Creating a skill + automation does not trigger immediate execution
Resolved 💬 2 comments Opened Feb 20, 2026 by twentyOne2x Closed Feb 21, 2026
Summary
Codex did not reliably complete an explicitly ordered, high-autonomy workflow end-to-end in one run:
- create/update a custom skill,
- create/update an automation that uses that skill,
- start execution immediately in the current session.
Expected Behavior
- When the user gives an explicit sequence (setup first, then execute now), Codex should:
- complete all setup steps,
- validate setup artifacts,
- immediately start execution without requiring additional prompts.
Actual Behavior
- The setup was only partially usable after the first pass.
- Extra follow-up prompts were required before behavior matched intent.
- In this case, custom skill discoverability/autocomplete did not work initially, which blocked the intended “create + run now” flow.
Core Product Gap
There appears to be a gap between:
- successful artifact creation on disk, and
- runtime readiness/activation (discoverability + immediate execution path).
For unattended workflows, this gap is critical because the user expects a single-prompt handoff.
Suggested Fixes
- Add strict ordered-execution mode for prompts that clearly specify setup-then-run sequencing.
- Add post-creation readiness checks for skill/automation flows (parse, registration, discoverability).
- If readiness checks fail, auto-remediate in the same run or return an explicit blocking failure with a next action.
- Add an option to execute newly created automation immediately (one-shot run), not only schedule it.
Environment
- CLI/App version observed:
codex-cli 0.104.0-alpha.1 - OS: macOS 26.3 (Darwin 25.3.0 arm64)
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