Cannot select permissions in the MacOS App UI permissions drop down selector, STUCK IN READ-ONLY

Open 💬 5 comments Opened Mar 20, 2026 by chrismacp
💡 Likely answer: A maintainer (github-actions[bot], contributor) responded on this thread — see the highlighted reply below.

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

Version 26.318.11754 (1100)

What subscription do you have?

Plus

What platform is your computer?

MacOS 15.6.1 (24G90)

What issue are you seeing?

I am unable to change the permission level in the UI using the dropdown select field.

<img width="571" height="150" alt="Image" src="https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/03e7a996-6b01-4198-8e87-fbf88f8bfa5e" />

I try to select Default Permissions which is what I usually use and it does not change after I click it so I am stuck with the toml file option which is read only.

I tried adding more permissions to my toml file:

sandbox_mode = "workspace-write"
approval_policy = "on-request"

But even then my threads are read-only. So I'm stuck completely and can't do anything that requires write permission to my workspace.

I have restarted codex, logged out and back in again, but nothing changes. It affect all my threads too.

I did update Codex a short while ago and so maybe a recent change affected this

What steps can reproduce the bug?

Not sure, the app just seemed to stop allowing permission changes.

What is the expected behavior?

_No response_

Additional information

_No response_

View original on GitHub ↗

5 Comments

github-actions[bot] contributor · 5 months ago

Potential duplicates detected. Please review them and close your issue if it is a duplicate.

  • #13934
  • #14590

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chrismacp · 5 months ago

They are not

Potential duplicates detected. Please review them and close your issue if it is a duplicate. already granted full access before,but why now the permissions suddenly changed to Custom (workspace-write, on-request) #13934 Desktop automations can start in workspace-write and switch to danger-full-access after chat interaction #14590 _Powered by Codex Action_

They are not duplicates, I am unable to change permissions

chrismacp · 5 months ago

<img width="798" height="221" alt="Image" src="https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/137c061a-6516-4ee4-b3a4-5afd02123866" />

Codex's thoughts on it.

chrismacp · 5 months ago

Okay I figured out that I can just set up the permission settings in the settings > configuration section so I have things working again, but the change permissions drop down still does not work properly so probably needs looking into.

0tii · 5 months ago

Win11 VSCode here, same issue. Can not change the dropdown away from Custom anymore which is unbearable. The constant UI / UX changes to Codex are getting out of hand and I am considering moving to Claude.