Codex is now searching the web way more frequently and at unnecessary times
What version of Codex CLI is running?
0.128
What subscription do you have?
Plus
Which model were you using?
gpt-5.3-codex high
What platform is your computer?
linux
What terminal emulator and version are you using (if applicable)?
xfce4-terminal
What issue are you seeing?
A few days ago codex started searching the web way more frequently and at unnecessary and bizarre times where it obviously wouldn't find the answer. It now searches the web 2-10 times frequently for even basic tasks when before it would search 0 times and it would only use the web when logical. It's searching the web for proprietary details and things clearly only invented by me.
What steps can reproduce the bug?
• Explored
└ Read LocalBoardApi.kt
Search robust_loc_scale|sigmoid|solve_shift_for_target_sum|xorshift128plus|generate_flat\(|
kMaxWords|g_dictionary_words|thread_word_indices|list_words in main.cpp
Search dictionary|word_to_id|g_dictionary|vector<string>|all_words|list_words in main.cpp
• Searching the web
• Searched
• Searching the web
• Searched
• Explored
└ Read main.cpp, boardgen_jni.cpp
• Searching the web
• Searched
• I’ve confirmed the sampled EWMA is failing for a concrete reason in your device log. I’m now
checking the native generator code for an existing on-device EWMA routine we can call
directly (instead of desktop path execution).
• Explored
└ Search ewma|total_rating|board-analysis|bot-speed|benchmark_summary|rating in main.cpp
• Searching the web
• Searched
• Searching the web
• Searched
What is the expected behavior?
_No response_
Additional information
_No response_
8 Comments
I also have issues with gpt-5.3, and I did noticed a lot of web search,
gpt5.4 and gpt-5.4-mini(which I like the most) seems to be the sweet point for me
is that in this specific problem or a wide problem ?
the jump between 5.3 is huge, to 5.4
I recomend trying 5.4 mini - its actually really good , and it knows when to stop better
new issue you had? you been using 5.3 in the past, and now its new, you have issues? has the codebase increased?
@Mahkhmood9 I think it's only happening with 5.3 codex. I don't recall it happening with 5.5. I'll check next time I need to do a hard task. I know 5.4 mini is lighter on limits but I've never used it because i use gemini-cli flash for the basic tasks but it's been having a lot of problems lately so I'm using codex more of the time and I'm hitting limits faster. I'm going to start using it now for basic tasks to see what it can handle
Thanks for the bug report. This appears to be model behavior, not a Codex harness issue. We'll share the feedback with the team responsible for training our codex models. If you see other model behavior that you'd like to report, please use the
/feedbackcommand. That will provide us with additional details including logs and conversation text.I tested it on same task using Codex CLI with gpt-5.3-codex model and Cursor with Codex 5.3 model and I noticed web searches only in CLI. In cursor I walked through all collapsible "Explored" parts and not a single web search.
Are you sure it is a model behavior?
the decision to do a web search is model based
Is that something new that happening?
It models in my opnion, because
5.3 is much weaker than 5.4 so note that
Personally I can recomend VSCODE and installing Codex extention in it ,, it has a very smooth exprience
Can you say the same for 5.4 /5.4mini or 5.5
in my expirence Codex is smarter on VSCODE / CLI
see https://github.com/openai/codex/blob/main/codex-rs/core/src/state/turn.rs
but honestly I dont know https://docs.rs/codex-protocol/latest/src/codex_protocol/models.rs.html#231-253
and codex_protocol::models
Enum WebSearchAction
which is client side? Unless the model uses the client side logs , and hallucinate?
keep in mind you mention 5.3,
second cursor , can use another model for search?
You can't swap the OpenAI search tool itself, but you can add your own search tools alongside?
and the model-web-search is server side?
so when the model says "do web search" , you cant enact it locally
so they use
In ~/.codex/config.toml:
tomlweb_search = "disabled"
and some type of mcp behvior (wheter if to use )
https://developers.openai.com/codex/mcp
how does it know to respect web search , it self, its llm model , it init the next token right? so something wierd is happening
~/.codex/config.toml
[tools]
web_search = false
far as I concern , it could also be something related to the (premission level) like when the init a web search or not
but there is external_web_access also?
I've done some investigation. I think the models aim is to determine "Will I have to consider backwards compatibility or not" or something, it is checking against what is public, vs what is local, to determine something. It's determining what the public surface already is.
That's my speculation.
Still ridiculous, because planning out a +100 -150 LOC change, should not take thirty-five web searches. Why do more web searches than uses of grep?
I strongly believe you need to improve the CLI UX now to accomadate the new model behavior @etraut-openai -- maybe collapse web searches, since it is extremely inclined to make 15 in a row. Collapse it to "made 15 web searches".
What a rush to closure.
Please use the /feedback if you notice it , (they actually read it i think)
thread ID 019e1510-5645-79c1-946e-dbb5cf1c9c16