## Summary
App-server v2 already receives turn-scoped `clientMetadata`, but the
Rust app-server was dropping it before the outbound Responses request.
This change keeps the fix lightweight by threading that metadata through
the existing turn-metadata path rather than inventing a new transport.
## What we're trying to do and why
We want turn-scoped metadata from the app-server protocol layer,
especially fields like Hermes/GAAS run IDs, to survive all the way to
the actual Responses API request so it is visible in downstream
websocket request logging and analytics.
The specific bug was:
- app-server protocol uses camelCase `clientMetadata`
- Responses transport already has an existing turn metadata carrier:
`x-codex-turn-metadata`
- websocket transport already rewrites that header into
`request.request_body.client_metadata["x-codex-turn-metadata"]`
- but the Rust app-server never parsed or stored `clientMetadata`, so
nothing from the app-server request was making it into that existing
path
This PR fixes that without adding a new header or a second metadata
channel.
## How we did it
### Protocol surface
- Add optional `clientMetadata` to v2 `TurnStartParams` and
`TurnSteerParams`
- Regenerate the JSON schema / TypeScript fixtures
- Update app-server docs to describe the field and its behavior
### Runtime plumbing
- Add a dedicated core op for app-server user input carrying turn-scoped
metadata: `Op::UserInputWithClientMetadata`
- Wire `turn/start` and `turn/steer` through that op / signature path
instead of dropping the metadata at the message-processor boundary
- Store the metadata in `TurnMetadataState`
### Transport behavior
- Reuse the existing serialized `x-codex-turn-metadata` payload
- Merge the new app-server `clientMetadata` into that JSON additively
- Do **not** replace built-in reserved fields already present in the
turn metadata payload
- Keep websocket behavior unchanged at the outer shape level: it still
sends only `client_metadata["x-codex-turn-metadata"]`, but that JSON
string now contains the merged fields
- Keep HTTP fallback behavior unchanged except that the existing
`x-codex-turn-metadata` header now includes the merged fields too
### Request shape before / after
Before, a websocket `response.create` looked like:
```json
{
"type": "response.create",
"client_metadata": {
"x-codex-turn-metadata": "{\"session_id\":\"...\",\"turn_id\":\"...\"}"
}
}
```
Even if the app-server caller supplied `clientMetadata`, it was not
represented there.
After, the same request shape is preserved, but the serialized payload
now includes the new turn-scoped fields:
```json
{
"type": "response.create",
"client_metadata": {
"x-codex-turn-metadata": "{\"session_id\":\"...\",\"turn_id\":\"...\",\"fiber_run_id\":\"fiber-start-123\",\"origin\":\"gaas\"}"
}
}
```
## Validation
### Targeted tests added / updated
- protocol round-trip coverage for `clientMetadata` on `turn/start` and
`turn/steer`
- protocol round-trip coverage for `Op::UserInputWithClientMetadata`
- `TurnMetadataState` merge test proving client metadata is added
without overwriting reserved built-in fields
- websocket request-shape test proving outbound `response.create`
contains merged metadata inside
`client_metadata["x-codex-turn-metadata"]`
- app-server integration tests proving:
- `turn/start` forwards `clientMetadata` into the outbound Responses
request path
- websocket warmup + real turn request both behave correctly
- `turn/steer` updates the follow-up request metadata
### Commands run
- `just write-app-server-schema`
- `cargo test -p codex-app-server-protocol`
- `cargo test -p codex-protocol`
- `cargo test -p codex-core
turn_metadata_state_merges_client_metadata_without_replacing_reserved_fields
--lib`
- `cargo test -p codex-core --test all
responses_websocket_preserves_custom_turn_metadata_fields`
- `cargo test -p codex-app-server --test all client_metadata`
- `cargo test -p codex-app-server --test all
turn_start_forwards_client_metadata_to_responses_websocket_request_body_v2
-- --nocapture`
- `just fmt`
- `just fix -p codex-core -p codex-protocol -p codex-app-server-protocol
-p codex-app-server`
- `just fix -p codex-exec -p codex-tui-app-server`
- `just argument-comment-lint`
### Full suite note
`cargo test` in `codex-rs` still fails in:
-
`suite::v2::turn_interrupt::turn_interrupt_resolves_pending_command_approval_request`
I verified that same failure on a clean detached `HEAD` worktree with an
isolated `CARGO_TARGET_DIR`, so it is not caused by this patch.
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. If you provide both a prompt argument and piped stdin, Codex appends stdin as a <stdin> block after the prompt so patterns like echo "my output" | codex exec "Summarize this concisely" work naturally. 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".
In workspace-write, Codex also includes ~/.codex/memories in its writable roots so memory maintenance does not require an extra approval.
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.