**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 attempts to tighten up the types related to "config layers."
Currently, `ConfigLayerEntry` is defined as follows:
https://github.com/openai/codex/blob/bef36f4ae765f471d7cd69372fcf1b92c8f0367a/codex-rs/core/src/config_loader/state.rs#L19-L25
but the `source` field is a bit of a lie, as:
- for `ConfigLayerName::Mdm`, it is
`"com.openai.codex/config_toml_base64"`
- for `ConfigLayerName::SessionFlags`, it is `"--config"`
- for `ConfigLayerName::User`, it is `"config.toml"` (just the file
name, not the path to the `config.toml` on disk that was read)
- for `ConfigLayerName::System`, it seems like it is usually
`/etc/codex/managed_config.toml` in practice, though on Windows, it is
`%CODEX_HOME%/managed_config.toml`:
https://github.com/openai/codex/blob/bef36f4ae765f471d7cd69372fcf1b92c8f0367a/codex-rs/core/src/config_loader/layer_io.rs#L84-L101
All that is to say, in three out of the four `ConfigLayerName`, `source`
is a `PathBuf` that is not an absolute path (or even a true path).
This PR tries to uplevel things by eliminating `source` from
`ConfigLayerEntry` and turning `ConfigLayerName` into a disjoint union
named `ConfigLayerSource` that has the appropriate metadata for each
variant, favoring the use of `AbsolutePathBuf` where appropriate:
```rust
pub enum ConfigLayerSource {
/// Managed preferences layer delivered by MDM (macOS only).
#[serde(rename_all = "camelCase")]
#[ts(rename_all = "camelCase")]
Mdm { domain: String, key: String },
/// Managed config layer from a file (usually `managed_config.toml`).
#[serde(rename_all = "camelCase")]
#[ts(rename_all = "camelCase")]
System { file: AbsolutePathBuf },
/// Session-layer overrides supplied via `-c`/`--config`.
SessionFlags,
/// User config layer from a file (usually `config.toml`).
#[serde(rename_all = "camelCase")]
#[ts(rename_all = "camelCase")]
User { file: AbsolutePathBuf },
}
```
There's a lot of visual noise in app-server's integration tests due to
the number of `.expect("<some_msg>")` lines which are largely redundant
/ not very useful. Clean them up by using `anyhow::Result` + `?`
consistently.
Replaces the existing pattern of:
```
let codex_home = TempDir::new().expect("create temp dir");
create_config_toml(codex_home.path()).expect("write config.toml");
let mut mcp = McpProcess::new(codex_home.path())
.await
.expect("spawn mcp process");
timeout(DEFAULT_READ_TIMEOUT, mcp.initialize())
.await
.expect("initialize timeout")
.expect("initialize request");
```
With:
```
let codex_home = TempDir::new()?;
create_config_toml(codex_home.path())?;
let mut mcp = McpProcess::new(codex_home.path()).await?;
timeout(DEFAULT_READ_TIMEOUT, mcp.initialize()).await??;
```
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`.
Owen Lin ·
Michael Bolin ·