this PR enables TUI to approve commands and add their prefixes to an
allowlist:
<img width="708" height="605" alt="Screenshot 2025-11-21 at 4 18 07 PM"
src="https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/56a19893-4553-4770-a881-becf79eeda32"
/>
note: we only show the option to whitelist the command when
1) command is not multi-part (e.g `git add -A && git commit -m 'hello
world'`)
2) command is not already matched by an existing rule
# Unified Exec Shell Selection on Windows
## Problem
reference issue #7466
The `unified_exec` handler currently deserializes model-provided tool
calls into the `ExecCommandArgs` struct:
```rust
#[derive(Debug, Deserialize)]
struct ExecCommandArgs {
cmd: String,
#[serde(default)]
workdir: Option<String>,
#[serde(default = "default_shell")]
shell: String,
#[serde(default = "default_login")]
login: bool,
#[serde(default = "default_exec_yield_time_ms")]
yield_time_ms: u64,
#[serde(default)]
max_output_tokens: Option<usize>,
#[serde(default)]
with_escalated_permissions: Option<bool>,
#[serde(default)]
justification: Option<String>,
}
```
The `shell` field uses a hard-coded default:
```rust
fn default_shell() -> String {
"/bin/bash".to_string()
}
```
When the model returns a tool call JSON that only contains `cmd` (which
is the common case), Serde fills in `shell` with this default value.
Later, `get_command` uses that value as if it were a model-provided
shell path:
```rust
fn get_command(args: &ExecCommandArgs) -> Vec<String> {
let shell = get_shell_by_model_provided_path(&PathBuf::from(args.shell.clone()));
shell.derive_exec_args(&args.cmd, args.login)
}
```
On Unix, this usually resolves to `/bin/bash` and works as expected.
However, on Windows this behavior is problematic:
- The hard-coded `"/bin/bash"` is not a valid Windows path.
- `get_shell_by_model_provided_path` treats this as a model-specified
shell, and tries to resolve it (e.g. via `which::which("bash")`), which
may or may not exist and may not behave as intended.
- In practice, this leads to commands being executed under a non-default
or non-existent shell on Windows (for example, WSL bash), instead of the
expected Windows PowerShell or `cmd.exe`.
The core of the issue is that **"model did not specify `shell`" is
currently interpreted as "the model explicitly requested `/bin/bash`"**,
which is both Unix-specific and wrong on Windows.
## Proposed Solution
Instead of hard-coding `"/bin/bash"` into `ExecCommandArgs`, we should
distinguish between:
1. **The model explicitly specifying a shell**, e.g.:
```json
{
"cmd": "echo hello",
"shell": "pwsh"
}
```
In this case, we *do* want to respect the model’s choice and use
`get_shell_by_model_provided_path`.
2. **The model omitting the `shell` field entirely**, e.g.:
```json
{
"cmd": "echo hello"
}
```
In this case, we should *not* assume `/bin/bash`. Instead, we should use
`default_user_shell()` and let the platform decide.
To express this distinction, we can:
1. Change `shell` to be optional in `ExecCommandArgs`:
```rust
#[derive(Debug, Deserialize)]
struct ExecCommandArgs {
cmd: String,
#[serde(default)]
workdir: Option<String>,
#[serde(default)]
shell: Option<String>,
#[serde(default = "default_login")]
login: bool,
#[serde(default = "default_exec_yield_time_ms")]
yield_time_ms: u64,
#[serde(default)]
max_output_tokens: Option<usize>,
#[serde(default)]
with_escalated_permissions: Option<bool>,
#[serde(default)]
justification: Option<String>,
}
```
Here, the absence of `shell` in the JSON is represented as `shell:
None`, rather than a hard-coded string value.
I think this might help with https://github.com/openai/codex/pull/7033
because `create_approval_requirement_for_command()` will soon need
access to `Session.state`, which is a `tokio::sync::Mutex` that needs to
be accessed via `async`.
This updates `ExecParams` so that instead of taking `timeout_ms:
Option<u64>`, it now takes a more general cancellation mechanism,
`ExecExpiration`, which is an enum that includes a
`Cancellation(tokio_util::sync::CancellationToken)` variant.
If the cancellation token is fired, then `process_exec_tool_call()`
returns in the same way as if a timeout was exceeded.
This is necessary so that in #6973, we can manage the timeout logic
external to the `process_exec_tool_call()` because we want to "suspend"
the timeout when an elicitation from a human user is pending.
---
[//]: # (BEGIN SAPLING FOOTER)
Stack created with [Sapling](https://sapling-scm.com). Best reviewed
with [ReviewStack](https://reviewstack.dev/openai/codex/pull/6972).
* #7005
* #6973
* __->__ #6972
This PR threads execpolicy2 into codex-core.
activated via feature flag: exec_policy (on by default)
reads and parses all .codexpolicy files in `codex_home/codex`
refactored tool runtime API to integrate execpolicy logic
---------
Co-authored-by: Michael Bolin <mbolin@openai.com>
Instead of returning structured out and then re-formatting it into
freeform, return the freeform output from shell_command tool.
Keep `shell` as the default tool for GPT-5.
- Local-shell tool responses were always tagged as
`ExecCommandSource::UserShell` because handler would call
`run_exec_like` with `is_user_shell_cmd` set to true.
- Treat `ToolPayload::LocalShell` the same as other model generated
shell tool calls by deleting `is_user_shell_cmd` from `run_exec_like`
(since actual user shell commands follow a separate code path)
This adds support for a new variant of the shell tool behind a flag. To
test, run `codex` with `--enable shell_command_tool`, which will
register the tool with Codex under the name `shell_command` that accepts
the following shape:
```python
{
command: str
workdir: str | None,
timeout_ms: int | None,
with_escalated_permissions: bool | None,
justification: str | None,
}
```
This is comparable to the existing tool registered under
`shell`/`container.exec`. The primary difference is that it accepts
`command` as a `str` instead of a `str[]`. The `shell_command` tool
executes by running `execvp(["bash", "-lc", command])`, though the exact
arguments to `execvp(3)` depend on the user's default shell.
The hypothesis is that this will simplify things for the model. For
example, on Windows, instead of generating:
```json
{"command": ["pwsh.exe", "-NoLogo", "-Command", "ls -Name"]}
```
The model could simply generate:
```json
{"command": "ls -Name"}
```
As part of this change, I extracted some logic out of `user_shell.rs` as
`Shell::derive_exec_args()` so that it can be reused in
`codex-rs/core/src/tools/handlers/shell.rs`. Note the original code
generated exec arg lists like:
```javascript
["bash", "-lc", command]
["zsh", "-lc", command]
["pwsh.exe", "-NoProfile", "-Command", command]
```
Using `-l` for Bash and Zsh, but then specifying `-NoProfile` for
PowerShell seemed inconsistent to me, so I changed this in the new
implementation while also adding a `use_login_shell: bool` option to
make this explicit. If we decide to add a `login: bool` to
`ShellCommandToolCallParams` like we have for unified exec:
https://github.com/openai/codex/blob/807e2c27f0a9f2e85c50e7e6df5533f0d9b853c7/codex-rs/core/src/tools/handlers/unified_exec.rs#L33-L34
Then this should make it straightforward to support.
feature: Add "!cmd" user shell execution
This change lets users run local shell commands directly from the TUI by
prefixing their input with ! (e.g. !ls). Output is truncated to keep the
exec cell usable, and Ctrl-C cleanly
interrupts long-running commands (e.g. !sleep 10000).
**Summary of changes**
- Route Op::RunUserShellCommand through a dedicated UserShellCommandTask
(core/src/tasks/user_shell.rs), keeping the task logic out of codex.rs.
- Reuse the existing tool router: the task constructs a ToolCall for the
local_shell tool and relies on ShellHandler, so no manual MCP tool
lookup is required.
- Emit exec lifecycle events (ExecCommandBegin/ExecCommandEnd) so the
TUI can show command metadata, live output, and exit status.
**End-to-end flow**
**TUI handling**
1. ChatWidget::submit_user_message (TUI) intercepts messages starting
with !.
2. Non-empty commands dispatch Op::RunUserShellCommand { command };
empty commands surface a help hint.
3. No UserInput items are created, so nothing is enqueued for the model.
**Core submission loop**
4. The submission loop routes the op to handlers::run_user_shell_command
(core/src/codex.rs).
5. A fresh TurnContext is created and Session::spawn_user_shell_command
enqueues UserShellCommandTask.
**Task execution**
6. UserShellCommandTask::run emits TaskStartedEvent, formats the
command, and prepares a ToolCall targeting local_shell.
7. ToolCallRuntime::handle_tool_call dispatches to ShellHandler.
**Shell tool runtime**
8. ShellHandler::run_exec_like launches the process via the unified exec
runtime, honoring sandbox and shell policies, and emits
ExecCommandBegin/End.
9. Stdout/stderr are captured for the UI, but the task does not turn the
resulting ToolOutput into a model response.
**Completion**
10. After ExecCommandEnd, the task finishes without an assistant
message; the session marks it complete and the exec cell displays the
final output.
**Conversation context**
- The command and its output never enter the conversation history or the
model prompt; the flow is local-only.
- Only exec/task events are emitted for UI rendering.
**Demo video**
https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/fcd114b0-4304-4448-a367-a04c43e0b996
It's pretty amazing we have gotten here without the ability for the
model to see image content from MCP tool calls.
This PR builds off of 4391 and fixes#4819. I would like @KKcorps to get
adequete credit here but I also want to get this fix in ASAP so I gave
him a week to update it and haven't gotten a response so I'm going to
take it across the finish line.
This test highlights how absured the current situation is. I asked the
model to read this image using the Chrome MCP
<img width="2378" height="674" alt="image"
src="https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/9ef52608-72a2-4423-9f5e-7ae36b2b56e0"
/>
After this change, it correctly outputs:
> Captured the page: image dhows a dark terminal-style UI labeled
`OpenAI Codex (v0.0.0)` with prompt `model: gpt-5-codex medium` and
working directory `/codex/codex-rs`
(and more)
Before this change, it said:
> Took the full-page screenshot you asked for. It shows a long,
horizontally repeating pattern of stylized people in orange, light-blue,
and mustard clothing, holding hands in alternating poses against a white
background. No text or other graphics-just rows of flat illustration
stretching off to the right.
Without this change, the Figma, Playwright, Chrome, and other visual MCP
servers are pretty much entirely useless.
I tested this change with the openai respones api as well as a third
party completions api
Today `sub_id` is an ID of a single incoming Codex Op submition. We then
associate all events triggered by this operation using the same
`sub_id`.
At the same time we are also creating a TurnContext per submission and
we'd like to start associating some events (item added/item completed)
with an entire turn instead of just the operation that started it.
Using turn context when sending events give us flexibility to change
notification scheme.
Adds a new ItemStarted event and delivers UserMessage as the first item
type (more to come).
Renames `InputItem` to `UserInput` considering we're using the `Item`
suffix for actual items.
## Summary
This PR is an alternative approach to #4711, but instead of changing our
storage, parses out shell calls in the client and reserializes them on
the fly before we send them out as part of the request.
What this changes:
1. Adds additional serialization logic when the
ApplyPatchToolType::Freeform is in use.
2. Adds a --custom-apply-patch flag to enable this setting on a
session-by-session basis.
This change is delicate, but is not meant to be permanent. It is meant
to be the first step in a migration:
1. (This PR) Add in-flight serialization with config
2. Update model_family default
3. Update serialization logic to store turn outputs in a structured
format, with logic to serialize based on model_family setting.
4. Remove this rewrite in-flight logic.
## Test Plan
- [x] Additional unit tests added
- [x] Integration tests added
- [x] Tested locally
# Tool System Refactor
- Centralizes tool definitions and execution in `core/src/tools/*`:
specs (`spec.rs`), handlers (`handlers/*`), router (`router.rs`),
registry/dispatch (`registry.rs`), and shared context (`context.rs`).
One registry now builds the model-visible tool list and binds handlers.
- Router converts model responses to tool calls; Registry dispatches
with consistent telemetry via `codex-rs/otel` and unified error
handling. Function, Local Shell, MCP, and experimental `unified_exec`
all flow through this path; legacy shell aliases still work.
- Rationale: reduce per‑tool boilerplate, keep spec/handler in sync, and
make adding tools predictable and testable.
Example: `read_file`
- Spec: `core/src/tools/spec.rs` (see `create_read_file_tool`,
registered by `build_specs`).
- Handler: `core/src/tools/handlers/read_file.rs` (absolute `file_path`,
1‑indexed `offset`, `limit`, `L#: ` prefixes, safe truncation).
- E2E test: `core/tests/suite/read_file.rs` validates the tool returns
the requested lines.
## Next steps:
- Decompose `handle_container_exec_with_params`
- Add parallel tool calls
jif-oai