## Why
`thread/list` can filter direct children with `parentThreadId`, but
clients cannot request an entire spawned subtree. Discovering every
descendant requires repeated client-side requests and gives up the
database's existing filtering and pagination path.
## What changed
Experimental clients can use `ancestorThreadId` to return strict
descendants at any depth while `parentThreadId` retains its direct-child
meaning. The filters are mutually exclusive, the ancestor is excluded,
and every result preserves its immediate `parentThreadId` so callers can
reconstruct the tree.
## How it works
- **Explicit relationship:** Internal list parameters distinguish direct
children from transitive descendants without changing the meaning of
`parentThreadId`.
- **Existing graph:** Persisted parent-child spawn edges remain the
source of truth, so descendant lookup needs no schema migration or
ancestry cache.
- **Indexed traversal:** A recursive SQLite query starts from the
parent-edge index, walks each generation, and applies thread filters,
sorting, and cursor pagination in the same database request.
- **Reconstructable results:** The response stays flat and normally
ordered while carrying each descendant's immediate parent.
## Verification
Ran 550 tests across the protocol, state, rollout, and thread-store
crates, then reran the four focused state, store, and app-server
descendant-listing tests after the final diff reduction. Scoped Clippy
and formatting checks passed. Stable and experimental schema generation
was checked; the stable fixtures remain unchanged while the experimental
schema includes the new field.
## Summary
- Revert #28655, restoring the thread `recencyAt` behavior introduced by
#27910.
- Move `threads_recency_at` to migration 0039 so it no longer collides
with `external_agent_config_imports` at version 0038.
- Repair databases that already applied the recency migration as version
38 by moving the matching migration-history row to version 39 before
SQLx validation. The current version-38 migration can then apply
normally.
## Validation
- `just test -p codex-state
migrations::tests::repairs_recency_migration_that_was_applied_as_version_38`
- `just test -p codex-state -p codex-rollout -p codex-thread-store -p
codex-app-server-protocol -p codex-tui`: 3,439 passed; six TUI tests
could not open the machine's existing read-only incident database at
`~/.codex/sqlite/state_5.sqlite`.
- `just fix -p codex-state`
- `just fmt`
- Verified that state migration versions are unique.
## Why
Revert #27910 to remove the newly introduced thread `recencyAt`
persistence and API behavior from `main`.
## What changed
This reverts commit `fac3158c2a783095768076489815f361fa9b0db4`,
including the state migration, thread-store propagation, app-server API
surface, generated schemas, and related tests.
## Validation
Not run before opening; relying on CI for the initial fast signal.
## Summary
Add a server-owned `recencyAt` timestamp and `recency_at` thread-list
sort key for product recency ordering while preserving the existing
meaning of `updatedAt` as the latest persisted thread mutation.
This is the server-side alternative to #27697. Rather than narrowing
`updatedAt`, clients can sort the sidebar by `recency_at` and continue
treating `updatedAt` as mutation time.
Paired Codex Apps PR:
[openai/openai#1024599](https://github.com/openai/openai/pull/1024599)
## Contract
- `recencyAt` initializes when a thread is created.
- A turn start advances `recencyAt` monotonically.
- Commentary, agent output, tool results, token/accounting updates, turn
completion, archive, unarchive, resume, and generic metadata writes do
not advance it.
- `updatedAt` retains its existing behavior and continues to advance for
persisted thread mutations.
- Current servers populate `recencyAt`; the response field is optional
in generated TypeScript so clients connected to older servers can fall
back to `updatedAt`.
- Filesystem-only fallback uses existing updated/mtime ordering when
SQLite is unavailable.
## Persistence and compatibility
Migration 0038 adds second- and millisecond-precision recency columns,
backfills them from the existing updated timestamp, creates list
indexes, and includes an insert trigger so older binaries writing to a
migrated database seed recency without causing later mutations to
advance it.
Generic metadata upserts preserve existing recency values. Turn-start
updates use a dedicated monotonic touch, and process-local allocation
keeps millisecond cursor values unique. State DB list, search, read,
filtered-list repair, rollout fallback propagation, and app-server
conversions all carry the new field.
## API
`Thread` responses include:
```ts
recencyAt?: number
```
`thread/list` and `thread/search` accept:
```json
{ "sortKey": "recency_at" }
```
Generated TypeScript and JSON schemas are included.
## Validation
- `just test -p codex-state` — 146 passed
- `just test -p codex-rollout` — 69 passed
- `just test -p codex-thread-store` — 81 passed
- `just test -p codex-app-server-protocol` — 231 passed
- Focused app-server list ordering, response mapping, archive/unarchive,
and resume lifecycle tests passed
- Scoped `just fix` for state, rollout, thread-store,
app-server-protocol, and app-server
- `just fmt`
- `git diff --check`
- Independent correctness, simplicity, elegance, security, and
test-quality reviews; actionable ordering, lifecycle, query-projection,
and timestamp-uniqueness findings were addressed
## Why
Clients that display or coordinate spawned subagents need an
authoritative snapshot of a thread's immediate spawned children when
they connect to app-server or recover after missing live events.
`thread/list` cannot query by parent, so clients must otherwise scan
unrelated threads or reconstruct relationships from rollout history and
transient events.
The direct spawn relationship already exists in persisted
`thread_spawn_edges` state. Review and Guardian threads do not
participate in that lifecycle and are intentionally outside this
filter's scope.
## What changed
This adds an experimental `parentThreadId` filter to `thread/list`.
Parent-filtered requests return direct spawned children from persisted
state while preserving the existing response shape, explicit filters,
sorting, and timestamp-only cursor behavior. The lookup does not read
rollout transcripts or recursively return descendants.
Supersedes #25112 with the narrower `thread/list` filter approach.
## How it works
1. An experimental client passes a valid thread ID as `parentThreadId`.
2. App-server routes the list through the existing thread-store and
state-database boundaries.
3. SQLite selects threads whose IDs have a direct persisted spawn edge
from that parent.
4. Omitted provider and source filters include all values; explicit
filters keep ordinary `thread/list` semantics.
5. Grandchildren, Review threads, and Guardian threads are excluded.
## Verification
State (144 tests), rollout (69 tests), and focused app-server
thread-list (31 tests) suites passed. Scoped Clippy checks and
repository formatting also passed. Coverage includes direct spawned
children, omitted grandchildren, pagination, malformed IDs, mixed source
kinds, explicit filters, and operation without rollout files.
Further investigation of the sqlite incidents showed that the problems
are due to corruption from the older version of SQLite that we recently
upgraded, and that the data is truly corrupted in the root database --
recovery of all data is not possible. Given that the data is
reconstructable from the rollouts on disk, we should just auto-backup
the database and let codex rebuild the rollout info from the disk
rollouts.
The new behavior is that appserver auto-backs-up and rebuilds (with logs
reflecting that behavior). The CLI now pops a message letting you know
this happened and the paths of the backed-up corrupt db and the new
database. There is also context added so that the desktop app can read
the rebuild info from it and inform the user with it.
## Summary
- preserve existing explicit SQLite thread titles during rollout
reconciliation/backfill when the incoming rollout title is only
first-message-derived
- keep stale inferred-title repair behavior while avoiding session-index
scans during startup backfill
- add a regression test for renamed titles surviving reconcile
## Testing
- just fmt
- just test -p codex-rollout
- just test -p codex-state
## Why
Local rollout compression needs a cold `.jsonl.zst` representation
without letting compressed physical paths leak into append-mode writers.
The unsafe case is resume or metadata update code successfully reading a
compressed rollout and then appending raw JSONL bytes to the zstd file.
This PR folds the former #25088 materialization slice into the
read-support PR so the reader changes and append-safety invariant land
together.
## What Changed
- Teach rollout readers, discovery, listing, search, and ID lookup to
understand compressed `.jsonl.zst` rollouts.
- Keep `.jsonl` as the logical/stored rollout path while allowing read
paths to open either plain or compressed storage.
- Materialize compressed rollouts back to plain `.jsonl` before
append-mode writes, including resume and direct metadata append paths.
- Preserve compressed-file permissions when materializing back to plain
JSONL.
- Refresh thread-store resolved rollout paths after compatibility
metadata writes so reconciliation follows the materialized file.
- Avoid treating transient compression temp files as real rollout lookup
results.
## Remaining Stack
#25089 remains the separate worker PR. It is based directly on this PR
and stays behind the disabled `local_thread_store_compression` feature
flag.
The worker still has a broader coordination question: a resume or
metadata update can race with background compression while a plain file
is being replaced by `.jsonl.zst`. This PR handles the read and
materialize-before-append primitives; it does not make the worker
production-ready.
## Validation
- `just test -p codex-rollout`
- `just test -p codex-thread-store`
- `just fix -p codex-rollout`
- `just fix -p codex-thread-store`
- `just bazel-lock-check`
## Why
Dynamic tools are defined at thread start and already stored in rollout
`SessionMeta`, which restores resumed and forked sessions. Persisting
the same tools through SQLite creates a second runtime persistence path
that is unnecessary prework for the explicit namespace refactor.
## What changed
- Restore missing thread-start dynamic tools directly from rollout
history, including when SQLite is enabled.
- Remove SQLite dynamic-tool reads, writes, backfill, and thread
metadata patch plumbing.
- Add SQLite-enabled resume integration coverage that verifies a
rollout-defined dynamic tool is still sent after resume.
## Compatibility
The existing `thread_dynamic_tools` table is intentionally not dropped
even though it's now unused. Older Codex binaries are allowed to open
databases migrated by newer binaries and still reference this table;
dropping it would break that mixed-version path. See
[here](https://github.com/openai/codex/blob/main/codex-rs/state/src/migrations.rs#L10-L11).
## Verification
- `just test -p codex-state -p codex-rollout -p codex-thread-store`
- `just test -p codex-core --test all
resume_restores_dynamic_tools_from_rollout_with_sqlite_enabled`
## Summary
Generated memory rows and their stage-one/stage-two job state currently
live in `state_5.sqlite` alongside thread metadata. That makes memory
cleanup and regeneration share the main state schema even though those
rows are memory-pipeline data and can be rebuilt independently from the
durable thread records.
This PR moves the memory-owned tables into a dedicated
`memories_1.sqlite` runtime database while keeping thread metadata in
`state_5.sqlite`.
## Changes
- Adds a separate memories DB runtime, migrator, path helpers, telemetry
kind, and Bazel compile data for `state/memory_migrations`.
- Introduces `MemoryStore` behind `StateRuntime::memories()` and moves
memory table/job operations onto that store.
- Drops the old memory tables from the state DB and recreates their
schema in `state/memory_migrations/0001_memories.sql`.
- Updates memory startup, citation usage tracking, rollout pollution
handling, `debug clear-memories`, and app-server `memory/reset` to
operate through the memories DB.
- Preserves cross-DB behavior by hydrating thread metadata from the
state DB when selecting visible memory outputs and checking stage-one
staleness.
## Verification
- Added/updated `codex-state` tests for deleted-thread memory visibility
and already-polluted phase-two enqueue behavior.
- Updated `debug clear-memories`, app-server `memory/reset`, and
memories startup tests to seed and assert memory rows through
`memories_1.sqlite`.
## Summary
- add SQLite init, backfill-gate, and fallback telemetry without
introducing a cross-cutting state-db access wrapper
- install one process-scoped telemetry sink after OTEL startup and let
low-level state/rollout paths emit through it directly
- add process-start metrics for the process owners that initialize
SQLite
---------
Co-authored-by: Owen Lin <owen@openai.com>
## Why
SQLite state was still being opened from consumer paths, including lazy
`OnceCell`-backed thread-store call sites. That let one process
construct multiple state DB connections for the same Codex home, which
makes SQLite lock contention and `database is locked` failures much
easier to hit.
State DB lifetime should be chosen by main-like entrypoints and tests,
then passed through explicitly. Consumers should use the supplied
`Option<StateDbHandle>` or `StateDbHandle` and keep their existing
filesystem fallback or error behavior when no handle is available.
The startup path also needs to keep the rollout crate in charge of
SQLite state initialization. Opening `codex_state::StateRuntime`
directly bypasses rollout metadata backfill, so entrypoints should
initialize through `codex_rollout::state_db` and receive a handle only
after required rollout backfills have completed.
## What Changed
- Initialize the state DB in main-like entrypoints for CLI, TUI,
app-server, exec, MCP server, and the thread-manager sample.
- Pass `Option<StateDbHandle>` through `ThreadManager`,
`LocalThreadStore`, app-server processors, TUI app wiring, rollout
listing/recording, personality migration, shell snapshot cleanup,
session-name lookup, and memory/device-key consumers.
- Remove the lazy local state DB wrapper from the thread store so
non-test consumers use only the supplied handle or their existing
fallback path.
- Make `codex_rollout::state_db::init` the local state startup path: it
opens/migrates SQLite, runs rollout metadata backfill when needed, waits
for concurrent backfill workers up to a bounded timeout, verifies
completion, and then returns the initialized handle.
- Keep optional/non-owning SQLite helpers, such as remote TUI local
reads, as open-only paths that do not run startup backfill.
- Switch app-server startup from direct
`codex_state::StateRuntime::init` to the rollout state initializer so
app-server cannot skip rollout backfill.
- Collapse split rollout lookup/list APIs so callers use the normal
methods with an optional state handle instead of `_with_state_db`
variants.
- Restore `getConversationSummary(ThreadId)` to delegate through
`ThreadStore::read_thread` instead of a LocalThreadStore-specific
rollout path special case.
- Keep DB-backed rollout path lookup keyed on the DB row and file
existence, without imposing the filesystem filename convention on
existing DB rows.
- Verify readable DB-backed rollout paths against `session_meta.id`
before returning them, so a stale SQLite row that points at another
thread's JSONL falls back to filesystem search and read-repairs the DB
row.
- Keep `debug prompt-input` filesystem-only so a one-off debug command
does not initialize or backfill SQLite state just to print prompt input.
- Keep goal-session test Codex homes alive only in the goal-specific
helper, rather than leaking tempdirs from the shared session test
helper.
- Update tests and call sites to pass explicit state handles where DB
behavior is expected and explicit `None` where filesystem-only behavior
is intended.
## Validation
- `CARGO_TARGET_DIR=/tmp/codex-target-state-db cargo check -p
codex-rollout -p codex-thread-store -p codex-app-server -p codex-core -p
codex-tui -p codex-exec -p codex-cli --tests`
- `CARGO_TARGET_DIR=/tmp/codex-target-state-db cargo test -p
codex-rollout state_db_`
- `CARGO_TARGET_DIR=/tmp/codex-target-state-db cargo test -p
codex-rollout find_thread_path`
- `CARGO_TARGET_DIR=/tmp/codex-target-state-db cargo test -p
codex-rollout find_thread_path -- --nocapture`
- `CARGO_TARGET_DIR=/tmp/codex-target-state-db cargo test -p
codex-rollout try_init_ -- --nocapture`
- `CARGO_TARGET_DIR=/tmp/codex-target-state-db cargo test -p
codex-rollout`
- `CARGO_TARGET_DIR=/tmp/codex-target-state-db cargo clippy -p
codex-rollout --lib -- -D warnings`
- `CARGO_TARGET_DIR=/tmp/codex-target-state-db cargo test -p
codex-thread-store
read_thread_falls_back_when_sqlite_path_points_to_another_thread --
--nocapture`
- `CARGO_TARGET_DIR=/tmp/codex-target-state-db cargo test -p
codex-thread-store`
- `CARGO_TARGET_DIR=/tmp/codex-target-state-db cargo test -p codex-core
shell_snapshot`
- `CARGO_TARGET_DIR=/tmp/codex-target-state-db cargo test -p codex-core
--test all personality_migration`
- `CARGO_TARGET_DIR=/tmp/codex-target-state-db cargo test -p codex-core
--test all rollout_list_find`
- `RUST_MIN_STACK=8388608 CODEX_SKIP_VENDORED_BWRAP=1
CARGO_TARGET_DIR=/tmp/codex-target-state-db cargo test -p codex-core
--test all rollout_list_find::find_prefers_sqlite_path_by_id --
--nocapture`
- `RUST_MIN_STACK=8388608 CODEX_SKIP_VENDORED_BWRAP=1
CARGO_TARGET_DIR=/tmp/codex-target-state-db cargo test -p codex-core
--test all rollout_list_find -- --nocapture`
- `CARGO_TARGET_DIR=/tmp/codex-target-state-db cargo test -p codex-core
interrupt_accounts_active_goal_before_pausing`
- `CARGO_TARGET_DIR=/tmp/codex-target-state-db cargo test -p
codex-app-server get_auth_status -- --test-threads=1`
- `CODEX_SKIP_VENDORED_BWRAP=1
CARGO_TARGET_DIR=/tmp/codex-target-state-db cargo test -p
codex-app-server --lib`
- `CODEX_SKIP_VENDORED_BWRAP=1
CARGO_TARGET_DIR=/tmp/codex-target-state-db cargo check -p codex-rollout
-p codex-app-server --tests`
- `CARGO_TARGET_DIR=/tmp/codex-target-state-db just fix -p codex-rollout
-p codex-thread-store -p codex-core -p codex-app-server -p codex-tui -p
codex-exec -p codex-cli`
- `CODEX_SKIP_VENDORED_BWRAP=1
CARGO_TARGET_DIR=/tmp/codex-target-state-db just fix -p codex-rollout -p
codex-app-server`
- `CARGO_TARGET_DIR=/tmp/codex-target-state-db just fix -p
codex-rollout`
- `CODEX_SKIP_VENDORED_BWRAP=1
CARGO_TARGET_DIR=/tmp/codex-target-state-db just fix -p codex-core`
- `just argument-comment-lint -p codex-core`
- `just argument-comment-lint -p codex-rollout`
Focused coverage added in `codex-rollout`:
- `recorder::tests::state_db_init_backfills_before_returning` verifies
the rollout metadata row exists before startup init returns.
- `state_db::tests::try_init_waits_for_concurrent_startup_backfill`
verifies startup waits for another worker to finish backfill instead of
disabling the handle for the process.
-
`state_db::tests::try_init_times_out_waiting_for_stuck_startup_backfill`
verifies startup does not hang indefinitely on a stuck backfill lease.
-
`tests::find_thread_path_accepts_existing_state_db_path_without_canonical_filename`
verifies DB-backed lookup accepts valid existing rollout paths even when
the filename does not include the thread UUID.
-
`tests::find_thread_path_falls_back_when_db_path_points_to_another_thread`
verifies DB-backed lookup ignores a stale row whose existing path
belongs to another thread and read-repairs the row after filesystem
fallback.
Focused coverage updated in `codex-core`:
- `rollout_list_find::find_prefers_sqlite_path_by_id` now uses a
DB-preferred rollout file with matching `session_meta.id`, so it still
verifies that valid SQLite paths win without depending on stale/empty
rollout contents.
`cargo test -p codex-app-server thread_list_respects_search_term_filter
-- --test-threads=1 --nocapture` was attempted locally but timed out
waiting for the app-server test harness `initialize` response before
reaching the changed thread-list code path.
`bazel test //codex-rs/thread-store:thread-store-unit-tests
--test_output=errors` was attempted locally after the thread-store fix,
but this container failed before target analysis while fetching `v8+`
through BuildBuddy/direct GitHub. The equivalent local crate coverage,
including `cargo test -p codex-thread-store`, passes.
A plain local `cargo check -p codex-rollout -p codex-app-server --tests`
also requires system `libcap.pc` for `codex-linux-sandbox`; the
follow-up app-server check above used `CODEX_SKIP_VENDORED_BWRAP=1` in
this container.
- Build one app-server process ThreadStore from startup config and share
it with ThreadManager and CodexMessageProcessor.
- Remove per-thread/fork store reconstruction so effective thread config
cannot switch the persistence backend.
- Add params to ThreadStore create/resume for specifying thread
metadata, since otherwise the metadata from store creation would be used
(incorrectly).
## Summary
- Teach app-server `thread/list` to accept either a single `cwd` or an
array of cwd filters, returning threads whose recorded session cwd
matches any requested path
- Add `useStateDbOnly` as an explicit opt-in fast path for callers that
want to answer `thread/list` from SQLite without scanning JSONL rollout
files
- Preserve backwards compatibility: by default, `thread/list` still
scans JSONL rollouts and repairs SQLite state
- Wire the new cwd array and SQLite-only options through app-server,
local/remote thread-store, rollout listing, generated TypeScript/schema
fixtures, proto output, and docs
## Test Plan
- `cargo test -p codex-app-server-protocol`
- `cargo test -p codex-rollout`
- `cargo test -p codex-thread-store`
- `cargo test -p codex-app-server thread_list`
- `just fmt`
- `just fix -p codex-app-server-protocol -p codex-rollout -p
codex-thread-store -p codex-app-server`
- `cargo build -p codex-cli --bin codex`
To improve performance of UI loads from the app, add two main
improvements:
1. The `thread/list` api now gets a `sortDirection` request field and a
`backwardsCursor` to the response, which lets you paginate forwards and
backwards from a window. This lets you fetch the first few items to
display immediately while you paginate to fill in history, then can
paginate "backwards" on future loads to catch up with any changes since
the last UI load without a full reload of the entire data set.
2. Added a new `thread/turns/list` api which also has sortDirection and
backwardsCursor for the same behavior as `thread/list`, allowing you the
same small-fetch for immediate display followed by background fill-in
and resync catchup.
To allow the ability to have guaranteed-unique cursors, we make two
important updates:
* Add new updated_at_ms and created_at_ms columns that are in
millisecond precision
* Guarantee uniqueness -- if multiple items are inserted at the same
millisecond, bump the new one by one millisecond until it becomes unique
This lets us use single-number cursors for forwards and backwards paging
through resultsets and guarantee that the cursor is a fixed point to do
(timestamp > cursor) and get new items only.
This updated implementation is backwards-compatible since multiple
appservers can be running and won't handle the previous method well.
Brent Traut