## Why
Codex intentionally ignores unknown `config.toml` fields by default so
older and newer config files keep working across versions. That leniency
also makes typo detection hard because misspelled or misplaced keys
disappear silently.
This change adds an opt-in strict config mode so users and tooling can
fail fast on unrecognized config fields without changing the default
permissive behavior.
This feature is possible because `serde_ignored` exposes the exact
signal Codex needs: it lets Codex run ordinary Serde deserialization
while recording fields Serde would otherwise ignore. That avoids
requiring `#[serde(deny_unknown_fields)]` across every config type and
keeps strict validation opt-in around the existing config model.
## What Changed
### Added strict config validation
- Added `serde_ignored`-based validation for `ConfigToml` in
`codex-rs/config/src/strict_config.rs`.
- Combined `serde_ignored` with `serde_path_to_error` so strict mode
preserves typed config error paths while also collecting fields Serde
would otherwise ignore.
- Added strict-mode validation for unknown `[features]` keys, including
keys that would otherwise be accepted by `FeaturesToml`'s flattened
boolean map.
- Kept typed config errors ahead of ignored-field reporting, so
malformed known fields are reported before unknown-field diagnostics.
- Added source-range diagnostics for top-level and nested unknown config
fields, including non-file managed preference source names.
### Kept parsing single-pass per source
- Reworked file and managed-config loading so strict validation reuses
the already parsed `TomlValue` for that source.
- For actual config files and managed config strings, the loader now
reads once, parses once, and validates that same parsed value instead of
deserializing multiple times.
- Validated `-c` / `--config` override layers with the same
base-directory context used for normal relative-path resolution, so
unknown override keys are still reported when another override contains
a relative path.
### Scoped `--strict-config` to config-heavy entry points
- Added support for `--strict-config` on the main config-loading entry
points where it is most useful:
- `codex`
- `codex resume`
- `codex fork`
- `codex exec`
- `codex review`
- `codex mcp-server`
- `codex app-server` when running the server itself
- the standalone `codex-app-server` binary
- the standalone `codex-exec` binary
- Commands outside that set now reject `--strict-config` early with
targeted errors instead of accepting it everywhere through shared CLI
plumbing.
- `codex app-server` subcommands such as `proxy`, `daemon`, and
`generate-*` are intentionally excluded from the first rollout.
- When app-server strict mode sees invalid config, app-server exits with
the config error instead of logging a warning and continuing with
defaults.
- Introduced a dedicated `ReviewCommand` wrapper in `codex-rs/cli`
instead of extending shared `ReviewArgs`, so `--strict-config` stays on
the outer config-loading command surface and does not become part of the
reusable review payload used by `codex exec review`.
### Coverage
- Added tests for top-level and nested unknown config fields, unknown
`[features]` keys, typed-error precedence, source-location reporting,
and non-file managed preference source names.
- Added CLI coverage showing invalid `--enable`, invalid `--disable`,
and unknown `-c` overrides still error when `--strict-config` is
present, including compound-looking feature names such as
`multi_agent_v2.subagent_usage_hint_text`.
- Added integration coverage showing both `codex app-server
--strict-config` and standalone `codex-app-server --strict-config` exit
with an error for unknown config fields instead of starting with
fallback defaults.
- Added coverage showing unsupported command surfaces reject
`--strict-config` with explicit errors.
## Example Usage
Run Codex with strict config validation enabled:
```shell
codex --strict-config
```
Strict config mode is also available on the supported config-heavy
subcommands:
```shell
codex --strict-config exec "explain this repository"
codex review --strict-config --uncommitted
codex mcp-server --strict-config
codex app-server --strict-config --listen off
codex-app-server --strict-config --listen off
```
For example, if `~/.codex/config.toml` contains a typo in a key name:
```toml
model = "gpt-5"
approval_polic = "on-request"
```
then `codex --strict-config` reports the misspelled key instead of
silently ignoring it. The path is shortened to `~` here for readability:
```text
$ codex --strict-config
Error loading config.toml:
~/.codex/config.toml:2:1: unknown configuration field `approval_polic`
|
2 | approval_polic = "on-request"
| ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
```
Without `--strict-config`, Codex keeps the existing permissive behavior
and ignores the unknown key.
Strict config mode also validates ad-hoc `-c` / `--config` overrides:
```text
$ codex --strict-config -c foo=bar
Error: unknown configuration field `foo` in -c/--config override
$ codex --strict-config -c features.foo=true
Error: unknown configuration field `features.foo` in -c/--config override
```
Invalid feature toggles are rejected too, including values that look
like nested config paths:
```text
$ codex --strict-config --enable does_not_exist
Error: Unknown feature flag: does_not_exist
$ codex --strict-config --disable does_not_exist
Error: Unknown feature flag: does_not_exist
$ codex --strict-config --enable multi_agent_v2.subagent_usage_hint_text
Error: Unknown feature flag: multi_agent_v2.subagent_usage_hint_text
```
Unsupported commands reject the flag explicitly:
```text
$ codex --strict-config cloud list
Error: `--strict-config` is not supported for `codex cloud`
```
## Verification
The `codex-cli` `strict_config` tests cover invalid `--enable`, invalid
`--disable`, the compound `multi_agent_v2.subagent_usage_hint_text`
case, unknown `-c` overrides, app-server strict startup failure through
`codex app-server`, and rejection for unsupported commands such as
`codex cloud`, `codex mcp`, `codex remote-control`, and `codex
app-server proxy`.
The config and config-loader tests cover unknown top-level fields,
unknown nested fields, unknown `[features]` keys, source-location
reporting, non-file managed config sources, and `-c` validation for keys
such as `features.foo`.
The app-server test suite covers standalone `codex-app-server
--strict-config` startup failure for an unknown config field.
## Documentation
The Codex CLI docs on developers.openai.com/codex should mention
`--strict-config` as an opt-in validation mode for supported
config-heavy entry points once this ships.
## Why
`codex-rs/core/src/tools/runtimes/shell/unix_escalation.rs` previously
located `codex-execve-wrapper` by scanning `PATH` and sibling
directories. That lookup is brittle and can select the wrong binary when
the runtime environment differs from startup assumptions.
We already pass `codex-linux-sandbox` from `codex-arg0`;
`codex-execve-wrapper` should use the same startup-driven path plumbing.
## What changed
- Introduced `Arg0DispatchPaths` in `codex-arg0` to carry both helper
executable paths:
- `codex_linux_sandbox_exe`
- `main_execve_wrapper_exe`
- Updated `arg0_dispatch_or_else()` to pass `Arg0DispatchPaths` to
top-level binaries and preserve helper paths created in
`prepend_path_entry_for_codex_aliases()`.
- Threaded `Arg0DispatchPaths` through entrypoints in `cli`, `exec`,
`tui`, `app-server`, and `mcp-server`.
- Added `main_execve_wrapper_exe` to core configuration plumbing
(`Config`, `ConfigOverrides`, and `SessionServices`).
- Updated zsh-fork shell escalation to consume the configured
`main_execve_wrapper_exe` and removed path-sniffing fallback logic.
- Updated app-server config reload paths so reloaded configs keep the
same startup-provided helper executable paths.
## References
- [`Arg0DispatchPaths`
definition](https://github.com/openai/codex/blob/e355b43d5c2a771f045296a6deae10d7c9c36ec6/codex-rs/arg0/src/lib.rs#L20-L24)
- [`arg0_dispatch_or_else()` forwarding both
paths](https://github.com/openai/codex/blob/e355b43d5c2a771f045296a6deae10d7c9c36ec6/codex-rs/arg0/src/lib.rs#L145-L176)
- [zsh-fork escalation using configured wrapper
path](https://github.com/openai/codex/blob/e355b43d5c2a771f045296a6deae10d7c9c36ec6/codex-rs/core/src/tools/runtimes/shell/unix_escalation.rs#L109-L150)
## Testing
- `cargo check -p codex-arg0 -p codex-core -p codex-exec -p codex-tui -p
codex-mcp-server -p codex-app-server`
- `cargo test -p codex-arg0`
- `cargo test -p codex-core tools::runtimes::shell::unix_escalation:: --
--nocapture`
We are removing feature-gated shared crates from the `codex-rs`
workspace. `codex-common` grouped several unrelated utilities behind
`[features]`, which made dependency boundaries harder to reason about
and worked against the ongoing effort to eliminate feature flags from
workspace crates.
Splitting these utilities into dedicated crates under `utils/` aligns
this area with existing workspace structure and keeps each dependency
explicit at the crate boundary.
## What changed
- Removed `codex-rs/common` (`codex-common`) from workspace members and
workspace dependencies.
- Added six new utility crates under `codex-rs/utils/`:
- `codex-utils-cli`
- `codex-utils-elapsed`
- `codex-utils-sandbox-summary`
- `codex-utils-approval-presets`
- `codex-utils-oss`
- `codex-utils-fuzzy-match`
- Migrated the corresponding modules out of `codex-common` into these
crates (with tests), and added matching `BUILD.bazel` targets.
- Updated direct consumers to use the new crates instead of
`codex-common`:
- `codex-rs/cli`
- `codex-rs/tui`
- `codex-rs/exec`
- `codex-rs/app-server`
- `codex-rs/mcp-server`
- `codex-rs/chatgpt`
- `codex-rs/cloud-tasks`
- Updated workspace lockfile entries to reflect the new dependency graph
and removal of `codex-common`.
This PR adds the following:
* A getAuthStatus method on the mcp server. This returns the auth method
currently in use (chatgpt or apikey) or none if the user is not
authenticated. It also returns the "preferred auth method" which
reflects the `preferred_auth_method` value in the config.
* A logout method on the mcp server. If called, it logs out the user and
deletes the `auth.json` file — the same behavior in the cli's `/logout`
command.
* An `authStatusChange` event notification that is sent when the auth
status changes due to successful login or logout operations.
* Logic to pass command-line config overrides to the mcp server at
startup time. This allows use cases like `codex mcp -c
preferred_auth_method=apikey`.
Historically, we spawned the Seatbelt and Landlock sandboxes in
substantially different ways:
For **Seatbelt**, we would run `/usr/bin/sandbox-exec` with our policy
specified as an arg followed by the original command:
https://github.com/openai/codex/blob/d1de7bb383552e8fadd94be79d65d188e00fd562/codex-rs/core/src/exec.rs#L147-L219
For **Landlock/Seccomp**, we would do
`tokio::runtime::Builder::new_current_thread()`, _invoke
Landlock/Seccomp APIs to modify the permissions of that new thread_, and
then spawn the command:
https://github.com/openai/codex/blob/d1de7bb383552e8fadd94be79d65d188e00fd562/codex-rs/core/src/exec_linux.rs#L28-L49
While it is neat that Landlock/Seccomp supports applying a policy to
only one thread without having to apply it to the entire process, it
requires us to maintain two different codepaths and is a bit harder to
reason about. The tipping point was
https://github.com/openai/codex/pull/1061, in which we had to start
building up the `env` in an unexpected way for the existing
Landlock/Seccomp approach to continue to work.
This PR overhauls things so that we do similar things for Mac and Linux.
It turned out that we were already building our own "helper binary"
comparable to Mac's `sandbox-exec` as part of the `cli` crate:
https://github.com/openai/codex/blob/d1de7bb383552e8fadd94be79d65d188e00fd562/codex-rs/cli/Cargo.toml#L10-L12
We originally created this to build a small binary to include with the
Node.js version of the Codex CLI to provide support for Linux
sandboxing.
Though the sticky bit is that, at this point, we still want to deploy
the Rust version of Codex as a single, standalone binary rather than a
CLI and a supporting sandboxing binary. To satisfy this goal, we use
"the arg0 trick," in which we:
* use `std::env::current_exe()` to get the path to the CLI that is
currently running
* use the CLI as the `program` for the `Command`
* set `"codex-linux-sandbox"` as arg0 for the `Command`
A CLI that supports sandboxing should check arg0 at the start of the
program. If it is `"codex-linux-sandbox"`, it must invoke
`codex_linux_sandbox::run_main()`, which runs the CLI as if it were
`codex-linux-sandbox`. When acting as `codex-linux-sandbox`, we make the
appropriate Landlock/Seccomp API calls and then use `execvp(3)` to spawn
the original command, so do _replace_ the process rather than spawn a
subprocess. Incidentally, we do this before starting the Tokio runtime,
so the process should only have one thread when `execvp(3)` is called.
Because the `core` crate that needs to spawn the Linux sandboxing is not
a CLI in its own right, this means that every CLI that includes `core`
and relies on this behavior has to (1) implement it and (2) provide the
path to the sandboxing executable. While the path is almost always
`std::env::current_exe()`, we needed to make this configurable for
integration tests, so `Config` now has a `codex_linux_sandbox_exe:
Option<PathBuf>` property to facilitate threading this through,
introduced in https://github.com/openai/codex/pull/1089.
This common pattern is now captured in
`codex_linux_sandbox::run_with_sandbox()` and all of the `main.rs`
functions that should use it have been updated as part of this PR.
The `codex-linux-sandbox` crate added to the Cargo workspace as part of
this PR now has the bulk of the Landlock/Seccomp logic, which makes
`core` a bit simpler. Indeed, `core/src/exec_linux.rs` and
`core/src/landlock.rs` were removed/ported as part of this PR. I also
moved the unit tests for this code into an integration test,
`linux-sandbox/tests/landlock.rs`, in which I use
`env!("CARGO_BIN_EXE_codex-linux-sandbox")` as the value for
`codex_linux_sandbox_exe` since `std::env::current_exe()` is not
appropriate in that case.
https://github.com/openai/codex/pull/1086 is a work-in-progress to make
Linux sandboxing work more like Seatbelt where, for the command we want
to sandbox, we build up the command and then hand it, and some sandbox
configuration flags, to another command to set up the sandbox and then
run it.
In the case of Seatbelt, macOS provides this helper binary and provides
it at `/usr/bin/sandbox-exec`. For Linux, we have to build our own and
pass it through (which is what #1086 does), so this makes the new
`codex_linux_sandbox_exe` available on `Config` so that it will later be
available in `exec.rs` when we need it in #1086.
Previously, running Codex as an MCP server required a standalone binary
in our Cargo workspace, but this PR makes it available as a subcommand
(`mcp`) of the main CLI.
Ran this with:
```
RUST_LOG=debug npx @modelcontextprotocol/inspector cargo run --bin codex -- mcp
```
and verified it worked as expected in the inspector at
`http://127.0.0.1:6274/`.
This PR replaces the placeholder `"echo"` tool call in the MCP server
with a `"codex"` tool that calls Codex. Events such as
`ExecApprovalRequest` and `ApplyPatchApprovalRequest` are not handled
properly yet, but I have `approval_policy = "never"` set in my
`~/.codex/config.toml` such that those codepaths are not exercised.
The schema for this MPC tool is defined by a new `CodexToolCallParam`
struct introduced in this PR. It is fairly similar to `ConfigOverrides`,
as the param is used to help create the `Config` used to start the Codex
session, though it also includes the `prompt` used to kick off the
session.
This PR also introduces the use of the third-party `schemars` crate to
generate the JSON schema, which is verified in the
`verify_codex_tool_json_schema()` unit test.
Events that are dispatched during the Codex session are sent back to the
MCP client as MCP notifications. This gives the client a way to monitor
progress as the tool call itself may take minutes to complete depending
on the complexity of the task requested by the user.
In the video below, I launched the server via:
```shell
mcp-server$ RUST_LOG=debug npx @modelcontextprotocol/inspector cargo run --
```
In the video, you can see the flow of:
* requesting the list of tools
* choosing the **codex** tool
* entering a value for **prompt** and then making the tool call
Note that I left the other fields blank because when unspecified, the
values in my `~/.codex/config.toml` were used:
https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/1975058c-b004-43ef-8c8d-800a953b8192
Note that while using the inspector, I did run into
https://github.com/modelcontextprotocol/inspector/issues/293, though the
tip about ensuring I had only one instance of the **MCP Inspector** tab
open in my browser seemed to fix things.
Michael Bolin ·
Eric Traut ·