macOS app: Stuck "Awaiting approval" prompt - Cannot be approved

Thanks for reporting. It's not clear to me how to repro this. Were you able to get it unstuck by switching from the current thread to another thread and back?

Let us know if this happens again.

I haven't been able to reproduce it on demand either, but it happened once more in the same session after I reported the issue. Switching threads did not help. I had to eventually restart the app and send a new message repeating the last request afterwards.

It seemed frequent enough that if it is a consistent issue it should appear with regular use. Then again I have yet to experience it outside of that thread. I'll post a screenshot or something if it happens again. I couldn't find any logs or similar to report.

Thanks for flagging this. To help us reproduce and prioritize:\n\n1. What environment are you using (OS, version, and install method)?\n2. What exact command or config triggers the issue?\n3. Can you share logs or error output if available?\n\nWe will update the proposal once we have the missing details.

have the same. Seems more likely to happen again once it happened once in a thread, the only way I found to unclogit is to quit the app entirely

I also see this frequently. It will _sometimes_ self-resolve if the session reaches the end of a turn, but if a second approval comes up, the first is effectively blocking it and cannot be resolved without closing Codex App entirely.

An example below, where the approval is from the past, and quite unrelated to the new approval needed. The pending approval cannot be completed. While the UI is responsive (selection can be moved around) clicking/enter has no effect at all.

<img width="773" height="451" alt="Image" src="https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/3d5d21a8-db6e-4bb8-b476-ca0ca48348f1" />

I keep getting this, in both VSCode and Cursor.

This is happening constantly and I had to stop using the app because of it. Unfortunately it only tends to happen on long-running sessions and they all have private data so I can't share the logs... is there anything we could do to help narrow it down?

I'm running into this issue

This happens on Windows, as well. I think this is related to commands being executed which contain a pipe char "|".

E.g.:
rg -n "scroll-snap-type|^body \{|^\.section-bg \{|^\.close-btn \{|^\.menu-nav \{|^a \{|^strong,\s*$|focus-visible" style.css

I could fix this by adding the prompt:
If you want to execute commands, the commands must not contain pipes.

I hope this helps.

Same for me on MacOS. Codex tried to execute command. Confirming it happens in the long running sessions.
My command was:

ssh -p 20122 root@server_ip 'cd /root/&& echo server_commit=$(git rev-parse --short HEAD) && docker compose --env-file .env.production -f docker-compose.production.yml ps'

Hi all! We have added a fix and it was just release v260206.1259. Once you have updated please let us know if you are still seeing the same problem. Thanks!

If I full close the codex app, and then open a new thread in a repo from GitHub and try git checkout -b test-perms3, the app goes to an error screen and the thread shows error, try again.

Okay, this is weird.. On the 3rd try a new screen popped up asking to create a new branch. Must be a timing issue or something the code is doing incorrectly in the background.

Thank you! It's probably fixed, but what I also noticed is my macbook air m4 heating pretty much using Codex.
Not all the time, but for some moments it does. And preventing questions - it's not running any heavy commands, just thinks and making some code changes

Hi all! We have added a fix and it was just release v260206.1259. Once you have updated please let us know if you are still seeing the same problem. Thanks!

Now it's worse. Each query falls into error:

<img width="1107" height="615" alt="Image" src="https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/b4f871fa-11fb-48d4-9fda-47054194b538" />

https://github.com/openai/codex/issues/10760#issuecomment-3862672515

This bug seems to happen very commonly, but not always, when running commands like "git switch main" or "git status -sb" and actions like that.

We have released another update and working on the fix. Sorry about all the issue and will get back soon with an update.

after last update, still facing this issue:

<img width="774" height="317" alt="Image" src="https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/8ea9446d-00c1-4c45-816d-76f5fa6ff11b" />

Facing the same issue

Edit: Just want to highlight that the app is pretty much unusable in this state. Even restarting the application, rerunning prompts / new ones in new threads, still causes the error. I tried reinstalling, but no luck.

<img width="921" height="735" alt="Image" src="https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/0540450b-9c2f-415b-a412-1bffe6435773" />

This issue is not limited to macOS; it also occurs in the VS Code extension on Windows 11.

I found a temporary workaround by moving the Codex window between different UI panes. In VS Code, I can interact with Codex in three locations: the right sidebar (Chat), the left sidebar (Explorer), or the main editor area (by clicking the active session).

When Codex gets stuck waiting for a "Yes/No" response, switching its position seems to "reset" the interface to the last saved state. After switching, I can prompt it with "Continue" to resume execution. If it hangs again, I repeat the process of moving the tab back and forth.

I hope this state-handling bug can be addressed soon.

I found a temporary workaround by moving the Codex window between different UI panes. In VS Code, I can interact with Codex in three locations: the right sidebar (Chat), the left sidebar (Explorer), or the main editor area (by clicking the active session).

This stops the agent for me. I have to tell it to keep going, but I guess it's better than restarting the app.

Its completely unusable in its current state. I can't even seem to get it to work on a first prompt because it keeps getting stuck waiting for me to select an option. Only workaround I found, which is one I don't like, is giving it 'full access' because then I dont need to give it permission, however...this comes with the obvious risks.

I can't even get auto-approve to work, so this thing just keeps asking for approval once a minute, making it pretty useless.

Please update to the latest version if you haven't already. We think we understand the cause of this bug and have an attempted fix in the latest release. Let us know if you are still seeing it with version 565.

Please update to the latest version if you haven't already. We think we understand the cause of this bug and have an attempted fix in the latest release. Let us know if you are still seeing it with version 565.

I'm using the latest VSCode extension (v. 0.4.71) and the bug persists - Should I open a new issue?

@rnahumaf, I don't think we've released an updated extension with the fix. You could try switching to the latest prerelease. No need to open a new issue though.

Please update to the latest version if you haven't already. We think we understand the cause of this bug and have an attempted fix in the latest release. Let us know if you are still seeing it with version 565.

It appears to be considerably improved, though I did encounter the issue once today on 260206.1448 (565). Much less often than before, but not yet fully eliminated.

Confirming. Still seeing this intermittently on Version 260206.1448 (565)

Just started using Codex on OSX and I've run into this issue twice within the first 10 minutes of using the app. Very frustrating.

The Codex plugin for VS Code, version 0.4.71, has been encountering this issue and cannot be used normally.

switched to claude code because the interface was so much better than codex cli.

codex app comes out. oh great, i remember OpenAI models clearly leading. let me try whether its time to switch back.

can't go a 5min heavy command session without running into this bug and having to restart the whole app.

you no doubt have a great team of engineers OpenAI, we know you can do better than this. good luck!

trying out 565 now.
..back already, could work for 3min and got stuck again executing simple kubectl commands 🙈.

if its any help, it seems this happens when many commands (similar ones?) are being executed. it also hangs only in one thread. others can still approve just fine. not sure if the command needs to be doing networking. IIRC correctly its been all commands like that, kubectl, ansible, ssh -c, git push. but i might be mistaken. perhaps someone else can confirm they saw this with non-networking commands.

Happening fairly consistently after leaving the desktop app open for more than an hour.

I also suspect it's to do with multiple prompts from multiple agents running at once. If you answer the prompts quickly you'll generally be OK, but if it's launching multiple agents and you don't respond then...

Anyway, I've moved to using the CLI, cuz this just sucks.

@etraut-openai confirming this bug still an issue with latest version, 260206.1448 (565)

it's not from multiple prompts running multiple agents, can confirm the issue exists in a single thread. at least implementing a force stop would help tremendously

VS Code Codex extension v 0.4.71 (Windows 11) is pretty much unusable due to this issue. Switched to Codex CLI for the moment.

Thanks everyone for reporting this. Fixing this issue is a top priority for us.

Don't know if it only happens on Windows, but here's an example command that causes deadlock:

C:\\Program Files\\PowerShell\\7\\pwsh.exe" -Command '$i=0; Get-Content "<MyCode.cs>" | ForEach-Object { $i++; "{0,4}: {1}" -f $i, $_ }

@rnahumaf, I don't think we've released an updated extension with the fix. You could try switching to the latest prerelease. No need to open a new issue though.

I have switched to the pre-release version and it's still getting stuck every so often... I hope the VSCode extension gets fixed soon as well.

I'm using the Pre-Release Version 0.5.72

I had this same issue, It seems that gpt 5.3 codex was the problem, as i ran another chat with 5.2 codex and there was no issue. I even asked 5.2 codex what the problem was, and it said that there was a process running, so it tried and killed the process. (not much help as vs code crashed when doing that). But I think the issue is a tool call is waiting for approval, (aka the process 5.2 saw) and is stuck because the previous tool call you said yes or no to, doesn't get updated, something is blocking it.

Hence the suspicion of a deadlock — two processes waiting indefinitely on each other to complete.

The VS Code extension Codex on Windows, version 0.4.71, has continuously shown this problem, forcing me to revert to version 0.4.69. This version did not encounter this issue, although it cannot use Codex 5.3.

Hi all! Sorry about the delay - I am able to reproduce this issue consistently now and as many have suspected this is related to our parallel tool calls and the new UI. I am still working on a fix and will update here soon.

Can't you read the comment literally above yours:

as many have suspected this is related to our parallel tool calls and the new UI.

Yes, 5.3 is a problem because of the parallel tool calls.

I had this same issue, It seems that gpt 5.3 codex was the problem, as i ran another chat with 5.2 codex and there was no issue. I even asked 5.2 codex what the problem was, and it said that there was a process running, so it tried and killed the process. (not much help as vs code crashed when doing that). But I think the issue is a tool call is waiting for approval, (aka the process 5.2 saw) and is stuck because the previous tool call you said yes or no to, doesn't get updated, something is blocking it.

I had the same and only works with full access permission, it seems like if an aproval request it´s needed, it get stuck

Having the same issue on Mac OSX as well with the VSCode extension, so not just an issue on Windows. Basically unusable with the bug. Thanks for your efforts in fixing!

I got few times in a row the same issue on Codex app 260208.1016 (571) and VS Code Extention 0.4.71, waiting for the fix

yup, another confirmation, on Mac it happens fairly open. Definitely a parallel process issue because the UI actually shows "awaiting approval" pill .. back to Codex CLI.. I like 5.3 and CLI is still awesome. Keep working on these tools though. Excited about Windows version eventually.

Ran into this twice in the last couple of hours in the app build 260208.1016 (571). Both times were with Codex 5.3 while it was dealing with fixing merge conflicts in a repo. It got stuck both times asking for permission to run different git commands.

Given the hints by Cleroth towards it being parallel tool calls I asked 5.3 to not run parallel tool calls. As a result, I stopped having issues. So some might find this to be a workaround they can employ until a proper fix is instituted.

I just enabled Full Access and fully good vibes trust... ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Having the same issue on a single thread with Codex app 260208.1016 (571). Happened 2-3 times last night, happened once today. my command was:
curl -sS -H "Authorization: Bearer $BITBUCKET_TOKEN" "https://git.....

I think i see what's going on, it's asking for approval, i hit "yes" and it gets the message but doesn't close the UI. Then it keeps going, and asks for another approval, and that UI must be hidden by the other one that's stuck there. So the UI is blocked waiting on the second approval. You really need to put some kind of dismiss/kill on this pane until you've fixed the bug. This happened twice on the same prompt

Thanks everyone for your bug reports. We understand the problem here and are working on a fix. Hope to have it out later today. Sorry for the inconvenience, and thanks for your patience.

Summary of the problem: The gpt-5.3-codex model supports parallel tool calling, which means that it can ask the harness to run multiple tools at a time. If one or more of those tool calls require approval, the Codex UI layer can get into a deadlock situation.

Again really appreciate all of your patience and sorry about the inconvenience. We have release codex app [260210.1703] that has the issue fixed. We have also published an extension pre-release 0.5.73 that should be available on vscode and cursor later (there is a delay to open-vsx between uploading and general availability). For users preferring mainline release, we are aiming to publish that soon once the pre-release version is stable. Thanks a lot for waiting!

i can confirm it's fixed. i ran the same prompt, and it popped two approvals one right after another, and i was able to approve both and continue on. this happened twice on teh same prompt.

Confirmed fixed on pre-release vscode, thank you.

We have also done a mainline release 0.4.73 and it should be available on both VS code and cursor now. Again really appreciate all the feedback here.

I still get this same problem on mainline release 0.4.74

Still absolutely 100% fkn annoying problem.