## Why
Multi-agent v2 messages need a consistent, model-visible envelope that
identifies what kind of interaction occurred, who sent it, and which
agent it targets. Previously, encrypted deliveries exposed only
`encrypted_content`, while child completion used the legacy
`<subagent_notification>` shape. That meant the client could not
consistently present `NEW_TASK`, `MESSAGE`, and `FINAL_ANSWER` using the
same format.
This change adds the routing envelope as plaintext while keeping task
and message payloads encrypted. No new Responses API field is required:
an encrypted delivery is represented as an `input_text` header
immediately followed by its existing `encrypted_content` item.
Every envelope now follows this shape:
```text
Message Type: <NEW_TASK | MESSAGE | FINAL_ANSWER>
Task name: <recipient agent path>
Sender: <author agent path>
Payload:
<message payload>
```
## Message types
### `NEW_TASK`
`NEW_TASK` is used when the recipient should begin a new turn, including
an initial `spawn_agent` task and a later `followup_task`.
For a root agent spawning `/root/worker`, the request contains a
plaintext envelope followed by the encrypted task:
```json
{
"type": "agent_message",
"author": "/root",
"recipient": "/root/worker",
"content": [
{
"type": "input_text",
"text": "Message Type: NEW_TASK\nTask name: /root/worker\nSender: /root\nPayload:\n"
},
{
"type": "encrypted_content",
"encrypted_content": "<encrypted task payload>"
}
]
}
```
Conceptually, the model receives:
```text
Message Type: NEW_TASK
Task name: /root/worker
Sender: /root
Payload:
Review the authentication changes and report any regressions.
```
### `MESSAGE`
`MESSAGE` is used for a queued `send_message` delivery. It communicates
with an existing agent without starting a new turn.
For `/root/worker` reporting progress to the root agent, the request
contains:
```json
{
"type": "agent_message",
"author": "/root/worker",
"recipient": "/root",
"content": [
{
"type": "input_text",
"text": "Message Type: MESSAGE\nTask name: /root\nSender: /root/worker\nPayload:\n"
},
{
"type": "encrypted_content",
"encrypted_content": "<encrypted message payload>"
}
]
}
```
Conceptually, the model receives:
```text
Message Type: MESSAGE
Task name: /root
Sender: /root/worker
Payload:
The protocol tests pass; I am checking the resume path now.
```
### `FINAL_ANSWER`
`FINAL_ANSWER` is emitted when a child agent reaches a terminal state
and reports its result to its parent. Completion payloads are already
available locally, so the complete envelope is represented as plaintext
rather than as a plaintext header plus encrypted content.
For `/root/worker` completing work for the root agent, the request
contains:
```json
{
"type": "agent_message",
"author": "/root/worker",
"recipient": "/root",
"content": [
{
"type": "input_text",
"text": "Message Type: FINAL_ANSWER\nTask name: /root\nSender: /root/worker\nPayload:\nNo regressions found."
}
]
}
```
The model-visible form is:
```text
Message Type: FINAL_ANSWER
Task name: /root
Sender: /root/worker
Payload:
No regressions found.
```
Errored, shut down, and missing agents also use `FINAL_ANSWER`, with a
terminal-status description in the payload.
## What changed
- Render `NEW_TASK` or `MESSAGE` in
`InterAgentCommunication::to_model_input_item`, based on whether the
encrypted delivery starts a turn.
- Replace the multi-agent v2 `<subagent_notification>` completion
payload with a model-visible `FINAL_ANSWER` envelope.
- Document `Task name`, `Sender`, and `Payload` consistently in the
multi-agent developer instructions.
- Prevent local-only history projections from treating an encrypted
message's plaintext header as the complete assistant message.
- Preserve rollout-trace interaction edges when an agent message
contains both plaintext and encrypted content.
Legacy multi-agent behavior remains unchanged.
## Verification
- `just test -p codex-protocol`
- `just test -p codex-rollout-trace`
- `just test -p codex-web-search-extension`
- `just test -p codex-core
encrypted_multi_agent_v2_spawn_sends_agent_message_to_child`
- `just test -p codex-core
plaintext_multi_agent_v2_completion_sends_agent_message`
- `just test -p codex-core
multi_agent_v2_followup_task_completion_notifies_parent_on_every_turn`
- `just test -p codex-core
multi_agent_v2_completion_queues_message_for_direct_parent`
## 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
The model should be able to see bounded context-window budget metadata
when the `token_budget` feature is enabled. The full-window message is
only injected with full context, while normal turns get a smaller
follow-up only when reported usage first crosses a budget threshold.
## What changed
- Added the `TokenBudget` feature flag.
- Added `<token_budget>` developer fragments for full context-window
metadata and current-window remaining tokens.
- Inserted the threshold message during normal turn handling by
comparing token usage before and after sampling, avoiding persistent
threshold bookkeeping.
- Added core integration coverage for full-context-only metadata and
25/50/75 percent threshold messages.
## Verification
- `just test -p codex-core token_budget`
- `git diff --check`
## Why
Standalone image generation returns image bytes to the model, but the
model also needs the host artifact path to reference the generated file
in follow-up work.
## What changed
- Append the default saved-image path hint alongside the generated image
tool output.
- Reuse the existing core image-generation hint text.
- Pass the thread ID and Codex home directory needed to compute the
artifact path.
- Add app-server and extension coverage for the model-visible hint.
## Validation
- `just fmt`
- `just bazel-lock-check`
- `just test -p codex-app-server
standalone_image_generation_returns_saved_path_hint_to_model`
## Why
`codex-core` currently owns the generic contextual-fragment trait and
several reusable fragment implementations. That makes it harder for
other crates to share the same host-owned model-input abstraction
without depending on all of `codex-core`.
This change extracts the reusable fragment machinery into a small
`codex-context-fragments` crate so future extension and skills work can
depend on the fragment abstraction directly.
## What Changed
- Added the `codex-context-fragments` crate with:
- `ContextualUserFragment`
- `FragmentRegistration` / `FragmentRegistrationProxy`
- additional-context fragment types
- Moved `SkillInstructions` into `codex-core-skills`, since
skill-specific rendering belongs with skills rather than generic core
context machinery.
- Kept `codex-core` re-exporting the fragment types it still uses
internally, so existing call sites keep the same shape.
- Updated Cargo and Bazel workspace metadata for the new crate.
## Verification
- `cargo metadata --locked --format-version 1 --no-deps`
- `just bazel-lock-update`
- `just bazel-lock-check`
## Why
Goal steering is one form of runtime-owned model context, but the old
`<goal_context>` wrapper made the contextual-fragment hiding path
goal-specific. Using a source-labeled internal context fragment gives
core and extensions a shared shape for hidden model steering while
keeping those prompts out of visible turn history.
The change also keeps legacy `<goal_context>` messages recognized as
hidden contextual input so existing stored history does not start
rendering old goal-steering prompts as user-visible turn items.
## What Changed
- Replaces `GoalContext` with `InternalModelContextFragment` plus a
validated `InternalContextSource`.
- Renders goal steering as `<codex_internal_context
source="goal">...</codex_internal_context>`.
- Updates core goal steering and `ext/goal` steering to inject the new
internal-context fragment.
- Updates contextual-fragment, event-mapping, goal, and session tests
for the new wrapper.
## Test Coverage
- Adds coverage for detecting the new internal model context fragment.
- Preserves coverage for hiding legacy `<goal_context>` fragments.
- Verifies invalid internal context sources are rejected and arbitrary
context tags are not hidden.
- Updates goal steering/session assertions to expect the new
`source="goal"` wrapper.
## Summary
Adds experimental `additionalContext` support to `turn/start` and
`turn/steer` so clients can provide ephemeral external context, such as
browser or automation state, without turning that plumbing into a
visible user prompt or triggering user-prompt lifecycle behavior.
## API Shape
The parameter shape is:
```ts
additionalContext?: Record<string, {
value: string
kind: "untrusted" | "application"
}> | null
```
Example:
```json
{
"additionalContext": {
"browser_info": {
"value": "Active tab is CI failures.",
"kind": "untrusted"
},
"automation_info": {
"value": "CI rerun is in progress.",
"kind": "application"
}
}
}
```
The keys are opaque and caller-defined.
## Context Injection
When provided, accepted entries are inserted into model context as
hidden contextual message items, not as visible thread user-message
items.
`kind: "untrusted"` entries are inserted with role `user`:
```text
<external_${key}>${value}</external_${key}>
```
`kind: "application"` entries are inserted with role `developer`:
```text
<${key}>${value}</${key}>
```
Values are not escaped. Each value is truncated to 1k approximate tokens
before wrapping.
For `turn/start`, accepted additional context is inserted before normal
user input. For `turn/steer`, additional context is merged only when the
steer includes non-empty user input; context-only steers still reject as
empty input.
## Dedupe Strategy
`AdditionalContextStore` lives on session state and stores the latest
complete additional-context map.
Each `turn/start` or non-empty `turn/steer` treats its
`additionalContext` as the current complete set of values. Entries are
injected only when the key is new or the exact entry for that key
changed, including `value` or `kind`. After merging, the store is
replaced with the provided map, so omitted keys are removed from the
retained set and can be injected again later if reintroduced.
Omitting `additionalContext`, passing `null`, or passing an empty object
resets the store to empty and injects nothing.
## What Changed
- Threads experimental v2 `additionalContext` through app-server into
core turn start and steer handling.
- Adds separate contextual fragment types for untrusted user-role
context and application developer-role context.
- Uses pending response input items so additional context can be
combined with normal user input without treating it as prompt text.
- Adds integration coverage for start/steer flow, role routing,
dedupe/reset behavior, deletion/re-add behavior, hook-blocked input
behavior, empty context-only steer rejection, external-fragment marker
matching, and truncation.
## What
- Add a small extension capability for injecting model-visible response
items into the active turn
- Have the goal extension inject hidden goal-context steering when
tool-finish accounting reaches `BudgetLimited`
- Cover the extension backend path with an assertion on the injected
steering item
## Why
PR #23696 persists and emits the budget-limited goal update from
tool-finish accounting, but it leaves the model unaware of that
transition. The existing core runtime steers the model to wrap up in
this case; the extension path should do the same through an explicit
host capability.
## Testing
- `just fmt`
- `cargo test -p codex-goal-extension`
- `cargo test -p codex-extension-api`
## Why
Older sessions can contain model-warning records persisted as `user`
messages, including the unified exec process-limit warning, the
`apply_patch`-via-`exec_command` warning, and the model-mismatch
high-risk cyber fallback warning. Those warnings are no longer produced
as conversation history items, but when old sessions compact they should
still be recognized as injected context rather than preserved as real
user turns.
## What changed
- Removed `record_model_warning` and the production paths that emitted
these warning messages into conversation history.
- Added `LegacyUnifiedExecProcessLimitWarning`,
`LegacyApplyPatchExecCommandWarning`, and `LegacyModelMismatchWarning`
contextual fragments that are used only for matching old persisted
messages.
- Registered the legacy fragments with contextual user message detection
so compaction filters them through the existing fragment path.
- Added focused compaction coverage for old warning messages being
dropped during compacted-history processing.
## Testing
- `cargo test -p codex-core warning`
- `just fix -p codex-core`
## Summary
This PR updates the goal continuation prompt to address feedback from
early adopters. There are two primary changes:
1. Goal continuation and budget-limit steering prompts now use hidden
user-context messages instead of hidden developer messages.
2. The goal continuation prompt is refined to improve the model's
ability to fully complete the active goal rather than stop at a smaller
or merely passing subset.
The user-message transition is important for two reasons. First, it
eliminates an issue where older steering messages could be responded to
again after a new turn. Second, it works better with compaction because
user messages are treated differently from developer messages during
compaction.
The prompt refinements make persistence explicit, ground work in current
evidence, encourage `update_plan` for multi-step progress visibility,
and require stronger completion audits before calling `update_goal`. It
also removes the elapsed-time reporting in the prompt; I saw evidence
that this was causing the model to shortcut work as it became nervous
about time.
These changes were tested with evals. Chriss4123 has also been running
independent evals in
[#19910](https://github.com/openai/codex/issues/19910), and many of the
improvements in this PR were suggested by him.
## Verification
- Tested with evals.
- Added and updated focused `codex-core` coverage for hidden goal user
context, continuation and budget-limit request shape, prompt rendering,
and objective delimiter escaping.
Keep extracting memories out of core and moving the write trigger in the
app-server
This is temporary and it should move at the client level as a follow-up
This makes core fully independant from `codex-memories-write`
---------
Co-authored-by: Codex <noreply@openai.com>
## Why
MultiAgentV2 children should not receive an extra model-visible
developer fragment just because they were spawned. The parent/configured
developer instructions should carry through normally, but the dedicated
`<spawned_agent_context>` block is no longer desired.
## What changed
- Removed the `SpawnAgentInstructions` context fragment and its
`<spawned_agent_context>` wrapper.
- Stopped appending spawned-agent instructions in
`codex-rs/core/src/tools/handlers/multi_agents_v2/spawn.rs`.
- Updated subagent notification coverage to assert inherited parent
developer instructions without expecting the spawned-agent wrapper.
## Verification
- `cargo test -p codex-core --test all
spawned_multi_agent_v2_child_inherits_parent_developer_context --
--nocapture`
- `cargo test -p codex-core --test all
skills_toggle_skips_instructions_for_parent_and_spawned_child --
--nocapture`
- `cargo test -p codex-core --test all subagent_notifications --
--nocapture`
jif ·
pakrym-oai ·
Won Park ·
Eric Traut ·