[JRobzs]

Codex shell commands fail to start on macOS when the workspace cwd contains a user-created symlink. The same diagnostic was reported during Computer Use helper startup; the captured runtime evidence here covers shell execution. This resolves the Codex request's cwd to its physical path before start, resume, rollback-resume, fork, and turn requests, keeping workspace-write sandboxing enabled.

The resolution is per request, so shared sessions and aliases retargeted between turns use the selected directory. Unresolvable paths retain their existing behavior. Windows paths are unchanged; junctions there may encounter the same Codex check and are deliberately left unresolved by this Unix-only fix. Project records, alias registration, other providers, provider-session metadata, and explicit sandboxPolicy.writableRoots overrides are untouched.

Scope

Fixes #26156.

Related: #26051 and #26066 (scratch-thread startup), #23293 and #24739 (project identity). This does not change the deliberate separate-alias registration policy. Happy to fold it into #26066 if preferred.

This is submitted under the focused obvious-bug exception in CONTRIBUTING.md: one provider's execution-path incompatibility, confined to its adapter and regression tests, with no project migration, contract, permission-default, or identity-policy change. No prior maintainer approval is claimed.

Codex can now report physical absolute paths where the UI previously shortened paths against the registered alias. This applies to Unix full-access and read-only modes as well, keeping the execution path consistent when runtime mode changes. No frontend rendering was changed. Codex 0.164.0's project-trust lookup tries the canonical key and then the original spelling. Supplying the physical cwd removes the alias spelling from that fallback: users with trust/settings entries only under the alias may need an entry for the physical path. This configuration interaction was source-reviewed, not exercised against a separate trust fixture.

Verification

• Fail first (final test file against the unmodified upstream adapter): the Unix regression failed on main because thread/start received the alias; a second regression failed at turn/start for the same reason. Windows passthrough already passed. Thread-request assertions use captured requests because the replay matcher deliberately ignores their cwd.
• Final tests cover start/resume/turn paths, unchanged Auto approval and sandbox settings, retained session metadata, and retargeting between turns. The Windows branch is exercised by platform injection; this is not a native Windows validation.
• Final validation base: 8d94203c17285aed0e089390d700907d23770d0b (the Codex adapter baseline is unchanged from the native probe base below).
• vp run check:changed: pass (format, lint, both knip passes, GraphQL check, affected typechecks, all 107 adapter tests).
• vp test run apps/server/src/cli/project.test.ts: all 9 pass, including separately registered aliases. No test was changed to relax that contract.
• Tests ran with the default macOS temporary directory, not TMPDIR=/private/tmp. Three pre-existing replay fixtures now use their physical temp paths to match the adapter's output.

Native runtime transcript

macOS 26.6.2 arm64, Codex CLI 0.164.0, source T3 adapter at main 5e9d56416f6b395095c772c597e79cd5f94e3052 with and without this change. Used the production client factory/native event logger and isolated temporary workspace, without the live T3 database.

Before:
  thread/start cwd=<PROBE_ROOT>/alias -> accepted
  turn/start cwd=<PROBE_ROOT>/alias, sandboxPolicy={type:workspaceWrite} -> accepted
  Shell could not start: symlinked writable roots are not supported.
  markerExists=false
After:
  thread/start cwd=<PROBE_ROOT>/physical -> accepted
  turn/start cwd=<PROBE_ROOT>/physical, sandboxPolicy={type:workspaceWrite} -> accepted
  /usr/bin/true && printf 'T3_SYMLINK_OK\n' > probe-ok -> exit 0
  markerExists=true; T3 providerSession.cwd still contains the alias
Resume:
  Seeded a real Codex thread with an aliased cwd and a persisted turn.
  Resumed in the same app-server; thread/resume and the next turn both send physical cwd.
  The sandboxed command exits 0. This does not isolate the effect of resume alone.

No additional writable roots were provided in the workspace-write turn policy. thread/start and turn/start themselves succeed before the fix; the failure is at tool sandbox startup.

Not verified: a rebuilt desktop/web UI, end-to-end Chrome computer use, Linux runtime, native Windows runtime, or CI/builds before publication. Resume after app-server restart, the unloaded rollback-resume branch, and native fork/rollback were not separately exercised; those call sites use the same resolution helper and their existing adapter regressions pass. This fixes startup compatibility, not application feature correctness.

Implementation: GPT-6-Astra through the Codex harness in T3 Code. Pre-submission review: Claude Opus 5.5 through T3 Code found no correctness defects. Follow-up changes clarified platform/configuration and runtime-evidence limits, corrected a comment and test title, and refreshed the fail-first and required-check receipts.

[macroscopeapp]

Approvability

Verdict: Approved at 959d48a

Macroscope's review found this PR approvable — Codex requests now resolve symlinked workspace paths on non-Windows systems, retaining the original path if resolution fails. Windows behavior and other runtime-policy settings remain unchanged.

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[coderabbitai]

No actionable comments were generated in the recent review.

Recent review info

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Commits

Reviewing files that changed from the base of the PR and between 959d48a and 6c65e58.

Files selected for processing: 1

• apps/server/src/orchestration-v2/Adapters/CodexAdapterV2.test.ts

Files skipped from review as they are similar to previous changes: 1

• apps/server/src/orchestration-v2/Adapters/CodexAdapterV2.test.ts

Included review availability: This review used your included allowance. Your plan provides up to 10 included reviews per hour; 7 remain after this review.

Walkthrough

The Codex adapter resolves non-Windows runtime working directories to real paths before sending selected Codex requests. Tests cover aliased and retargeted workspaces while keeping the configured workspace alias unchanged.

Changes: Codex runtime working directory

Layer / File(s)	Summary
Resolve paths for Codex requests apps/server/src/orchestration-v2/Adapters/CodexAdapterV2.ts	The adapter resolves non-Windows cwd values to real paths when possible. Turn start, thread start, resume, rollback, and fork requests use the resolved runtime policy.
Test aliased workspace paths apps/server/src/orchestration-v2/Adapters/CodexAdapterV2.test.ts	The replay harness accepts a runtime policy and observes raw requests. Tests check resolved paths for aliased and retargeted workspaces. Three existing tests now resolve temporary workspace paths before using them as cwd.

Priority: Normal

Estimated code review effort: 3 (Moderate) | ~20 minutes

Change: Bug fix · Severity of issue fixed: Medium

Possibly related issues

• pingdotgg/t3code#26051 — The issue reports a Codex sandbox failure for a scratch directory reached through a symlink. This change resolves Codex request working directories, although the scratch case was not separately tested.

Possibly related PRs

• pingdotgg/t3code#24447 — Both changes affect the runtime-policy working-directory data flow.
• pingdotgg/t3code#26066 — Both changes address Codex tool startup with symlinked working-directory paths.

Suggested reviewers: juliusmarminge, t3dotgg, yash-singh1

Merge Risk: Minimal · up to 6c65e

The reviewed change is mergeable after normal checks; no unresolved issue was identified in the workspace-path handling or its replay coverage.

Pre-merge checks: 4

Check name	Status	Explanation
Title check		The title is concise, conventional, and accurately identifies the main fix: starting Codex tools in symlinked workspaces.
Description check		The description provides the problem, implementation, scope, linked issue, approval rationale, verification results, limitations, and native runtime evidence. It does not use every template heading ex…
Linked Issues check		Only one active direct link applies: #26156. Its coding requirement is that Codex sandboxed tools start in the selected workspace when the registered path contains a symlink. This must hold on macOS w…
Out of Scope Changes check		The whole-PR adapter diff changes only the cwd sent to Codex in thread start, resume, turn, rollback-resume, and fork requests. The helper is shared by those call sites, so the changes are one coheren…

Full details: Description check

Explanation

The description provides the problem, implementation, scope, linked issue, approval rationale, verification results, limitations, and native runtime evidence. It does not use every template heading exactly, but it includes the required information and is sufficiently complete.

Full details: Linked Issues check

Explanation

Only one active direct link applies: #26156. Its coding requirement is that Codex sandboxed tools start in the selected workspace when the registered path contains a symlink. This must hold on macOS without changing registered project identity or disabling sandboxing.

Whole-PR diff (merge base 8d94203 to head 6c65e58), CodexAdapterV2.ts:

• Adds resolveCodexRuntimePolicy. It returns the policy unchanged when cwd is null or HostProcess.Platform is win32. Otherwise it replaces cwd with fileSystem.realPath(cwd), falling back to the original cwd on failure.
• Applies the resolved policy to turn/start (buildCodexTurnStartParams), thread/start (ensureThread), thread/resume (resumeThread), the rollback-resume request, and the fork request.
• The diff does not change sandboxPolicy or writableRoots. The registered project path and provider-session metadata are not changed by this diff.

Incremental diff (previous head 959d48a to head 6c65e58) for CodexAdapterV2.ts returned no change. The adapter code therefore matches the state assessed in the previous review.

Tests: the incremental diff for CodexAdapterV2.test.ts could not be read because changed blobs are missing from the checkout. I did not verify the current test file content. The previous review reported the macOS regression, Windows injection, and retargeting tests at 959d48a. The adapter implementation alone establishes the coding requirement.

Native macOS probe results are author-reported and were not rerun. They support the fix. Linux, native Windows, app-server-restart resume, and native fork/rollback were not verified. The issue does not require these checks.

Full details: Out of Scope Changes check

Explanation

The whole-PR adapter diff changes only the cwd sent to Codex in thread start, resume, turn, rollback-resume, and fork requests. The helper is shared by those call sites, so the changes are one coherent behavior change. No project registration, alias registration, provider-session metadata, other provider, permission default, sandboxPolicy, writableRoots, or frontend code is changed in the adapter diff. Windows is left unchanged by design.

Effects beyond the literal issue text, as disclosed by the author:

• The resolution also applies to Unix full-access and read-only modes. It uses the same helper, so cwd stays consistent when runtime mode changes.
• Codex 0.164.0 trust/settings lookup may try the physical cwd before the alias spelling. Users with trust entries only under the alias may need an entry for the physical path. The author states this was source-reviewed, not tested.

These effects follow directly from the cwd change. No unrelated edit is demonstrated.

The test file changes could not be read in the incremental diff. They are described as supporting tests and fixture path canonicalization. No out-of-scope test change is demonstrated.

Finishing Touches

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[coderabbitai]

Actionable comments posted: 1

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Inline comments:
Review comments at
@apps/server/src/orchestration-v2/Adapters/CodexAdapterV2.test.ts:
- Line 1220: Update both preamble slices that call withReplayRequestId so they
add a replay request ID only to frames that already have an id. Leave
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• apps/server/src/orchestration-v2/Adapters/CodexAdapterV2.test.ts
• apps/server/src/orchestration-v2/Adapters/CodexAdapterV2.ts

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