## 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>
## Description
This PR expands tracing coverage across app-server thread startup, core
session initialization, and the Responses transport layer. It also gives
core dispatch spans stable operation-specific names so traces are easier
to follow than the old generic `submission_dispatch` spans.
Also use `fmt::Display` for types that we serialize in traces so we send
strings instead of rust types
This PR is part of the effort to move the TUI on top of the app server.
In a previous PR, we introduced an in-process app server and moved
`exec` on top of it.
For the TUI, we want to do the migration in stages. The app server
doesn't currently expose all of the functionality required by the TUI,
so we're going to need to support a hybrid approach as we make the
transition.
This PR changes the TUI initialization to instantiate an in-process app
server and access its `AuthManager` and `ThreadManager` rather than
constructing its own copies. It also adds a placeholder TUI event
handler that will eventually translate app server events into TUI
events. App server notifications are accepted but ignored for now. It
also adds proper shutdown of the app server when the TUI terminates.
This makes the test less flaky by checking the core invariant instead of
the full span chain.
Before, the test waited for several specific internal spans
(`submission_dispatch`, `session_task.turn`, `run_turn`) and asserted
their exact relationships. That was brittle because those spans are
exported asynchronously and are more of an implementation detail than
the thing we actually care about.
Now, the test only checks that:
- `turn/start` is on the expected remote trace with the expected remote
parent
- at least one representative core turn span on that same trace descends
from it
That keeps the sanity-check we want while making the test less sensitive
to timing and internal refactors.
## Summary
This PR keeps app-server RPC request trace context alive for the full
lifetime of the work that request kicks off (e.g. for `thread/start`,
this is `app-server rpc handler -> tokio background task -> core op
submissions`). Previously we lose trace lineage once the request handler
returns or hands work off to background tasks.
This approach is especially relevant for `thread/start` and other RPC
handlers that run in a non-blocking way. In the near future we'll most
likely want to make all app-server handlers run in a non-blocking way by
default, and only queue operations that must operate in order (e.g.
thread RPCs per thread?), so we want to make sure tracing in app-server
just generally works.
Depends on https://github.com/openai/codex/pull/14300
**Before**
<img width="155" height="207" alt="image"
src="https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/c9487459-36f1-436c-beb7-fafeb40737af"
/>
**After**
<img width="299" height="337" alt="image"
src="https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/727392b2-d072-4427-9dc4-0502d8652dea"
/>
## What changed
- Keep request-scoped trace context around until we send the final
response or error, or the connection closes.
- Thread that trace context through detached `thread/start` work so
background startup stays attached to the originating request.
- Pass request trace context through to downstream core operations,
including:
- thread creation
- resume/fork flows
- turn submission
- review
- interrupt
- realtime conversation operations
- Add tracing tests that verify:
- remote W3C trace context is preserved for `thread/start`
- remote W3C trace context is preserved for `turn/start`
- downstream core spans stay under the originating request span
- request-scoped tracing state is cleaned up correctly
- Clean up shutdown behavior so detached background tasks and spawned
threads are drained before process exit.
Charley Cunningham ·
Owen Lin ·
Eric Traut ·