR consolidates base_instructions onto SessionMeta /
SessionConfiguration, so we ensure `base_instructions` is set once per
session and should be (mostly) immutable, unless:
- overridden by config on resume / fork
- sub-agent tasks, like review or collab
In a future PR, we should convert all references to `base_instructions`
to consistently used the typed struct, so it's less likely that we put
other strings there. See #9423. However, this PR is already quite
complex, so I'm deferring that to a follow-up.
## Testing
- [x] Added a resume test to assert that instructions are preserved. In
particular, `resume_switches_models_preserves_base_instructions` fails
against main.
Existing test coverage thats assert base instructions are preserved
across multiple requests in a session:
- Manual compact keeps baseline instructions:
core/tests/suite/compact.rs:199
- Auto-compact keeps baseline instructions:
core/tests/suite/compact.rs:1142
- Prompt caching reuses the same instructions across two requests:
core/tests/suite/prompt_caching.rs:150 and
core/tests/suite/prompt_caching.rs:157
- Prompt caching with explicit expected string across two requests:
core/tests/suite/prompt_caching.rs:213 and
core/tests/suite/prompt_caching.rs:222
- Resume with model switch keeps original instructions:
core/tests/suite/resume.rs:136
- Compact/resume/fork uses request 0 instructions for later expected
payloads: core/tests/suite/compact_resume_fork.rs:215
# External (non-OpenAI) Pull Request Requirements
Before opening this Pull Request, please read the dedicated
"Contributing" markdown file or your PR may be closed:
https://github.com/openai/codex/blob/main/docs/contributing.md
If your PR conforms to our contribution guidelines, replace this text
with a detailed and high quality description of your changes.
Include a link to a bug report or enhancement request.
### Description
- Remove the now-unused `instructions` field from the session metadata
to simplify SessionMeta and stop propagating transient instruction text
through the rollout recorder API. This was only saving
user_instructions, and was never being read.
- Stop passing user instructions into the rollout writer at session
creation so the rollout header only contains canonical session metadata.
### Testing
- Ran `just fmt` which completed successfully.
- Ran `just fix -p codex-protocol`, `just fix -p codex-core`, `just fix
-p codex-app-server`, `just fix -p codex-tui`, and `just fix -p
codex-tui2` which completed (Clippy fixes applied) as part of
verification.
- Ran `cargo test -p codex-protocol` which passed (28 tests).
- Ran `cargo test -p codex-core` which showed failures in a small set of
tests (not caused by the protocol type change directly):
`default_client::tests::test_create_client_sets_default_headers`,
several `models_manager::manager::tests::refresh_available_models_*`,
and `shell_snapshot::tests::linux_sh_snapshot_includes_sections` (these
tests failed in this CI run).
- Ran `cargo test -p codex-app-server` which reported several failing
integration tests (including
`suite::codex_message_processor_flow::test_codex_jsonrpc_conversation_flow`,
`suite::output_schema::send_user_turn_*`, and
`suite::user_agent::get_user_agent_returns_current_codex_user_agent`).
- `cargo test -p codex-tui` and `cargo test -p codex-tui2` were
attempted but aborted due to disk space exhaustion (`No space left on
device`).
------
[Codex
Task](https://chatgpt.com/codex/tasks/task_i_696bd8ce632483228d298cf07c7eb41c)
Summary:
- Add forked_from to SessionMeta/SessionConfiguredEvent and persist it
for forked sessions.
- Surface forked_from in /status for tui + tui2 and add snapshots.
Add support for returning threads by either `created_at` OR `updated_at`
descending. Previously core always returned threads ordered by
`created_at`.
This PR:
- updates core to be able to list threads by `updated_at` OR
`created_at` descending based on what the caller wants
- also update `thread/list` in app-server to expose this (default to
`created_at` if not specified)
All existing codepaths (app-server, TUI) still default to `created_at`,
so no behavior change is expected with this PR.
**Implementation**
To sort by `updated_at` is a bit nontrivial (whereas `created_at` is
easy due to the way we structure the folders and filenames on disk,
which are all based on `created_at`).
The most naive way to do this without introducing a cache file or sqlite
DB (which we have to implement/maintain) is to scan files in reverse
`created_at` order on disk, and look at the file's mtime (last modified
timestamp according to the filesystem) until we reach `MAX_SCAN_FILES`
(currently set to 10,000). Then, we can return the most recent N
threads.
Based on some quick and dirty benchmarking on my machine with ~1000
rollout files, calling `thread/list` with limit 50, the `updated_at`
path is slower as expected due to all the I/O:
- updated-at: average 103.10 ms
- created-at: average 41.10 ms
Those absolute numbers aren't a big deal IMO, but we can certainly
optimize this in a followup if needed by introducing more state stored
on disk.
**Caveat**
There's also a limitation in that any files older than `MAX_SCAN_FILES`
will be excluded, which means if a user continues a REALLY old thread,
it's possible to not be included. In practice that should not be too big
of an issue.
If a user makes...
- 1000 rollouts/day → threads older than 10 days won't show up
- 100 rollouts/day → ~100 days
If this becomes a problem for some reason, even more motivation to
implement an updated_at cache.
The second part of breaking up PR
https://github.com/openai/codex/pull/9116
Summary:
- Add `TextElement` / `ByteRange` to protocol user inputs and user
message events with defaults.
- Thread `text_elements` through app-server v1/v2 request handling and
history rebuild.
- Preserve UI metadata only in user input/events (not `ContentItem`)
while keeping local image attachments in user events for rehydration.
Details:
- Protocol: `UserInput::Text` carries `text_elements`;
`UserMessageEvent` carries `text_elements` + `local_images`.
Serialization includes empty vectors for backward compatibility.
- app-server-protocol: v1 defines `V1TextElement` / `V1ByteRange` in
camelCase with conversions; v2 uses its own camelCase wrapper.
- app-server: v1/v2 input mapping includes `text_elements`; thread
history rebuilds include them.
- Core: user event emission preserves UI metadata while model history
stays clean; history replay round-trips the metadata.
We’re introducing a new SKILL.toml to hold skill metadata so Codex can
deliver a richer Skills experience.
Initial focus is the interface block:
```
[interface]
display_name = "Optional user-facing name"
short_description = "Optional user-facing description"
icon_small = "./assets/small-400px.png"
icon_large = "./assets/large-logo.svg"
brand_color = "#3B82F6"
default_prompt = "Optional surrounding prompt to use the skill with"
```
All fields are exposed via the app server API.
display_name and short_description are consumed by the TUI.
Next step would be to clean Model Upgrade in model presets
---------
Co-authored-by: github-actions[bot] <41898282+github-actions[bot]@users.noreply.github.com>
Co-authored-by: aibrahim-oai <219906144+aibrahim-oai@users.noreply.github.com>
A simple `s/mcp_server_requirements/mcp_servers/g` for an unreleased
feature. @bolinfest correctly pointed out, it's already in
`requirements.toml` so the `_requirements` is redundant.
Instead of having a hard-coded default review model, use the current
model for running `/review` unless one is specified in the config.
Also inherit current reasoning effort
This PR is in the scope of multi-agent work.
An agent (=thread) can now spawn other agents. Those other agents are
not attached to any clients. We need a way to make sure that the clients
are aware of the new threads to look at (for approval for example). This
PR adds a channel to the `ThreadManager` that pushes the ID of those
newly created agents such that the client (here the app-server) can also
subscribe to those ones.
When an invalid config.toml key or value is detected, the CLI currently
just quits. This leaves the VSCE in a dead state.
This PR changes the behavior to not quit and bubble up the config error
to users to make it actionable. It also surfaces errors related to
"rules" parsing.
This allows us to surface these errors to users in the VSCE, like this:
<img width="342" height="129" alt="Screenshot 2026-01-13 at 4 29 22 PM"
src="https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/a79ffbe7-7604-400c-a304-c5165b6eebc4"
/>
<img width="346" height="244" alt="Screenshot 2026-01-13 at 4 45 06 PM"
src="https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/de874f7c-16a2-4a95-8c6d-15f10482e67b"
/>
Have only the following Methods:
- `list_models`: getting current available models
- `try_list_models`: sync version no refresh for tui use
- `get_default_model`: get the default model (should be tightened to
core and received on session configuration)
- `get_model_info`: get `ModelInfo` for a specific model (should be
tightened to core but used in tests)
- `refresh_if_new_etag`: trigger refresh on different etags
Also move the cache to its own struct
Add a new `codex app-server --analytics-default-enabled` CLI flag that
controls whether analytics are enabled by default.
Analytics are disabled by default for app-server. Users have to
explicitly opt in
via the `analytics` section in the config.toml file.
However, for first-party use cases like the VSCode IDE extension, we
default analytics
to be enabled by default by setting this flag. Users can still opt out
by setting this
in their config.toml:
```toml
[analytics]
enabled = false
```
See https://developers.openai.com/codex/config-advanced/#metrics for
more details.
Enterprises want to restrict the MCP servers their users can use.
Admins can now specify an allowlist of MCPs in `requirements.toml`. The
MCP servers are matched on both Name and Transport (local path or HTTP
URL) -- both must match to allow the MCP server. This prevents
circumventing the allowlist by renaming MCP servers in user config. (It
is still possible to replace the local path e.g. rewrite say
`/usr/local/github-mcp` with a nefarious MCP. We could allow hash
pinning in the future, but that would break updates. I also think this
represents a broader, out-of-scope problem.)
We introduce a new field to Constrained: "normalizer". In general, it is
a fn(T) -> T and applies when `Constrained<T>.set()` is called. In this
particular case, it disables MCP servers which do not match the
allowlist. An alternative solution would remove this and instead throw a
ConstraintError. That would stop Codex launching if any MCP server was
configured which didn't match. I think this is bad.
We currently reuse the enabled flag on MCP servers to disable them, but
don't propagate any information about why they are disabled. I'd like to
add that in a follow up PR, possibly by switching out enabled with an
enum.
In action:
```
# MCP server config has two MCPs. We are going to allowlist one of them.
➜ codex git:(gt/restrict-mcps) ✗ cat ~/.codex/config.toml | grep mcp_servers -A1
[mcp_servers.hello_world]
command = "hello-world-mcp"
--
[mcp_servers.docs]
command = "docs-mcp"
# Restrict the MCPs to the hello_world MCP.
➜ codex git:(gt/restrict-mcps) ✗ defaults read com.openai.codex requirements_toml_base64 | base64 -d
[mcp_server_allowlist.hello_world]
command = "hello-world-mcp"
# List the MCPs, observe hello_world is enabled and docs is disabled.
➜ codex git:(gt/restrict-mcps) ✗ just codex mcp list
cargo run --bin codex -- "$@"
Finished `dev` profile [unoptimized + debuginfo] target(s) in 0.25s
Running `target/debug/codex mcp list`
Name Command Args Env Cwd Status Auth
docs docs-mcp - - - disabled Unsupported
hello_world hello-world-mcp - - - enabled Unsupported
# Remove the restrictions.
➜ codex git:(gt/restrict-mcps) ✗ defaults delete com.openai.codex requirements_toml_base64
# Observe both MCPs are enabled.
➜ codex git:(gt/restrict-mcps) ✗ just codex mcp list
cargo run --bin codex -- "$@"
Finished `dev` profile [unoptimized + debuginfo] target(s) in 0.25s
Running `target/debug/codex mcp list`
Name Command Args Env Cwd Status Auth
docs docs-mcp - - - enabled Unsupported
hello_world hello-world-mcp - - - enabled Unsupported
# A new requirements that updates the command to one that does not match.
➜ codex git:(gt/restrict-mcps) ✗ cat ~/requirements.toml
[mcp_server_allowlist.hello_world]
command = "hello-world-mcp-v2"
# Use those requirements.
➜ codex git:(gt/restrict-mcps) ✗ defaults write com.openai.codex requirements_toml_base64 "$(base64 -i /Users/gt/requirements.toml)"
# Observe both MCPs are disabled.
➜ codex git:(gt/restrict-mcps) ✗ just codex mcp list
cargo run --bin codex -- "$@"
Finished `dev` profile [unoptimized + debuginfo] target(s) in 0.75s
Running `target/debug/codex mcp list`
Name Command Args Env Cwd Status Auth
docs docs-mcp - - - disabled Unsupported
hello_world hello-world-mcp - - - disabled Unsupported
```
- Add a single builder for developer permissions messaging that accepts
SandboxPolicy and approval policy. This builder now drives the developer
“permissions” message that’s injected at session start and any time
sandbox/approval settings change.
- Trim EnvironmentContext to only include cwd, writable roots, and
shell; removed sandbox/approval/network duplication and adjusted XML
serialization and tests accordingly.
Follow-up: adding a config value to replace the developer permissions
message for custom sandboxes.
### Summary
* Added `mcpServer/refresh` command to inform app servers and active
threads to refresh mcpServer on next turn event.
* Added `pending_mcp_server_refresh_config` to codex core so that if the
value is populated, we reinitialize the mcp server manager on the thread
level.
* The config is updated on `mcpServer/refresh` command which we iterate
through threads and provide with the latest config value after last
write.
Currently the callback URI for MCP authentication is dynamically
generated. More specifically, the callback URI is dynamic because the
port part of it is randomly chosen by the OS. This is not ideal as
callback URIs are recommended to be static and many authorization
servers do not support dynamic callback URIs.
This PR fixes that issue by exposing a new config option named
`mcp_oauth_callback_port`. When it is set, the callback URI is
constructed using this port rather than a random one chosen by the OS,
thereby making callback URI static.
Related issue: https://github.com/openai/codex/issues/8827
This PR configures Codex CLI so it can be built with
[Bazel](https://bazel.build) in addition to Cargo. The `.bazelrc`
includes configuration so that remote builds can be done using
[BuildBuddy](https://www.buildbuddy.io).
If you are familiar with Bazel, things should work as you expect, e.g.,
run `bazel test //... --keep-going` to run all the tests in the repo,
but we have also added some new aliases in the `justfile` for
convenience:
- `just bazel-test` to run tests locally
- `just bazel-remote-test` to run tests remotely (currently, the remote
build is for x86_64 Linux regardless of your host platform). Note we are
currently seeing the following test failures in the remote build, so we
still need to figure out what is happening here:
```
failures:
suite::compact::manual_compact_twice_preserves_latest_user_messages
suite::compact_resume_fork::compact_resume_after_second_compaction_preserves_history
suite::compact_resume_fork::compact_resume_and_fork_preserve_model_history_view
```
- `just build-for-release` to build release binaries for all
platforms/architectures remotely
To setup remote execution:
- [Create a buildbuddy account](https://app.buildbuddy.io/) (OpenAI
employees should also request org access at
https://openai.buildbuddy.io/join/ with their `@openai.com` email
address.)
- [Copy your API key](https://app.buildbuddy.io/docs/setup/) to
`~/.bazelrc` (add the line `build
--remote_header=x-buildbuddy-api-key=YOUR_KEY`)
- Use `--config=remote` in your `bazel` invocations (or add `common
--config=remote` to your `~/.bazelrc`, or use the `just` commands)
## CI
In terms of CI, this PR introduces `.github/workflows/bazel.yml`, which
uses Bazel to run the tests _locally_ on Mac and Linux GitHub runners
(we are working on supporting Windows, but that is not ready yet). Note
that the failures we are seeing in `just bazel-remote-test` do not occur
on these GitHub CI jobs, so everything in `.github/workflows/bazel.yml`
is green right now.
The `bazel.yml` uses extra config in `.github/workflows/ci.bazelrc` so
that macOS CI jobs build _remotely_ on Linux hosts (using the
`docker://docker.io/mbolin491/codex-bazel` Docker image declared in the
root `BUILD.bazel`) using cross-compilation to build the macOS
artifacts. Then these artifacts are downloaded locally to GitHub's macOS
runner so the tests can be executed natively. This is the relevant
config that enables this:
```
common:macos --config=remote
common:macos --strategy=remote
common:macos --strategy=TestRunner=darwin-sandbox,local
```
Because of the remote caching benefits we get from BuildBuddy, these new
CI jobs can be extremely fast! For example, consider these two jobs that
ran all the tests on Linux x86_64:
- Bazel 1m37s
https://github.com/openai/codex/actions/runs/20861063212/job/59940545209?pr=8875
- Cargo 9m20s
https://github.com/openai/codex/actions/runs/20861063192/job/59940559592?pr=8875
For now, we will continue to run both the Bazel and Cargo jobs for PRs,
but once we add support for Windows and running Clippy, we should be
able to cutover to using Bazel exclusively for PRs, which should still
speed things up considerably. We will probably continue to run the Cargo
jobs post-merge for commits that land on `main` as a sanity check.
Release builds will also continue to be done by Cargo for now.
Earlier attempt at this PR: https://github.com/openai/codex/pull/8832
Earlier attempt to add support for Buck2, now abandoned:
https://github.com/openai/codex/pull/8504
---------
Co-authored-by: David Zbarsky <dzbarsky@gmail.com>
Co-authored-by: Michael Bolin <mbolin@openai.com>
Some enterprises do not want their users to be able to `/feedback`.
<img width="395" height="325" alt="image"
src="https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/2dae9c0b-20c3-4a15-bcd3-0187857ebbd8"
/>
Adds to `config.toml`:
```toml
[feedback]
enabled = false
```
I've deliberately decided to:
1. leave other references to `/feedback` (e.g. in the interrupt message,
tips of the day) unchanged. I think we should continue to promote the
feature even if it is not usable currently.
2. leave the `/feedback` menu item selectable and display an error
saying it's disabled, rather than remove the menu item (which I believe
would raise more questions).
but happy to discuss these.
This will be followed by a change to requirements.toml that admins can
use to force the value of feedback.enabled.
**Motivation**
The `originator` header is important for codex-backend’s Responses API
proxy because it identifies the real end client (codex cli, codex vscode
extension, codex exec, future IDEs) and is used to categorize requests
by client for our enterprise compliance API.
Today the `originator` header is set by either:
- the `CODEX_INTERNAL_ORIGINATOR_OVERRIDE` env var (our VSCode extension
does this)
- calling `set_default_originator()` which sets a global immutable
singleton (`codex exec` does this)
For `codex app-server`, we want the `initialize` JSON-RPC request to set
that header because it is a natural place to do so. Example:
```json
{
"method": "initialize",
"id": 0,
"params": {
"clientInfo": {
"name": "codex_vscode",
"title": "Codex VS Code Extension",
"version": "0.1.0"
}
}
}
```
and when app-server receives that request, it can call
`set_default_originator()`. This is a much more natural interface than
asking third party developers to set an env var.
One hiccup is that `originator()` reads the global singleton and locks
in the value, preventing a later `set_default_originator()` call from
setting it. This would be fine but is brittle, since any codepath that
calls `originator()` before app-server can process an `initialize`
JSON-RPC call would prevent app-server from setting it. This was
actually the case with OTEL initialization which runs on boot, but I
also saw this behavior in certain tests.
Instead, what we now do is:
- [unchanged] If `CODEX_INTERNAL_ORIGINATOR_OVERRIDE` env var is set,
`originator()` would return that value and `set_default_originator()`
with some other value does NOT override it.
- [new] If no env var is set, `originator()` would return the default
value which is `codex_cli_rs` UNTIL `set_default_originator()` is called
once, in which case it is set to the new value and becomes immutable.
Later calls to `set_default_originator()` returns
`SetOriginatorError::AlreadyInitialized`.
**Other notes**
- I updated `codex_core::otel_init::build_provider` to accepts a service
name override, and app-server sends a hardcoded `codex_app_server`
service name to distinguish it from `codex_cli_rs` used by default (e.g.
TUI).
**Next steps**
- Update VSCE to set the proper value for `clientInfo.name` on
`initialize` and drop the `CODEX_INTERNAL_ORIGINATOR_OVERRIDE` env var.
- Delete support for `CODEX_INTERNAL_ORIGINATOR_OVERRIDE` in codex-rs.
