If an image can't be read by the API, it will poison the entire history,
preventing any new turn on the conversation.
This detect such cases and replace the image by a placeholder
# Unified Exec Shell Selection on Windows
## Problem
reference issue #7466
The `unified_exec` handler currently deserializes model-provided tool
calls into the `ExecCommandArgs` struct:
```rust
#[derive(Debug, Deserialize)]
struct ExecCommandArgs {
cmd: String,
#[serde(default)]
workdir: Option<String>,
#[serde(default = "default_shell")]
shell: String,
#[serde(default = "default_login")]
login: bool,
#[serde(default = "default_exec_yield_time_ms")]
yield_time_ms: u64,
#[serde(default)]
max_output_tokens: Option<usize>,
#[serde(default)]
with_escalated_permissions: Option<bool>,
#[serde(default)]
justification: Option<String>,
}
```
The `shell` field uses a hard-coded default:
```rust
fn default_shell() -> String {
"/bin/bash".to_string()
}
```
When the model returns a tool call JSON that only contains `cmd` (which
is the common case), Serde fills in `shell` with this default value.
Later, `get_command` uses that value as if it were a model-provided
shell path:
```rust
fn get_command(args: &ExecCommandArgs) -> Vec<String> {
let shell = get_shell_by_model_provided_path(&PathBuf::from(args.shell.clone()));
shell.derive_exec_args(&args.cmd, args.login)
}
```
On Unix, this usually resolves to `/bin/bash` and works as expected.
However, on Windows this behavior is problematic:
- The hard-coded `"/bin/bash"` is not a valid Windows path.
- `get_shell_by_model_provided_path` treats this as a model-specified
shell, and tries to resolve it (e.g. via `which::which("bash")`), which
may or may not exist and may not behave as intended.
- In practice, this leads to commands being executed under a non-default
or non-existent shell on Windows (for example, WSL bash), instead of the
expected Windows PowerShell or `cmd.exe`.
The core of the issue is that **"model did not specify `shell`" is
currently interpreted as "the model explicitly requested `/bin/bash`"**,
which is both Unix-specific and wrong on Windows.
## Proposed Solution
Instead of hard-coding `"/bin/bash"` into `ExecCommandArgs`, we should
distinguish between:
1. **The model explicitly specifying a shell**, e.g.:
```json
{
"cmd": "echo hello",
"shell": "pwsh"
}
```
In this case, we *do* want to respect the model’s choice and use
`get_shell_by_model_provided_path`.
2. **The model omitting the `shell` field entirely**, e.g.:
```json
{
"cmd": "echo hello"
}
```
In this case, we should *not* assume `/bin/bash`. Instead, we should use
`default_user_shell()` and let the platform decide.
To express this distinction, we can:
1. Change `shell` to be optional in `ExecCommandArgs`:
```rust
#[derive(Debug, Deserialize)]
struct ExecCommandArgs {
cmd: String,
#[serde(default)]
workdir: Option<String>,
#[serde(default)]
shell: Option<String>,
#[serde(default = "default_login")]
login: bool,
#[serde(default = "default_exec_yield_time_ms")]
yield_time_ms: u64,
#[serde(default)]
max_output_tokens: Option<usize>,
#[serde(default)]
with_escalated_permissions: Option<bool>,
#[serde(default)]
justification: Option<String>,
}
```
Here, the absence of `shell` in the JSON is represented as `shell:
None`, rather than a hard-coded string value.
This change prototypes support for Skills with the CLI. This is an
**experimental** feature for internal testing.
---------
Co-authored-by: Gav Verma <gverma@openai.com>
- The total token used returned from the api doesn't account for the
reasoning items before the assistant message
- Account for those for auto compaction
- Add the encrypted reasoning effort in the common tests utils
- Add a test to make sure it works as expected
`process_exec_tool_call()` was taking `SandboxType` as a param, but in
practice, the only place it was constructed was in
`codex_message_processor.rs` where it was derived from the other
`sandbox_policy` param, so this PR inlines the logic that decides the
`SandboxType` into `process_exec_tool_call()`.
---
[//]: # (BEGIN SAPLING FOOTER)
Stack created with [Sapling](https://sapling-scm.com). Best reviewed
with [ReviewStack](https://reviewstack.dev/openai/codex/pull/7122).
* #7112
* __->__ #7122
This updates `ExecParams` so that instead of taking `timeout_ms:
Option<u64>`, it now takes a more general cancellation mechanism,
`ExecExpiration`, which is an enum that includes a
`Cancellation(tokio_util::sync::CancellationToken)` variant.
If the cancellation token is fired, then `process_exec_tool_call()`
returns in the same way as if a timeout was exceeded.
This is necessary so that in #6973, we can manage the timeout logic
external to the `process_exec_tool_call()` because we want to "suspend"
the timeout when an elicitation from a human user is pending.
---
[//]: # (BEGIN SAPLING FOOTER)
Stack created with [Sapling](https://sapling-scm.com). Best reviewed
with [ReviewStack](https://reviewstack.dev/openai/codex/pull/6972).
* #7005
* #6973
* __->__ #6972
- Use /bin/sh instead of /bin/bash on FreeBSD/OpenBSD in the process
group timeout test to avoid command-not-found failures.
- Accept /usr/local/bin/bash as a valid SHELL path to match common
FreeBSD installations.
- Switch the shell serialization duration test to /bin/sh for improved
portability across Unix platforms.
With this change, `cargo test -p codex-core --lib` runs and passes on
FreeBSD.
second attempt to fix this test after
https://github.com/openai/codex/pull/6884. I think this flakiness is
happening because yield_time is too small for a 10,000 step loop in
python.
## 🐛 Problem
Users running commands with non-ASCII characters (like Russian text
"пример") in Windows/WSL environments experience garbled text in
VSCode's shell preview window, with Unicode replacement characters (�)
appearing instead of the actual text.
**Issue**: https://github.com/openai/codex/issues/6178
## 🔧 Root Cause
The issue was in `StreamOutput<Vec<u8>>::from_utf8_lossy()` method in
`codex-rs/core/src/exec.rs`, which used `String::from_utf8_lossy()` to
convert shell output bytes to strings. This function immediately
replaces any invalid UTF-8 byte sequences with replacement characters,
without attempting to decode using other common encodings.
In Windows/WSL environments, shell output often uses encodings like:
- Windows-1252 (common Windows encoding)
- Latin-1/ISO-8859-1 (extended ASCII)
## 🛠️ Solution
Replaced the simple `String::from_utf8_lossy()` call with intelligent
encoding detection via a new `bytes_to_string_smart()` function that
tries multiple encoding strategies:
1. **UTF-8** (fast path for valid UTF-8)
2. **Windows-1252** (handles Windows-specific characters in 0x80-0x9F
range)
3. **Latin-1** (fallback for extended ASCII)
4. **Lossy UTF-8** (final fallback, same as before)
## 📁 Changes
### New Files
- `codex-rs/core/src/text_encoding.rs` - Smart encoding detection module
- `codex-rs/core/tests/suite/text_encoding_fix.rs` - Integration tests
### Modified Files
- `codex-rs/core/src/lib.rs` - Added text_encoding module
- `codex-rs/core/src/exec.rs` - Updated StreamOutput::from_utf8_lossy()
- `codex-rs/core/tests/suite/mod.rs` - Registered new test module
## ✅ Testing
- **5 unit tests** covering UTF-8, Windows-1252, Latin-1, and fallback
scenarios
- **2 integration tests** simulating the exact Issue #6178 scenario
- **Demonstrates improvement** over the previous
`String::from_utf8_lossy()` approach
All tests pass:
```bash
cargo test -p codex-core text_encoding
cargo test -p codex-core test_shell_output_encoding_issue_6178
```
## 🎯 Impact
- ✅ **Eliminates garbled text** in VSCode shell preview for non-ASCII
content
- ✅ **Supports Windows/WSL environments** with proper encoding detection
- ✅ **Zero performance impact** for UTF-8 text (fast path)
- ✅ **Backward compatible** - UTF-8 content works exactly as before
- ✅ **Handles edge cases** with robust fallback mechanism
## 🧪 Test Scenarios
The fix has been tested with:
- Russian text ("пример")
- Windows-1252 quotation marks (""test")
- Latin-1 accented characters ("café")
- Mixed encoding content
- Invalid byte sequences (graceful fallback)
## 📋 Checklist
- [X] Addresses the reported issue
- [X] Includes comprehensive tests
- [X] Maintains backward compatibility
- [X] Follows project coding conventions
- [X] No breaking changes
---------
Co-authored-by: Josh McKinney <joshka@openai.com>
Thread through an `exit_notify` tokio `Notify` through to the
`UnifiedExecSession` so that we can return early if the command
terminates before `yield_time_ms`.
As Codex review correctly pointed out below 🙌 we also need a
`exit_signaled` flag so that commands which finish before we start
waiting can also exit early.
Since the default `yield_time_ms` is now 10s, this means that we don't
have to wait 10s for trivial commands like ls, sed, etc (which are the
majority of agent commands 😅)
---------
Co-authored-by: jif-oai <jif@openai.com>
This PR threads execpolicy2 into codex-core.
activated via feature flag: exec_policy (on by default)
reads and parses all .codexpolicy files in `codex_home/codex`
refactored tool runtime API to integrate execpolicy logic
---------
Co-authored-by: Michael Bolin <mbolin@openai.com>
Expand the rate-limit cache/TUI: store credit snapshots alongside
primary and secondary windows, render “Credits” when the backend reports
they exist (unlimited vs rounded integer balances)
## Summary
Setting `/approvals` before the start of a conversation was not updating
the environment_context for a conversation. Not sure exactly when this
problem was introduced, but this should reduce model confusion
dramatically.
## Testing
- [x] Added unit test to reproduce bug, confirmed fix with update
- [x] Tested locally
# 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.
Instead of returning structured out and then re-formatting it into
freeform, return the freeform output from shell_command tool.
Keep `shell` as the default tool for GPT-5.
# 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.
- This PR is to make it on path for truncating by tokens. This path will
be initially used by unified exec and context manager (responsible for
MCP calls mainly).
- We are exposing new config `calls_output_max_tokens`
- Use `tokens` as the main budget unit but truncate based on the model
family by Introducing `TruncationPolicy`.
- Introduce `truncate_text` as a router for truncation based on the
mode.
In next PRs:
- remove truncate_with_line_bytes_budget
- Add the ability to the model to override the token budget.
## Summary
Enables shell_command for windows users, and starts adding some basic
command parsing here, to at least remove powershell prefixes. We'll
follow this up with command parsing but I wanted to land this change
separately with some basic UX.
**NOTE**: This implementation parses bash and powershell on both
platforms. In theory this is possible, since you can use git bash on
windows or powershell on linux. In practice, this may not be worth the
complexity of supporting, so I don't feel strongly about the current
approach vs. platform-specific branching.
## Testing
- [x] Added a bunch of tests
- [x] Ran on both windows and os x