Add guardian approval MVP (#13692)

## Summary
- add the guardian reviewer flow for `on-request` approvals in command,
patch, sandbox-retry, and managed-network approval paths
- keep guardian behind `features.guardian_approval` instead of exposing
a public `approval_policy = guardian` mode
- route ordinary `OnRequest` approvals to the guardian subagent when the
feature is enabled, without changing the public approval-mode surface

## Public model
- public approval modes stay unchanged
- guardian is enabled via `features.guardian_approval`
- when that feature is on, `approval_policy = on-request` keeps the same
approval boundaries but sends those approval requests to the guardian
reviewer instead of the user
- `/experimental` only persists the feature flag; it does not rewrite
`approval_policy`
- CLI and app-server no longer expose a separate `guardian` approval
mode in this PR

## Guardian reviewer
- the reviewer runs as a normal subagent and reuses the existing
subagent/thread machinery
- it is locked to a read-only sandbox and `approval_policy = never`
- it does not inherit user/project exec-policy rules
- it prefers `gpt-5.4` when the current provider exposes it, otherwise
falls back to the parent turn's active model
- it fail-closes on timeout, startup failure, malformed output, or any
other review error
- it currently auto-approves only when `risk_score < 80`

## Review context and policy
- guardian mirrors `OnRequest` approval semantics rather than
introducing a separate approval policy
- explicit `require_escalated` requests follow the same approval surface
as `OnRequest`; the difference is only who reviews them
- managed-network allowlist misses that enter the approval flow are also
reviewed by guardian
- the review prompt includes bounded recent transcript history plus
recent tool call/result evidence
- transcript entries and planned-action strings are truncated with
explicit `<guardian_truncated ... />` markers so large payloads stay
bounded
- apply-patch reviews include the full patch content (without
duplicating the structured `changes` payload)
- the guardian request layout is snapshot-tested using the same
model-visible Responses request formatter used elsewhere in core

## Guardian network behavior
- the guardian subagent inherits the parent session's managed-network
allowlist when one exists, so it can use the same approved network
surface while reviewing
- exact session-scoped network approvals are copied into the guardian
session with protocol/port scope preserved
- those copied approvals are now seeded before the guardian's first turn
is submitted, so inherited approvals are available during any immediate
review-time checks

## Out of scope / follow-ups
- the sandbox-permission validation split was pulled into a separate PR
and is not part of this diff
- a future follow-up can enable `serde_json` preserve-order in
`codex-core` and then simplify the guardian action rendering further

---------

Co-authored-by: Codex <noreply@openai.com>
This commit is contained in:
Charley CunninghamandCodex authored and GitHub committed 2026-03-07 05:40:10 -08:00
1 parent cf143bf71e
commit e84ee33cc0
34 files changed
+2477 -139

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@@ -7,6 +7,9 @@ use crate::exec::SandboxType;
use crate::exec::is_likely_sandbox_denied;
use crate::exec_policy::prompt_is_rejected_by_policy;
use crate::features::Feature;
use crate::guardian::GuardianReviewRequest;
use crate::guardian::review_approval_request;
use crate::guardian::routes_approval_to_guardian;
use crate::sandboxing::ExecRequest;
use crate::sandboxing::SandboxPermissions;
use crate::shell::ShellType;
@@ -46,6 +49,7 @@ use codex_shell_escalation::PreparedExec;
use codex_shell_escalation::ShellCommandExecutor;
use codex_shell_escalation::Stopwatch;
use codex_utils_absolute_path::AbsolutePathBuf;
use serde_json::json;
use std::collections::HashMap;
use std::path::PathBuf;
use std::sync::Arc;
@@ -163,6 +167,7 @@ pub(super) async fn try_run_zsh_fork(
session: Arc::clone(&ctx.session),
turn: Arc::clone(&ctx.turn),
call_id: ctx.call_id.clone(),
tool_name: "shell",
approval_policy: ctx.turn.approval_policy.value(),
sandbox_policy: command_executor.sandbox_policy.clone(),
file_system_sandbox_policy: command_executor.file_system_sandbox_policy.clone(),
@@ -262,6 +267,7 @@ pub(crate) async fn prepare_unified_exec_zsh_fork(
session: Arc::clone(&ctx.session),
turn: Arc::clone(&ctx.turn),
call_id: ctx.call_id.clone(),
tool_name: "exec_command",
approval_policy: ctx.turn.approval_policy.value(),
sandbox_policy: exec_request.sandbox_policy.clone(),
file_system_sandbox_policy: exec_request.file_system_sandbox_policy.clone(),
@@ -292,6 +298,7 @@ struct CoreShellActionProvider {
session: Arc<crate::codex::Session>,
turn: Arc<crate::codex::TurnContext>,
call_id: String,
tool_name: &'static str,
approval_policy: AskForApproval,
sandbox_policy: SandboxPolicy,
file_system_sandbox_policy: FileSystemSandboxPolicy,
@@ -374,8 +381,21 @@ impl CoreShellActionProvider {
let turn = self.turn.clone();
let call_id = self.call_id.clone();
let approval_id = Some(Uuid::new_v4().to_string());
let tool_name = self.tool_name;
Ok(stopwatch
.pause_for(async move {
if routes_approval_to_guardian(&turn) {
let request = GuardianReviewRequest {
action: json!({
"tool": tool_name,
"program": program,
"argv": argv,
"cwd": workdir,
"additional_permissions": additional_permissions,
}),
};
return review_approval_request(&session, &turn, request, None).await;
}
let available_decisions = vec![
Some(ReviewDecision::Approved),
// Currently, ApprovedForSession is only honored for skills,