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Codex Issues / #13556

Codex App (WSL mode): Missing environment variable `AZURE_OPENAI_API_KEY` although variable exists in Windows and WSL

Open 💬 10 comments Opened Mar 5, 2026 by ckorherr
💡 Likely answer: A maintainer (etraut-openai, contributor) responded on this thread — see the highlighted reply below.

What version of the Codex App are you using (From “About Codex” dialog)?

26.304.1528.0

What subscription do you have?

Azure OpenAI

What platform is your computer?

Microsoft Windows NT 10.0.26100.0 x64

What issue are you seeing?

After the latest update I can successfully start the Codex App with:

runCodexInWindowsSubsystemForLinux: true

However, every prompt returns the error:

Missing environment variable: `AZURE_OPENAI_API_KEY`

My config.toml:

model = "gpt-5.3-codex"
model_provider = "azure"
model_reasoning_effort = "medium"

[model_providers.azure]
name = "Azure"
base_url = "https://xyz.openai.azure.com/openai"
env_key = "AZURE_OPENAI_API_KEY"
query_params = { api-version = "2025-04-01-preview" }
wire_api = "responses"

The environment variable is set in both environments:

WSL:

printenv AZURE_OPENAI_API_KEY

Windows PowerShell:

echo $env:AZURE_OPENAI_API_KEY

Both commands return the correct key.

Despite this, Codex still reports the variable as missing.

What steps can reproduce the bug?

  1. Create ~/.codex/config.toml on Windows with the Azure provider configuration
  2. Set the environment variable AZURE_OPENAI_API_KEY
  3. Enable WSL mode (runCodexInWindowsSubsystemForLinux=true)
  4. Start the Codex App
  5. Open a project and send a prompt

Result:

Missing environment variable: AZURE_OPENAI_API_KEY

What is the expected behavior?

Codex should detect the existing environment variable and authenticate successfully.

Additional information

Environment:

Codex App version: 26.304.1528.0
Windows: Microsoft Windows NT 10.0.26100.0 x64
WSL: Ubuntu (WSL2)
Subscription: Azure OpenAI

The variable is available in both the Windows and WSL environments but is still reported as missing when Codex runs in WSL mode.

View original on GitHub ↗

10 Comments

etraut-openai contributor · 4 months ago

Are you sure the environment variable is exported? Can you see its value VS Code's built-in terminal?

ckorherr · 4 months ago

yes, in VSCode connected to the same repo in WSL and executing "printenv AZURE_OPENAI_API_KEY" -> I see the key.

<img width="1019" height="400" alt="Image" src="https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/d9a9e4e9-ead0-465e-971a-79bbbe0dd97e" />

Atlantic83 · 4 months ago

Fixed ?
same for the ZenMux provider

kendonB · 4 months ago

Also seeing this issue. A related issue is that the environment dropdown (cog in the top right) is not visible for new chats and that a newly created environment has to be manually selected using the environment dropdown, which only appears once you start the session, then still doesn't seem to work once turned on.

<img width="1475" height="701" alt="Image" src="https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/d255f2e7-d158-4d88-a375-250064ac6d41" />

<img width="1472" height="801" alt="Image" src="https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/0664a265-fd44-4c61-9c73-06a052ad1eb4" />

kong75 · 4 months ago

+1 on this. Did you find a way around?

wangchaofan2018 · 4 months ago

+1

Sagarika-Gawhankar-AI · 4 months ago

+1

Sagarika-Gawhankar-AI · 3 months ago

I've kind of found the solution. The issue was my AZURE_OPENAI_API_KEY wasn't setting permanently in WSL.

So for me the solution was to set the key permanently and this is how I managed to do it:

  1. In Windows set AZURE_OPENAI_API_KEY and value in Edit environment variables for your account --> User variables interface.
  2. Then we need to share this key with the WSL, so in the same window look for a variable named WSLENV or create one and set the value to AZURE_OPENAI_API_KEY/u (/u is important)
  3. Restart WSL (using wsl --shutdown)
  4. Restart the Codex app

If this doesn't work, try this:

In WSL terminal:

  1. nano ~/.bashrc
  2. Paste this at the very bottom: export AZURE_OPENAI_API_KEY="you-key"
  3. Save and Exit
  4. source ~/.bashrc
  5. Restart the Codex app

Let me know if it helps.

h0gar · 1 month ago

Same problem here with codex app in wsl mode, although it works in cli and in the VSC codex extension, in wsl.

That's the config I am testing with:

model_provider = "openrouter"
model_reasoning_effort = "low"
model="xiaomi/mimo-v2.5-pro"

[model_providers.openrouter]
name = "openrouter"
base_url="https://openrouter.ai/api/v1"
env_key="OPENROUTER_API_KEY"

Error: Missing environment variable: OPENROUTER_API_KEY.

But when I open a terminal in the codex app and run echo $OPENROUTER_API_KEY it outputs the value.

BongSuCHOI · 14 days ago

Same issue here — OpenRouter provider on native Linux (Oracle Linux 9, aarch64), Codex CLI v0.142.5, deepseek/deepseek-v4-flash.

Config:

model = "deepseek/deepseek-v4-flash"
model_provider = "openrouter"
model_reasoning_effort = "high"

[model_providers.openrouter]
name = "openrouter"
base_url = "https://openrouter.ai/api/v1"
env_key = "OPENROUTER_API_KEY"

OPENROUTER_API_KEY was set in ~/.bashrc and confirmed via echo $OPENROUTER_API_KEY, but Codex still reported Missing environment variable: OPENROUTER_API_KEY.

Root cause: The persistent app-server daemon (codex doctor showed app-server running (persistent mode)) was holding stale environment from before the key was added to .bashrc. The daemon starts on first Codex launch and never picks up new env vars.

Fix that worked:

rm -f ~/.codex/app-server-daemon/app-server.pid
pkill -f codex
source ~/.bashrc
codex

This confirms the issue isn't WSL-specific — it affects native Linux when the app-server daemon predates the env var being set. The CLI itself works fine once the daemon is restarted with the correct environment.