This enables a new use case where `codex app-server` is embedded into a
parent application that will directly own the user's ChatGPT auth
lifecycle, which means it owns the user’s auth tokens and refreshes it
when necessary. The parent application would just want a way to pass in
the auth tokens for codex to use directly.
The idea is that we are introducing a new "auth mode" currently only
exposed via app server: **`chatgptAuthTokens`** which consist of the
`id_token` (stores account metadata) and `access_token` (the bearer
token used directly for backend API calls). These auth tokens are only
stored in-memory. This new mode is in addition to the existing `apiKey`
and `chatgpt` auth modes.
This PR reuses the shape of our existing app-server account APIs as much
as possible:
- Update `account/login/start` with a new `chatgptAuthTokens` variant,
which will allow the client to pass in the tokens and have codex
app-server use them directly. Upon success, the server emits
`account/login/completed` and `account/updated` notifications.
- A new server->client request called
`account/chatgptAuthTokens/refresh` which the server can use whenever
the access token previously passed in has expired and it needs a new one
from the parent application.
I leveraged the core 401 retry loop which typically triggers auth token
refreshes automatically, but made it pluggable:
- **chatgpt** mode refreshes internally, as usual.
- **chatgptAuthTokens** mode calls the client via
`account/chatgptAuthTokens/refresh`, the client responds with updated
tokens, codex updates its in-memory auth, then retries. This RPC has a
10s timeout and handles JSON-RPC errors from the client.
Also some additional things:
- chatgpt logins are blocked while external auth is active (have to log
out first. typically clients will pick one OR the other, not support
both)
- `account/logout` clears external auth in memory
- Ensures that if `forced_chatgpt_workspace_id` is set via the user's
config, we respect it in both:
- `account/login/start` with `chatgptAuthTokens` (returns a JSON-RPC
error back to the client)
- `account/chatgptAuthTokens/refresh` (fails the turn, and on next
request app-server will send another `account/chatgptAuthTokens/refresh`
request to the client).
## Summary
Add dynamic tool injection to thread startup in API v2, wire dynamic
tool calls through the app server to clients, and plumb responses back
into the model tool pipeline.
### Flow (high level)
- Thread start injects `dynamic_tools` into the model tool list for that
thread (validation is done here).
- When the model emits a tool call for one of those names, core raises a
`DynamicToolCallRequest` event.
- The app server forwards it to the client as `item/tool/call`, waits
for the client’s response, then submits a `DynamicToolResponse` back to
core.
- Core turns that into a `function_call_output` in the next model
request so the model can continue.
### What changed
- Added dynamic tool specs to v2 thread start params and protocol types;
introduced `item/tool/call` (request/response) for dynamic tool
execution.
- Core now registers dynamic tool specs at request time and routes those
calls via a new dynamic tool handler.
- App server validates tool names/schemas, forwards dynamic tool call
requests to clients, and publishes tool outputs back into the session.
- Integration tests
In a [recent PR](https://github.com/openai/codex/pull/9182), I made some
improvements to config error messages so errors didn't leave app server
clients in a dead state. This is a follow-on PR to make these error
messages more readable and actionable for both TUI and GUI users. For
example, see #9668 where the user was understandably confused about the
source of the problem and how to fix it.
The improved error message:
1. Clearly identifies the config file where the error was found (which
is more important now that we support layered configs)
2. Provides a line and column number of the error
3. Displays the line where the error occurred and underlines it
For example, if my `config.toml` includes the following:
```toml
[features]
collaboration_modes = "true"
```
Here's the current CLI error message:
```
Error loading config.toml: invalid type: string "true", expected a boolean in `features`
```
And here's the improved message:
```
Error loading config.toml:
/Users/etraut/.codex/config.toml:43:23: invalid type: string "true", expected a boolean
|
43 | collaboration_modes = "true"
| ^^^^^^
```
The bulk of the new logic is contained within a new module
`config_loader/diagnostics.rs` that is responsible for calculating the
text range for a given toml path (which is more involved than I would
have expected).
In addition, this PR adds the file name and text range to the
`ConfigWarningNotification` app server struct. This allows GUI clients
to present the user with a better error message and an optional link to
open the errant config file. This was a suggestion from @.bolinfest when
he reviewed my previous PR.
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"
/>
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.
**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.
This PR does various types of cleanup before I can proceed with more
ambitious changes to config loading.
First, I noticed duplicated code across these two methods:
774bd9e432/codex-rs/core/src/config/mod.rs (L314-L324)774bd9e432/codex-rs/core/src/config/mod.rs (L334-L344)
This has now been consolidated in
`load_config_as_toml_with_cli_overrides()`.
Further, I noticed that `Config::load_with_cli_overrides()` took two
similar arguments:
774bd9e432/codex-rs/core/src/config/mod.rs (L308-L311)
The difference between `cli_overrides` and `overrides` was not
immediately obvious to me. At first glance, it appears that one should
be able to be expressed in terms of the other, but it turns out that
some fields of `ConfigOverrides` (such as `cwd` and
`codex_linux_sandbox_exe`) are, by design, not configurable via a
`.toml` file or a command-line `--config` flag.
That said, I discovered that many callers of
`Config::load_with_cli_overrides()` were passing
`ConfigOverrides::default()` for `overrides`, so I created two separate
methods:
- `Config::load_with_cli_overrides(cli_overrides: Vec<(String,
TomlValue)>)`
- `Config::load_with_cli_overrides_and_harness_overrides(cli_overrides:
Vec<(String, TomlValue)>, harness_overrides: ConfigOverrides)`
The latter has a long name, as it is _not_ what should be used in the
common case, so the extra typing is designed to draw attention to this
fact. I tried to update the existing callsites to use the shorter name,
where possible.
Further, in the cases where `ConfigOverrides` is used, usually only a
limited subset of fields are actually set, so I updated the declarations
to leverage `..Default::default()` where possible.
## Summary
- Factor `load_config_as_toml` into `core::config_loader` so config
loading is reusable across callers.
- Layer `~/.codex/config.toml`, optional `~/.codex/managed_config.toml`,
and macOS managed preferences (base64) with recursive table merging and
scoped threads per source.
## Config Flow
```
Managed prefs (macOS profile: com.openai.codex/config_toml_base64)
▲
│
~/.codex/managed_config.toml │ (optional file-based override)
▲
│
~/.codex/config.toml (user-defined settings)
```
- The loader searches under the resolved `CODEX_HOME` directory
(defaults to `~/.codex`).
- Managed configs let administrators ship fleet-wide overrides via
device profiles which is useful for enforcing certain settings like
sandbox or approval defaults.
- For nested hash tables: overlays merge recursively. Child tables are
merged key-by-key, while scalar or array values replace the prior layer
entirely. This lets admins add or tweak individual fields without
clobbering unrelated user settings.
We continue the separation between `codex app-server` and `codex
mcp-server`.
In particular, we introduce a new crate, `codex-app-server-protocol`,
and migrate `codex-rs/protocol/src/mcp_protocol.rs` into it, renaming it
`codex-rs/app-server-protocol/src/protocol.rs`.
Because `ConversationId` was defined in `mcp_protocol.rs`, we move it
into its own file, `codex-rs/protocol/src/conversation_id.rs`, and
because it is referenced in a ton of places, we have to touch a lot of
files as part of this PR.
We also decide to get away from proper JSON-RPC 2.0 semantics, so we
also introduce `codex-rs/app-server-protocol/src/jsonrpc_lite.rs`, which
is basically the same `JSONRPCMessage` type defined in `mcp-types`
except with all of the `"jsonrpc": "2.0"` removed.
Getting rid of `"jsonrpc": "2.0"` makes our serialization logic
considerably simpler, as we can lean heavier on serde to serialize
directly into the wire format that we use now.
This is a very large PR with some non-backwards-compatible changes.
Historically, `codex mcp` (or `codex mcp serve`) started a JSON-RPC-ish
server that had two overlapping responsibilities:
- Running an MCP server, providing some basic tool calls.
- Running the app server used to power experiences such as the VS Code
extension.
This PR aims to separate these into distinct concepts:
- `codex mcp-server` for the MCP server
- `codex app-server` for the "application server"
Note `codex mcp` still exists because it already has its own subcommands
for MCP management (`list`, `add`, etc.)
The MCP logic continues to live in `codex-rs/mcp-server` whereas the
refactored app server logic is in the new `codex-rs/app-server` folder.
Note that most of the existing integration tests in
`codex-rs/mcp-server/tests/suite` were actually for the app server, so
all the tests have been moved with the exception of
`codex-rs/mcp-server/tests/suite/mod.rs`.
Because this is already a large diff, I tried not to change more than I
had to, so `codex-rs/app-server/tests/common/mcp_process.rs` still uses
the name `McpProcess` for now, but I will do some mechanical renamings
to things like `AppServer` in subsequent PRs.
While `mcp-server` and `app-server` share some overlapping functionality
(like reading streams of JSONL and dispatching based on message types)
and some differences (completely different message types), I ended up
doing a bit of copypasta between the two crates, as both have somewhat
similar `message_processor.rs` and `outgoing_message.rs` files for now,
though I expect them to diverge more in the near future.
One material change is that of the initialize handshake for `codex
app-server`, as we no longer use the MCP types for that handshake.
Instead, we update `codex-rs/protocol/src/mcp_protocol.rs` to add an
`Initialize` variant to `ClientRequest`, which takes the `ClientInfo`
object we need to update the `USER_AGENT_SUFFIX` in
`codex-rs/app-server/src/message_processor.rs`.
One other material change is in
`codex-rs/app-server/src/codex_message_processor.rs` where I eliminated
a use of the `send_event_as_notification()` method I am generally trying
to deprecate (because it blindly maps an `EventMsg` into a
`JSONNotification`) in favor of `send_server_notification()`, which
takes a `ServerNotification`, as that is intended to be a custom enum of
all notification types supported by the app server. So to make this
update, I had to introduce a new variant of `ServerNotification`,
`SessionConfigured`, which is a non-backwards compatible change with the
old `codex mcp`, and clients will have to be updated after the next
release that contains this PR. Note that
`codex-rs/app-server/tests/suite/list_resume.rs` also had to be update
to reflect this change.
I introduced `codex-rs/utils/json-to-toml/src/lib.rs` as a small utility
crate to avoid some of the copying between `mcp-server` and
`app-server`.
