## Why
Empty rendered skill catalogs skipped catalog telemetry instead of reporting
zero-valued counts.
## What changed
- Record a default render report when thread, turn-input, or executor catalog
rendering produces no fragment.
- Record zero-valued host world-state metrics when skill instructions are
enabled but no host skills are available.
- Preserve the `catalog_surface` tag so empty host and executor catalogs remain
distinguishable.
## Testing
Add coverage for empty catalog rendering and mixed nonempty-executor,
empty-host world state.
GitOrigin-RevId: f68d65806703c0ded1ece1e5ae1ffaf6d6045126
## What changed
- Add an optional `ExtensionMetrics` capability to thread, turn-input, and world-state contributors, backed by session telemetry in the host.
- Record skill counts, omissions, and truncated description characters for extension-rendered catalogs, tagged by the catalog surface.
- Preserve host session attribution on extension metrics, including the effective model for each turn, and prevent extension tags from overriding host metadata.
- Avoid duplicate host-catalog samples by recording world-state metrics only when the section is published or changes.
## Testing
- Cover metric values and surface tags, session metadata preservation, turn-level model changes, and host world-state publication behavior.
GitOrigin-RevId: 9059e521943a8f81df25a38b03692eddbc1d990d
## Why
Executor skills that disallow implicit invocation are omitted from `skills.list`, so an explicitly selected skill did not provide the authority and package identifiers needed to read its referenced resources.
## What changed
- Add `resource_access` metadata to injected instructions for explicit-only executor skills.
- Teach the `skills.read` description to accept that metadata as well as values returned by `skills.list`.
- Keep discoverable executor skill instructions unchanged.
## Testing
Add an app-server integration scenario that selects an explicit-only executor skill, confirms it remains absent from `skills.list`, and reads a referenced file through `skills.read`.
GitOrigin-RevId: 97d3b93d1618c013363788452303c8a31e32cc56
## What changed
- Add executor authority support to `skills.list` and `skills.read` for skills from selected capability roots.
- Allow `skills.read` to load package-relative resources referenced by an executor skill while keeping reads within the selected package.
- Paginate skill listings and resource contents with bounded response sizes and stale-cursor validation.
- Resolve executor filesystems per sampling step so skill tools use the active selected capability roots.
## Testing
- Extend the app-server executor skill test to list an executor skill, read its main `SKILL.md`, and read a paginated reference resource.
- Cover visibility filtering, metadata bounds, pagination, invalid cursors, package boundaries, and resource size limits.
GitOrigin-RevId: 1b5de95d5d1b9f79c34d2879d6e67f24401e9c29
## Why
Extension warnings need a stable thread target even when they are emitted outside an active turn.
## What changed
- Add `ExtensionWarning` and a dedicated `ExtensionEventSink::emit_warning` path with an explicit thread ID and optional turn ID.
- Deliver extension warnings as thread-scoped app-server `warning` notifications, preserving listener ordering and waiting briefly for a subscriber when no listener is active.
- Move skills warnings to the new path, limiting provider catalog warnings to four messages of 256 bytes each.
## Testing
- Cover warning routing, ordering, UTF-8-safe truncation, subscriber fallback, and invalid thread IDs.
- Verify skills warning bounds and app-server delivery of executor catalog budget warnings.
GitOrigin-RevId: 4dcb1ba7f17c0edb1a9d548f9568e0c734bffc15
## Why
Skill catalog rendering can shorten descriptions or omit enabled skills to fit
the model context budget. Surface these reductions so users know when the
model-visible catalog has lost detail.
## What changed
- Emit a warning with the omitted skill count whenever entries do not fit.
- Warn when description shortening averages more than 100 characters per skill.
- Deduplicate executor catalog warnings across repeated world-state builds in a
turn.
## Testing
- Cover the description-shortening threshold and omission warning text.
- Verify warnings through extension and production-turn catalogs, including
per-turn deduplication.
GitOrigin-RevId: bd7fc3482e5dfd8c79072f772a2f54aa502478d9
## What changed
- Make `McpRuntime` own the published MCP configuration, connections, elicitation routing, and selected capability roots for a thread.
- Capture immutable MCP bindings for model steps and tool calls so in-flight work keeps a consistent connection set and approval authority while refreshed state is published atomically.
- Mark MCP state dirty when relevant configuration, plugins, environments, authentication, or elicitation capabilities change, then rebuild it before the next sampling request or out-of-band MCP operation.
- Separate config reloads from server invalidation: `ReloadMcpConfig` applies resolved MCP inputs, while `RefreshMcpServers` requests reinitialization from the thread's latest state.
## Testing
- Cover refreshed state visibility for existing turns, stable step bindings, current approval authority, cancelled refresh retries, resource-client reconciliation, and Apps recovery between sampling requests.
GitOrigin-RevId: 59eabb1aa8dc083426bd18ef4d3630508f376401
## What changed
- Remove the step-scoped `ExtensionData` argument from context, turn-input, and tool contributors.
- Pass the host's optional `McpResourceClient` through `ThreadStartInput` so extensions can retain session capabilities explicitly.
- Keep the MCP resource client in skills-owned session state for catalog loading and skill tools.
GitOrigin-RevId: bafa77bcd998aff408d6a396c5fd9ac268c4cce4
## Why
A fixed character limit does not account for the different context-window sizes supported by models.
## What changed
- Budget extension-rendered skill metadata at 2% of the resolved model context window, capped at 4,000 tokens.
- Keep the existing 8,000-character fallback when model context metadata is unavailable.
- Include the omission marker in the budget and still emit it when no skill entry fits.
- Apply the same resolved budget to executor and host skill catalogs assembled for a turn.
## Testing
- Cover proportional and capped budgets, multibyte fallback accounting, and omission-marker behavior.
- Verify through the production turn path that larger model context windows include more catalog entries without exceeding the computed budget.
GitOrigin-RevId: 4667293f1594de4dd605b32b9fa4255d26772c0f
## What changed
- Parameterize skill catalog rendering with explicit core- and extension-compatible description policies.
- Use full skill descriptions for core-compatible output, while extension-compatible output prefers `short_description` and falls back to the full description.
- Keep extension prompt and world-state rendering on the extension-compatible policy.
## Testing
- Add a renderer test covering description selection and fallback for both policies.
GitOrigin-RevId: 5382075f88c25a49a715feb0702a9ab888ec0123
## What changed
- Add an `ExtensionData` store to each `StepContext`.
- Pass the step store to context, world-state, turn-input, and tool contributors so extensions can use capabilities bound to the current sampling step.
- Preserve the captured step context when rebuilding initial context during compaction.
GitOrigin-RevId: 51f3105d3a793f60534f122f9be8247c131c2ca5
## Why
Selected capability roots can contribute plugins, MCP servers, connectors, and
skills. Discovering each contribution separately requires repeated access to the
executor filesystem.
## What changed
- Add the `capabilityRoots/discoverV1` exec-server RPC to scan selected roots and
materialize recognized plugin manifests, configuration files, skill
instructions, and skill metadata in one bounded request.
- Add the opt-in `executor_capability_discovery` feature, with a thread-scoped
cache and per-step snapshot shared by MCP and skill discovery.
- Parse MCP, connector, and skill contributions from the materialized snapshot,
including serving cached skill instructions without another filesystem read.
## Testing
- Cover discovery limits, manifest precedence, root-local failures, cache reuse,
plugin contributions, and parity with the existing environment skill loader.
GitOrigin-RevId: f98fd2321cafb58c596db02da1f83c09d8eb375d
## Why
Host skills can change after a thread starts. Subsequent turns need the updated
catalog without reinjecting an unchanged catalog on every turn.
## What changed
- Register the host skill provider in app-server and project its catalog through
a dedicated World State section.
- Render host skills with the existing metadata budget and usage instructions,
including skill-root aliases when available.
- Suppress the legacy host catalog and contextual fragment when World State owns
the catalog, while preserving host skills for explicit and shadow selection.
## Testing
Added an app-server test that installs a host skill at runtime and verifies the
catalog updates once and remains stable on the following turn.
GitOrigin-RevId: 4cacc6b2258fc3cab8499fbdf9aa6ab0324ec10d
## What changed
- Add an opt-in `skill_search` feature that ranks prompt-visible skills against each turn's user input with a bounded weighted lexical selector.
- Keep the ranked selection out of model-visible context and record metrics for selection cost, catalog reduction, and whether later implicit or `skills.read` invocations matched the ranked candidates.
- Include host-provided skills in the experiment catalog without changing the rendered skill catalog.
## Testing
- Add selector unit tests covering ranking, limits, truncation, stop words, and deterministic tie-breaking.
- Add extension tests covering turn-local invocation recording and host-skill shadow selection.
GitOrigin-RevId: 4d00a1c805ea8b391d6c6ac6a8450afa88ca3e25
## Summary
- add a false-by-default `include_skills_usage_instructions` model
metadata field
- enable the field for the bundled `gpt-5.5` model metadata
- consume the metadata in both core and extension skill rendering
- remove hardcoded legacy-model matching and its marker plumbing
## Why
A selected executor environment can be unavailable in one model step and
ready in the next. The model should see its skills only while that
environment is ready, without rescanning stable files on every sample.
The product assumption is simple:
- an environment ID names one stable logical environment;
- the selected root contents do not change during the thread.
## Behavior
```text
E1 unavailable -> do not show E1 skills
E1 ready -> discover once, cache, show through World State
E1 unavailable -> hide skills, keep cache
E1 ready again -> reuse cache, show skills again
resume -> create a new thread cache and discover again
```
The cache key is the full `SelectedCapabilityRoot`. Availability does
not invalidate it; dropping the extension's thread state does.
The step supplies the ready selected roots directly. They do not have to
be turn environments:
```text
turn environment: laptop
selected root: worker:/plugins/lint-fix
worker ready -> lint-fix skills are visible
```
## What changes
- Keeps executor skill catalogs in the existing skills extension.
- Passes the roots resolved as ready for the step into World State
contributors.
- Loads each ready selected root at most once per thread.
- Contributes the executor catalog as the `skills` World State section.
- Uses the exact step catalog for explicit skill selection and body
reads.
- Leaves host and orchestrator skill behavior where it already lives.
Taking a step snapshot itself does not add an RPC. Executor filesystem
calls happen only on the first discovery of a stable root for that
thread.
## What does not change
- No filesystem watcher or content-based invalidation.
- No retry/generation framework.
- No skill runtime migration into core.
- No general rewrite of the skills extension.
## Stack
1. Extension-owned World State sections.
2. **This PR:** project cached executor skills through World State.
3. Pin one MCP runtime to each model step.
4. Project selected MCP/app/connector metadata by environment
availability.
5. One end-to-end integration scenario.
## Why
Orchestrator-provided skills and Codex Apps MCP tools add model-visible
instructions, resources, and tools beyond the local workspace. Hosts
need config-level switches to disable those orchestrator-owned surfaces
independently, without disabling regular skills or regular MCP servers.
## What changed
- Adds `[orchestrator.skills].enabled` and `[orchestrator.mcp].enabled`
config entries, both defaulting to `true`.
- Includes the new settings in `config.schema.json` and in the config
lock so resolved thread configuration preserves the same orchestrator
exposure decisions.
- Threads `orchestrator.skills.enabled` through the app-server skills
extension so disabled orchestrator skills do not expose the `skills`
namespace or inject orchestrator skill context.
- Gates Codex Apps MCP exposure, app instructions, and app auth
eligibility on `orchestrator.mcp.enabled` while leaving non-Codex-Apps
MCP tools available.
- Updates the thread-manager sample config to disable both
orchestrator-owned surfaces.
## Verification
- Added config parsing, loading, defaulting, and schema coverage for the
new settings.
- Added MCP exposure coverage that `orchestrator.mcp.enabled = false`
removes Codex Apps tools while preserving regular MCP tools.
- Added app-server coverage that `orchestrator.skills.enabled = false`
prevents orchestrator skill tools, prompts, and resource reads from
reaching the model turn.
## Summary
- keep context injection on a single ContextContributor trait
- split context injection into thread-scoped and turn-scoped
contribution methods
- wire turn-scoped fragments into initial context assembly so extensions
can contribute context from turn-local state
## Why
Host skill discovery was still exposed as a manager even though it is a
process-owned service shared by sessions, the app-server catalog, and
file-watcher invalidation. The skills extension also consumed an ad hoc
loaded-skills wrapper instead of a named immutable snapshot.
## What changed
- replace `SkillsManager` with concrete `SkillsService`
- make the service cache and return immutable `HostSkillsSnapshot`
values
- migrate the skills extension host provider to the snapshot boundary
- migrate app-server catalog, watcher, and invalidation paths to the
service
This keeps the service limited to host discovery, caching, roots, and
invalidation. Catalog rendering and invocation remain extension
responsibilities for the next stacked change.
## Why
Hosted orchestrator skills are read through the remote MCP resource
server. Within one thread, the same catalog or skill resource can be
requested multiple times by prompt injection and the `skills.list` /
`skills.read` tools. Re-fetching adds latency and can make those
surfaces observe different remote contents during the same thread.
This is a follow-up to #28333: orchestrator skills remain limited to
threads without a local executor, and those threads now get a stable
per-thread view of the remote skill data they use.
## What changed
- Reuse the existing per-thread orchestrator catalog snapshot for
`skills.list` and `skills.read` availability checks.
- Cache successful orchestrator resource reads by authority, package,
and resource so prompt injection and tool calls share the same contents.
- Keep the cache memory-only and bounded to 100 resources and 8 MiB per
thread.
- Leave host and executor skill reads unchanged, and do not cache failed
remote reads.
## Verification
- Extended the app-server MCP resource integration test to read the same
hosted skill resource twice and verify that the remote server receives
one read.
- The same test verifies that catalog discovery and the selected skill's
main prompt are each fetched only once per thread.
## Why
App-server threads without a local executor need orchestrator-owned
skills from the hosted `codex_apps` MCP server. Threads with the local
executor already discover installed skills from the local filesystem.
After the orchestrator skill provider was enabled for every app-server
thread, local-executor threads also received the hosted skill catalog
and the `skills.list` and `skills.read` tools. This changed the existing
local behavior and could expose a second hosted copy of a skill that was
already installed locally.
## What changed
- Expose the thread's selected execution environments to extensions at
thread startup.
- Enable orchestrator skills only when the reserved local environment is
not selected.
- Apply that decision consistently to hosted skill catalog discovery,
explicit skill injection, and the `skills.list` and `skills.read` tools.
## Verification
- The existing no-executor app-server test continues to verify hosted
skill discovery, invocation, and child-resource reads.
- A new app-server test verifies that local-executor threads do not
receive hosted skill context or `skills.*` tools.
## Why
`ext/skills` currently depends on `codex-core` for two host concerns:
reading the concrete `Config` type and borrowing core-owned
model-context fragment types. That coupling prevents the extension from
being assembled independently above core and leaves context that belongs
to the skills feature owned by core.
This stacked PR introduces the host boundary needed for the broader
extension migration while intentionally preserving existing skills
behavior. It is stacked on #27404.
## What changed
- Adds a small public `SkillsExtensionConfig` view and makes skills
installation generic over the host config type.
- Requires the host to map its config into that view; app-server
supplies the current `Config` values.
- Moves the available-skills and selected-skill context fragment
implementations into `ext/skills`, preserving their roles, markers, and
rendered bytes.
- Removes the direct `codex-core` dependency from
`codex-skills-extension`.
- Keeps local discovery, invocation, side effects, and the
`codex-core-skills` compatibility types unchanged for later staged PRs.
## Behavior
This adds no capability and is intended to have no user-visible or
model-visible behavior change. The install API and ownership boundary
change internally; emitted skills context remains byte-for-byte
compatible.
## Validation
- Updates the skills extension integration coverage to use a host-owned
test config.
- Asserts the complete rendered catalog and selected-skill fragments,
including their roles and markers.
- `just bazel-lock-check`
- Rust tests and Clippy were not run locally per request; CI will run
them.
## Why
PR #27387 makes backend plugin skills discoverable and invocable without
an executor, but resources referenced by those skills still sit behind
the generic MCP resource surface. The model needs a skills-owned API
that preserves the provider authority and package boundary instead of
treating remote resources like local files.
This is stacked on #27387.
## What
- Adds one `skills` namespace with bounded `list` and `read` tools for
remote skill providers.
- Revalidates `authority + package` against the live remote catalog on
every read, then routes the opaque resource ID back through that
provider.
- Allows the backend provider to read canonical child `skill://`
resources while rejecting cross-package, non-canonical, query, fragment,
and traversal-shaped URIs.
- Caps each serialized tool result at 8 KB. Lists are paginated; reads
return an opaque continuation cursor.
- Marks the JSON output as external context so memory generation can
apply its normal suppression policy.
- Deliberately does not add `skills.search`; that waits for a bounded
plugin-service search contract.
## Tool contract
Pseudo-Python matching the wire shape:
```python
from typing import Literal, NotRequired, TypedDict
class RemoteSkillAuthority(TypedDict):
kind: Literal["remote"]
id: str # e.g. "codex_apps"
class RemoteSkill(TypedDict):
authority: RemoteSkillAuthority
package: str # opaque provider-owned package ID
name: str
description: str
main_resource: str # opaque provider-owned SKILL.md ID
class SkillsListParams(TypedDict):
cursor: NotRequired[str]
class SkillsListResult(TypedDict):
skills: list[RemoteSkill]
next_cursor: str | None
warnings: list[str]
truncated: bool
class SkillsReadParams(TypedDict):
authority: RemoteSkillAuthority # copied from skills.list
package: str # copied from skills.list
resource: str # provider-owned child resource ID
cursor: NotRequired[str] # copy next_cursor to continue
class SkillsReadResult(TypedDict):
resource: str
contents: str
next_cursor: str | None
truncated: bool
class Skills:
def list(self, params: SkillsListParams) -> SkillsListResult: ...
def read(self, params: SkillsReadParams) -> SkillsReadResult: ...
```
There is one namespace for all remote skills, not one tool or MCP server
per skill. No resource ID is converted into a filesystem path.
## Backend dependency
`/ps/mcp` must support direct reads of child resources such as
`skill://plugin_demo/deploy/references/deploy.md`. This PR implements
and tests the Codex side of that contract; production child reads remain
dependent on the corresponding plugin-service support. Search remains
out of scope until that service exposes a bounded search/resource API.
## Validation
- Added an app-server integration test covering `skills.list` followed
by `skills.read` with no executor.
- Ran `just fmt`.
- Ran `just bazel-lock-update` and `just bazel-lock-check`.
- Did not run Rust tests or Clippy locally, per request; CI will run
them.
## Summary
- cache the first remote skill catalog outcome per thread, including
failures
- preserve discovery errors as catalog warnings
- update the existing cache regression test to verify failed discovery
is attempted once
## Why
A failed or hanging `codex_apps` `resources/list` call could run once
while building initial context and immediately again while contributing
first-turn input. With the discovery timeout, an ordinary Apps turn
could wait up to 20 seconds before inference and retry again on later
turns even when no remote skill was mentioned.
Caching a warning-only empty catalog preserves graceful degradation
while preventing repeated synchronous discovery attempts.
## Testing
- `just fmt`
- Tests and Clippy not run per request; CI will validate the change.
## Why
#27198 made the extension-owned `codex_apps` MCP connection the hosted
plugin runtime, but its `mcp/skill` resources still bypassed the skills
extension. App-server could list and read those resources through
generic MCP APIs, but a thread with no selected environment did not
expose them in the model's skills catalog or load their `SKILL.md`
through `$skill`.
Hosted skills should stay remote while using the same typed catalog,
source authority, deduplication, bounded contextual catalog, and
selected-skill prompt injection as host and executor skills. They should
not be downloaded or exposed as ambient filesystem paths.
## What changed
- Add a session-scoped `McpResourceClient` over the replaceable MCP
connection manager so resource list/read calls follow startup and
refresh replacements.
- Add a `BackendSkillProvider` that pages `codex_apps` resources,
accepts bounded and validated `mcp/skill` entries, and reads a selected
skill's `SKILL.md` through the same MCP connection.
- Register the remote provider in app-server and include it in the
skills catalog even when a thread has no selected capability roots or
executor.
- Contribute hosted skill metadata through the bounded
`AvailableSkillsInstructions` developer-context path, exclude remote
entries from per-turn catalog injection, and classify `<skills>`
messages as contextual developer content so rollback can trim and
rebuild them correctly.
## Testing
- Extend the app-server MCP resource integration test with
`environments: []` to exercise two-page discovery, filter a
non-`mcp/skill` resource, verify the escaped developer catalog entry and
user-role `<skill>` fragment containing the fetched `SKILL.md`, and
preserve generic MCP resource reads.
- Add core event-mapping coverage that classifies `<skills>` developer
messages as contextual history.
## Why
Extension contributors are registered behind `dyn Trait` objects, so
native `async fn`/RPITIT methods would make these traits
non-object-safe. Spell out the boxed, `Send` future contract directly so
`extension-api` no longer needs `async-trait` while retaining the
existing runtime model.
## What changed
- add a shared `ExtensionFuture` alias and use it for asynchronous
contributor methods
- migrate production and test implementations to return `Box::pin(async
move { ... })`
- remove `async-trait` dependencies where they are no longer used,
keeping it dev-only where unrelated test executors still require it
## Behavior
No behavior change is intended. Contributor futures remain boxed,
`Send`, dynamically dispatched, and lazily executed; cancellation and
callback ordering stay unchanged.
## Testing
- `just test -p codex-extension-api` (11 passed)
- affected extension crates (64 passed)
- targeted `codex-core` contributor tests (14 passed)
- `just fmt`
- `just bazel-lock-update`
- `just bazel-lock-check`
A broad local `codex-core` run compiled successfully but encountered
unrelated sandbox and missing test-binary fixture failures; CI will run
the full checks.
## Why
CCA is moving toward a split runtime where the orchestrator may not have
a filesystem, while executors can expose preinstalled plugins and
skills. A thread therefore needs to select capabilities without asking
app-server or core to interpret executor-owned paths through the
orchestrator's filesystem.
The longer-term model is broader than executor skills:
- A plugin is a bundle of skills, MCP servers, connectors/apps, and
hooks.
- A plugin root can be local, executor-owned, or hosted by a backend.
- Components inside one plugin can use different access and execution
mechanisms. A skill may be read from a filesystem or through backend
tools; an HTTP MCP server can run without an executor; a stdio MCP
server or hook needs an execution environment.
- Core should carry generic extension initialization data. The extension
that owns a component should discover it, expose it to the model, and
invoke it through the appropriate runtime.
This PR establishes that architecture through one complete vertical:
selecting a root on an executor, discovering the skills beneath it,
exposing those skills to the model, and reading an explicitly invoked
`SKILL.md` through the same executor.
## Contract
`thread/start` gains an experimental `selectedCapabilityRoots` field:
```json
{
"selectedCapabilityRoots": [
{
"id": "deploy-plugin@1",
"location": {
"type": "environment",
"environmentId": "workspace",
"path": "/opt/codex/plugins/deploy"
}
}
]
}
```
The root is intentionally not classified as a "plugin" or "skill" in the
API. It can point at a standalone skill, a directory containing several
skills, or a plugin containing skills and other components. This PR only
teaches the skills extension how to consume it; later extensions can
resolve MCP, connector, and hook components from the same selection.
The platform-supplied `id` is stable selection identity. The location
says which runtime owns the root and gives that runtime an opaque path.
App-server does not inspect or canonicalize the path.
## What changed
### Generic thread extension initialization
App-server converts selected roots into `ExtensionDataInit`. Core
carries that generic initialization value until the final thread ID is
known, then creates thread-scoped `ExtensionData` before lifecycle
contributors run.
This keeps `Session` and core independent of the capability-selection
contract. The initialization value is consumed during construction; it
is not retained as another long-lived `Session` field.
### Executor-backed skills
The skills extension now owns an `ExecutorSkillProvider` that:
- resolves the selected environment through `EnvironmentManager`
- discovers, canonicalizes, and reads skills through that environment's
`ExecutorFileSystem`
- contributes the bounded selected-skill catalog as stable developer
context
- reads an explicitly invoked skill body through the authority that
listed it
- warns when an environment or root is unavailable
- never falls back to the orchestrator filesystem for an executor-owned
root
Skill catalog and instruction fragments have hard byte bounds, which
also bound them below the 10K-token per-item context limit. If a
selected executor skill has the same name as a legacy local skill, the
executor selection owns that invocation and the local body is not
injected a second time.
Existing local and bundled skill loading remains in place. Omitting
`selectedCapabilityRoots` therefore preserves current local-only
behavior.
## Current semantics
- Only environment-owned locations are represented in this first
contract.
- Roots are resolved by the destination extension, not by app-server or
core.
- An unavailable executor or invalid root produces a warning and no
capabilities from that root; it does not trigger a local-filesystem
fallback.
- Selection applies to a newly started active thread.
- MCP servers, connectors, and hooks beneath a selected plugin root are
not activated yet.
- Selection is not yet persisted or inherited across resume, fork, or
subagent creation. Existing local capabilities continue to behave as
they do today in those flows.
## Planned vertical follow-ups
1. **Hosted HTTP MCP:** add an extension-backed HTTP MCP source that
works without an executor, then replace the special-purpose MCP plugins
loader with that implementation.
2. **Executor MCP:** register and execute stdio MCP servers through the
environment that owns the selected plugin root.
3. **Backend skills:** add a hosted skill source whose catalog and
bodies are accessed through extension tools rather than a filesystem.
4. **Connectors and hooks:** activate those components through their
owning extensions, using the same selected-root boundary and
component-specific runtime.
5. **Durable selection:** define the desired-selection lifecycle,
persist it, and make resume, fork, and subagent inheritance explicit
rather than accidental.
6. **Local convergence:** incrementally route existing local plugin,
skill, and MCP loading through the same extension model while preserving
current local behavior.
Each follow-up remains reviewable as an end-to-end capability. The
platform selects roots, generic thread extension data carries the
selection, and the owning extension resolves and operates its component.
## Verification
Coverage added for:
- app-server end-to-end discovery and explicit invocation of a skill
inside an executor-selected plugin root
- exclusive invocation when a selected executor skill collides with a
local skill name
- executor filesystem authority for discovery, canonicalization, and
reads
- thread extension initialization before lifecycle contributors run
- stable executor catalog context, explicit invocation, context
rebuilding, hidden skills, and preserved host/remote catalog behavior
Targeted protocol, core-skills, skills-extension, core lifecycle, and
app-server executor-skill tests were run during development.
## Why
The skills extension needs to become the path that exposes local host
skills without losing the behavior already owned by core skill loading.
Host skill discovery is not just `$CODEX_HOME/skills`: it also includes
config layers, bundled-skill settings, plugin roots, runtime extra
roots, and the filesystem for the selected primary environment.
Rather than making the extension reload host skills and risk drifting
from that authoritative load, this PR bridges the already-loaded
per-turn skills outcome into the extension. That lets the extension
advertise host skills and inject explicit `$skill` prompts while
preserving the same roots, disabled/hidden state, rendered paths, and
environment-backed file reads that the legacy path uses.
## What Changed
- Adds `HostLoadedSkills` in `core-skills` to wrap the turn's
`SkillLoadOutcome` and read `SKILL.md` through the filesystem that
loaded that skill.
- Stores `HostLoadedSkills` in turn extension data for normal turns and
review turns, so the skills extension can consume the loaded host
catalog without reloading it.
- Adds `HostSkillProvider` under `ext/skills/src/provider/host.rs`,
mapping host-loaded skill metadata into the skills-extension
catalog/read contract.
- Registers the host provider by default from
`codex_skills_extension::install()`.
- Preserves host skill metadata such as dependencies, disabled state,
hidden-from-prompt policy, and slash-normalized display paths.
- Passes host-loaded skills through `SkillListQuery` and
`SkillReadRequest` so explicit skill invocation reads only resources
from the loaded host catalog.
- Adds integration coverage for a real legacy
`$CODEX_HOME/skills/.../SKILL.md` skill being listed and injected
through the installed extension.
## Testing
- Added `installed_extension_loads_host_skills_from_legacy_roots` in
`ext/skills/tests/skills_extension.rs`.
- `just test -p codex-skills-extension`
## Why
The skills extension needs a real turn-time path before host, executor,
or remote skills can be routed through it. The previous code was mostly
a placeholder catalog/provider sketch, so there was no bounded
available-skills fragment, no source-owned `SKILL.md` read, and no place
for warnings or per-turn selection state to live.
This PR makes `ext/skills` the authority-preserving flow for listing
candidate skills and injecting only explicitly selected main prompts,
without adding more of that logic to `codex-core`.
## What changed
- Expands catalog entries with `main_prompt`, display path, short
description, dependency metadata, enabled/prompt visibility flags, and
authority/package-aware read requests.
- Replaces the placeholder `providers/*` modules with
`SkillProviderSource` and `SkillProviders`, routing list/read/search
calls by source kind and surfacing provider failures as warnings.
- Adds bounded available-skills rendering and `SKILL.md` main-prompt
truncation before the fragments enter model context.
- Resolves explicit skill selections from structured `UserInput::Skill`,
skill-file mentions, `skill://...` paths, and plain `$skill` text
mentions, then reads selected prompts through their owning provider.
- Stores mutable per-thread skills config and per-turn
catalog/selection/warning state.
- Adds `install_with_providers` so tests and future host wiring can
supply concrete providers.
## Testing
- Not run locally.
- Added `codex-rs/ext/skills/tests/skills_extension.rs` coverage for
available-catalog injection, selected prompt injection through the
owning provider, and prompt-hidden skills that remain invokable.
## Why
The skills extension needs the resolved turn environments to build a
real per-turn `SkillListQuery`. The previous `TurnLifecycleContributor`
hook only had a turn id, so it could only seed a placeholder query and
never carry the executor authorities that executor-scoped skill routing
will need.
Moving catalog resolution onto `TurnInputContributor` puts the skills
extension on the same turn-preparation path that already has the
environment ids and working directories for the submitted turn, while
keeping the actual prompt injection work for follow-up changes.
## What changed
- switch `ext/skills` from `TurnLifecycleContributor` to
`TurnInputContributor`
- build `executor_authorities` from `TurnInputContext.environments` and
pass them through `SkillListQuery`
- keep storing the resolved catalog in `SkillsTurnState`, but drop the
placeholder query helper that no longer matches the real data flow
- update the extension TODOs to reflect that per-turn catalog resolution
now happens in the turn-input contributor, and that prompt/context
injection still needs to move later
## Testing
- Not run locally.
## Disclaimer
This is only here for iteration purpose! Do not make any code rely on
this
## Why
Skills still live behind `codex-core` discovery and injection paths, but
the extension system needs an authority-aware home before that logic can
move. This adds that boundary without changing current skills behavior,
and keeps host, executor, and remote skills distinct so future
list/read/search flows do not collapse back to ambient local paths.
## What changed
- Add the `codex-skills-extension` workspace/Bazel crate under
`ext/skills`.
- Define the initial catalog, authority, provider, and turn-state types
for authority-bound skill packages and resources.
- Register placeholder thread/config/prompt/turn lifecycle contributors
plus host, executor, and remote provider aggregation points.
- Capture the remaining extraction work as TODOs, including the missing
extension API hooks needed for per-turn catalog construction and typed
skill injection.
- Keep plugins outside the runtime skills model: plugin-installed skills
are treated as materialized host-owned skill sources once available.
## Verification
- Not run locally.
felixxia-oai