Files
codex/codex-rs/app-server-client
Jiaming Zhang 5f4d0ec343 [codex] request desktop attestation from app (#20619)
## Summary

TL;DR: teaches `codex-rs` / app-server to request a desktop-provided
attestation token and attach it as `x-oai-attestation` on the scoped
ChatGPT Codex request paths.

![DeviceCheck attestation
interface](https://raw.githubusercontent.com/openai/codex/dev/jm/devicecheck-diagram-assets/pr-assets/devicecheck-attestation-interface.png)

## Details

This PR teaches the Codex app-server runtime how to request and attach
an attestation token. It does not generate DeviceCheck tokens directly;
instead, it relies on the connected desktop app to advertise that it can
generate attestation and then asks that app for a fresh header value
when needed.

The flow is:

1. The Codex desktop app connects to app-server.
2. During `initialize`, the app can advertise that it supports
`requestAttestation`.
3. Before app-server calls selected ChatGPT Codex endpoints, it sends
the internal server request `attestation/generate` to the app.
4. app-server receives a pre-encoded header value back.
5. app-server forwards that value as `x-oai-attestation` on the scoped
outbound requests.

The code in this repo is mostly protocol and runtime plumbing: it adds
the app-server request/response shape, introduces an attestation
provider in core, wires that provider into Responses / compaction /
realtime setup paths, and covers the intended scoping with tests. The
signed macOS DeviceCheck generation remains owned by the desktop app PR.

## Related PR

- Codex desktop app implementation:
https://github.com/openai/openai/pull/878649

## Validation

<details>
<summary>Tests run</summary>

```sh
cargo test -p codex-app-server-protocol
cargo test -p codex-core attestation --lib
cargo test -p codex-app-server --lib attestation
```

Also ran:

```sh
just fix -p codex-core
just fix -p codex-app-server
just fix -p codex-app-server-protocol
just fmt
just write-app-server-schema
```

</details>

<details>
<summary>E2E DeviceCheck validation</summary>

First validated the signed desktop app boundary directly: launched a
packaged signed `Codex.app`, sent `attestation/generate`, decoded the
returned `v1.` attestation header, and validated the extracted
DeviceCheck token with `personal/jm/verify_devicecheck_token.py` using
bundle ID `com.openai.codex`. Apple returned `status_code: 200` and
`is_ok: true`.

Then ran the fuller app + app-server flow. The packaged `Codex.app`
launched a current-branch app-server via `CODEX_CLI_PATH`, and a local
MITM proxy intercepted outbound `chatgpt.com` traffic. The app-server
requested `attestation/generate` from the real Electron app process, and
the intercepted `/backend-api/codex/responses` traffic included
`x-oai-attestation` on both routes:

```text
GET  /backend-api/codex/responses  Upgrade: websocket  x-oai-attestation: present
POST /backend-api/codex/responses  Upgrade: none       x-oai-attestation: present
```

The captured header decoded to a DeviceCheck token that also validated
with Apple for `com.openai.codex` (`status_code: 200`, `is_ok: true`,
team `2DC432GLL2`).

</details>

---------

Co-authored-by: Codex <noreply@openai.com>
2026-05-08 12:36:02 -07:00
..

codex-app-server-client

Shared in-process app-server client used by conversational CLI surfaces:

  • codex-exec
  • codex-tui

Purpose

This crate centralizes startup and lifecycle management for an in-process codex-app-server runtime, so CLI clients do not need to duplicate:

  • app-server bootstrap and initialize handshake
  • in-memory request/event transport wiring
  • lifecycle orchestration around caller-provided startup identity
  • graceful shutdown behavior

Startup identity

Callers pass both the app-server SessionSource and the initialize client_info.name explicitly when starting the facade.

That keeps thread metadata (for example in thread/list and thread/read) aligned with the originating runtime without baking TUI/exec-specific policy into the shared client layer.

Transport model

The in-process path uses typed channels:

  • client -> server: ClientRequest / ClientNotification
  • server -> client: InProcessServerEvent
    • ServerRequest
    • ServerNotification
    • LegacyNotification

JSON serialization is still used at external transport boundaries (stdio/websocket), but the in-process hot path is typed.

Typed requests still receive app-server responses through the JSON-RPC result envelope internally. That is intentional: the in-process path is meant to preserve app-server semantics while removing the process boundary, not to introduce a second response contract.

Bootstrap behavior

The client facade starts an already-initialized in-process runtime, but thread bootstrap still follows normal app-server flow:

  • caller sends thread/start or thread/resume
  • app-server returns the immediate typed response
  • richer session metadata may arrive later as a SessionConfigured legacy event

Surfaces such as TUI and exec may therefore need a short bootstrap phase where they reconcile startup response data with later events.

Backpressure and shutdown

  • Queues are bounded and use DEFAULT_IN_PROCESS_CHANNEL_CAPACITY by default.
  • Full queues return explicit overload behavior instead of unbounded growth.
  • shutdown() performs a bounded graceful shutdown and then aborts if timeout is exceeded.

If the client falls behind on event consumption, the worker emits InProcessServerEvent::Lagged and may reject pending server requests so approval flows do not hang indefinitely behind a saturated queue.