Codex harness reference

This reference covers detailed configuration for the official codex plugin. For setup and routing decisions, start with Codex harness.

Plugin config surface

All Codex harness settings live under plugins.entries.codex.config.

{  plugins: {    entries: {      codex: {        enabled: true,        config: {          discovery: {            enabled: true,            timeoutMs: 2500,          },          appServer: {            mode: "guardian",          },        },      },    },  },}

Top-level fields:

Supervision

Supervision lists non-archived Codex sessions from the Gateway computer and opted-in paired nodes. Enable it independently from the agent harness:

{  plugins: {    entries: {      codex: {        enabled: true,        config: {          supervision: {            enabled: true,          },        },      },    },  },}

supervision fields:

Endpoint entries accept these fields:

The Codex Sessions page uses the plugin's supervision App Server and shows only non-archived sessions. Without explicit appServer connection settings, that connection is managed user-home stdio. Stored or idle local rows can create a model-locked Chat with bounded user and assistant history through the last terminal persisted source turn. Its private binding keeps the snapshot fork, canonical appServer-source branch, history injection, and later turns on that connection. The first canonical start uses the pair returned by the fork. Later resumes omit OpenClaw model and provider overrides so Codex restores the canonical thread's persisted pair; a separate native change can update that pair, but the outer model and fallback chain never replace it. Stored and idle rows can be archived after no-other-runner confirmation, unless another active OpenClaw binding owns the exact target or one of its non-archived spawned descendants. OpenClaw follows Codex's descendant pagination and fails closed on enumeration errors, cycles, or safety-limit exhaustion. Confirmation still covers unknown native clients and the status-to-archive race. A supervised model-locked Chat cannot be deleted while it protects the native binding. Active sources cannot create a branch or be archived, but an existing supervised Chat can still be opened. Every paired-node row stays read-only; the node transport does not yet provide the streaming lifecycle needed by the harness.

appServer.homeScope: "user" alone changes which Codex home a managed harness process uses; it does not publish the fleet catalog. Enabling supervision does not change the harness default. Instead, the separate supervision connection defaults to managed user-home stdio when no explicit appServer connection settings exist. Explicit settings are honored for that connection. Pending and committed supervised bindings retain that connection for every turn; disabled supervision or connection/lifecycle drift fails closed instead of falling back to the agent-home harness. The default connection shares stored sessions with native Codex clients, not their process-local activity state.

Legacy plugins.entries.codex-supervisor settings are retired. Run openclaw doctor --fix to migrate the old entry, endpoint definitions, policy flags, and plugin allow/deny references into this block. Explicit canonical codex.config.supervision values win conflicts.

App-server transport

For ordinary harness turns, OpenClaw starts the managed Codex binary shipped with the official plugin (currently @openai/codex 0.144.1):

codex app-server --listen stdio://

This keeps the app-server version tied to the official codex plugin instead of whichever separate Codex CLI happens to be installed locally. Set appServer.command only when you intentionally want a different executable. Ordinary managed turns with the default isolated agent home prefer this pinned package even when a macOS desktop bundle is installed. When Computer Use is enabled, or when homeScope is "user" and can load native Computer Use state, managed startup instead prefers the desktop app binary that owns the required macOS permissions. The same desktop-first rule applies when an isolated agent home's effective Codex config enables native Computer Use. If no desktop app bundle is installed, OpenClaw falls back to the pinned package binary.

Executable handoff and native-config fencing coordinate clients inside one running Gateway process. Restart the Gateway after another process changes the native Codex plugin config.

Supervision resolves a separate connection. With no explicit appServer connection settings, it uses managed stdio with homeScope: "user"; the ordinary harness remains managed stdio with homeScope: "agent". Explicit connection settings are honored by both paths. Set homeScope: "user" explicitly when the ordinary harness should share $CODEX_HOME (or ~/.codex) with native clients. A private supervised binding uses the supervision connection regardless of the ordinary harness default. Independent App Server processes retain separate live status and approval state.

For an already-running app-server, use WebSocket transport:

{  plugins: {    entries: {      codex: {        enabled: true,        config: {          appServer: {            transport: "websocket",            url: "ws://gateway-host:39175",            authToken: "${CODEX_APP_SERVER_TOKEN}",            requestTimeoutMs: 60000,          },        },      },    },  },}

appServer fields:

appServer.networkProxy is explicit because it changes the Codex sandbox contract. When enabled, OpenClaw also sets features.network_proxy.enabled and default_permissions in the Codex thread config so the generated permission profile can start Codex-managed networking. OpenClaw generates a collision-resistant openclaw-network-<fingerprint> profile name from the profile body by default; use profileName only when a stable local name is required.

export default {  plugins: {    entries: {      codex: {        config: {          appServer: {            sandbox: "workspace-write",            networkProxy: {              enabled: true,              domains: {                "api.openai.com": "allow",                "blocked.example.com": "deny",              },              allowUpstreamProxy: true,              proxyUrl: "http://127.0.0.1:3128",            },          },        },      },    },  },};

If the normal app-server runtime would be danger-full-access, enabling networkProxy uses workspace-style filesystem access for the generated permission profile instead. Codex-managed network enforcement is sandboxed networking, so a full-access profile would not protect outbound traffic.

The plugin blocks older or unversioned app-server handshakes: Codex app-server must report stable version 0.143.0 or newer.

OpenClaw treats non-loopback WebSocket app-server URLs as remote and requires identity-bearing WebSocket auth through appServer.authToken or an Authorization header. appServer.authToken and each appServer.headers.* value can be a SecretInput; the secrets runtime resolves SecretRefs and env shorthand before OpenClaw builds app-server start options, and unresolved structured SecretRefs fail before any token or header is sent. When native Codex plugins are configured, OpenClaw uses the connected app-server's plugin control plane to install or refresh those plugins and then refreshes app inventory so plugin-owned apps are visible to the Codex thread. app/list is still the authoritative inventory and metadata source, but OpenClaw policy decides whether thread/start sends config.apps[appId].enabled = true for a listed accessible app even if Codex currently marks it disabled. Unknown or missing app ids remain fail-closed; this path only activates marketplace plugins via plugin/install and refreshes inventory. Only connect OpenClaw to remote app-servers that are trusted to accept OpenClaw-managed plugin installs and app inventory refreshes.

Approval and sandbox modes

Local stdio app-server sessions default to YOLO mode: approvalPolicy: "never", approvalsReviewer: "user", and sandbox: "danger-full-access". This trusted local operator posture lets unattended OpenClaw turns and heartbeats make progress without native approval prompts that nobody is around to answer.

If Codex's local system requirements file disallows implicit YOLO approval, reviewer, or sandbox values, OpenClaw treats the implicit default as guardian instead and selects allowed guardian permissions. tools.exec.mode: "auto" also forces guardian-reviewed Codex approvals and does not preserve unsafe legacy approvalPolicy: "never" or sandbox: "danger-full-access" overrides; set tools.exec.mode: "full" for an intentional no-approval posture. Hostname-matching [[remote_sandbox_config]] entries in the same requirements file are honored for the sandbox default decision.

Set appServer.mode: "guardian" for Codex guardian-reviewed approvals:

{  plugins: {    entries: {      codex: {        enabled: true,        config: {          appServer: {            mode: "guardian",            serviceTier: "priority",          },        },      },    },  },}

The guardian preset expands to approvalPolicy: "on-request", approvalsReviewer: "auto_review", and sandbox: "workspace-write" when those values are allowed. Individual policy fields override mode. The older guardian_subagent reviewer value is still accepted as a compatibility alias, but new configs should use auto_review.

When an OpenClaw sandbox is active, the local Codex app-server process still runs on the Gateway host. OpenClaw therefore disables Codex native Code Mode, user MCP servers, and app-backed plugin execution for that turn instead of treating Codex host-side sandboxing as equivalent to the OpenClaw sandbox backend. Shell access is exposed through OpenClaw sandbox-backed dynamic tools such as sandbox_exec and sandbox_process when the normal exec/process tools are available.

Sandboxed native execution

The stable default is fail-closed: active OpenClaw sandboxing disables native Codex execution surfaces that would otherwise run from the Codex app-server host. Use appServer.experimental.sandboxExecServer: true only when you want to try Codex's remote environment support with OpenClaw's sandbox backend. This preview path works with every supported Codex app-server version.

{  plugins: {    entries: {      codex: {        enabled: true,        config: {          appServer: {            experimental: {              sandboxExecServer: true,            },          },        },      },    },  },}

When the flag is on and the current OpenClaw session is sandboxed, OpenClaw starts a local loopback exec-server backed by the active sandbox, registers it with Codex app-server, and starts the Codex thread and turn with that OpenClaw-owned environment. If the app-server cannot register the environment, the run fails closed instead of silently falling back to host execution.

This preview path is local-only. A remote WebSocket app-server cannot reach the loopback exec-server unless it is running on the same host, so OpenClaw rejects that combination.

Auth and environment isolation

In the default per-agent home, auth is selected in this order:

1. An explicit OpenClaw Codex auth profile for the agent.
2. The app-server's existing account in that agent's Codex home.
3. For local stdio app-server launches only, CODEX_API_KEY, then OPENAI_API_KEY, when no app-server account is present and OpenAI auth is still required.

When OpenClaw sees a ChatGPT subscription-style Codex auth profile (OAuth or token credential type), it removes CODEX_API_KEY and OPENAI_API_KEY from the spawned Codex child process. That keeps Gateway-level API keys available for embeddings or direct OpenAI models without making native Codex app-server turns bill through the API by accident.

Explicit Codex API-key profiles and local stdio env-key fallback use app-server login instead of inherited child-process env. WebSocket app-server connections do not receive Gateway env API-key fallback; use an explicit auth profile or the remote app-server's own account.

Stdio app-server launches inherit OpenClaw's process environment by default. OpenClaw owns the Codex app-server account bridge and sets CODEX_HOME to a per-agent directory under that agent's OpenClaw state. That keeps Codex config, accounts, plugin cache/data, and thread state scoped to the OpenClaw agent instead of leaking in from the operator's personal ~/.codex home.

Set appServer.homeScope: "user" to share native Codex state with Codex Desktop and the CLI. This local user-home mode supports managed stdio and explicit Unix transport. It uses $CODEX_HOME when set and ~/.codex otherwise, including native auth, config, plugins, and threads. OpenClaw skips its auth-profile bridge for the app-server. Verified owner turns can use codex_threads to list (with an optional search filter), read, fork, rename, archive, and unarchive those threads. Fork a thread before continuing it in OpenClaw; independent Codex processes do not coordinate concurrent writers for the same thread.

That homeScope opt-in applies to ordinary harness sessions. A Chat created through Codex Sessions uses its private supervision connection instead, which preserves the native connection's auth and provider configuration for the canonical branch and future resumes.

In a model-locked supervised Chat, codex_threads cannot attach a different fork or archive the Chat's bound native thread. List and metadata-only read remain available. Raw transcript reads require allowRawTranscripts; when it is disabled, list search is also rejected because native search can match transcript previews. Rename, unarchive, detached fork, and archive of an unrelated thread not owned by another OpenClaw Chat require allowWriteControls. Neither option bypasses a locked binding.

OpenClaw does not rewrite HOME for normal local app-server launches. Codex-run subprocesses such as openclaw, gh, git, cloud CLIs, and shell commands see the normal process home and can find user-home config and tokens. Codex may also discover $HOME/.agents/skills and $HOME/.agents/plugins/marketplace.json; that .agents discovery is intentionally shared with the operator home and is separate from isolated ~/.codex state.

In the default agent scope, OpenClaw plugins and OpenClaw skill snapshots still flow through OpenClaw's own plugin registry and skill loader; personal Codex ~/.codex assets do not. If you have useful Codex CLI skills or plugins from a Codex home that should become part of an isolated OpenClaw agent, inventory them explicitly:

openclaw migrate codex --dry-runopenclaw migrate apply codex --yes

If a deployment needs additional environment isolation, add those variables to appServer.clearEnv:

{  plugins: {    entries: {      codex: {        enabled: true,        config: {          appServer: {            clearEnv: ["CODEX_API_KEY", "OPENAI_API_KEY"],          },        },      },    },  },}

appServer.clearEnv only affects the spawned Codex app-server child process. OpenClaw removes CODEX_HOME and HOME from this list during local launch normalization: CODEX_HOME stays pointed at the selected agent or user scope, and HOME stays inherited so subprocesses can use normal user-home state.

Dynamic tools

Codex dynamic tools default to searchable loading, exposed under the openclaw namespace with deferLoading: true. OpenClaw does not expose dynamic tools that duplicate Codex-native workspace operations or Codex's own tool-search surface:

• read
• write
• edit
• apply_patch
• exec
• process
• update_plan
• tool_call
• tool_describe
• tool_search
• tool_search_code

Most remaining OpenClaw integration tools, such as messaging, media, cron, browser, nodes, gateway, heartbeat_respond, and web_search, are available through Codex tool search under that namespace. This keeps the initial model context smaller. A small set of tools stay directly callable regardless of codexDynamicToolsLoading, because Codex tool search can be unavailable or resolve a connector-only universe: agents_list, sessions_spawn, and sessions_yield. Developer instructions still steer normal Codex subagents toward native spawn_agent for Codex-native subagent work, while sessions_spawn remains available for explicit OpenClaw or ACP delegation. Message-tool-only source replies also stay direct, since that is a turn-control contract.

Tools marked catalogMode: "direct-only", including the OpenClaw computer tool, are grouped under openclaw_direct. OpenClaw adds that namespace to Codex's code_mode.direct_only_tool_namespaces list without replacing operator-supplied entries. Codex therefore exposes those tools as DirectModelOnly in normal and code-mode-only threads instead of routing them through nested Code Mode tools.* calls. This boundary is required for image-bearing results: nested Code Mode serialization flattens image output to text, which would discard the screenshot needed for the next computer action.

Set codexDynamicToolsLoading: "direct" only when connecting to a custom Codex app-server that cannot search deferred dynamic tools or when debugging the full tool payload.

Timeouts

OpenClaw-owned dynamic tool calls are bounded independently from appServer.requestTimeoutMs. Each Codex item/tool/call request uses the first available timeout in this order:

• A positive per-call timeoutMs argument.
• For image_generate, agents.defaults.imageGenerationModel.timeoutMs.
• For image_generate without a configured timeout, the 120 second image-generation default.
• For the media-understanding image tool, tools.media.image.timeoutSeconds converted to milliseconds, or the 60 second media default. For image understanding, this applies to the request itself and is not reduced by earlier preparation work.
• For the message tool, a fixed 120 second default.
• The 90 second dynamic-tool default.

This watchdog is the outer dynamic item/tool/call budget. Provider-specific request timeouts run inside that call and keep their own timeout semantics. Dynamic tool budgets are capped at 600000 ms. On timeout, OpenClaw aborts the tool signal where supported and returns a failed dynamic-tool response to Codex so the turn can continue instead of leaving the session in processing.

After Codex accepts a turn, and after OpenClaw responds to a turn-scoped app-server request, the harness expects Codex to make current-turn progress and eventually finish the native turn with turn/completed. If the app-server goes quiet for appServer.turnCompletionIdleTimeoutMs, OpenClaw best-effort interrupts the Codex turn, records a diagnostic timeout, and releases the OpenClaw session lane so follow-up chat messages are not queued behind a stale native turn.

Most non-terminal notifications for the same turn disarm that short watchdog because Codex has proven the turn is still alive. Tool handoffs use a longer post-tool idle budget: after OpenClaw returns an item/tool/call response, after native tool items such as commandExecution complete, after raw custom_tool_call_output completions, and after post-tool raw assistant progress, raw reasoning completions, or reasoning progress. The guard uses appServer.postToolRawAssistantCompletionIdleTimeoutMs when configured and defaults to five minutes otherwise. That same post-tool budget also extends the progress watchdog for the silent synthesis window before Codex emits the next current-turn event. Reasoning completions, commentary agentMessage completions, and pre-tool raw reasoning or assistant progress can be followed by an automatic final reply, so they use the post-progress reply guard instead of releasing the session lane immediately. Only final/non-commentary completed agentMessage items and pre-tool raw assistant completions arm the assistant-output release: if Codex then goes quiet without turn/completed, OpenClaw best-effort interrupts the native turn and releases the session lane. Replay-safe stdio app-server failures, including turn-completion idle timeouts without assistant, tool, active-item, or side-effect evidence, are retried once on a fresh app-server attempt. Unsafe timeouts still retire the stuck app-server client and release the OpenClaw session lane. They also clear the stale native thread binding instead of being replayed automatically. Completion-watch timeouts surface Codex-specific timeout text: replay-safe cases say the response may be incomplete, while unsafe cases tell the user to verify current state before retrying. Public timeout diagnostics include structural fields such as the last app-server notification method, raw assistant response item id/type/role, active request/item counts, and armed watch state. When the last notification is a raw assistant response item, they also include a bounded assistant text preview. They do not include raw prompt or tool content.

Model discovery

By default, the Codex plugin asks the app-server for available models. Model availability is owned by Codex app-server, so the list can change when OpenClaw upgrades the bundled @openai/codex version or when a deployment points appServer.command at a different Codex binary. Availability can also be account-scoped. Use /codex models on a running gateway to see the live catalog for that harness and account.

If discovery fails or times out, OpenClaw uses a bundled fallback catalog:

Tune discovery under plugins.entries.codex.config.discovery:

{  plugins: {    entries: {      codex: {        enabled: true,        config: {          discovery: {            enabled: true,            timeoutMs: 2500,          },        },      },    },  },}

Disable discovery when you want startup to avoid probing Codex and use only the fallback catalog:

{  plugins: {    entries: {      codex: {        enabled: true,        config: {          discovery: {            enabled: false,          },        },      },    },  },}

Workspace bootstrap files

Codex handles AGENTS.md itself through native project-doc discovery. OpenClaw does not write synthetic Codex project-doc files or depend on Codex fallback filenames for persona files, because Codex fallbacks only apply when AGENTS.md is missing.

For OpenClaw workspace parity, the Codex harness forwards the other bootstrap files as developer instructions, but not identically:

• TOOLS.md is forwarded as inherited Codex developer instructions, so native Codex subagents spawned during the turn also see it.
• SOUL.md, IDENTITY.md, and USER.md are forwarded as turn-scoped collaboration instructions. Native Codex subagents do not inherit them, which keeps subagent turns from picking up the parent agent's persona and user profile.
• The compact loaded OpenClaw skills list is also forwarded as turn-scoped collaboration developer instructions, so native Codex subagents do not inherit it either.
• HEARTBEAT.md content is not injected; heartbeat turns get a collaboration-mode pointer to read the file when it exists and is non-empty.
• MEMORY.md content from the configured agent workspace is not pasted into native Codex turn input when memory tools are available for that workspace; when it exists, the harness adds a small workspace-memory pointer to turn-scoped collaboration developer instructions and Codex should use memory_search or memory_get when durable memory is relevant. If tools are disabled, memory search is unavailable, or the active workspace differs from the agent memory workspace, MEMORY.md uses the normal bounded turn-context path instead.
• BOOTSTRAP.md, when present, is forwarded as OpenClaw turn input reference context.

Environment overrides

Environment overrides remain available for local testing:

• OPENCLAW_CODEX_APP_SERVER_BIN
• OPENCLAW_CODEX_APP_SERVER_ARGS
• OPENCLAW_CODEX_APP_SERVER_MODE=yolo|guardian
• OPENCLAW_CODEX_APP_SERVER_APPROVAL_POLICY
• OPENCLAW_CODEX_APP_SERVER_SANDBOX

OPENCLAW_CODEX_APP_SERVER_BIN bypasses the managed binary when appServer.command is unset.

OPENCLAW_CODEX_APP_SERVER_GUARDIAN=1 was removed. Use plugins.entries.codex.config.appServer.mode: "guardian" instead, or OPENCLAW_CODEX_APP_SERVER_MODE=guardian for one-off local testing. Config is preferred for repeatable deployments because it keeps the plugin behavior in the same reviewed file as the rest of the Codex harness setup.

Related

• Codex harness
• Codex harness runtime
• Codex supervision
• Native Codex plugins
• Codex Computer Use
• OpenAI provider
• Configuration reference