agent-signals

036. A Codex denial ends the turn

View as Markdown Open in Claude Open in ChatGPT
Date
2026-10-30
Agents
Codex CLI
Measured on
real machine

Measured

2026-10-30, Codex CLI 0.164.0 (standalone install, x86_64-unknown-linux-musl), on Linux (Debian 13, x64), in the default daemon mode with --sandbox read-only --ask-for-approval on-request, in a private tmux server with a throwaway HOME and a copied login. The scenario scenarios/codex/deny.sh recorded at each step the screen and the record types of the rollout file (type and payload.type, as record_types in scenarios/lib.sh gives them). It read no content. One run with all steps, and one earlier run with the denial only. Measured on: real machine.

What was measured

  1. A prompt that asked for a file write in the read-only folder opened the approval dialog "Would you like to run the following command?" with 1. Yes, proceed (y), 2. Yes, and don't ask again for commands that start with ... (p) and 3. No, and tell Codex what to do differently (esc). The custom_tool_call record of the command was in the file before the dialog opened.

  2. The digit 3 acted at once, with no Enter. Codex did not ask for a text. 3 s later the screen showed the empty box and the footer ? for shortcuts, with these lines above them:

    ✗ You canceled the request to run printf 'hello' > note3.txt

• Exited (status 1) printf 'hello' > note3.txt
  └ (no output)

■ Conversation interrupted - use /feedback if something went wrong

  3. The digit 3 added these records, in this order: response_item custom_tool_call_output, event_msg token_count, response_item message, event_msg turn_aborted. No record came in the next 5 s. The turn ended. It did not go on.

  4. Esc on the same dialog gave the same four records and the same lines on the screen. Thus a reader cannot tell "3. No" from Esc in the rollout file or on the screen.

  5. The text that the user typed after the denial started a new turn: event_msg thread_settings_applied, event_msg task_started, turn_context, and at its end event_msg task_complete.

  6. The digit 1 (Yes, proceed) also acted at once. It gave event_msg item_completed, response_item custom_tool_call_output, event_msg token_count, event_msg item_completed, response_item message, token_usage_record, event_msg token_count and event_msg task_complete. The file was written.

  7. In the first run, the denial came first. On the next write prompt the model refused with no dialog ("I can't create the file because this session's workspace is read-only."). The scenario thus asks for the denial last.

Mechanism

"3. No, and tell Codex what to do differently" is the Esc action of the dialog: its label ends with (esc). Both cancel the command and abort the turn. The "tell Codex" part is the next prompt of the user, which starts a new turn.

Incident

None recorded.

Screens

codex/approval-v0-164-0, codex/after-deny-v0-164-0.

Not measured

Screens in the corpus that name this fact