## Summary
- add `approvals_reviewer = "user" | "guardian_subagent"` as the runtime
control for who reviews approval requests
- route Smart Approvals guardian review through core for command
execution, file changes, managed-network approvals, MCP approvals, and
delegated/subagent approval flows
- expose guardian review in app-server with temporary unstable
`item/autoApprovalReview/{started,completed}` notifications carrying
`targetItemId`, `review`, and `action`
- update the TUI so Smart Approvals can be enabled from `/experimental`,
aligned with the matching `/approvals` mode, and surfaced clearly while
reviews are pending or resolved
## Runtime model
This PR does not introduce a new `approval_policy`.
Instead:
- `approval_policy` still controls when approval is needed
- `approvals_reviewer` controls who reviewable approval requests are
routed to:
- `user`
- `guardian_subagent`
`guardian_subagent` is a carefully prompted reviewer subagent that
gathers relevant context and applies a risk-based decision framework
before approving or denying the request.
The `smart_approvals` feature flag is a rollout/UI gate. Core runtime
behavior keys off `approvals_reviewer`.
When Smart Approvals is enabled from the TUI, it also switches the
current `/approvals` settings to the matching Smart Approvals mode so
users immediately see guardian review in the active thread:
- `approval_policy = on-request`
- `approvals_reviewer = guardian_subagent`
- `sandbox_mode = workspace-write`
Users can still change `/approvals` afterward.
Config-load behavior stays intentionally narrow:
- plain `smart_approvals = true` in `config.toml` remains just the
rollout/UI gate and does not auto-set `approvals_reviewer`
- the deprecated `guardian_approval = true` alias migration does
backfill `approvals_reviewer = "guardian_subagent"` in the same scope
when that reviewer is not already configured there, so old configs
preserve their original guardian-enabled behavior
ARC remains a separate safety check. For MCP tool approvals, ARC
escalations now flow into the configured reviewer instead of always
bypassing guardian and forcing manual review.
## Config stability
The runtime reviewer override is stable, but the config-backed
app-server protocol shape is still settling.
- `thread/start`, `thread/resume`, and `turn/start` keep stable
`approvalsReviewer` overrides
- the config-backed `approvals_reviewer` exposure returned via
`config/read` (including profile-level config) is now marked
`[UNSTABLE]` / experimental in the app-server protocol until we are more
confident in that config surface
## App-server surface
This PR intentionally keeps the guardian app-server shape narrow and
temporary.
It adds generic unstable lifecycle notifications:
- `item/autoApprovalReview/started`
- `item/autoApprovalReview/completed`
with payloads of the form:
- `{ threadId, turnId, targetItemId, review, action? }`
`review` is currently:
- `{ status, riskScore?, riskLevel?, rationale? }`
- where `status` is one of `inProgress`, `approved`, `denied`, or
`aborted`
`action` carries the guardian action summary payload from core when
available. This lets clients render temporary standalone pending-review
UI, including parallel reviews, even when the underlying tool item has
not been emitted yet.
These notifications are explicitly documented as `[UNSTABLE]` and
expected to change soon.
This PR does **not** persist guardian review state onto `thread/read`
tool items. The intended follow-up is to attach guardian review state to
the reviewed tool item lifecycle instead, which would improve
consistency with manual approvals and allow thread history / reconnect
flows to replay guardian review state directly.
## TUI behavior
- `/experimental` exposes the rollout gate as `Smart Approvals`
- enabling it in the TUI enables the feature and switches the current
session to the matching Smart Approvals `/approvals` mode
- disabling it in the TUI clears the persisted `approvals_reviewer`
override when appropriate and returns the session to default manual
review when the effective reviewer changes
- `/approvals` still exposes the reviewer choice directly
- the TUI renders:
- pending guardian review state in the live status footer, including
parallel review aggregation
- resolved approval/denial state in history
## Scope notes
This PR includes the supporting core/runtime work needed to make Smart
Approvals usable end-to-end:
- shell / unified-exec / apply_patch / managed-network / MCP guardian
review
- delegated/subagent approval routing into guardian review
- guardian review risk metadata and action summaries for app-server/TUI
- config/profile/TUI handling for `smart_approvals`, `guardian_approval`
alias migration, and `approvals_reviewer`
- a small internal cleanup of delegated approval forwarding to dedupe
fallback paths and simplify guardian-vs-parent approval waiting (no
intended behavior change)
Out of scope for this PR:
- redesigning the existing manual approval protocol shapes
- persisting guardian review state onto app-server `ThreadItem`s
- delegated MCP elicitation auto-review (the current delegated MCP
guardian shim only covers the legacy `RequestUserInput` path)
---------
Co-authored-by: Codex <noreply@openai.com>
## What changed
- add a bounded `resume_until_initial_messages` helper in
`core/tests/suite/resume.rs`
- retry the resume call until `initial_messages` contains the fully
persisted final turn shape before asserting
## Why this fixes flakiness
The old test resumed once immediately after `TurnComplete` and sometimes
read rollout state before the final turn had been persisted. That made
the assertion race persistence timing instead of checking the resumed
message shape. The new helper polls for up to two seconds in 10ms steps
and only asserts once the expected message sequence is actually present,
so the test waits for the real readiness condition instead of depending
on a lucky timing window.
## Scope
- test-only
- no production logic change
- add a local Fast mode setting in codex-core (similar to how model id
is currently stored on disk locally)
- send `service_tier=priority` on requests when Fast is enabled
- add `/fast` in the TUI and persist it locally
- feature flag
## Why
`codex-rs/core/src/lib.rs` re-exported a broad set of types and modules
from `codex-protocol` and `codex-shell-command`. That made it easy for
workspace crates to import those APIs through `codex-core`, which in
turn hides dependency edges and makes it harder to reduce compile-time
coupling over time.
This change removes those public re-exports so call sites must import
from the source crates directly. Even when a crate still depends on
`codex-core` today, this makes dependency boundaries explicit and
unblocks future work to drop `codex-core` dependencies where possible.
## What Changed
- Removed public re-exports from `codex-rs/core/src/lib.rs` for:
- `codex_protocol::protocol` and related protocol/model types (including
`InitialHistory`)
- `codex_protocol::config_types` (`protocol_config_types`)
- `codex_shell_command::{bash, is_dangerous_command, is_safe_command,
parse_command, powershell}`
- Migrated workspace Rust call sites to import directly from:
- `codex_protocol::protocol`
- `codex_protocol::config_types`
- `codex_protocol::models`
- `codex_shell_command`
- Added explicit `Cargo.toml` dependencies (`codex-protocol` /
`codex-shell-command`) in crates that now import those crates directly.
- Kept `codex-core` internal modules compiling by using `pub(crate)`
aliases in `core/src/lib.rs` (internal-only, not part of the public
API).
- Updated the two utility crates that can already drop a `codex-core`
dependency edge entirely:
- `codex-utils-approval-presets`
- `codex-utils-cli`
## Verification
- `cargo test -p codex-utils-approval-presets`
- `cargo test -p codex-utils-cli`
- `cargo check --workspace --all-targets`
- `just clippy`
Problem:
1. turn id is constructed in-memory;
2. on resuming threads, turn_id might not be unique;
3. client cannot no the boundary of a turn from rollout files easily.
This PR does three things:
1. persist `task_started` and `task_complete` events;
1. persist `turn_id` in rollout turn events;
5. generate turn_id as unique uuids instead of incrementing it in
memory.
This helps us resolve the issue of clients wanting to have unique turn
ids for resuming a thread, and knowing the boundry of each turn in
rollout files.
example debug logs
```
2026-02-11T00:32:10.746876Z DEBUG codex_app_server_protocol::protocol::thread_history: built turn from rollout items turn_index=8 turn=Turn { id: "019c4a07-d809-74c3-bc4b-fd9618487b4b", items: [UserMessage { id: "item-24", content: [Text { text: "hi", text_elements: [] }] }, AgentMessage { id: "item-25", text: "Hi. I’m in the workspace with your current changes loaded and ready. Send the next task and I’ll execute it end-to-end." }], status: Completed, error: None }
2026-02-11T00:32:10.746888Z DEBUG codex_app_server_protocol::protocol::thread_history: built turn from rollout items turn_index=9 turn=Turn { id: "019c4a18-1004-76c0-a0fb-a77610f6a9b8", items: [UserMessage { id: "item-26", content: [Text { text: "hello", text_elements: [] }] }, AgentMessage { id: "item-27", text: "Hello. Ready for the next change in `codex-rs`; I can continue from the current in-progress diff or start a new task." }], status: Completed, error: None }
2026-02-11T00:32:10.746899Z DEBUG codex_app_server_protocol::protocol::thread_history: built turn from rollout items turn_index=10 turn=Turn { id: "019c4a19-41f0-7db0-ad78-74f1503baeb8", items: [UserMessage { id: "item-28", content: [Text { text: "hello", text_elements: [] }] }, AgentMessage { id: "item-29", text: "Hello. Send the specific change you want in `codex-rs`, and I’ll implement it and run the required checks." }], status: Completed, error: None }
```
backward compatibility:
if you try to resume an old session without task_started and
task_complete event populated, the following happens:
- If you resume and do nothing: those reconstructed historical IDs can
differ next time you resume.
- If you resume and send a new turn: the new turn gets a fresh UUID from
live submission flow and is persisted, so that new turn’s ID is stable
on later resumes.
I think this behavior is fine, because we only care about deterministic
turn id once a turn is triggered.
## Summary
When resuming with a different model, we should also append a developer
message with the model instructions
## Testing
- [x] Added unit tests
## Summary
- Make `TextElement` placeholders private and add a text-backed accessor
to avoid assuming `Some`.
- Since they are optional in the protocol, we want to make sure any
accessors properly handle the None case (getting the placeholder using
the byte range in the text)
- Preserve placeholders during protocol/app-server conversions using the
accessor fallback.
- Update TUI composer/remap logic and tests to use the new
constructor/accessor.
## Summary
This PR consolidates base_instructions onto SessionMeta /
SessionConfiguration, so we ensure `base_instructions` is set once per
session and should be (mostly) immutable, unless:
- overridden by config on resume / fork
- sub-agent tasks, like review or collab
In a future PR, we should convert all references to `base_instructions`
to consistently used the typed struct, so it's less likely that we put
other strings there. See #9423. However, this PR is already quite
complex, so I'm deferring that to a follow-up.
## Testing
- [x] Added a resume test to assert that instructions are preserved. In
particular, `resume_switches_models_preserves_base_instructions` fails
against main.
Existing test coverage thats assert base instructions are preserved
across multiple requests in a session:
- Manual compact keeps baseline instructions:
core/tests/suite/compact.rs:199
- Auto-compact keeps baseline instructions:
core/tests/suite/compact.rs:1142
- Prompt caching reuses the same instructions across two requests:
core/tests/suite/prompt_caching.rs:150 and
core/tests/suite/prompt_caching.rs:157
- Prompt caching with explicit expected string across two requests:
core/tests/suite/prompt_caching.rs:213 and
core/tests/suite/prompt_caching.rs:222
- Resume with model switch keeps original instructions:
core/tests/suite/resume.rs:136
- Compact/resume/fork uses request 0 instructions for later expected
payloads: core/tests/suite/compact_resume_fork.rs:215
The second part of breaking up PR
https://github.com/openai/codex/pull/9116
Summary:
- Add `TextElement` / `ByteRange` to protocol user inputs and user
message events with defaults.
- Thread `text_elements` through app-server v1/v2 request handling and
history rebuild.
- Preserve UI metadata only in user input/events (not `ContentItem`)
while keeping local image attachments in user events for rehydration.
Details:
- Protocol: `UserInput::Text` carries `text_elements`;
`UserMessageEvent` carries `text_elements` + `local_images`.
Serialization includes empty vectors for backward compatibility.
- app-server-protocol: v1 defines `V1TextElement` / `V1ByteRange` in
camelCase with conversions; v2 uses its own camelCase wrapper.
- app-server: v1/v2 input mapping includes `text_elements`; thread
history rebuilds include them.
- Core: user event emission preserves UI metadata while model history
stays clean; history replay round-trips the metadata.
What changed
- Added `outputSchema` support to the app-server APIs, mirroring `codex
exec --output-schema` behavior.
- V1 `sendUserTurn` now accepts `outputSchema` and constrains the final
assistant message for that turn.
- V2 `turn/start` now accepts `outputSchema` and constrains the final
assistant message for that turn (explicitly per-turn only).
Core behavior
- `Op::UserTurn` already supported `final_output_json_schema`; now V1
`sendUserTurn` forwards `outputSchema` into that field.
- `Op::UserInput` now carries `final_output_json_schema` for per-turn
settings updates; core maps it into
`SessionSettingsUpdate.final_output_json_schema` so it applies to the
created turn context.
- V2 `turn/start` does NOT persist the schema via `OverrideTurnContext`
(it’s applied only for the current turn). Other overrides
(cwd/model/etc) keep their existing persistent behavior.
API / docs
- `codex-rs/app-server-protocol/src/protocol/v1.rs`: add `output_schema:
Option<serde_json::Value>` to `SendUserTurnParams` (serialized as
`outputSchema`).
- `codex-rs/app-server-protocol/src/protocol/v2.rs`: add `output_schema:
Option<JsonValue>` to `TurnStartParams` (serialized as `outputSchema`).
- `codex-rs/app-server/README.md`: document `outputSchema` for
`turn/start` and clarify it applies only to the current turn.
- `codex-rs/docs/codex_mcp_interface.md`: document `outputSchema` for v1
`sendUserTurn` and v2 `turn/start`.
Tests added/updated
- New app-server integration tests asserting `outputSchema` is forwarded
into outbound `/responses` requests as `text.format`:
- `codex-rs/app-server/tests/suite/output_schema.rs`
- `codex-rs/app-server/tests/suite/v2/output_schema.rs`
- Added per-turn semantics tests (schema does not leak to the next
turn):
- `send_user_turn_output_schema_is_per_turn_v1`
- `turn_start_output_schema_is_per_turn_v2`
- Added protocol wire-compat tests for the merged op:
- serialize omits `final_output_json_schema` when `None`
- deserialize works when field is missing
- serialize includes `final_output_json_schema` when `Some(schema)`
Call site updates (high level)
- Updated all `Op::UserInput { .. }` constructions to include
`final_output_json_schema`:
- `codex-rs/app-server/src/codex_message_processor.rs`
- `codex-rs/core/src/codex_delegate.rs`
- `codex-rs/mcp-server/src/codex_tool_runner.rs`
- `codex-rs/tui/src/chatwidget.rs`
- `codex-rs/tui2/src/chatwidget.rs`
- plus impacted core tests.
Validation
- `just fmt`
- `cargo test -p codex-core`
- `cargo test -p codex-app-server`
- `cargo test -p codex-mcp-server`
- `cargo test -p codex-tui`
- `cargo test -p codex-tui2`
- `cargo test -p codex-protocol`
- `cargo clippy --all-features --tests --profile dev --fix -- -D
warnings`
1. Adds AgentMessage, Reasoning, WebSearch items.
2. Switches the ResponseItem parsing to use new items and then also emit
3. Removes user-item kind and filters out "special" (environment) user
items when returning to clients.
Charley Cunningham ·
Ahmed Ibrahim ·
pash-openai ·
Michael Bolin ·
Celia Chen ·
Dylan Hurd ·
jif-oai ·
Anton Panasenko ·
pakrym-oai ·