Desktop thread loses MCP tool availability after auth, forcing new threads and breaking continuity

What version of Codex is running?

Codex desktop app on macOS

What issue are you seeing?

After enabling and authenticating the Notion MCP connection, the app can show that MCP/OAuth is enabled, but the current thread still does not receive usable Notion dynamic tools.

This creates a deadlock:

• the existing thread has the full working context/memory
• but MCP tools only become usable after opening a new thread or restarting the app
• opening a new thread breaks the continuity needed for the task

Steps to reproduce

1. Start a Codex desktop thread and build up substantial working context.
2. Enable/authenticate Notion MCP in the app.
3. Try to perform Notion-backed actions in the current thread.
4. Observe that the thread still lacks usable Notion MCP tools / behaves like auth is unavailable.
5. Open a new thread or restart the app.
6. Observe that MCP may become available there instead.

Expected behavior

Once MCP auth is enabled at the app/account level, the current thread should either:

• receive the MCP tools automatically, or
• provide a reliable refresh/rebind mechanism without requiring a new thread.

Actual behavior

The existing thread remains unusable for MCP actions, and the only workaround is starting a new thread, which loses the task continuity/context.

Why this is especially painful

This blocks long-running agent workflows:

• old thread has the context but no MCP
• new thread may get MCP but loses continuity

Additional context

This was reproduced with Notion MCP.

The issue seems less like a Notion configuration problem and more like app-level MCP auth state and thread-level tool availability getting out of sync.

Related symptoms seem similar to other MCP discovery/visibility issues in Codex, but this specific problem is about existing threads not receiving newly available MCP tools.