When `app/list` is called with `force_refetch=True`, we should seed the
results with what is already cached instead of starting from an empty
list. Otherwise when we send app/list/updated events, the client will
first see an empty list of accessible apps and then get the updated one.
There are two concepts of apps that we load in the harness:
- Directory apps, which is all the apps that the user can install.
- Accessible apps, which is what the user actually installed and can be
$ inserted and be used by the model. These are extracted from the tools
that are loaded through the gateway MCP.
Previously we wait for both sets of apps before returning the full apps
list. Which causes many issues because accessible apps won't be
available to the UI or the model if directory apps aren't loaded or
failed to load.
In this PR we are separating them so that accessible apps can be loaded
separately and are instantly available to be shown in the UI and to be
provided in model context. We also added an app-server event so that
clients can subscribe to also get accessible apps without being blocked
on the full app list.
- [x] Separate accessible apps and directory apps loading.
- [x] `app/list` request will also emit `app/list/updated` notifications
that app-server clients can subscribe. Which allows clients to get
accessible apps list to render in the $ menu without being blocked by
directory apps.
- [x] Cache both accessible and directory apps with 1 hour TTL to avoid
reloading them when creating new threads.
- [x] TUI improvements to redraw $ menu and /apps menu when app list is
updated.
MCP actions take a long time to load for users with lots of apps
installed. Adding a cache for these actions with 1hr expiration, given
that they are almost always aren't going to change unless people install
another app, which means they also need to restart codex to pick it up.
Make Apps Gateway MCP blocking since otherwise app mentions may not work
when apps are not loaded. Messages sent before apps become available
will be queued.
This only affects when `apps` feature is enabled.
- [x] Support `/apps` slash command to browse the apps in tui.
- [x] Support inserting apps to prompt using `$`.
- [x] Lots of simplification/renaming from connectors to apps.
### Motivation
- The large ASCII welcome animation can push onboarding content below
the fold on default-height terminals, making the CLI appear
unresponsive; raising the breakpoint prevents that.
- The existing test measured an arbitrary row count rather than
asserting the welcome line position relative to the animation frame,
which made the intent unclear.
### Description
- Increase `MIN_ANIMATION_HEIGHT` from `20` to `37` in
`codex-rs/tui/src/onboarding/welcome.rs` so the animation is skipped
unless there is enough vertical space.
- Replace the brittle measurement logic in the welcome render test with
a `row_containing` helper and assert the welcome row equals the frame
height plus the spacer line (`frame_lines + 1`).
- Add a regression test
`welcome_skips_animation_below_height_breakpoint` that verifies the
animation is not rendered when the viewport height is one row below the
breakpoint.
### Testing
- Ran formatting with `~/.cargo/bin/just fmt` which completed
successfully.
- Ran unit tests for the crate with `cargo test -p codex-tui --lib` and
they passed (unit test suite succeeded).
- Ran `cargo test -p codex-tui` which reported a failing integration
test in this environment because the test cannot locate the `codex`
binary, so full crate tests are blocked here (environment limitation).
------
[Codex
Task](https://chatgpt.com/codex/tasks/task_i_6973b0a710d4832c9ff36fac26eb1519)
In order to make Codex work with connectors, we add a built-in gateway
MCP that acts as a transparent proxy between the client and the
connectors. The gateway MCP collects actions that are accessible to the
user and sends them down to the user, when a connector action is chosen
to be called, the client invokes the action through the gateway MCP as
well.
- [x] Add the system built-in gateway MCP to list and run connectors.
- [x] Add the app server methods and protocol
We've seen reports that people who try to login on a remote/headless
machine will open the login link on their own machine and got errors.
Update the instructions to ask those users to use `codex login
--device-auth` instead.
<img width="1434" height="938" alt="CleanShot 2026-01-05 at 11 35 02@2x"
src="https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/2b209953-6a42-4eb0-8b55-bb0733f2e373"
/>
Matthew ZengandGitHub