We started working with MCP in Codex before
https://crates.io/crates/rmcp was mature, so we had our own crate for
MCP types that was generated from the MCP schema:
https://github.com/openai/codex/blob/8b95d3e082376f4cb23e92641705a22afb28a9da/codex-rs/mcp-types/README.md
Now that `rmcp` is more mature, it makes more sense to use their MCP
types in Rust, as they handle details (like the `_meta` field) that our
custom version ignored. Though one advantage that our custom types had
is that our generated types implemented `JsonSchema` and `ts_rs::TS`,
whereas the types in `rmcp` do not. As such, part of the work of this PR
is leveraging the adapters between `rmcp` types and the serializable
types that are API for us (app server and MCP) introduced in #10356.
Note this PR results in a number of changes to
`codex-rs/app-server-protocol/schema`, which merit special attention
during review. We must ensure that these changes are still
backwards-compatible, which is possible because we have:
```diff
- export type CallToolResult = { content: Array<ContentBlock>, isError?: boolean, structuredContent?: JsonValue, };
+ export type CallToolResult = { content: Array<JsonValue>, structuredContent?: JsonValue, isError?: boolean, _meta?: JsonValue, };
```
so `ContentBlock` has been replaced with the more general `JsonValue`.
Note that `ContentBlock` was defined as:
```typescript
export type ContentBlock = TextContent | ImageContent | AudioContent | ResourceLink | EmbeddedResource;
```
so the deletion of those individual variants should not be a cause of
great concern.
Similarly, we have the following change in
`codex-rs/app-server-protocol/schema/typescript/Tool.ts`:
```
- export type Tool = { annotations?: ToolAnnotations, description?: string, inputSchema: ToolInputSchema, name: string, outputSchema?: ToolOutputSchema, title?: string, };
+ export type Tool = { name: string, title?: string, description?: string, inputSchema: JsonValue, outputSchema?: JsonValue, annotations?: JsonValue, icons?: Array<JsonValue>, _meta?: JsonValue, };
```
so:
- `annotations?: ToolAnnotations` ➡️ `JsonValue`
- `inputSchema: ToolInputSchema` ➡️ `JsonValue`
- `outputSchema?: ToolOutputSchema` ➡️ `JsonValue`
and two new fields: `icons?: Array<JsonValue>, _meta?: JsonValue`
---
[//]: # (BEGIN SAPLING FOOTER)
Stack created with [Sapling](https://sapling-scm.com). Best reviewed
with [ReviewStack](https://reviewstack.dev/openai/codex/pull/10349).
* #10357
* __->__ #10349
* #10356
### Summary
- Parse all `web_search` tool actions (`search`, `find_in_page`,
`open_page`).
- Previously we only parsed + displayed `search`, which made the TUI
appear to pause when the other actions were being used.
- Show in progress `web_search` calls as `Searching the web`
- Previously we only showed completed tool calls
<img width="308" height="149" alt="image"
src="https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/90a4e8ff-b06a-48ff-a282-b57b31121845"
/>
### Tests
Added + updated tests, tested locally
### Follow ups
Update VSCode extension to display these as well
Add a `Declined` status for when we request an approval from the user
and the user declines. This allows us to distinguish from commands that
actually ran, but failed.
This behaves similarly to apply_patch / FileChange, which does the same
thing.
This PR adds the API V2 version of the apply_patch approval flow, which
centers around `ThreadItem::FileChange`.
This PR wires the new RPC (`item/fileChange/requestApproval`, V2 only)
and related events (`item/started`, `item/completed` for
`ThreadItem::FileChange`, which are emitted in both V1 and V2) through
the app-server
protocol. The new approval RPC is only sent when the user initiates a
turn with the new `turn/start` API so we don't break backwards
compatibility with VSCE.
Similar to https://github.com/openai/codex/pull/6758, the approach I
took was to make as few changes to the Codex core as possible,
leveraging existing `EventMsg` core events, and translating those in
app-server. I did have to add a few additional fields to
`EventMsg::PatchApplyBegin` and `EventMsg::PatchApplyEnd`, but those
were fairly lightweight.
However, the `EventMsg`s emitted by core are the following:
```
1) Auto-approved (no request for approval)
- EventMsg::PatchApplyBegin
- EventMsg::PatchApplyEnd
2) Approved by user
- EventMsg::ApplyPatchApprovalRequest
- EventMsg::PatchApplyBegin
- EventMsg::PatchApplyEnd
3) Declined by user
- EventMsg::ApplyPatchApprovalRequest
- EventMsg::PatchApplyBegin
- EventMsg::PatchApplyEnd
```
For a request triggering an approval, this would result in:
```
item/fileChange/requestApproval
item/started
item/completed
```
which is different from the `ThreadItem::CommandExecution` flow
introduced in https://github.com/openai/codex/pull/6758, which does the
below and is preferable:
```
item/started
item/commandExecution/requestApproval
item/completed
```
To fix this, we leverage `TurnSummaryStore` on codex_message_processor
to store a little bit of state, allowing us to fire `item/started` and
`item/fileChange/requestApproval` whenever we receive the underlying
`EventMsg::ApplyPatchApprovalRequest`, and no-oping when we receive the
`EventMsg::PatchApplyBegin` later.
This is much less invasive than modifying the order of EventMsg within
core (I tried).
The resulting payloads:
```
{
"method": "item/started",
"params": {
"item": {
"changes": [
{
"diff": "Hello from Codex!\n",
"kind": "add",
"path": "/Users/owen/repos/codex/codex-rs/APPROVAL_DEMO.txt"
}
],
"id": "call_Nxnwj7B3YXigfV6Mwh03d686",
"status": "inProgress",
"type": "fileChange"
}
}
}
```
```
{
"id": 0,
"method": "item/fileChange/requestApproval",
"params": {
"grantRoot": null,
"itemId": "call_Nxnwj7B3YXigfV6Mwh03d686",
"reason": null,
"threadId": "019a9e11-8295-7883-a283-779e06502c6f",
"turnId": "1"
}
}
```
```
{
"id": 0,
"result": {
"decision": "accept"
}
}
```
```
{
"method": "item/completed",
"params": {
"item": {
"changes": [
{
"diff": "Hello from Codex!\n",
"kind": "add",
"path": "/Users/owen/repos/codex/codex-rs/APPROVAL_DEMO.txt"
}
],
"id": "call_Nxnwj7B3YXigfV6Mwh03d686",
"status": "completed",
"type": "fileChange"
}
}
}
```
Adds a 1-per-turn todo-list item and item.updated event
```jsonl
{"type":"item.started","item":{"id":"item_6","item_type":"todo_list","items":[{"text":"Record initial two-step plan now","completed":false},{"text":"Update progress to next step","completed":false}]}}
{"type":"item.updated","item":{"id":"item_6","item_type":"todo_list","items":[{"text":"Record initial two-step plan now","completed":true},{"text":"Update progress to next step","completed":false}]}}
{"type":"item.completed","item":{"id":"item_6","item_type":"todo_list","items":[{"text":"Record initial two-step plan now","completed":true},{"text":"Update progress to next step","completed":false}]}}
```
Adds a new `item.started` event to `codex exec` and implements it for
command_execution item type.
```jsonl
{"type":"session.created","session_id":"019982d1-75f0-7920-b051-e0d3731a5ed8"}
{"type":"item.completed","item":{"id":"item_0","item_type":"reasoning","text":"**Executing commands securely**\n\nI'm thinking about how the default harness typically uses \"bash -lc,\" while historically \"bash\" is what we've been using. The command should be executed as a string in our CLI, so using \"bash -lc 'echo hello'\" is optimal but calling \"echo hello\" directly feels safer. The sandbox makes sure environment variables like CODEX_SANDBOX_NETWORK_DISABLED=1 are set, so I won't ask for approval. I just need to run \"echo hello\" and correctly present the output."}}
{"type":"item.completed","item":{"id":"item_1","item_type":"reasoning","text":"**Preparing for tool calls**\n\nI realize that I need to include a preamble before making any tool calls. So, I'll first state the preamble in the commentary channel, then proceed with the tool call. After that, I need to present the final message along with the output. It's possible that the CLI will show the output inline, but I must ensure that I present the result clearly regardless. Let's move forward and get this organized!"}}
{"type":"item.completed","item":{"id":"item_2","item_type":"assistant_message","text":"Running `echo` to confirm shell access and print output."}}
{"type":"item.started","item":{"id":"item_3","item_type":"command_execution","command":"bash -lc echo hello","aggregated_output":"","exit_code":null,"status":"in_progress"}}
{"type":"item.completed","item":{"id":"item_3","item_type":"command_execution","command":"bash -lc echo hello","aggregated_output":"hello\n","exit_code":0,"status":"completed"}}
{"type":"item.completed","item":{"id":"item_4","item_type":"assistant_message","text":"hello"}}
```
This pull request add a new experimental format of JSON output.
You can try it using `codex exec --experimental-json`.
Design takes a lot of inspiration from Responses API items and stream
format.
# Session and items
Each invocation of `codex exec` starts or resumes a session.
Session contains multiple high-level item types:
1. Assistant message
2. Assistant thinking
3. Command execution
4. File changes
5. To-do lists
6. etc.
# Events
Session and items are going through their life cycles which is
represented by events.
Session is `session.created` or `session.resumed`
Items are `item.added`, `item.updated`, `item.completed`,
`item.require_approval` (or other item types like `item.output_delta`
when we need streaming).
So a typical session can look like:
<details>
```
{
"type": "session.created",
"session_id": "01997dac-9581-7de3-b6a0-1df8256f2752"
}
{
"type": "item.completed",
"item": {
"id": "itm_0",
"item_type": "assistant_message",
"text": "I’ll locate the top-level README and remove its first line. Then I’ll show a quick summary of what changed."
}
}
{
"type": "item.completed",
"item": {
"id": "itm_1",
"item_type": "command_execution",
"command": "bash -lc ls -la | sed -n '1,200p'",
"aggregated_output": "pyenv: cannot rehash: /Users/pakrym/.pyenv/shims isn't writable\ntotal 192\ndrwxr-xr-x@ 33 pakrym staff 1056 Sep 24 14:36 .\ndrwxr-xr-x 41 pakrym staff 1312 Sep 24 09:17 ..\n-rw-r--r--@ 1 pakrym staff 6 Jul 9 16:16 .codespellignore\n-rw-r--r--@ 1 pakrym staff 258 Aug 13 09:40 .codespellrc\ndrwxr-xr-x@ 5 pakrym staff 160 Jul 23 08:26 .devcontainer\n-rw-r--r--@ 1 pakrym staff 6148 Jul 22 10:03 .DS_Store\ndrwxr-xr-x@ 15 pakrym staff 480 Sep 24 14:38 .git\ndrwxr-xr-x@ 12 pakrym staff 384 Sep 2 16:00 .github\n-rw-r--r--@ 1 pakrym staff 778 Jul 9 16:16 .gitignore\ndrwxr-xr-x@ 3 pakrym staff 96 Aug 11 09:37 .husky\n-rw-r--r--@ 1 pakrym staff 104 Jul 9 16:16 .npmrc\n-rw-r--r--@ 1 pakrym staff 96 Sep 2 08:52 .prettierignore\n-rw-r--r--@ 1 pakrym staff 170 Jul 9 16:16 .prettierrc.toml\ndrwxr-xr-x@ 5 pakrym staff 160 Sep 14 17:43 .vscode\ndrwxr-xr-x@ 2 pakrym staff 64 Sep 11 11:37 2025-09-11\n-rw-r--r--@ 1 pakrym staff 5505 Sep 18 09:28 AGENTS.md\n-rw-r--r--@ 1 pakrym staff 92 Sep 2 08:52 CHANGELOG.md\n-rw-r--r--@ 1 pakrym staff 1145 Jul 9 16:16 cliff.toml\ndrwxr-xr-x@ 11 pakrym staff 352 Sep 24 13:03 codex-cli\ndrwxr-xr-x@ 38 pakrym staff 1216 Sep 24 14:38 codex-rs\ndrwxr-xr-x@ 18 pakrym staff 576 Sep 23 11:01 docs\n-rw-r--r--@ 1 pakrym staff 2038 Jul 9 16:16 flake.lock\n-rw-r--r--@ 1 pakrym staff 1434 Jul 9 16:16 flake.nix\n-rw-r--r--@ 1 pakrym staff 10926 Jul 9 16:16 LICENSE\ndrwxr-xr-x@ 465 pakrym staff 14880 Jul 15 07:36 node_modules\n-rw-r--r--@ 1 pakrym staff 242 Aug 5 08:25 NOTICE\n-rw-r--r--@ 1 pakrym staff 578 Aug 14 12:31 package.json\n-rw-r--r--@ 1 pakrym staff 498 Aug 11 09:37 pnpm-lock.yaml\n-rw-r--r--@ 1 pakrym staff 58 Aug 11 09:37 pnpm-workspace.yaml\n-rw-r--r--@ 1 pakrym staff 2402 Jul 9 16:16 PNPM.md\n-rw-r--r--@ 1 pakrym staff 4393 Sep 12 14:36 README.md\ndrwxr-xr-x@ 4 pakrym staff 128 Sep 18 09:28 scripts\ndrwxr-xr-x@ 2 pakrym staff 64 Sep 11 11:34 tmp\n",
"exit_code": 0,
"status": "completed"
}
}
{
"type": "item.completed",
"item": {
"id": "itm_2",
"item_type": "reasoning",
"text": "**Reviewing README.md file**\n\nI've located the README.md file at the root, and it’s 4393 bytes. Now, I need to remove the first line, but first, I should check its content to make sure I’m patching it correctly. I’ll use sed to display the first 20 lines. By reviewing those lines, I can determine exactly what needs to be removed before I proceed with the editing. Let's do this carefully!"
}
}
{
"type": "item.completed",
"item": {
"id": "itm_3",
"item_type": "command_execution",
"command": "bash -lc sed -n '1,40p' README.md",
"aggregated_output": "<h1 align=\"center\">OpenAI Codex CLI</h1>\n\n<p align=\"center\"><code>npm i -g @openai/codex</code><br />or <code>brew install codex</code></p>\n\n<p align=\"center\"><strong>Codex CLI</strong> is a coding agent from OpenAI that runs locally on your computer.\n</br>\n</br>If you want Codex in your code editor (VS Code, Cursor, Windsurf), <a href=\"https://developers.openai.com/codex/ide\">install in your IDE</a>\n</br>If you are looking for the <em>cloud-based agent</em> from OpenAI, <strong>Codex Web</strong>, go to <a href=\"https://chatgpt.com/codex\">chatgpt.com/codex</a></p>\n\n<p align=\"center\">\n <img src=\"./.github/codex-cli-splash.png\" alt=\"Codex CLI splash\" width=\"80%\" />\n </p>\n\n---\n\n## Quickstart\n\n### Installing and running Codex CLI\n\nInstall globally with your preferred package manager. If you use npm:\n\n```shell\nnpm install -g @openai/codex\n```\n\nAlternatively, if you use Homebrew:\n\n```shell\nbrew install codex\n```\n\nThen simply run `codex` to get started:\n\n```shell\ncodex\n```\n\n<details>\n<summary>You can also go to the <a href=\"https://github.com/openai/codex/releases/latest\">latest GitHub Release</a> and download the appropriate binary for your platform.</summary>\n\n",
"exit_code": 0,
"status": "completed"
}
}
{
"type": "item.completed",
"item": {
"id": "itm_4",
"item_type": "reasoning",
"text": "**Updating README file**\n\nThe user wants to update the README by removing the first line, which is an HTML h1 tag. I'll proceed to delete that line while keeping the rest intact. To do this, I need to use the apply_patch tool and create a patch in the diff format. I’ll take care to include context lines around the change. After removing the header, I’m considering whether to delete the following blank line as well to keep it tidy."
}
}
{
"type": "item.completed",
"item": {
"id": "itm_5",
"item_type": "reasoning",
"text": "**Crafting the patch**\n\nThe user has asked to remove just the first line, without mentioning the blank lines. Technically, leaving a blank line at the start is acceptable, but it's not ideal. Ideally, I'd prefer to remove the first line while maintaining the subsequent blank line. However, if I can also remove that blank line, it could tidy things up even more. Still, since the user's request is strictly to remove only the first line, I'll stick to that and craft the patch accordingly."
}
}
{
"type": "item.completed",
"item": {
"id": "itm_6",
"item_type": "assistant_message",
"text": "Applying the change by removing the first line from `README.md`."
}
}
{
"type": "item.completed",
"item": {
"id": "itm_7",
"item_type": "file_change",
"changes": [
{
"path": "/Users/pakrym/code/codex/README.md",
"kind": "update"
}
],
"status": "completed"
}
}
{
"type": "item.completed",
"item": {
"id": "itm_8",
"item_type": "reasoning",
"text": "**Validating README Update**\n\nI updated the README.md and now I need to validate that the first line has been successfully removed. To do this, I'll check the first 10 lines of the document to ensure everything looks correct. It’s always good to double-check these kinds of changes, so I’m going to take that extra step to make sure the update was executed properly. Let's see what those initial lines say!"
}
}
{
"type": "item.completed",
"item": {
"id": "itm_9",
"item_type": "command_execution",
"command": "bash -lc sed -n '1,20p' README.md",
"aggregated_output": "\n<p align=\"center\"><code>npm i -g @openai/codex</code><br />or <code>brew install codex</code></p>\n\n<p align=\"center\"><strong>Codex CLI</strong> is a coding agent from OpenAI that runs locally on your computer.\n</br>\n</br>If you want Codex in your code editor (VS Code, Cursor, Windsurf), <a href=\"https://developers.openai.com/codex/ide\">install in your IDE</a>\n</br>If you are looking for the <em>cloud-based agent</em> from OpenAI, <strong>Codex Web</strong>, go to <a href=\"https://chatgpt.com/codex\">chatgpt.com/codex</a></p>\n\n<p align=\"center\">\n <img src=\"./.github/codex-cli-splash.png\" alt=\"Codex CLI splash\" width=\"80%\" />\n </p>\n\n---\n\n## Quickstart\n\n### Installing and running Codex CLI\n\nInstall globally with your preferred package manager. If you use npm:\n\n",
"exit_code": 0,
"status": "completed"
}
}
{
"type": "item.completed",
"item": {
"id": "itm_10",
"item_type": "assistant_message",
"text": "- Updated `README.md:1` by removing the opening H1 line.\n- The README now starts with the install instructions paragraph.\n\nWant me to also remove the leading blank line at the top?"
}
}
```
</details>
The idea is to give users fully formatted items they can use directly in
their rendering/application logic and avoid having them building up
items manually based on events (unless they want to for streaming).
This PR implements only the `item.completed` payload for some event
types, more event types and item types to come.
---------
Co-authored-by: Michael Bolin <mbolin@openai.com>
Michael Bolin ·
sayan-oai ·
jif-oai ·
Owen Lin ·
pakrym-oai ·
Ahmed Ibrahim ·