openclaw-openclaw/docs/plugins/codex-harness-reference.md

summary, title, read_when

summary	title	read_when
Configuration, auth, discovery, and app-server reference for the Codex harness	Codex harness reference	You need every Codex harness config field You are changing app-server transport, auth, discovery, or timeout behavior You are debugging Codex harness startup, model discovery, or environment isolation

This reference covers detailed configuration for the bundled 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:

Field	Default	Meaning
discovery	enabled	Model discovery settings for Codex app-server model/list.
appServer	managed stdio app-server	Transport, command, auth, approval, sandbox, and timeout settings.
codexDynamicToolsLoading	"searchable"	Use "direct" to put OpenClaw dynamic tools directly in the initial Codex tool context.
codexDynamicToolsExclude	[]	Additional OpenClaw dynamic tool names to omit from Codex app-server turns.
codexPlugins	disabled	Native Codex plugin/app support for migrated source-installed curated plugins. See Native Codex plugins.
computerUse	disabled	Codex Computer Use setup. See Codex Computer Use.

App-server transport

By default OpenClaw starts the managed Codex binary shipped with the bundled plugin (currently @openai/codex 0.142.5):

codex app-server --listen stdio://

This keeps the app-server version tied to the bundled codex plugin instead of whichever separate Codex CLI happens to be installed locally. Set appServer.command only when you intentionally want a different executable.

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:

Field	Default	Meaning
transport	"stdio"	"stdio" spawns Codex; "websocket" connects to url.
homeScope	"agent"	"agent" isolates Codex state per OpenClaw agent. "user" shares the native $CODEX_HOME or ~/.codex, uses native auth, and enables owner-only thread management. User scope requires stdio.
command	managed Codex binary	Executable for stdio transport. Leave unset to use the managed binary.
args	["app-server", "--listen", "stdio://"]	Arguments for stdio transport.
url	unset	WebSocket app-server URL.
authToken	unset	Bearer token for WebSocket transport. Accepts a literal string or SecretInput such as ${CODEX_APP_SERVER_TOKEN}.
headers	{}	Extra WebSocket headers. Header values accept literal strings or SecretInput values, for example x-codex-client-session-token: "${CODEX_CLIENT_SESSION_TOKEN}".
clearEnv	[]	Extra environment variable names removed from the spawned stdio app-server process after OpenClaw builds its inherited environment.
remoteWorkspaceRoot	unset	Remote Codex app-server workspace root. When set, OpenClaw infers the local workspace root from the resolved OpenClaw workspace, preserves the current cwd suffix under this remote root, and sends only the final app-server cwd to Codex. If the cwd is outside the resolved OpenClaw workspace root, OpenClaw fails closed instead of sending a gateway-local path to the remote app-server.
requestTimeoutMs	60000	Timeout for app-server control-plane calls.
turnCompletionIdleTimeoutMs	60000	Quiet window after Codex accepts a turn or after a turn-scoped app-server request while OpenClaw waits for turn/completed.
postToolRawAssistantCompletionIdleTimeoutMs	300000	Completion-idle and progress guard used after a tool handoff, native tool completion, post-tool raw assistant progress, raw reasoning completion, or reasoning progress while OpenClaw waits for turn/completed. Use this for trusted or heavy workloads where post-tool synthesis can legitimately stay quiet longer than the final assistant release budget.
mode	"yolo" unless local Codex requirements disallow YOLO	Preset for YOLO or guardian-reviewed execution.
approvalPolicy	"never" or an allowed guardian approval policy	Native Codex approval policy sent to thread start, resume, and turn.
sandbox	"danger-full-access" or an allowed guardian sandbox	Native Codex sandbox mode sent to thread start and resume. Active OpenClaw sandboxes narrow danger-full-access turns to Codex workspace-write; the turn network flag follows OpenClaw sandbox egress.
approvalsReviewer	"user" or an allowed guardian reviewer	Use "auto_review" to let Codex review native approval prompts when allowed.
defaultWorkspaceDir	current process directory	Workspace used by /codex bind when --cwd is omitted.
serviceTier	unset	Optional Codex app-server service tier. "priority" enables fast-mode routing, "flex" requests flex processing, and null clears the override. Legacy "fast" is accepted as "priority".
networkProxy	disabled	Opt into Codex permissions-profile networking for app-server commands. OpenClaw defines the selected permissions.<profile>.network config and selects it with default_permissions instead of sending sandbox.
experimental.sandboxExecServer	false	Preview opt-in that registers an OpenClaw sandbox-backed Codex environment with Codex app-server 0.132.0 or newer so native Codex execution can run inside the active OpenClaw sandbox.

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 0.125.0 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.

On Docker-backed OpenClaw sandbox hosts (`agents.defaults.sandbox.mode` set to a Docker backend), `openclaw doctor` probes whether the host allows the unprivileged user (and, when Docker sandbox network egress is disabled, network) namespaces that nested Codex `bwrap` needs for `workspace-write` shell execution inside the sandbox container. A failed probe usually surfaces as `bwrap: setting up uid map: Permission denied` or `bwrap: loopback: Failed RTM_NEWADDR: Operation not permitted` on Ubuntu/AppArmor hosts. Fix the reported host namespace policy for the OpenClaw service user and restart the gateway; prefer a scoped AppArmor profile for the service process over the host-wide `kernel.apparmor_restrict_unprivileged_userns=0` fallback, and do not grant broader Docker container privileges just to satisfy nested `bwrap`.

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 requires Codex app-server 0.132.0 or newer.

{
  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-stdio-only mode 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.

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-run
openclaw 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.

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:

Model id	Display name	Reasoning efforts
gpt-5.5	gpt-5.5	low, medium, high, xhigh
gpt-5.4-mini	GPT-5.4-Mini	low, medium, high, xhigh

The current bundled harness is `@openai/codex` `0.142.5`. A `model/list` probe against that bundled app-server returned these public picker rows beyond the fallback catalog:

Model id	Input modalities	Reasoning efforts
gpt-5.5	text, image	low, medium, high, xhigh
gpt-5.4	text, image	low, medium, high, xhigh
gpt-5.4-mini	text, image	low, medium, high, xhigh
gpt-5.3-codex-spark	text	low, medium, high, xhigh

Live picker rows are account-scoped and can change with the account, Codex catalog, or bundled version; run /codex models for the current list rather than relying on any point-in-time table. Hidden models can also appear in the app-server catalog for internal or specialized flows without being normal model-picker choices.

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
• Native Codex plugins
• Codex Computer Use
• OpenAI provider
• Configuration reference