Files
codex/codex-rs/app-server-client
Eric Traut 9d57be71ba Separate TUI preferences from server configuration (#42202)
## Why

TUI preferences and persistence paths belong to the local client, while thread
configuration and account requirements may come from the active app server.
Keeping both in the same resolved `Config` can replace live local preferences
when a thread is resumed, forked, reconnected, or switched.

## What changed

- Add `LocalSettings` as the TUI-owned source for UI, history, notice, and local
  persistence settings, and preserve it across session lifecycle transitions.
- Write preference changes to the selected user config file and reload local
  settings from disk when changing roots.
- Use the app server's account response for authentication-dependent onboarding
  and status UI instead of the local model-provider configuration.
- Retain platform family and OS metadata reported by remote app servers.

## Testing

- Cover local setting defaults, overrides, persistence destinations, reloads,
  and preservation across widget replacement and root switching.
- Cover remote platform metadata and server-controlled authentication UI.

GitOrigin-RevId: dbc2965fb1d6cbecb3f973f6133f3dcd4467b753
2026-09-02 04:20:38 +00:00
..

codex-app-server-client

Shared in-process app-server client used by conversational CLI surfaces:

  • codex-exec
  • codex-tui

Purpose

This crate centralizes startup and lifecycle management for an in-process codex-app-server runtime, so CLI clients do not need to duplicate:

  • app-server bootstrap and initialize handshake
  • in-memory request/event transport wiring
  • lifecycle orchestration around caller-provided startup identity
  • graceful shutdown behavior

Startup identity

Callers pass both the app-server SessionSource and the initialize client_info.name explicitly when starting the facade.

That keeps thread metadata (for example in thread/list and thread/read) aligned with the originating runtime without baking TUI/exec-specific policy into the shared client layer.

Transport model

The in-process path uses typed channels:

  • client -> server: ClientRequest / ClientNotification
  • server -> client: InProcessServerEvent
    • ServerRequest
    • ServerNotification
    • LegacyNotification

JSON serialization is still used at external transport boundaries (stdio/websocket), but the in-process hot path is typed.

Typed requests still receive app-server responses through the JSON-RPC result envelope internally. That is intentional: the in-process path is meant to preserve app-server semantics while removing the process boundary, not to introduce a second response contract.

Bootstrap behavior

The client facade starts an already-initialized in-process runtime, but thread bootstrap still follows normal app-server flow:

  • caller sends thread/start or thread/resume
  • app-server returns the immediate typed response
  • richer session metadata may arrive later as a SessionConfigured legacy event

Surfaces such as TUI and exec may therefore need a short bootstrap phase where they reconcile startup response data with later events.

Backpressure and shutdown

  • Command queues and the embedded runtime remain bounded, using DEFAULT_IN_PROCESS_CHANNEL_CAPACITY by default.
  • The facade's local consumer event queue is unbounded and preserves notification order. This keeps the worker draining the bounded runtime while a caller waits for a request, preventing unread notifications from blocking its response.
  • shutdown() performs a bounded graceful shutdown and then aborts if timeout is exceeded.