fix: change codex/sandbox-state/update from a notification to a request (#8142)

Historically, `accept_elicitation_for_prompt_rule()` was flaky because
we were using a notification to update the sandbox followed by a `shell`
tool request that we expected to be subject to the new sandbox config,
but because [rmcp](https://crates.io/crates/rmcp) MCP servers delegate
each incoming message to a new Tokio task, messages are not guaranteed
to be processed in order, so sometimes the `shell` tool call would run
before the notification was processed.

Prior to this PR, we relied on a generous `sleep()` between the
notification and the request to reduce the change of the test flaking
out.

This PR implements a proper fix, which is to use a _request_ instead of
a notification for the sandbox update so that we can wait for the
response to the sandbox request before sending the request to the
`shell` tool call. Previously, `rmcp` did not support custom requests,
but I fixed that in
https://github.com/modelcontextprotocol/rust-sdk/pull/590, which made it
into the `0.12.0` release (see #8288).

This PR updates `shell-tool-mcp` to expect
`"codex/sandbox-state/update"` as a _request_ instead of a notification
and sends the appropriate ack. Note this behavior is tied to our custom
`codex/sandbox-state` capability, which Codex honors as an MCP client,
which is why `core/src/mcp_connection_manager.rs` had to be updated as
part of this PR, as well.

This PR also updates the docs at `shell-tool-mcp/README.md`.

codex-rs/exec-server/src/posix/mcp.rs

@@ -5,7 +5,7 @@ use std::time::Duration;
 use anyhow::Context as _;
 use anyhow::Result;
 use codex_core::MCP_SANDBOX_STATE_CAPABILITY;
-use codex_core::MCP_SANDBOX_STATE_NOTIFICATION;
+use codex_core::MCP_SANDBOX_STATE_METHOD;
 use codex_core::SandboxState;
 use codex_core::protocol::SandboxPolicy;
 use codex_execpolicy::Policy;
@@ -15,6 +15,8 @@ use rmcp::ServerHandler;
 use rmcp::ServiceExt;
 use rmcp::handler::server::router::tool::ToolRouter;
 use rmcp::handler::server::wrapper::Parameters;
+use rmcp::model::CustomRequest;
+use rmcp::model::CustomResult;
 use rmcp::model::*;
 use rmcp::schemars;
 use rmcp::service::RequestContext;
@@ -23,8 +25,8 @@ use rmcp::tool;
 use rmcp::tool_handler;
 use rmcp::tool_router;
 use rmcp::transport::stdio;
+use serde_json::json;
 use tokio::sync::RwLock;
-use tracing::debug;
 
 use crate::posix::escalate_server::EscalateServer;
 use crate::posix::escalate_server::{self};
@@ -146,6 +148,13 @@ impl ExecTool {
     }
 }
 
+#[derive(Default)]
+pub struct CodexSandboxStateUpdateMethod;
+
+impl rmcp::model::ConstString for CodexSandboxStateUpdateMethod {
+    const VALUE: &'static str = MCP_SANDBOX_STATE_METHOD;
+}
+
 #[tool_handler]
 impl ServerHandler for ExecTool {
     fn get_info(&self) -> ServerInfo {
@@ -181,29 +190,33 @@ impl ServerHandler for ExecTool {
         Ok(self.get_info())
     }
 
-    async fn on_custom_notification(
+    async fn on_custom_request(
         &self,
-        notification: rmcp::model::CustomNotification,
-        _context: rmcp::service::NotificationContext<rmcp::RoleServer>,
-    ) {
-        let rmcp::model::CustomNotification { method, params, .. } = notification;
-        if method == MCP_SANDBOX_STATE_NOTIFICATION
-            && let Some(params) = params
-        {
-            match serde_json::from_value::<SandboxState>(params) {
-                Ok(sandbox_state) => {
-                    debug!(
-                        ?sandbox_state.sandbox_policy,
-                        "received sandbox state notification"
-                    );
-                    let mut state = self.sandbox_state.write().await;
-                    *state = Some(sandbox_state);
-                }
-                Err(err) => {
-                    tracing::warn!(?err, "failed to deserialize sandbox state notification");
-                }
-            }
+        request: CustomRequest,
+        _context: rmcp::service::RequestContext<rmcp::RoleServer>,
+    ) -> Result<CustomResult, McpError> {
+        let CustomRequest { method, params, .. } = request;
+        if method != MCP_SANDBOX_STATE_METHOD {
+            return Err(McpError::method_not_found::<CodexSandboxStateUpdateMethod>());
         }
+
+        let Some(params) = params else {
+            return Err(McpError::invalid_params(
+                "missing params for sandbox state request".to_string(),
+                None,
+            ));
+        };
+
+        let Ok(sandbox_state) = serde_json::from_value::<SandboxState>(params.clone()) else {
+            return Err(McpError::invalid_params(
+                "failed to deserialize sandbox state".to_string(),
+                Some(params),
+            ));
+        };
+
+        *self.sandbox_state.write().await = Some(sandbox_state);
+
+        Ok(CustomResult::new(json!({})))
     }
 }
 

codex-rs/exec-server/tests/common/lib.rs

@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-use codex_core::MCP_SANDBOX_STATE_NOTIFICATION;
+use codex_core::MCP_SANDBOX_STATE_METHOD;
 use codex_core::SandboxState;
 use codex_core::protocol::SandboxPolicy;
 use rmcp::ClientHandler;
@@ -7,10 +7,12 @@ use rmcp::RoleClient;
 use rmcp::Service;
 use rmcp::model::ClientCapabilities;
 use rmcp::model::ClientInfo;
+use rmcp::model::ClientRequest;
 use rmcp::model::CreateElicitationRequestParam;
 use rmcp::model::CreateElicitationResult;
-use rmcp::model::CustomNotification;
+use rmcp::model::CustomRequest;
 use rmcp::model::ElicitationAction;
+use rmcp::model::ServerResult;
 use rmcp::service::RunningService;
 use rmcp::transport::ConfigureCommandExt;
 use rmcp::transport::TokioChildProcess;
@@ -82,7 +84,7 @@ pub async fn notify_readable_sandbox<P, S>(
     sandbox_cwd: P,
     codex_linux_sandbox_exe: Option<PathBuf>,
     service: &RunningService<RoleClient, S>,
-) -> anyhow::Result<()>
+) -> anyhow::Result<ServerResult>
 where
     P: AsRef<Path>,
     S: Service<RoleClient> + ClientHandler,
@@ -92,14 +94,14 @@ where
         codex_linux_sandbox_exe,
         sandbox_cwd: sandbox_cwd.as_ref().to_path_buf(),
     };
-    send_sandbox_notification(sandbox_state, service).await
+    send_sandbox_state_update(sandbox_state, service).await
 }
 
 pub async fn notify_writable_sandbox_only_one_folder<P, S>(
     writable_folder: P,
     codex_linux_sandbox_exe: Option<PathBuf>,
     service: &RunningService<RoleClient, S>,
-) -> anyhow::Result<()>
+) -> anyhow::Result<ServerResult>
 where
     P: AsRef<Path>,
     S: Service<RoleClient> + ClientHandler,
@@ -119,24 +121,23 @@ where
         codex_linux_sandbox_exe,
         sandbox_cwd: writable_folder.as_ref().to_path_buf(),
     };
-    send_sandbox_notification(sandbox_state, service).await
+    send_sandbox_state_update(sandbox_state, service).await
 }
 
-async fn send_sandbox_notification<S>(
+async fn send_sandbox_state_update<S>(
     sandbox_state: SandboxState,
     service: &RunningService<RoleClient, S>,
-) -> anyhow::Result<()>
+) -> anyhow::Result<ServerResult>
 where
     S: Service<RoleClient> + ClientHandler,
 {
-    let sandbox_state_notification = CustomNotification::new(
-        MCP_SANDBOX_STATE_NOTIFICATION,
-        Some(serde_json::to_value(sandbox_state)?),
-    );
-    service
-        .send_notification(sandbox_state_notification.into())
+    let response = service
+        .send_request(ClientRequest::CustomRequest(CustomRequest::new(
+            MCP_SANDBOX_STATE_METHOD,
+            Some(serde_json::to_value(sandbox_state)?),
+        )))
         .await?;
-    Ok(())
+    Ok(response)
 }
 
 pub struct InteractiveClient {

codex-rs/exec-server/tests/suite/accept_elicitation.rs

@@ -3,7 +3,6 @@ use std::borrow::Cow;
 use std::path::PathBuf;
 use std::sync::Arc;
 use std::sync::Mutex;
-use std::time::Duration;
 
 use anyhow::Context;
 use anyhow::Result;
@@ -19,6 +18,8 @@ use rmcp::ServiceExt;
 use rmcp::model::CallToolRequestParam;
 use rmcp::model::CallToolResult;
 use rmcp::model::CreateElicitationRequestParam;
+use rmcp::model::EmptyResult;
+use rmcp::model::ServerResult;
 use rmcp::model::object;
 use serde_json::json;
 use std::os::unix::fs::PermissionsExt;
@@ -82,19 +83,11 @@ prefix_rule(
     } else {
         None
     };
-    notify_readable_sandbox(&project_root_path, codex_linux_sandbox_exe, &service).await?;
-
-    // TODO(mbolin): Remove this hack to remove flakiness when possible.
-    // As noted in the commentary on https://github.com/openai/codex/pull/7832,
-    // an rmcp server does not process messages serially: it takes messages off
-    // the queue and immediately dispatches them to handlers, which may complete
-    // out of order. The proper fix is to replace our custom notification with a
-    // custom request where we wait for the response before proceeding. However,
-    // rmcp does not currently support custom requests, so as a temporary
-    // workaround we just wait a bit to increase the probability the server has
-    // processed the notification. Assuming we can upstream rmcp support for
-    // custom requests, we will remove this once the functionality is available.
-    tokio::time::sleep(Duration::from_secs(4)).await;
+    let response =
+        notify_readable_sandbox(&project_root_path, codex_linux_sandbox_exe, &service).await?;
+    let ServerResult::EmptyResult(EmptyResult {}) = response else {
+        panic!("expected EmptyResult from sandbox state notification but found: {response:?}");
+    };
 
     // Call the shell tool and verify that an elicitation was created and
     // auto-approved.