## Why
An MCP refresh can replace the session's current manager while a model
step is still running. The step must execute calls through the same
manager whose tools it advertised.
## Boundary
```text
current session MCP runtime
|
| capture once for this model step
v
StepContext.mcp
- exact MCP config
- exact connection manager
- exact runtime environment context
```
```rust
pub struct McpRuntimeSnapshot {
config: Arc<McpConfig>,
manager: Arc<McpConnectionManager>,
runtime_context: McpRuntimeContext,
}
```
## Example
```text
step A captures runtime A and advertises A's tools
refresh publishes runtime B
step A tool call -> runtime A
next step -> runtime B
```
Capturing the snapshot is only an `Arc` clone. It does not restart MCPs
or make an RPC.
## What changes
- Captures one MCP runtime in `StepContext`.
- Uses it for tool planning, tool calls, resources, approvals, connector
attribution, and elicitation.
- Publishes replacement runtimes atomically.
- Lets an old runtime live only while an in-flight step or request still
holds its `Arc`.
Most of this diff is mechanical routing from the session-global manager
to `step_context.mcp`; it does not introduce selected-plugin discovery
yet.
## What does not change
- No plugin or extension migration.
- No new MCP cache policy.
- No environment file watching.
- No client sharing between separate managers.
## Stack
1. Extension-owned World State sections.
2. Project executor skills through World State.
3. **This PR:** 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
MCP authentication has distinct OAuth and ChatGPT-session flows.
Representing that choice as `use_chatgpt_auth` makes one flow implicit
and allows the configuration model to express the distinction only
through a boolean.
ChatGPT credential forwarding also needs a first-party trust boundary. A
configurable `chatgpt_base_url` controls routing, but must not grant an
MCP server permission to receive session credentials.
This change builds on #29733, where the boolean was introduced.
## What changed
- Replace `use_chatgpt_auth` with an `auth` field backed by the
exhaustive `McpServerAuth` enum.
- Support `auth = "oauth"` and `auth = "chatgpt"`, with OAuth remaining
the default.
- Trust only the origin derived from the existing hardcoded
`CHATGPT_CODEX_BASE_URL` when granting ChatGPT auth to an MCP server.
- Keep configured bearer tokens and authorization headers ahead of the
selected authentication flow.
- Update config writers, schema output, fixtures, and integration-test
setup to use the enum.
## Verification
Integration coverage exercises the complete streamable HTTP startup path
in two independent configurations:
- A directly constructed MCP configuration verifies that matching an
overridden `chatgpt_base_url` does not grant ChatGPT auth.
- A persisted `config.toml` containing an attacker-controlled
`chatgpt_base_url` and `auth = "chatgpt"` verifies the same boundary
through normal config parsing.
Both tests complete MCP initialization and tool listing and assert that
the full captured request sequence contains no authorization headers.
Separate integration coverage verifies that configured authorization
takes precedence over ChatGPT auth.
## Why
ChatGPT session authentication was inferred from the reserved Codex Apps
server name. That couples credential routing to Codex Apps-specific
behavior and prevents other MCP endpoints hosted by ChatGPT from
explicitly using the current session.
The opt-in also needs a clear security boundary: an arbitrary MCP
configuration must not be able to redirect ChatGPT credentials to
another origin.
## What changed
- Add `use_chatgpt_auth` to HTTP MCP server configuration, defaulting to
`false`.
- Honor the setting only when the parsed server URL has the same HTTP(S)
origin as the configured `chatgpt_base_url`; otherwise remove the
capability before startup.
- Resolve bearer tokens and static or environment-backed authorization
headers before selecting authentication, with configured authorization
taking precedence over ChatGPT session auth.
- Enable the setting for the built-in Codex Apps and hosted plugin
runtime endpoints while keeping Codex Apps caching and tool
normalization scoped to the reserved server.
- Persist the setting through MCP config rewrite paths and expose it in
the generated config schema.
- Load the current login state for `codex mcp list` so reported auth
status matches runtime behavior.
## Verification
Core integration coverage exercises the complete streamable HTTP MCP
startup path and verifies that:
- a same-origin opted-in server receives the current ChatGPT access
token;
- an explicitly configured authorization header takes precedence;
- a different-origin server completes MCP initialization and tool
listing without receiving any ChatGPT authorization header.
## Why
**In short:** this PR resolves already-discovered MCP registrations. It
does not read selected plugins or discover their MCP servers.
The resolved MCP catalog currently builds config and auto-discovered
plugin registrations before runtime contributors are applied. A
thread-selected plugin needs a distinct precedence tier in that same
initial resolution pass: otherwise a disabled lower-precedence winner
can leave stale name-level state behind, and the winning MCP tools
cannot be attributed to the selected package reliably.
This PR adds that catalog boundary before executor discovery is
connected.
## What changed
- Added an explicit selected-plugin registration tier between
auto-discovered plugins and explicit config.
- Collected selected-plugin contributions before the initial catalog
build, while leaving compatibility and generic extension overlays in
their existing runtime phase.
- Retained the winning plugin ID and display name directly on
plugin-owned catalog registrations.
- Derived MCP tool provenance from the winning catalog entry instead of
joining against local-only plugin summaries.
- Retained the winning selected server's tool approval policy in the
running connection manager, so a selected registration cannot inherit
approval behavior from a losing local plugin.
- Kept remembered approval session-scoped for selected plugins until
there is an authority-aware persistence contract; Codex will not write
approval back to an unrelated local plugin.
- Preserved existing name-level disabled vetoes for discovered plugins
and config, while keeping a selected package's own disabled registration
scoped to that registration.
- Preserved deterministic selection order and existing config,
compatibility, and extension precedence.
The resulting order is:
```text
auto-discovered plugin
< selected plugin
< explicit config
< compatibility registration
< extension overlay
```
## Behavior and scope
This is a catalog and provenance change only. No production host
contributes selected-plugin MCP registrations yet, so existing local MCP
behavior remains unchanged.
The stacked follow-up, #27870, installs the executor plugin provider
that produces these registrations. App-server activation remains a
separate final step.
## Verification
Focused tests cover precedence, deterministic selected-plugin conflicts,
disabled-veto behavior across catalog phases, managed requirements
before selected-plugin resolution, winning-server approval policy, and
attribution when local and selected packages share an ID or server name.
CI owns execution of the test suite.
## Why
MCP servers currently come from user config, local plugins,
compatibility Apps synthesis, and host extensions. Those sources were
composed by mutating a shared map, leaving registration identity,
precedence, removal, and provenance implicit in assembly order.
Before adding executor-owned MCPs, Codex needs one durable resolution
boundary above `McpConnectionManager`. This PR introduces that boundary
while preserving current server configuration, policy, and runtime
behavior. Executor-scoped registrations and explicit policy layers
remain follow-ups.
## What changed
- Add typed `McpServerRegistration` inputs and an immutable
`ResolvedMcpCatalog` in `codex-mcp`.
- Retain each registration's complete `McpServerConfig`, including its
environment binding, while recording its source and provenance.
- Preserve the existing structural precedence between plugin, config,
compatibility, and ordered extension sources.
- Resolve equal-precedence actions by contribution order; provenance IDs
are used only for diagnostics and cannot affect the winner.
- Preserve extension removals and the existing name-scoped `enabled =
false` veto.
- Report same-tier conflicts with every contender and the final catalog
outcome, including whether the winning action registers or removes the
server.
- Require MCP contributors to provide a stable diagnostic identity.
- Derive materialized server maps and plugin ownership from the resolved
catalog.
`McpConnectionManager`, transport startup, tool calls, and resource
routing continue to consume the same effective `McpServerConfig` values.
## Scope
This PR does not add new MCP capabilities or change user-visible
behavior. It does not add executor plugin discovery, thread-scoped
registrations, dynamic refresh generations, or new user/managed policy
semantics.
## Verification
- Added focused catalog coverage for source precedence, complete
configuration preservation, disabled vetoes, plugin ownership,
contribution-order tie breaking, removal outcomes, and conflict
diagnostics.
- Extended hosted Apps coverage for ordered extension removal and
Apps-disabled hosts with and without the hosted extension installed.
- `cargo check -p codex-mcp --tests -p codex-extension-api -p
codex-core`
