Web search returns 503 Service Unavailable in both Codex desktop app and CLI; /feedback also fails

Hello, Codex wrote this report on itself when web search and /feedback stopped working for me:

I’m seeing a consistent failure of web search in both the Codex desktop app and the Codex CLI. Normal chat/model usage still works, but any web search attempt fails with 503 Service Unavailable.

I also tried submitting feedback from the CLI with /feedback, and that failed too, so I couldn’t report it from inside the product.

Date

• March 27, 2026

Affected clients

• Codex desktop app
• Codex CLI

Versions observed

• Desktop app bundle version: 26.325.21211
• Desktop bundled helper: codex-cli 0.117.0-alpha.24
• Homebrew CLI in PATH: codex-cli 0.116.0

Symptoms

• Any minimal web search query, e.g. OpenAI, fails
• Error returned: 503 Service Unavailable
• The failing backend path appears as:
• search.openai.svc.cluster.local.:8000/internal/tool_call/process

What still works

• Normal Codex chat
• Regular model access
• CLI auth appears valid
• Model list refresh and websocket model traffic still work normally

So this appears to be isolated to the web-search path rather than general auth or total service failure.

Reproduction

1. Open Codex desktop app or Codex CLI
2. Trigger a web search with a minimal query such as OpenAI
3. Observe 503 Service Unavailable

Frequency

• 100% reproducible during this session
• Retried multiple times with the same result

Isolation already done

• Reproduces in both desktop app and CLI
• Reproduces after switching to a phone hotspot
• This makes the original local network much less likely to be the cause

Local investigation

• CLI config looked normal
• CLI auth state was populated and appeared structurally valid
• CLI could still reach core model endpoints successfully
• Desktop app had normal local app state, with no obvious local setting disabling search
• I didn’t find evidence of broad auth failures like 401 or 403

Additional issue

• /feedback in the CLI also failed, so I couldn’t submit an in-product report

Current best guess

This looks like one of:

• a backend outage/regression isolated to the search service
• an account-level routing/feature issue affecting search
• a client/backend compatibility issue specific to the current search path

Why I think this is not just my machine

• It affects both app and CLI
• It reproduces on a different network
• The failing host is an internal service name, which suggests the failure is behind the product edge rather than a local connectivity problem