Codex complicates a very simple directive

What version of Codex CLI is running?

v0.114.0

What subscription do you have?

education

Which model were you using?

gpt-5.4

What platform is your computer?

Darwin 25.3.0 arm64 arm

What terminal emulator and version are you using (if applicable)?

iTerm2

What issue are you seeing?

I asked Codex to "return hello". Instead of responding with "hello", it treated the request as a code-change task, started inspecting the repository, and ran search/status
commands. After I clarified with "no, just return "hello"", it responded correctly. Expected behavior: for a plain request like "return hello", Codex should just output "hello"
immediately and not inspect the workspace or assume a code modification task.

What steps can reproduce the bug?

Uploaded thread: 019cdddf-621f-7d91-9eff-fd829bb3a258

What is the expected behavior?

I would expect the model to just return 'hello'

Additional information

_No response_