## Stack
- Base: #27184
- This PR is the second vertical and should be reviewed against
`jif/external-plugins-1`, not `main`.
## Why
CCA is moving toward a split runtime where the orchestrator may have no
filesystem or executor, but it still needs to activate remotely hosted
plugin components. HTTP MCP servers are the simplest complete example:
they need configuration and host authentication, but they do not need an
executor process.
The Apps MCP endpoint is currently synthesized by a special-purpose
loader inside the MCP runtime. That works locally, but it leaves hosted
MCP activation outside the extension model being established in #27184.
It also makes the Apps path a poor foundation for plugins whose skills,
MCP servers, connectors, and hooks may come from different sources or
execute in different places.
This PR moves that one behavior behind an extension-owned contribution
while preserving the existing local fallback. It deliberately does not
introduce a generic plugin activation framework.
## What changed
### MCP extension contribution
`codex-extension-api` gains an ordered `McpServerContributor` contract.
A contributor returns typed `Set` or `Remove` overlays for MCP server
configuration; later contributors win for the names they own.
The contract stays at the existing MCP configuration boundary.
Extensions do not create a second connection manager or transport
abstraction.
### Hosted Apps MCP extension
A new `codex-mcp-extension` contributes the reserved `codex_apps` server
from the existing Apps feature, ChatGPT base URL, path override, and
product SKU configuration.
When `apps_mcp_path_override` is enabled for `https://chatgpt.com`, the
resulting streamable HTTP endpoint is
`https://chatgpt.com/backend-api/ps/mcp`. The existing ChatGPT-auth gate
remains authoritative, so this server can run in an orchestrator-only
process without being exposed for API-key sessions.
### One resolved runtime view
`McpManager` now distinguishes three views:
- **configured:** config- and plugin-backed servers before extension
overlays;
- **runtime:** configured servers plus host-installed extension
contributions;
- **effective:** runtime servers after auth gating and compatibility
built-ins.
App-server installs the hosted MCP extension and uses the runtime view
for thread startup, refresh, status, threadless resource reads,
connector discovery, and MCP OAuth lookup. This keeps
`mcpServer/oauth/login` consistent with the servers exposed by the other
MCP APIs. The hosted Apps server itself continues to use existing
ChatGPT host authentication rather than MCP OAuth.
## Compatibility
Hosts that do not install the MCP extension retain the existing Apps MCP
synthesis path. This preserves current local-only, CLI, and
standalone-host behavior while app-server exercises the extension path.
Disabling Apps removes the reserved `codex_apps` entry, and losing
ChatGPT auth removes it from the effective runtime view. Executor
availability is not consulted for this HTTP transport.
## Follow-ups
The next vertical will resolve a manifest-declared stdio MCP server from
an executor-selected plugin root and execute it in the environment that
owns that root. Later verticals can add backend-owned skills, connector
metadata, hooks, durable selection semantics, and incremental local
convergence without changing the component-specific runtime boundaries
introduced here.
## Verification
Focused coverage was added for:
- contributing the hosted Apps MCP at `/backend-api/ps/mcp` without an
executor;
- requiring ChatGPT auth in the effective runtime view;
- removing a reserved configured Apps server when the Apps feature is
disabled.
`cargo check -p codex-app-server -p codex-mcp-extension -p
codex-extension-api -p codex-mcp` passed. Tests and Clippy were not run
locally under the current development instruction; CI provides the full
validation pass.
## 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.
## Stack
1. [#26547](https://github.com/openai/codex/pull/26547) - [1 of 2] Align
goal extension with core behavior
2. [#26548](https://github.com/openai/codex/pull/26548) - [2 of 2] Move
goal runtime to extension
## Why
This PR completes the switch of the goal behavior to the
extension-backed runtime and removes the old core goal implementation.
## What Changed
- Installs the goal extension for app-server `ThreadManager` sessions.
- Routes app-server thread goal `get`, `set`, and `clear` through
`GoalService`.
- Uses thread-idle lifecycle emission after goal resume and snapshot
ordering so the extension can decide whether to continue the goal.
- Forwards extension goal updates through a FIFO async app-server
notification path so backpressure does not drop them or reorder updates.
- Keeps review turns from enabling goal runtime behavior.
- Plans extension tools before dynamic tools so built-in goal tool names
keep their old precedence when goals are enabled.
- Removes the old core goal runtime, core goal tool handlers, and core
goal tool specs.
- Updates tests that were coupled to the core-owned goal runtime while
leaving the legacy `<goal_context>` compatibility path in core for old
threads.
- Removes the stale cargo-shear ignore now that `codex-goal-extension`
is used by the workspace.
- Keeps realtime event matching exhaustive after removing the old
goal-specific realtime text path.
## Validation
- Ran manual `/goal` runs in TUI. Validated time accounting matched
wall-clock time and goal lifecycle state transitions.
## Why
Add a standalone image generation path that can be exercised
independently of hosted Responses image generation, while retaining the
hosted tool as fallback unless the extension is actually available to
the model.
## What changed
- Added the `codex-image-generation-extension` crate with standalone
generate/edit execution, prior-image selection for edits, model-visible
image output, and local generated-image persistence.
- Installed the extension in app-server behind the disabled-by-default
`imagegenext` feature and backend eligibility checks.
- Updated core tool planning so eligible `image_gen.imagegen` exposure
replaces hosted `image_generation`, while unavailable configurations
retain hosted fallback.
- Added coverage for extension behavior, edit history reuse, feature
gating, auth eligibility, and hosted-tool replacement.
- The extension is installed through app-server only in this PR; other
execution paths retain hosted image generation because hosted
replacement occurs only when the standalone executor is actually
registered and model-visible.
- The initial extension contract intentionally fixes the image model to
`gpt-image-2` and uses automatic image parameters.
- Native generated-image history/card parity and rollout persistence
cleanup are intentionally deferred follow-up work.
## Validation
- `just test -p codex-image-generation-extension`
- `just test -p codex-features`
- `just test -p codex-core
hosted_tools_follow_provider_auth_model_and_config_gates`
- `just test -p codex-app-server`
- `just fix -p codex-image-generation-extension -p codex-features -p
codex-core -p codex-app-server`
- `just fmt`
- `just bazel-lock-update`
- `just bazel-lock-check`
---------
Co-authored-by: jif-oai <jif@openai.com>
## Summary
Add the extension-backed standalone `web.run` tool so Codex can call the
standalone search endpoint through the `codex-api` search client and
return its encrypted output to Responses.
- gate the new tool behind `standalone_web_search`
- install the extension in the app-server thread registry and hide
hosted `web_search` when standalone search is enabled for OpenAI
providers so the two paths stay mutually exclusive
- build search context from persisted history using a small tail
heuristic: previous user message, assistant text between the last two
user turns capped at about 1k tokens, and current user message
## Test Plan
- `cargo test -p codex-web-search-extension`
- `cargo test -p codex-api`
- `cargo test -p codex-core
hosted_tools_follow_provider_auth_model_and_config_gates`
## Why
The goal extension already emits `ThreadGoalUpdated` events, but
production app-server thread extensions were built with the default
no-op extension event sink. That meant extension-driven goal updates
could be produced without ever reaching app-server clients.
## What changed
- Build app-server thread extensions with a host-provided
`ExtensionEventSink`.
- Add an app-server sink that converts extension `ThreadGoalUpdated`
events into `ServerNotification::ThreadGoalUpdated` broadcasts.
- Use the existing bounded outgoing message channel via `try_send` so
event forwarding cannot create an unbounded queue.
- Pass `NoopExtensionEventSink` in app-server tests that construct a
`ThreadManager` without an app-server host.
- Refresh `Cargo.lock` for the existing `codex-memories-extension`
`codex-otel` dependency.
## Verification
- `just test -p codex-app-server
extensions::tests::app_server_event_sink_forwards_thread_goal_updates`
## Summary
- let the memories extension capture the process-global OTEL metrics
client at install time
- keep app-server/TUI/exec extension construction APIs unchanged
- store the metrics client for future memory metrics without emitting
any metrics yet
## Test plan
- `just fmt`
- `just bazel-lock-update`
- `just bazel-lock-check`
- Not run: tests/clippy per request; CI will cover them
## Why
Memory prompt injection should be owned by the extension path that
app-server composes at runtime, not by an inlined special case inside
`codex-core`. This keeps `codex-core` focused on session orchestration
while allowing the memories extension to own its app-server prompt
behavior.
## What Changed
- Registers `codex-memories-extension` in the app-server extension
registry.
- Moves the memory developer-instruction injection out of
`core/src/session/mod.rs` and into the memories extension prompt
contributor.
- Adds config-change handling so the extension keeps its per-thread
memory settings in sync after startup.
- Leaves memories read/retrieval tools unregistered for now so this PR
only changes prompt injection.
- Removes the stale `cargo-shear` ignore now that app-server depends on
the extension crate.
## Validation
Not run locally; validation is left to CI.
Part 1 of guardian as extension. This bind all the logic to spawn
another agent from an extension and it adds `ThreadId` in the start
thread collaborator
## Why
[#21736](https://github.com/openai/codex/pull/21736) introduces the
typed extension API, but the runtime does not yet carry a registry
through thread/session startup or give contributors host-owned stores to
read from. This PR wires that host-side path so later feature migrations
can move product-specific behavior behind typed contributions without
adding another bespoke seam directly to `codex-core`.
## What changed
- Thread `ExtensionRegistry<Config>` through `ThreadManager`,
`CodexSpawnArgs`, `Session`, and sub-agent spawn paths.
- Wire `ThreadStartContributor` and `ContextContributor`
- Expose the small supporting surface needed by non-core callers that
construct threads directly, including `empty_extension_registry()`
through `codex-core-api`.
This PR lands the host plumbing only: the app-server registry is still
empty, and concrete feature migrations are intended to follow
separately.
jif