## Summary This is PR 2 of the Windows sandbox runner split. PR 1 introduced the framed IPC runner foundation and related Windows sandbox infrastructure without changing the active elevated one-shot execution path. This PR switches that elevated one-shot path over to the new runner IPC transport and removes the old request-file bootstrap that PR 1 intentionally left in place. After this change, ordinary elevated Windows sandbox commands still behave as one-shot executions, but they now run as the simple case of the same helper/IPC transport that later unified_exec work will build on. ## Why this is needed for unified_exec Windows elevated sandboxed execution crosses a user boundary: the CLI launches a helper as the sandbox user and has to manage command execution from outside that security context. For one-shot commands, the old request-file/bootstrap flow was sufficient. For unified_exec, it is not. Unified_exec needs a long-lived bidirectional channel so the parent can: - send a spawn request - receive structured spawn success/failure - stream stdout and stderr incrementally - eventually support stdin writes, termination, and other session lifecycle events This PR does not add long-lived sessions yet. It converts the existing elevated one-shot path to use the same framed IPC transport so that PR 3 can add unified_exec session semantics on top of a transport that is already exercised by normal elevated command execution. ## Scope This PR: - updates `windows-sandbox-rs/src/elevated_impl.rs` to launch the runner with named pipes, send a framed `SpawnRequest`, wait for `SpawnReady`, and collect framed `Output`/`Exit` messages - removes the old `--request-file=...` execution path from `windows-sandbox-rs/src/elevated/command_runner_win.rs` - keeps the public behavior one-shot: no session reuse or interactive unified_exec behavior is introduced here This PR does not: - add Windows unified_exec session support - add background terminal reuse - add PTY session lifecycle management ## Why Windows needs this and Linux/macOS do not On Linux and macOS, the existing sandbox/process model composes much more directly with long-lived process control. The parent can generally spawn and own the child process (or PTY) directly inside the sandbox model we already use. Windows elevated sandboxing is different. The parent is not directly managing the sandboxed process in the same way; it launches across a different user/security context. That means long-lived control requires an explicit helper process plus IPC for spawn, output, exit, and later stdin/session control. So the extra machinery here is not because unified_exec is conceptually different on Windows. It is because the elevated Windows sandbox boundary requires a helper-mediated transport to support it cleanly. ## Validation - `cargo test -p codex-windows-sandbox` |
||
|---|---|---|
| .. | ||
| .cargo | ||
| .config | ||
| .github/workflows | ||
| ansi-escape | ||
| app-server | ||
| app-server-client | ||
| app-server-protocol | ||
| app-server-test-client | ||
| apply-patch | ||
| arg0 | ||
| artifacts | ||
| async-utils | ||
| backend-client | ||
| chatgpt | ||
| cli | ||
| cloud-requirements | ||
| cloud-tasks | ||
| cloud-tasks-client | ||
| codex-api | ||
| codex-backend-openapi-models | ||
| codex-client | ||
| codex-experimental-api-macros | ||
| config | ||
| connectors | ||
| core | ||
| debug-client | ||
| docs | ||
| exec | ||
| execpolicy | ||
| execpolicy-legacy | ||
| feedback | ||
| file-search | ||
| hooks | ||
| keyring-store | ||
| linux-sandbox | ||
| lmstudio | ||
| login | ||
| mcp-server | ||
| network-proxy | ||
| ollama | ||
| otel | ||
| package-manager | ||
| process-hardening | ||
| protocol | ||
| responses-api-proxy | ||
| rmcp-client | ||
| scripts | ||
| secrets | ||
| shell-command | ||
| shell-escalation | ||
| skills | ||
| state | ||
| stdio-to-uds | ||
| test-macros | ||
| tui | ||
| tui_app_server | ||
| utils | ||
| vendor | ||
| windows-sandbox-rs | ||
| .gitignore | ||
| BUILD.bazel | ||
| Cargo.lock | ||
| Cargo.toml | ||
| clippy.toml | ||
| config.md | ||
| default.nix | ||
| deny.toml | ||
| node-version.txt | ||
| README.md | ||
| rust-toolchain.toml | ||
| rustfmt.toml | ||
Codex CLI (Rust Implementation)
We provide Codex CLI as a standalone, native executable to ensure a zero-dependency install.
Installing Codex
Today, the easiest way to install Codex is via npm:
npm i -g @openai/codex
codex
You can also install via Homebrew (brew install --cask codex) or download a platform-specific release directly from our GitHub Releases.
Documentation quickstart
- First run with Codex? Start with
docs/getting-started.md(links to the walkthrough for prompts, keyboard shortcuts, and session management). - Want deeper control? See
docs/config.mdanddocs/install.md.
What's new in the Rust CLI
The Rust implementation is now the maintained Codex CLI and serves as the default experience. It includes a number of features that the legacy TypeScript CLI never supported.
Config
Codex supports a rich set of configuration options. Note that the Rust CLI uses config.toml instead of config.json. See docs/config.md for details.
Model Context Protocol Support
MCP client
Codex CLI functions as an MCP client that allows the Codex CLI and IDE extension to connect to MCP servers on startup. See the configuration documentation for details.
MCP server (experimental)
Codex can be launched as an MCP server by running codex mcp-server. This allows other MCP clients to use Codex as a tool for another agent.
Use the @modelcontextprotocol/inspector to try it out:
npx @modelcontextprotocol/inspector codex mcp-server
Use codex mcp to add/list/get/remove MCP server launchers defined in config.toml, and codex mcp-server to run the MCP server directly.
Notifications
You can enable notifications by configuring a script that is run whenever the agent finishes a turn. The notify documentation includes a detailed example that explains how to get desktop notifications via terminal-notifier on macOS. When Codex detects that it is running under WSL 2 inside Windows Terminal (WT_SESSION is set), the TUI automatically falls back to native Windows toast notifications so approval prompts and completed turns surface even though Windows Terminal does not implement OSC 9.
codex exec to run Codex programmatically/non-interactively
To run Codex non-interactively, run codex exec PROMPT (you can also pass the prompt via stdin) and Codex will work on your task until it decides that it is done and exits. Output is printed to the terminal directly. You can set the RUST_LOG environment variable to see more about what's going on.
Use codex exec --ephemeral ... to run without persisting session rollout files to disk.
Experimenting with the Codex Sandbox
To test to see what happens when a command is run under the sandbox provided by Codex, we provide the following subcommands in Codex CLI:
# macOS
codex sandbox macos [--full-auto] [--log-denials] [COMMAND]...
# Linux
codex sandbox linux [--full-auto] [COMMAND]...
# Windows
codex sandbox windows [--full-auto] [COMMAND]...
# Legacy aliases
codex debug seatbelt [--full-auto] [--log-denials] [COMMAND]...
codex debug landlock [--full-auto] [COMMAND]...
Selecting a sandbox policy via --sandbox
The Rust CLI exposes a dedicated --sandbox (-s) flag that lets you pick the sandbox policy without having to reach for the generic -c/--config option:
# Run Codex with the default, read-only sandbox
codex --sandbox read-only
# Allow the agent to write within the current workspace while still blocking network access
codex --sandbox workspace-write
# Danger! Disable sandboxing entirely (only do this if you are already running in a container or other isolated env)
codex --sandbox danger-full-access
The same setting can be persisted in ~/.codex/config.toml via the top-level sandbox_mode = "MODE" key, e.g. sandbox_mode = "workspace-write".
In workspace-write, Codex also includes ~/.codex/memories in its writable roots so memory maintenance does not require an extra approval.
Code Organization
This folder is the root of a Cargo workspace. It contains quite a bit of experimental code, but here are the key crates:
core/contains the business logic for Codex. Ultimately, we hope this to be a library crate that is generally useful for building other Rust/native applications that use Codex.exec/"headless" CLI for use in automation.tui/CLI that launches a fullscreen TUI built with Ratatui.cli/CLI multitool that provides the aforementioned CLIs via subcommands.
If you want to contribute or inspect behavior in detail, start by reading the module-level README.md files under each crate and run the project workspace from the top-level codex-rs directory so shared config, features, and build scripts stay aligned.