From 678f0dbfec8bf863f907764d8cc1ab351678021f Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Fouad Matin <169186268+fouad-openai@users.noreply.github.com>
Date: Wed, 14 May 2025 01:27:46 -0700
Subject: [PATCH] add: dynamic instructions (#927)

---
 .../chat/terminal-chat-response-item.tsx      |  8 +++-----
 .../chat/terminal-message-history.tsx         | 10 +++++++++-
 codex-cli/src/utils/agent/agent-loop.ts       | 19 ++++++++++++++++++-
 3 files changed, 30 insertions(+), 7 deletions(-)

diff --git a/codex-cli/src/components/chat/terminal-chat-response-item.tsx b/codex-cli/src/components/chat/terminal-chat-response-item.tsx
index a81d5414..747c3dfc 100644
--- a/codex-cli/src/components/chat/terminal-chat-response-item.tsx
+++ b/codex-cli/src/components/chat/terminal-chat-response-item.tsx
@@ -325,14 +325,12 @@ function rewriteFileCitations(
   fileOpener: FileOpenerScheme | undefined,
   cwd: string = process.cwd(),
 ): string {
-  if (!fileOpener) {
-    // Should we reformat the citations even if we cannot linkify them?
-    return markdown;
-  }
-
   citationRegex.lastIndex = 0;
   return markdown.replace(citationRegex, (_match, file, start, _end) => {
     const absPath = path.resolve(cwd, file);
+    if (!fileOpener) {
+      return `[${file}](${absPath})`;
+    }
     const uri = `${fileOpener}://file${absPath}:${start}`;
     const label = `${file}:${start}`;
     // In practice, sometimes multiple citations for the same file, but with a
diff --git a/codex-cli/src/components/chat/terminal-message-history.tsx b/codex-cli/src/components/chat/terminal-message-history.tsx
index 5ecf7fe0..5036f081 100644
--- a/codex-cli/src/components/chat/terminal-message-history.tsx
+++ b/codex-cli/src/components/chat/terminal-message-history.tsx
@@ -62,11 +62,19 @@ const TerminalMessageHistory: React.FC<TerminalMessageHistoryProps> = ({
               key={`${message.id}-${index}`}
               flexDirection="column"
               marginLeft={
-                message.type === "message" && message.role === "user" ? 0 : 4
+                message.type === "message" &&
+                (message.role === "user" || message.role === "assistant")
+                  ? 0
+                  : 4
               }
               marginTop={
                 message.type === "message" && message.role === "user" ? 0 : 1
               }
+              marginBottom={
+                message.type === "message" && message.role === "assistant"
+                  ? 1
+                  : 0
+              }
             >
               <TerminalChatResponseItem
                 item={message}
diff --git a/codex-cli/src/utils/agent/agent-loop.ts b/codex-cli/src/utils/agent/agent-loop.ts
index 97041def..79d30484 100644
--- a/codex-cli/src/utils/agent/agent-loop.ts
+++ b/codex-cli/src/utils/agent/agent-loop.ts
@@ -31,8 +31,10 @@ import {
 } from "../session.js";
 import { handleExecCommand } from "./handle-exec-command.js";
 import { HttpsProxyAgent } from "https-proxy-agent";
+import { spawnSync } from "node:child_process";
 import { randomUUID } from "node:crypto";
 import OpenAI, { APIConnectionTimeoutError, AzureOpenAI } from "openai";
+import os from "os";
 
 // Wait time before retrying after rate limit errors (ms).
 const RATE_LIMIT_RETRY_WAIT_MS = parseInt(
@@ -1490,6 +1492,19 @@ export class AgentLoop {
   }
 }
 
+// Dynamic developer message prefix: includes user, workdir, and rg suggestion.
+const userName = os.userInfo().username;
+const workdir = process.cwd();
+const dynamicLines: Array<string> = [
+  `User: ${userName}`,
+  `Workdir: ${workdir}`,
+];
+if (spawnSync("rg", ["--version"], { stdio: "ignore" }).status === 0) {
+  dynamicLines.push(
+    "- Always use rg instead of grep/ls -R because it is much faster and respects gitignore",
+  );
+}
+const dynamicPrefix = dynamicLines.join("\n") + "\n\n";
 const prefix = `You are operating as and within the Codex CLI, a terminal-based agentic coding assistant built by OpenAI. It wraps OpenAI models to enable natural language interaction with a local codebase. You are expected to be precise, safe, and helpful.
 
 You can:
@@ -1535,7 +1550,9 @@ You MUST adhere to the following criteria when executing the task:
     - Respond in a friendly tone as a remote teammate, who is knowledgeable, capable and eager to help with coding.
 - When your task involves writing or modifying files:
     - Do NOT tell the user to "save the file" or "copy the code into a file" if you already created or modified the file using \`apply_patch\`. Instead, reference the file as already saved.
-    - Do NOT show the full contents of large files you have already written, unless the user explicitly asks for them.`;
+    - Do NOT show the full contents of large files you have already written, unless the user explicitly asks for them.
+
+${dynamicPrefix}`;
 
 function filterToApiMessages(
   items: Array<ResponseInputItem>,