Hyphenated MCP server names cause working servers to render as 'Tools: (none)'

Summary

Codex can show Tools: (none) for a working MCP server if the configured MCP server name contains -.

This is not a transport failure and not a tools/list failure. The bug is in how Codex sanitizes fully-qualified MCP tool names and then later groups them back by server name for mcpServerStatus/list.

User-visible symptom

A configured server like:

• autok-local

shows up in Codex as:

• Status: enabled
• Auth: OAuth
• URL: http://localhost:8000/mcp
• Tools: (none)

But the same server immediately works if the config key is renamed to:

• autok_local

Root cause

In codex-rs/core/src/mcp_connection_manager.rs, qualify_tools() builds raw fully-qualified names like:

• mcp__autok-local__browse_content

Then sanitize_responses_api_tool_name() replaces disallowed characters with _, producing:

• mcp__autok_local__browse_content

Later, group_tools_by_server() in codex-rs/core/src/mcp/mod.rs splits the sanitized qualified key and reconstructs the server name as:

• autok_local

Finally, mcpServerStatus/list in codex-rs/app-server/src/codex_message_processor.rs renders per-server status rows using the configured MCP server name from config, which is still:

• autok-local

So the lookup misses and that server renders with no tools.

Why this is especially confusing

• initialize succeeds
• tools/list succeeds
• the MCP server can be fully functional
• official MCP SDK clients can list and call tools just fine
• only Codex's inventory/status rendering drops the tools

This makes it look like the MCP server is broken even though the issue is the Codex-side regrouping path.

Minimal repro

1. Configure an MCP server in Codex using a hyphenated name, for example:

• autok-local

1. Ensure the server returns a non-empty tools/list.
2. Open the MCP server status view in Codex.
3. Observe Tools: (none).
4. Rename only the config key to autok_local.
5. Restart/reload Codex.
6. Observe the tools now appear.

Expected behavior

Codex should preserve the original MCP server name for grouping/rendering and should not reconstruct the server name from a sanitized fully-qualified tool key.

Actual behavior

Codex groups sanitized tool keys under autok_local while rendering the configured server row autok-local, so the tool list disappears.

Suggested fix

Avoid deriving the server name for status grouping from the sanitized fully-qualified tool key.

Instead, preserve the original configured/server-reported server name separately through the snapshot/status path and group/render against that canonical name.

Additional note

This also explains why some built-in or external MCP servers appear unaffected:

• names like figma and linear have no -, so sanitization does not change the grouping key.