codex/sdk/python/docs/faq.md

FAQ

Thread vs turn

• A Thread is conversation state.
• A Turn is one model execution inside that thread.
• Multi-turn chat means multiple turns on the same Thread.

run() vs stream()

• TurnHandle.run() / AsyncTurnHandle.run() is the easiest path. It consumes events until completion and returns the public app-server Turn model from openai_codex.types.
• TurnHandle.stream() / AsyncTurnHandle.stream() yields raw notifications (Notification) so you can react event-by-event.

Choose run() for most apps. Choose stream() for progress UIs, custom timeout logic, or custom parsing.

Sync vs async clients

• Codex is the sync public API.
• AsyncCodex is an async replica of the same public API shape.
• Prefer async with AsyncCodex() for async code. It is the standard path for explicit startup/shutdown, and AsyncCodex initializes lazily on context entry or first awaited API use.

If your app is not already async, stay with Codex.

Public kwargs are snake_case

Public API keyword names are snake_case. The SDK still maps them to wire camelCase under the hood.

If you are migrating older code, update these names:

• approvalPolicy -> approval_policy
• baseInstructions -> base_instructions
• developerInstructions -> developer_instructions
• modelProvider -> model_provider
• modelProviders -> model_providers
• sortKey -> sort_key
• sourceKinds -> source_kinds
• outputSchema -> output_schema
• sandboxPolicy -> sandbox_policy

Why only thread_start(...) and thread_resume(...)?

The public API keeps only explicit lifecycle calls:

• thread_start(...) to create new threads
• thread_resume(thread_id, ...) to continue existing threads

This avoids duplicate ways to do the same operation and keeps behavior explicit.

Why does constructor fail?

Codex() is eager: it starts transport and calls initialize in __init__.

Common causes:

• published runtime package (openai-codex-cli-bin) is not installed
• local codex_bin override points to a missing file
• local auth/session is missing
• incompatible/old app-server

Maintainers stage releases by building the SDK once and the runtime once per platform with the same pinned runtime version. Publish openai-codex-cli-bin as platform wheels only; do not publish an sdist:

cd sdk/python
python scripts/update_sdk_artifacts.py generate-types
python scripts/update_sdk_artifacts.py \
  stage-sdk \
  /tmp/codex-python-release/openai-codex \
  --codex-version <codex-release-tag-or-pep440-version>
python scripts/update_sdk_artifacts.py \
  stage-runtime \
  /tmp/codex-python-release/openai-codex-cli-bin \
  /path/to/codex \
  --codex-version <codex-release-tag-or-pep440-version>

If you are packaging a binary for a different target than the Python build host, pass --platform-tag ... to stage-runtime. The intended one-off matrix is macosx_11_0_arm64, macosx_10_9_x86_64, musllinux_1_1_aarch64, musllinux_1_1_x86_64, win_arm64, and win_amd64.

Why does a turn "hang"?

A turn is complete only when turn/completed arrives for that turn ID.

• run() waits for this automatically.
• With stream(), keep consuming notifications until completion.

How do I retry safely?

Use retry_on_overload(...) for transient overload failures (ServerBusyError).

Do not blindly retry all errors. For InvalidParamsError or MethodNotFoundError, fix inputs/version compatibility instead.

Common pitfalls

• Starting a new thread for every prompt when you wanted continuity.
• Forgetting to close() (or not using context managers).
• Assuming run() returns extra SDK-only fields instead of the public Turn model.
• Mixing SDK input classes with raw dicts incorrectly.