## Why
We want to remove implicit use of `$CODEX_HOME` from `codex-core` and
make embedders responsible for supplying user-level instructions. This
also ensures user instructions load when no primary environment is
selected.
## What changed
Stacked on #27415, which makes `codex exec` surface thread-scoped
runtime warnings.
- Added `UserInstructionsProvider` to `codex-extension-api`, with
absolute source attribution and recoverable loading warnings.
- Added `codex-home` with the filesystem-backed provider for
`AGENTS.override.md` and `AGENTS.md`, preserving precedence, fallback,
trimming, lossy UTF-8 handling, and the existing uncapped global
instruction size.
- Removed global instruction loading from `Config` and require
`ThreadManager` callers to inject a provider.
- Load provider instructions once for each fresh root runtime, including
runtimes without a primary environment. Running sessions retain their
snapshot, while child agents inherit the parent snapshot without
invoking the provider.
- Keep provider instructions separate while loading project `AGENTS.md`,
then assemble the model-visible instructions with the existing ordering,
source attribution, warning, and turn-context behavior.
- Wired the Codex home provider through the CLI, app server, MCP server,
core facade, and thread-manager sample.
## Validation
- `just test -p codex-home -p codex-extension-api`
- `just test -p codex-core agents_md`
- `just test -p codex-core guardian`
- `just test -p codex-app-server
thread_start_without_selected_environment_includes_only_global_instruction_source`
- `just test -p codex-exec warning`
- `just bazel-lock-check`
## 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.
## Stack
- Base: #27184
- This PR is the second vertical and should be reviewed against
`jif/external-plugins-1`, not `main`.
## Why
CCA is moving toward a split runtime where the orchestrator may have no
filesystem or executor, but it still needs to activate remotely hosted
plugin components. HTTP MCP servers are the simplest complete example:
they need configuration and host authentication, but they do not need an
executor process.
The Apps MCP endpoint is currently synthesized by a special-purpose
loader inside the MCP runtime. That works locally, but it leaves hosted
MCP activation outside the extension model being established in #27184.
It also makes the Apps path a poor foundation for plugins whose skills,
MCP servers, connectors, and hooks may come from different sources or
execute in different places.
This PR moves that one behavior behind an extension-owned contribution
while preserving the existing local fallback. It deliberately does not
introduce a generic plugin activation framework.
## What changed
### MCP extension contribution
`codex-extension-api` gains an ordered `McpServerContributor` contract.
A contributor returns typed `Set` or `Remove` overlays for MCP server
configuration; later contributors win for the names they own.
The contract stays at the existing MCP configuration boundary.
Extensions do not create a second connection manager or transport
abstraction.
### Hosted Apps MCP extension
A new `codex-mcp-extension` contributes the reserved `codex_apps` server
from the existing Apps feature, ChatGPT base URL, path override, and
product SKU configuration.
When `apps_mcp_path_override` is enabled for `https://chatgpt.com`, the
resulting streamable HTTP endpoint is
`https://chatgpt.com/backend-api/ps/mcp`. The existing ChatGPT-auth gate
remains authoritative, so this server can run in an orchestrator-only
process without being exposed for API-key sessions.
### One resolved runtime view
`McpManager` now distinguishes three views:
- **configured:** config- and plugin-backed servers before extension
overlays;
- **runtime:** configured servers plus host-installed extension
contributions;
- **effective:** runtime servers after auth gating and compatibility
built-ins.
App-server installs the hosted MCP extension and uses the runtime view
for thread startup, refresh, status, threadless resource reads,
connector discovery, and MCP OAuth lookup. This keeps
`mcpServer/oauth/login` consistent with the servers exposed by the other
MCP APIs. The hosted Apps server itself continues to use existing
ChatGPT host authentication rather than MCP OAuth.
## Compatibility
Hosts that do not install the MCP extension retain the existing Apps MCP
synthesis path. This preserves current local-only, CLI, and
standalone-host behavior while app-server exercises the extension path.
Disabling Apps removes the reserved `codex_apps` entry, and losing
ChatGPT auth removes it from the effective runtime view. Executor
availability is not consulted for this HTTP transport.
## Follow-ups
The next vertical will resolve a manifest-declared stdio MCP server from
an executor-selected plugin root and execute it in the environment that
owns that root. Later verticals can add backend-owned skills, connector
metadata, hooks, durable selection semantics, and incremental local
convergence without changing the component-specific runtime boundaries
introduced here.
## Verification
Focused coverage was added for:
- contributing the hosted Apps MCP at `/backend-api/ps/mcp` without an
executor;
- requiring ChatGPT auth in the effective runtime view;
- removing a reserved configured Apps server when the Apps feature is
disabled.
`cargo check -p codex-app-server -p codex-mcp-extension -p
codex-extension-api -p codex-mcp` passed. Tests and Clippy were not run
locally under the current development instruction; CI provides the full
validation pass.
## Why
`codex-extension-api` defines contracts shared by extension crates and
their hosts, but it had no direct test suite. Host and feature tests
cover downstream behavior, while regressions in the API crate's own
typed state, registry ordering, and capability adapters could go
unnoticed.
## What
- Add public-surface integration tests for `ExtensionData`, including
concurrent initialization and poison recovery.
- Cover contributor registration order, approval short-circuiting, event
sink retention, no-op response injection, and closure-based agent
spawning.
- Add the test-only dependencies used by the suite.
## Validation
- `just test -p codex-extension-api`
- `just argument-comment-lint -p codex-extension-api`
- `just bazel-lock-check`
## Why
The skills extension needs the resolved turn environments to build a
real per-turn `SkillListQuery`. The previous `TurnLifecycleContributor`
hook only had a turn id, so it could only seed a placeholder query and
never carry the executor authorities that executor-scoped skill routing
will need.
Moving catalog resolution onto `TurnInputContributor` puts the skills
extension on the same turn-preparation path that already has the
environment ids and working directories for the submitted turn, while
keeping the actual prompt injection work for follow-up changes.
## What changed
- switch `ext/skills` from `TurnLifecycleContributor` to
`TurnInputContributor`
- build `executor_authorities` from `TurnInputContext.environments` and
pass them through `SkillListQuery`
- keep storing the resolved catalog in `SkillsTurnState`, but drop the
placeholder query helper that no longer matches the real data flow
- update the extension TODOs to reflect that per-turn catalog resolution
now happens in the turn-input contributor, and that prompt/context
injection still needs to move later
## Testing
- Not run locally.
## Why
Extension lifecycle hooks sit on the host/extension boundary, but the
current trait surface only allows synchronous callbacks. That forces
extensions that need to seed, rehydrate, observe, or flush
extension-owned state during thread and turn transitions to either block
inside the callback or move async work into separate host plumbing.
This PR makes those lifecycle callbacks awaitable so extension
implementations can perform async work directly at the lifecycle point
where the host already has the relevant session, thread, or turn stores
available.
## What changed
- Makes `ThreadLifecycleContributor` and `TurnLifecycleContributor`
async in `codex-extension-api`.
- Awaits thread start/resume/stop and turn start/stop/abort lifecycle
callbacks from `codex-core`.
- Updates the guardian and memories extensions to implement the async
lifecycle trait surface.
- Updates the existing lifecycle tests to use async contributor
implementations.
- Adds `async-trait` to the crates that now expose or implement these
async object-safe lifecycle traits.
## Testing
- Existing `codex-core` lifecycle tests were updated to cover async
implementations for thread stop and turn abort ordering.
## Why
Extension tools were split across two public runtime contracts:
`codex-tool-api` exposed `ToolBundle` plus its own call/spec/error
types, while core native tools used `codex_tools::ToolExecutor`. That
made contributed tool specs and execution behavior easy to drift apart
and added another crate boundary for what should be one executable-tool
seam.
This PR makes `ToolExecutor` the single runtime contract and keeps
extension-specific pinning in `codex-extension-api`.
## Remaining todo
https://github.com/openai/codex/pull/22369/changes#diff-b935ea8245c3ce568a30cff660175fa6390b66b872ae409e1e2e965738250741R5
Either generic `Invocation` or sub-extract the `ToolCall` and clean
`ToolInvocation`
## What changed
- Removed the `codex-tool-api` workspace crate and its dependencies from
core and `codex-extension-api`.
- Made `codex_tools::ToolExecutor` object-safe with `async_trait` so
extension contributors can return a dyn executor.
- Added the extension-facing aliases under
`ext/extension-api/src/contributors/tools.rs`, including
`ExtensionToolExecutor = dyn ToolExecutor<ToolCall, Output =
ExtensionToolOutput>`.
- Changed `ToolContributor::tools` to return extension executors
directly instead of `ToolBundle`s.
- Updated core’s extension tool handler/registry/router path to adapt
those extension executors into the existing native `ToolInvocation`
runtime path.
- Added focused coverage for extension tools being registered,
model-visible, dispatchable, and not replacing built-in tools.
## Verification
- `cargo test -p codex-tools`
- `cargo test -p codex-extension-api`
## Why
This is the next narrow step toward moving concrete tool families out of
core. After #22138 introduced `codex-tool-api`, we still needed a real
end-to-end seam that lets an extension own an executable tool definition
once and have core install it without the temporary `extension-api`
wrapper or a dependency on `codex-tools`.
`codex-tool-api` is the small extension-facing execution contract, while
`codex-tools` still has a different job: host-side shared tool metadata
and planning logic that is not “run this contributed tool”, like spec
shaping, namespaces, discovery, code-mode augmentation, and
MCP/dynamic-to-Responses API conversion
## What changed
- Moved the shared leaf tool-spec and JSON Schema types into
`codex-tool-api`, so the executable contract now lives with
[`ToolBundle`](https://github.com/openai/codex/blob/c538758095337d4fe0a52a172363ccede4066bda/codex-rs/tool-api/src/bundle.rs#L19-L70).
- Replaced the temporary extension-side tool wrapper with direct
`ToolBundle` use in `codex-extension-api`.
- Taught core to collect contributed bundles, include them in spec
planning, register them through
[`ToolRegistryBuilder::register_tool_bundle`](https://github.com/openai/codex/blob/c538758095337d4fe0a52a172363ccede4066bda/codex-rs/core/src/tools/registry.rs#L653-L667),
and dispatch them through the existing router/runtime path.
- Added focused coverage for contributed tools becoming model-visible
and dispatchable, plus spec-planning coverage for contributed function
and freeform tools.
## Verification
- Added `extension_tool_bundles_are_model_visible_and_dispatchable` in
`core/src/tools/router_tests.rs`.
- Added spec-plan coverage in `core/src/tools/spec_plan_tests.rs` for
contributed extension bundles.
## Related
- Follow-up to #22138
## Why
`codex-core` still owns a growing amount of product-specific behavior.
This PR starts the extraction path by introducing a small, typed
first-party extension seam: features can install the contribution
families they actually own, while the host keeps lifecycle and state
ownership instead of pushing a broad service locator into the API.
See the `examples/` for illustration
## Known limitations
* Tool contract definition will be shared with core
* Fragments must be extracted
* Missing some contributors
Adam Perry @ OpenAIandGitHub
jifandGitHub