Files
codex/codex-rs
T
Michael Bolin 59398125f6 feat: zsh-fork forces scripts/**/* for skills to trigger a prompt (#12730)
Direct skill-script matches force `Decision::Prompt`, so skill-backed
scripts require explicit approval before they run. (Note "allow for
session" is not supported in this PR, but will be done in a follow-up.)

In the process of implementing this, I fixed an important bug:
`ShellZshFork` is supposed to keep ordinary allowed execs on the
client-side `Run` path so later `execve()` calls are still intercepted
and reviewed. After the shell-escalation port, `Decision::Allow` still
mapped to `Escalate`, which moved `zsh` to server-side execution too
early. That broke the intended flow for skill-backed scripts and made
the approval prompt depend on the wrong execution path.

## What changed
- In `codex-rs/core/src/tools/runtimes/shell/unix_escalation.rs`,
`Decision::Allow` now returns `Run` unless escalation is actually
required.
- Removed the zsh-specific `argv[0]` fallback. With the `Allow -> Run`
fix in place, zsh's later `execve()` of the script is intercepted
normally, so the skill match happens on the script path itself.
- Kept the skill-path handling in `determine_action()` focused on the
direct `program` match path.

## Verification
- Updated `shell_zsh_fork_prompts_for_skill_script_execution` in
`codex-rs/core/tests/suite/skill_approval.rs` (gated behind `cfg(unix)`)
to:
- run under `SandboxPolicy::new_workspace_write_policy()` instead of
`DangerFullAccess`
  - assert the approval command contains only the script path
- assert the approved run returns both stdout and stderr markers in the
shell output
- Ran `cargo test -p codex-core
shell_zsh_fork_prompts_for_skill_script_execution -- --nocapture`

## Manual Testing

Run the dev build:

```
just codex --config zsh_path=/Users/mbolin/code/codex2/codex-rs/app-server/tests/suite/zsh --enable shell_zsh_fork
```

I have created `/Users/mbolin/.agents/skills/mbolin-test-skill` with:

```
├── scripts
│   └── hello-mbolin.sh
└── SKILL.md
```

The skill:

```
---
name: mbolin-test-skill
description: Used to exercise various features of skills.
---

When this skill is invoked, run the `hello-mbolin.sh` script and report the output.
```

The script:

```
set -e

# Note this script will fail if run with network disabled.
curl --location openai.com
```

Use `$mbolin-test-skill` to invoke the skill manually and verify that I
get prompted to run `hello-mbolin.sh`.

---
[//]: # (BEGIN SAPLING FOOTER)
Stack created with [Sapling](https://sapling-scm.com). Best reviewed
with [ReviewStack](https://reviewstack.dev/openai/codex/pull/12730).
* #12750
* __->__ #12730
59398125f6 · 2026-02-24 23:51:26 -08:00
History
..
2026-02-24 08:15:47 -08:00
2026-02-16 14:11:05 +00:00
2026-02-24 13:38:28 -08:00
2026-01-28 17:46:18 +00:00

Codex CLI (Rust Implementation)

We provide Codex CLI as a standalone, native executable to ensure a zero-dependency install.

Installing Codex

Today, the easiest way to install Codex is via npm:

npm i -g @openai/codex
codex

You can also install via Homebrew (brew install --cask codex) or download a platform-specific release directly from our GitHub Releases.

Documentation quickstart

What's new in the Rust CLI

The Rust implementation is now the maintained Codex CLI and serves as the default experience. It includes a number of features that the legacy TypeScript CLI never supported.

Config

Codex supports a rich set of configuration options. Note that the Rust CLI uses config.toml instead of config.json. See docs/config.md for details.

Model Context Protocol Support

MCP client

Codex CLI functions as an MCP client that allows the Codex CLI and IDE extension to connect to MCP servers on startup. See the configuration documentation for details.

MCP server (experimental)

Codex can be launched as an MCP server by running codex mcp-server. This allows other MCP clients to use Codex as a tool for another agent.

Use the @modelcontextprotocol/inspector to try it out:

npx @modelcontextprotocol/inspector codex mcp-server

Use codex mcp to add/list/get/remove MCP server launchers defined in config.toml, and codex mcp-server to run the MCP server directly.

Notifications

You can enable notifications by configuring a script that is run whenever the agent finishes a turn. The notify documentation includes a detailed example that explains how to get desktop notifications via terminal-notifier on macOS. When Codex detects that it is running under WSL 2 inside Windows Terminal (WT_SESSION is set), the TUI automatically falls back to native Windows toast notifications so approval prompts and completed turns surface even though Windows Terminal does not implement OSC 9.

codex exec to run Codex programmatically/non-interactively

To run Codex non-interactively, run codex exec PROMPT (you can also pass the prompt via stdin) and Codex will work on your task until it decides that it is done and exits. Output is printed to the terminal directly. You can set the RUST_LOG environment variable to see more about what's going on. Use codex exec --ephemeral ... to run without persisting session rollout files to disk.

Experimenting with the Codex Sandbox

To test to see what happens when a command is run under the sandbox provided by Codex, we provide the following subcommands in Codex CLI:

# macOS
codex sandbox macos [--full-auto] [--log-denials] [COMMAND]...

# Linux
codex sandbox linux [--full-auto] [COMMAND]...

# Windows
codex sandbox windows [--full-auto] [COMMAND]...

# Legacy aliases
codex debug seatbelt [--full-auto] [--log-denials] [COMMAND]...
codex debug landlock [--full-auto] [COMMAND]...

Selecting a sandbox policy via --sandbox

The Rust CLI exposes a dedicated --sandbox (-s) flag that lets you pick the sandbox policy without having to reach for the generic -c/--config option:

# Run Codex with the default, read-only sandbox
codex --sandbox read-only

# Allow the agent to write within the current workspace while still blocking network access
codex --sandbox workspace-write

# Danger! Disable sandboxing entirely (only do this if you are already running in a container or other isolated env)
codex --sandbox danger-full-access

The same setting can be persisted in ~/.codex/config.toml via the top-level sandbox_mode = "MODE" key, e.g. sandbox_mode = "workspace-write".

Code Organization

This folder is the root of a Cargo workspace. It contains quite a bit of experimental code, but here are the key crates:

  • core/ contains the business logic for Codex. Ultimately, we hope this to be a library crate that is generally useful for building other Rust/native applications that use Codex.
  • exec/ "headless" CLI for use in automation.
  • tui/ CLI that launches a fullscreen TUI built with Ratatui.
  • cli/ CLI multitool that provides the aforementioned CLIs via subcommands.

If you want to contribute or inspect behavior in detail, start by reading the module-level README.md files under each crate and run the project workspace from the top-level codex-rs directory so shared config, features, and build scripts stay aligned.