## Why
After #28918, selected skill roots are `PathUri`, but the executor skill
provider still converts them to the app-server host's `AbsolutePathBuf`.
A foreign Windows root therefore cannot be discovered by a Unix host,
and the inverse has the same problem.
This PR keeps executor skill discovery and reads on the filesystem that
owns the selected root while reusing the existing skill rules.
## What changed
- Generalize the existing skill traversal to operate on `PathUri`
through `ExecutorFileSystem`, preserving its depth, directory, symlink,
and sibling-metadata concurrency behavior.
- Add a small environment skill loader that reuses the shared discovery,
frontmatter validation, dependency parsing, product policy, and
prompt-visibility rules.
- Keep the environment id and entrypoint `PathUri` in the skill catalog,
then route `skills.read` back through the same environment filesystem.
- Preserve the executor's path convention when deriving catalog handles,
including literal backslashes in POSIX filenames.
- Resolve plugin namespaces from nearby manifests through URI-native
filesystem reads.
- Cover foreign Windows roots, executor-owned reads, namespaces,
metadata, policy, and path identity.
```text
selected root (PathUri)
|
v
shared discovery over ExecutorFileSystem
|
v
environment-bound catalog entry --skills.read--> same ExecutorFileSystem
```
No second filesystem abstraction or duplicate traversal implementation
is introduced.
## Stack
1. #29614 — add lexical `PathUri` containment.
2. #29620 — share URI-native manifest path resolution.
3. #28918 — keep selected plugin roots and resources URI-native.
4. **This PR** — load executor skills without host path conversion.
5. #29628 — resolve executor MCP working directories without host path
conversion.
## Why
First-party async traits should expose their `Send` contracts explicitly
without requiring `async_trait`. This completes the migration pattern
established in #27303 and #27304.
## What changed
- Replaced the remaining first-party `async_trait` traits with native
return-position `impl Future + Send` where statically dispatched and
explicit boxed `Send` futures where object safety is required.
- Kept implementations behavior-preserving, outlining existing async
bodies into inherent methods where that keeps the diff reviewable.
- Removed all direct first-party `async-trait` dependencies and the
workspace dependency declaration.
- Added a cargo-deny policy that permits `async-trait` only through the
remaining transitive wrapper crates.
- Updated `rand` from 0.8.5 to 0.8.6 to resolve RUSTSEC-2026-0097 and
keep the full cargo-deny check passing.
## Validation
- `just test -p codex-exec-server`: 216 passed, 2 skipped.
- `just test -p codex-model-provider`: 39 passed.
- `just test -p codex-core` and `just test`: changed tests passed;
remaining failures are environment-sensitive suites unrelated to this
migration.
- `cargo deny check`
- `just fix`
- `just fmt`
- `cargo shear`
- `just bazel-lock-check`
## Why
We're moving exec-server to use PathUri for its internal path
representations.
## What
Move `ExecutorFileSystem` APIs to use `PathUri` instead of
`AbsolutePathBuf`. Future changes will convert higher-level parts of
exec-server.
## Why
`ext/skills` currently depends on `codex-core` for two host concerns:
reading the concrete `Config` type and borrowing core-owned
model-context fragment types. That coupling prevents the extension from
being assembled independently above core and leaves context that belongs
to the skills feature owned by core.
This stacked PR introduces the host boundary needed for the broader
extension migration while intentionally preserving existing skills
behavior. It is stacked on #27404.
## What changed
- Adds a small public `SkillsExtensionConfig` view and makes skills
installation generic over the host config type.
- Requires the host to map its config into that view; app-server
supplies the current `Config` values.
- Moves the available-skills and selected-skill context fragment
implementations into `ext/skills`, preserving their roles, markers, and
rendered bytes.
- Removes the direct `codex-core` dependency from
`codex-skills-extension`.
- Keeps local discovery, invocation, side effects, and the
`codex-core-skills` compatibility types unchanged for later staged PRs.
## Behavior
This adds no capability and is intended to have no user-visible or
model-visible behavior change. The install API and ownership boundary
change internally; emitted skills context remains byte-for-byte
compatible.
## Validation
- Updates the skills extension integration coverage to use a host-owned
test config.
- Asserts the complete rendered catalog and selected-skill fragments,
including their roles and markers.
- `just bazel-lock-check`
- Rust tests and Clippy were not run locally per request; CI will run
them.
## Why
PR #27387 makes backend plugin skills discoverable and invocable without
an executor, but resources referenced by those skills still sit behind
the generic MCP resource surface. The model needs a skills-owned API
that preserves the provider authority and package boundary instead of
treating remote resources like local files.
This is stacked on #27387.
## What
- Adds one `skills` namespace with bounded `list` and `read` tools for
remote skill providers.
- Revalidates `authority + package` against the live remote catalog on
every read, then routes the opaque resource ID back through that
provider.
- Allows the backend provider to read canonical child `skill://`
resources while rejecting cross-package, non-canonical, query, fragment,
and traversal-shaped URIs.
- Caps each serialized tool result at 8 KB. Lists are paginated; reads
return an opaque continuation cursor.
- Marks the JSON output as external context so memory generation can
apply its normal suppression policy.
- Deliberately does not add `skills.search`; that waits for a bounded
plugin-service search contract.
## Tool contract
Pseudo-Python matching the wire shape:
```python
from typing import Literal, NotRequired, TypedDict
class RemoteSkillAuthority(TypedDict):
kind: Literal["remote"]
id: str # e.g. "codex_apps"
class RemoteSkill(TypedDict):
authority: RemoteSkillAuthority
package: str # opaque provider-owned package ID
name: str
description: str
main_resource: str # opaque provider-owned SKILL.md ID
class SkillsListParams(TypedDict):
cursor: NotRequired[str]
class SkillsListResult(TypedDict):
skills: list[RemoteSkill]
next_cursor: str | None
warnings: list[str]
truncated: bool
class SkillsReadParams(TypedDict):
authority: RemoteSkillAuthority # copied from skills.list
package: str # copied from skills.list
resource: str # provider-owned child resource ID
cursor: NotRequired[str] # copy next_cursor to continue
class SkillsReadResult(TypedDict):
resource: str
contents: str
next_cursor: str | None
truncated: bool
class Skills:
def list(self, params: SkillsListParams) -> SkillsListResult: ...
def read(self, params: SkillsReadParams) -> SkillsReadResult: ...
```
There is one namespace for all remote skills, not one tool or MCP server
per skill. No resource ID is converted into a filesystem path.
## Backend dependency
`/ps/mcp` must support direct reads of child resources such as
`skill://plugin_demo/deploy/references/deploy.md`. This PR implements
and tests the Codex side of that contract; production child reads remain
dependent on the corresponding plugin-service support. Search remains
out of scope until that service exposes a bounded search/resource API.
## Validation
- Added an app-server integration test covering `skills.list` followed
by `skills.read` with no executor.
- Ran `just fmt`.
- Ran `just bazel-lock-update` and `just bazel-lock-check`.
- Did not run Rust tests or Clippy locally, per request; CI will run
them.
## Why
#27198 made the extension-owned `codex_apps` MCP connection the hosted
plugin runtime, but its `mcp/skill` resources still bypassed the skills
extension. App-server could list and read those resources through
generic MCP APIs, but a thread with no selected environment did not
expose them in the model's skills catalog or load their `SKILL.md`
through `$skill`.
Hosted skills should stay remote while using the same typed catalog,
source authority, deduplication, bounded contextual catalog, and
selected-skill prompt injection as host and executor skills. They should
not be downloaded or exposed as ambient filesystem paths.
## What changed
- Add a session-scoped `McpResourceClient` over the replaceable MCP
connection manager so resource list/read calls follow startup and
refresh replacements.
- Add a `BackendSkillProvider` that pages `codex_apps` resources,
accepts bounded and validated `mcp/skill` entries, and reads a selected
skill's `SKILL.md` through the same MCP connection.
- Register the remote provider in app-server and include it in the
skills catalog even when a thread has no selected capability roots or
executor.
- Contribute hosted skill metadata through the bounded
`AvailableSkillsInstructions` developer-context path, exclude remote
entries from per-turn catalog injection, and classify `<skills>`
messages as contextual developer content so rollback can trim and
rebuild them correctly.
## Testing
- Extend the app-server MCP resource integration test with
`environments: []` to exercise two-page discovery, filter a
non-`mcp/skill` resource, verify the escaped developer catalog entry and
user-role `<skill>` fragment containing the fetched `SKILL.md`, and
preserve generic MCP resource reads.
- Add core event-mapping coverage that classifies `<skills>` developer
messages as contextual history.
## Why
Extension contributors are registered behind `dyn Trait` objects, so
native `async fn`/RPITIT methods would make these traits
non-object-safe. Spell out the boxed, `Send` future contract directly so
`extension-api` no longer needs `async-trait` while retaining the
existing runtime model.
## What changed
- add a shared `ExtensionFuture` alias and use it for asynchronous
contributor methods
- migrate production and test implementations to return `Box::pin(async
move { ... })`
- remove `async-trait` dependencies where they are no longer used,
keeping it dev-only where unrelated test executors still require it
## Behavior
No behavior change is intended. Contributor futures remain boxed,
`Send`, dynamically dispatched, and lazily executed; cancellation and
callback ordering stay unchanged.
## Testing
- `just test -p codex-extension-api` (11 passed)
- affected extension crates (64 passed)
- targeted `codex-core` contributor tests (14 passed)
- `just fmt`
- `just bazel-lock-update`
- `just bazel-lock-check`
A broad local `codex-core` run compiled successfully but encountered
unrelated sandbox and missing test-binary fixture failures; CI will run
the full checks.
## Why
CCA is moving toward a split runtime where the orchestrator may not have
a filesystem, while executors can expose preinstalled plugins and
skills. A thread therefore needs to select capabilities without asking
app-server or core to interpret executor-owned paths through the
orchestrator's filesystem.
The longer-term model is broader than executor skills:
- A plugin is a bundle of skills, MCP servers, connectors/apps, and
hooks.
- A plugin root can be local, executor-owned, or hosted by a backend.
- Components inside one plugin can use different access and execution
mechanisms. A skill may be read from a filesystem or through backend
tools; an HTTP MCP server can run without an executor; a stdio MCP
server or hook needs an execution environment.
- Core should carry generic extension initialization data. The extension
that owns a component should discover it, expose it to the model, and
invoke it through the appropriate runtime.
This PR establishes that architecture through one complete vertical:
selecting a root on an executor, discovering the skills beneath it,
exposing those skills to the model, and reading an explicitly invoked
`SKILL.md` through the same executor.
## Contract
`thread/start` gains an experimental `selectedCapabilityRoots` field:
```json
{
"selectedCapabilityRoots": [
{
"id": "deploy-plugin@1",
"location": {
"type": "environment",
"environmentId": "workspace",
"path": "/opt/codex/plugins/deploy"
}
}
]
}
```
The root is intentionally not classified as a "plugin" or "skill" in the
API. It can point at a standalone skill, a directory containing several
skills, or a plugin containing skills and other components. This PR only
teaches the skills extension how to consume it; later extensions can
resolve MCP, connector, and hook components from the same selection.
The platform-supplied `id` is stable selection identity. The location
says which runtime owns the root and gives that runtime an opaque path.
App-server does not inspect or canonicalize the path.
## What changed
### Generic thread extension initialization
App-server converts selected roots into `ExtensionDataInit`. Core
carries that generic initialization value until the final thread ID is
known, then creates thread-scoped `ExtensionData` before lifecycle
contributors run.
This keeps `Session` and core independent of the capability-selection
contract. The initialization value is consumed during construction; it
is not retained as another long-lived `Session` field.
### Executor-backed skills
The skills extension now owns an `ExecutorSkillProvider` that:
- resolves the selected environment through `EnvironmentManager`
- discovers, canonicalizes, and reads skills through that environment's
`ExecutorFileSystem`
- contributes the bounded selected-skill catalog as stable developer
context
- reads an explicitly invoked skill body through the authority that
listed it
- warns when an environment or root is unavailable
- never falls back to the orchestrator filesystem for an executor-owned
root
Skill catalog and instruction fragments have hard byte bounds, which
also bound them below the 10K-token per-item context limit. If a
selected executor skill has the same name as a legacy local skill, the
executor selection owns that invocation and the local body is not
injected a second time.
Existing local and bundled skill loading remains in place. Omitting
`selectedCapabilityRoots` therefore preserves current local-only
behavior.
## Current semantics
- Only environment-owned locations are represented in this first
contract.
- Roots are resolved by the destination extension, not by app-server or
core.
- An unavailable executor or invalid root produces a warning and no
capabilities from that root; it does not trigger a local-filesystem
fallback.
- Selection applies to a newly started active thread.
- MCP servers, connectors, and hooks beneath a selected plugin root are
not activated yet.
- Selection is not yet persisted or inherited across resume, fork, or
subagent creation. Existing local capabilities continue to behave as
they do today in those flows.
## Planned vertical follow-ups
1. **Hosted HTTP MCP:** add an extension-backed HTTP MCP source that
works without an executor, then replace the special-purpose MCP plugins
loader with that implementation.
2. **Executor MCP:** register and execute stdio MCP servers through the
environment that owns the selected plugin root.
3. **Backend skills:** add a hosted skill source whose catalog and
bodies are accessed through extension tools rather than a filesystem.
4. **Connectors and hooks:** activate those components through their
owning extensions, using the same selected-root boundary and
component-specific runtime.
5. **Durable selection:** define the desired-selection lifecycle,
persist it, and make resume, fork, and subagent inheritance explicit
rather than accidental.
6. **Local convergence:** incrementally route existing local plugin,
skill, and MCP loading through the same extension model while preserving
current local behavior.
Each follow-up remains reviewable as an end-to-end capability. The
platform selects roots, generic thread extension data carries the
selection, and the owning extension resolves and operates its component.
## Verification
Coverage added for:
- app-server end-to-end discovery and explicit invocation of a skill
inside an executor-selected plugin root
- exclusive invocation when a selected executor skill collides with a
local skill name
- executor filesystem authority for discovery, canonicalization, and
reads
- thread extension initialization before lifecycle contributors run
- stable executor catalog context, explicit invocation, context
rebuilding, hidden skills, and preserved host/remote catalog behavior
Targeted protocol, core-skills, skills-extension, core lifecycle, and
app-server executor-skill tests were run during development.
## Why
The skills extension needs a real turn-time path before host, executor,
or remote skills can be routed through it. The previous code was mostly
a placeholder catalog/provider sketch, so there was no bounded
available-skills fragment, no source-owned `SKILL.md` read, and no place
for warnings or per-turn selection state to live.
This PR makes `ext/skills` the authority-preserving flow for listing
candidate skills and injecting only explicitly selected main prompts,
without adding more of that logic to `codex-core`.
## What changed
- Expands catalog entries with `main_prompt`, display path, short
description, dependency metadata, enabled/prompt visibility flags, and
authority/package-aware read requests.
- Replaces the placeholder `providers/*` modules with
`SkillProviderSource` and `SkillProviders`, routing list/read/search
calls by source kind and surfacing provider failures as warnings.
- Adds bounded available-skills rendering and `SKILL.md` main-prompt
truncation before the fragments enter model context.
- Resolves explicit skill selections from structured `UserInput::Skill`,
skill-file mentions, `skill://...` paths, and plain `$skill` text
mentions, then reads selected prompts through their owning provider.
- Stores mutable per-thread skills config and per-turn
catalog/selection/warning state.
- Adds `install_with_providers` so tests and future host wiring can
supply concrete providers.
## Testing
- Not run locally.
- Added `codex-rs/ext/skills/tests/skills_extension.rs` coverage for
available-catalog injection, selected prompt injection through the
owning provider, and prompt-hidden skills that remain invokable.
## Disclaimer
This is only here for iteration purpose! Do not make any code rely on
this
## Why
Skills still live behind `codex-core` discovery and injection paths, but
the extension system needs an authority-aware home before that logic can
move. This adds that boundary without changing current skills behavior,
and keeps host, executor, and remote skills distinct so future
list/read/search flows do not collapse back to ambient local paths.
## What changed
- Add the `codex-skills-extension` workspace/Bazel crate under
`ext/skills`.
- Define the initial catalog, authority, provider, and turn-state types
for authority-bound skill packages and resources.
- Register placeholder thread/config/prompt/turn lifecycle contributors
plus host, executor, and remote provider aggregation points.
- Capture the remaining extraction work as TODOs, including the missing
extension API hooks needed for per-turn catalog construction and typed
skill injection.
- Keep plugins outside the runtime skills model: plugin-installed skills
are treated as materialized host-owned skill sources once available.
## Verification
- Not run locally.
jif ·
Adam Perry @ OpenAI ·