## Why
Users have been seeing opaque Windows sandbox setup refresh failures
such as `windows sandbox: spawn setup refresh`, including reports in
#24391 and #21208. The setup refresh path already runs the Windows
sandbox setup helper, but it was not using the same structured
`setup_error.json` reporting path that elevated setup uses. As a result,
when the helper exited non-zero, Codex only surfaced a generic refresh
status instead of the helper's `SetupFailure` code and message.
## What changed
- Clear stale `setup_error.json` before non-elevated setup refresh
launches the helper.
- When the refresh helper exits non-zero, read the helper-written report
through the existing `report_helper_failure` path.
- Keep a parent-side launch diagnostic for cases where the helper never
starts, including the helper path, cwd, sandbox log path, and spawn
error.
- Clear the setup error report after a successful refresh.
- Add regression coverage for report consumption and stale-report
avoidance.
## Verification
- `cargo test -p codex-windows-sandbox setup::tests::`
# Why
When an organization requires the elevated Windows sandbox, Codex
launches an elevated helper to provision users, configure firewall and
ACL rules, and lock persistent sandbox directories.
We observed that closing the helper after setup started could leave the
machine partially initialized while the TUI still announced **Sandbox
ready**. Model-only turns continued to work, but the first shell command
retried setup and failed with Windows cancellation error `1223`.
This was not an enforcement bypass; command execution continued to fail
closed. The issue was a false readiness signal: `setup_marker.json` was
written during user provisioning, before the remaining setup stages had
completed.
# What
Treat `setup_marker.json` as the commit record for Windows sandbox
setup:
1. Before full or provisioning setup begins, remove the existing marker
and create the final marker path with a protected ACL.
2. Keep the marker empty and therefore invalid while setup is in
progress. Sandbox users cannot read, modify, or replace it.
3. Run every synchronous setup stage.
4. After setup succeeds, write the valid marker contents without
changing its ACL.
5. After the helper exits successfully, verify the existing readiness
check before enabling the sandbox.
If setup is canceled or fails, the marker remains invalid and Codex
reports setup as incomplete instead of announcing readiness.
Refresh-only and read-ACL-only helper runs continue to leave the marker
untouched. The setup version remains `5` to avoid forcing all existing
Windows users through elevated setup again.
# Verification
- Added coverage confirming sandbox users cannot read or modify the
setup marker after elevated setup.
- Added coverage confirming a successful helper exit without complete
setup artifacts is rejected.
- Ran `just test -p codex-windows-sandbox`.
## Why
Some Windows users do not have local admin access, so they cannot
complete the elevated portion of the Windows sandbox setup when Codex
first needs it. This adds an alpha provisioning path that an admin or IT
deployment script can run ahead of time for the Codex user.
The intended managed-deployment shape is:
```powershell
codex sandbox setup --elevated --user "$env:COMPUTERNAME\Alice" --codex-home "C:\Users\Alice\.codex"
```
`--elevated` is treated as the requested sandbox setup level, not as
proof that the process is elevated. The Windows sandbox setup
orchestration still checks that the caller is actually elevated before
launching the helper without a UAC prompt.
## What changed
- Added `codex sandbox setup --elevated` with explicit user selection
via either `--current-user` or `--user ... --codex-home ...`.
- Moved the CLI implementation into `cli/src/sandbox_setup.rs` instead
of growing `cli/src/main.rs`.
- Added a Windows sandbox `ProvisionOnly` helper mode that runs the
elevation-required provisioning work without requiring a workspace cwd
or runtime sandbox policy.
- Reused the existing elevated helper path for creating/updating sandbox
users, configuring firewall/WFP rules, and applying sandbox directory
ACLs.
- Persisted `windows.sandbox = "elevated"` into the target `CODEX_HOME`
so the desktop app does not show the initial sandbox setup banner after
pre-provisioning succeeds.
## Validation
- `cargo fmt -p codex-windows-sandbox -p codex-core -p codex-cli`
- `cargo test -p codex-cli sandbox_setup --target-dir
target\sandbox-setup-check`
- `cargo test -p codex-windows-sandbox
payload_accepts_provision_only_mode --target-dir
target\sandbox-setup-check`
- `git diff --check`
- Manual Windows alpha flow with a standard local user (`Mandi Lavida`):
ran the new setup command from an admin shell, verified the target
`.codex` contents, sandbox marker/secrets, ACLs, firewall rules, and
desktop startup without the sandbox setup banner once experimental
network proxy requirements were disabled.
## Notes
This intentionally does not solve later elevated update coordination for
IT-managed deployments. The setup command can still apply provisioning
updates when run again, but a broader coordination/process story is out
of scope for this alpha.
## Why
Elevated Windows sandbox setup currently assumes that the firewall rules
it writes will take effect. On managed Windows hosts, local firewall
policy changes can be ignored or only partially apply across the active
profiles, which means setup can appear to succeed without providing the
expected network isolation.
## What changed
- Query `INetFwPolicy2::LocalPolicyModifyState` before configuring the
elevated sandbox firewall rules.
- Fail setup when Windows reports that local firewall policy edits are
ineffective or only apply to some current profiles.
- Surface that condition with a dedicated
`helper_firewall_policy_ineffective` setup error code so support and
IT-facing diagnostics can distinguish it from COM access failures.
- Add focused coverage for effective policy, group-policy override, and
partial-profile coverage cases.
## Testing
- `cargo test -p codex-windows-sandbox --bin
codex-windows-sandbox-setup`
## Why
`codex-utils-pty` and `codex-windows-sandbox` were the remaining crates
in `codex-rs` that still overrode the workspace's Rust 2024 edition.
Moving them forward in a separate PR keeps the baseline edition update
isolated from the follow-on Bazel clippy workflow in #15955, while
making linting and formatting behavior consistent with the rest of the
workspace.
This PR also needs Cargo and Bazel to agree on the edition for
`codex-windows-sandbox`. Without the Bazel-side sync, the experimental
Bazel app-server builds fail once they compile `windows-sandbox-rs`.
## What changed
- switch `codex-rs/utils/pty` and `codex-rs/windows-sandbox-rs` to
`edition = "2024"`
- update `codex-utils-pty` callsites and tests to use the collapsed `if
let` form that Clippy expects under the new edition
- fix the Rust 2024 fallout in `windows-sandbox-rs`, including the
reserved `gen` identifier, `unsafe extern` requirements, and new Clippy
findings that surfaced under the edition bump
- keep the edition bump separate from a larger unsafe cleanup by
temporarily allowing `unsafe_op_in_unsafe_fn` in the Windows entrypoint
modules that now report it under Rust 2024
- update `codex-rs/windows-sandbox-rs/BUILD.bazel` to `crate_edition =
"2024"` so Bazel compiles the crate with the same edition as Cargo
---
[//]: # (BEGIN SAPLING FOOTER)
Stack created with [Sapling](https://sapling-scm.com). Best reviewed
with [ReviewStack](https://reviewstack.dev/openai/codex/pull/15954).
* #15976
* #15955
* __->__ #15954
calculated a hashed user ID from either auth user id or API key
Also correctly populates OS.
These will make our metrics more useful and powerful for analysis.
iceweasel-oai ·
Abhinav ·
Michael Bolin ·