feat: add support for --sandbox flag (#1476)

On a high-level, we try to design `config.toml` so that you don't have
to "comment out a lot of stuff" when testing different options.

Previously, defining a sandbox policy was somewhat at odds with this
principle because you would define the policy as attributes of
`[sandbox]` like so:

```toml
[sandbox]
mode = "workspace-write"
writable_roots = [ "/tmp" ]
```

but if you wanted to temporarily change to a read-only sandbox, you
might feel compelled to modify your file to be:

```toml
[sandbox]
mode = "read-only"
# mode = "workspace-write"
# writable_roots = [ "/tmp" ]
```

Technically, commenting out `writable_roots` would not be strictly
necessary, as `mode = "read-only"` would ignore `writable_roots`, but
it's still a reasonable thing to do to keep things tidy.

Currently, the various values for `mode` do not support that many
attributes, so this is not that hard to maintain, but one could imagine
this becoming more complex in the future.

In this PR, we change Codex CLI so that it no longer recognizes
`[sandbox]`. Instead, it introduces a top-level option, `sandbox_mode`,
and `[sandbox_workspace_write]` is used to further configure the sandbox
when when `sandbox_mode = "workspace-write"` is used:

```toml
sandbox_mode = "workspace-write"

[sandbox_workspace_write]
writable_roots = [ "/tmp" ]
```

This feels a bit more future-proof in that it is less tedious to
configure different sandboxes:

```toml
sandbox_mode = "workspace-write"

[sandbox_read_only]
# read-only options here...

[sandbox_workspace_write]
writable_roots = [ "/tmp" ]

[sandbox_danger_full_access]
# danger-full-access options here...
```

In this scheme, you never need to comment out the configuration for an
individual sandbox type: you only need to redefine `sandbox_mode`.

Relatedly, previous to this change, a user had to do `-c
sandbox.mode=read-only` to change the mode on the command line. With
this change, things are arguably a bit cleaner because the equivalent
option is `-c sandbox_mode=read-only` (and now `-c
sandbox_workspace_write=...` can be set separately).

Though more importantly, we introduce the `-s/--sandbox` option to the
CLI, which maps directly to `sandbox_mode` in `config.toml`, making
config override behavior easier to reason about. Moreover, as you can
see in the updates to the various Markdown files, it is much easier to
explain how to configure sandboxing when things like `--sandbox
read-only` can be used as an example.

Relatedly, this cleanup also made it straightforward to add support for
a `sandbox` option for Codex when used as an MCP server (see the changes
to `mcp-server/src/codex_tool_config.rs`).

Fixes https://github.com/openai/codex/issues/1248.
This commit is contained in:
Michael Bolin
2025-07-07 22:31:30 -07:00
committed by GitHub
parent 0a44c42533
commit e0c08cea4f
13 changed files with 233 additions and 77 deletions

View File

@@ -39,6 +39,10 @@ You can enable notifications by configuring a script that is run whenever the ag
To run Codex non-interactively, run `codex exec PROMPT` (you can also pass the prompt via `stdin`) and Codex will work on your task until it decides that it is done and exits. Output is printed to the terminal directly. You can set the `RUST_LOG` environment variable to see more about what's going on.
### Use `@` for file search
Typing `@` triggers a fuzzy-filename search over the workspace root. Use up/down to select among the results and Tab or Enter to replace the `@` with the selected path. You can use Esc to cancel the search.
### `--cd`/`-C` flag
Sometimes it is not convenient to `cd` to the directory you want Codex to use as the "working root" before running Codex. Fortunately, `codex` supports a `--cd` option so you can specify whatever folder you want. You can confirm that Codex is honoring `--cd` by double-checking the **workdir** it reports in the TUI at the start of a new session.
@@ -49,15 +53,28 @@ To test to see what happens when a command is run under the sandbox provided by
```
# macOS
codex debug seatbelt [-s SANDBOX_PERMISSION]... [COMMAND]...
codex debug seatbelt [--full-auto] [COMMAND]...
# Linux
codex debug landlock [-s SANDBOX_PERMISSION]... [COMMAND]...
codex debug landlock [--full-auto] [COMMAND]...
```
You can experiment with different values of `-s` to see what permissions the `COMMAND` needs to execute successfully.
### Selecting a sandbox policy via `--sandbox`
Note that the exact API for the `-s` flag is currently in flux. See https://github.com/openai/codex/issues/1248 for details.
The Rust CLI exposes a dedicated `--sandbox` (`-s`) flag that lets you pick the sandbox policy **without** having to reach for the generic `-c/--config` option:
```shell
# Run Codex with the default, read-only sandbox
codex --sandbox read-only
# Allow the agent to write within the current workspace while still blocking network access
codex --sandbox workspace-write
# Danger! Disable sandboxing entirely (only do this if you are already running in a container or other isolated env)
codex --sandbox danger-full-access
```
The same setting can be persisted in `~/.codex/config.toml` via the top-level `sandbox_mode = "MODE"` key, e.g. `sandbox_mode = "workspace-write"`.
## Code Organization