Felipe Coury
745c48b088
Closes #3493
## Problem
When a user's home directory (or any ancestor) contains a broad
`.gitignore` (e.g. `*` + `!.gitignore`), the `@` file mention picker in
Codex silently hides valid repository files like `package.json`. The
picker returns `no matches` for searches that should succeed. This is
surprising because manually typed paths still work, making the failure
hard to diagnose.
## Mental model
Git itself never walks above the repository root to assemble its ignore
list. Its `.gitignore` resolution is strictly scoped: it reads
`.gitignore` files from the repo root downward, the per-repo
`.git/info/exclude`, and the user's global excludes file (via
`core.excludesFile`). A `.gitignore` sitting in a parent directory above
the repo root has no effect on `git status`, `git ls-files`, or any
other git operation. Our file search should replicate this contract
exactly.
The `ignore` crate's `WalkBuilder` has a `require_git` flag that
controls whether it follows this contract:
- `require_git(false)` (the previous setting): the walker reads
`.gitignore` files from _all_ ancestor directories, even those above or
outside the repository root. This is a deliberate divergence from git's
behavior in the `ignore` crate, intended for non-git use cases. It means
a `~/.gitignore` with `*` will suppress every file in the walk—something
git itself would never do.
- `require_git(true)` (this fix): the walker only applies `.gitignore`
semantics when it detects a `.git` directory, scoping ignore resolution
to the repository boundary. This matches git's own behavior: parent
`.gitignore` files above the repo root have no effect.
The fix is a one-line change: `require_git(false)` becomes
`require_git(true)`.
## How `require_git(false)` got here
The setting was introduced in af338cc (#2981, "Improve @ file search:
include specific hidden dirs such as .github, .gitlab"). That PR's goal
was to make hidden directories like `.github` and `.vscode` discoverable
by setting `.hidden(false)` on the walker. The `require_git(false)` was
added alongside it with the comment _"Don't require git to be present to
apply git-related ignore rules"_—the author likely intended gitignore
rules to still filter results even when no `.git` directory exists (e.g.
searching an extracted tarball that has a `.gitignore` but no `.git`).
The unintended consequence: with `require_git(false)`, the `ignore`
crate walks _above_ the search root to find `.gitignore` files in
ancestor directories. This is a side effect the original author almost
certainly didn't anticipate. The PR message says "Preserve `.gitignore`
semantics," but `require_git(false)` actually _breaks_ git's semantics
by applying ancestor ignore files that git itself would never read.
In short: the intent was "apply gitignore even without `.git`" but the
effect was "apply gitignore from every ancestor directory." This fix
restores git-correct scoping.
## Non-goals
- This PR does not change behavior when `respect_gitignore` is `false`
(that path already disables all git-related ignore rules).
- The first test
(`parent_gitignore_outside_repo_does_not_hide_repo_files`) intentionally
omits `git init`. The `ignore` crate's `require_git(true)` causes it to
skip gitignore processing entirely when no `.git` exists, which is the
desired behavior for that scenario. A second test
(`git_repo_still_respects_local_gitignore_when_enabled`) covers the
complementary case with a real git repo.
## Tradeoffs
**Behavioral shift**: With `require_git(true)`, directories that contain
`.gitignore` files but are _not_ inside a git repository will no longer
have those ignore rules applied during `@` search. This is a correctness
improvement for the primary use case (searching inside repos), but
changes behavior for the edge case of searching non-repo directories
that happen to have `.gitignore` files. In practice, Codex is
overwhelmingly used inside git repositories, so this tradeoff strongly
favors the fix.
**Two test strategies**: The first test omits `git init` to verify
parent ignore leakage is blocked; the second runs `git init` to verify
the repo's own `.gitignore` is still honored. Together they cover both
sides of the `require_git(true)` contract.
## Architecture
The change is in `walker_worker()` within
`codex-rs/file-search/src/lib.rs`, which configures the
`ignore::WalkBuilder` used by the file search walker thread. The walker
feeds discovered file paths into `nucleo` for fuzzy matching. The
`require_git` flag controls whether the walker consults `.gitignore`
files at all—it sits upstream of all ignore processing.
```
walker_worker
└─ WalkBuilder::new(root)
├─ .hidden(false) — include dotfiles
├─ .follow_links(true) — follow symlinks
├─ .require_git(true) — ← THE FIX: only apply gitignore in git repos
└─ (conditional) git_ignore(false), git_global(false), etc.
└─ applied when respect_gitignore == false
```
## Tests
- `parent_gitignore_outside_repo_does_not_hide_repo_files`: creates a
temp directory tree with a parent `.gitignore` containing `*`, a child
"repo" directory with `package.json` and `.vscode/settings.json`, and
asserts that both files are discoverable via `run()` with
`respect_gitignore: true`.
- `git_repo_still_respects_local_gitignore_when_enabled`: the
complementary test—runs `git init` inside the child directory and
verifies that the repo's own `.gitignore` exclusions still work (e.g.
`.vscode/extensions.json` is excluded while `.vscode/settings.json` is
whitelisted). Confirms that `require_git(true)` does not disable
gitignore processing inside actual git repositories.
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
- First run with Codex? Start with
docs/getting-started.md(links to the walkthrough for prompts, keyboard shortcuts, and session management). - Want deeper control? See
docs/config.mdanddocs/install.md.
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.