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Codex Issues / #24096

Codex Desktop cron automations create session_meta-only rollout sessions; prompt never executes

Open 💬 2 comments Opened May 22, 2026 by fortiesn
💡 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)?

Unknown; rollout metadata shows cli_version 0.131.0-alpha.9, local codex.exe shows 0.130.0-alpha.5

What subscription do you have?

Oracle Corporation (Enterprise)

What platform is your computer?

Microsoft Windows NT 10.0.26200.0 x64

What issue are you seeing?

Codex Desktop cron automations appear to wake up and create rollout JSONL session files, but the automation prompt is never injected or executed. The resulting files contain only a single session_meta line: no user prompt, no assistant output, and no tool calls.

Affected automations:

  • morning-work-brief
  • workday-brief-update-watch

What steps can reproduce the bug?

  1. Create or enable a Codex Desktop cron automation.
  2. Leave it active until its scheduled time.
  3. Inspect the generated rollout JSONL session file under the local Codex sessions directory.
  4. Confirm the file contains only session_meta.

What is the expected behavior?

At the scheduled time, Codex should execute the automation prompt, call available tools/connectors as needed, and produce assistant output.

Additional information

  • Automations are present and marked ACTIVE.
  • Outlook calendar connection works.
  • Slack connection works.
  • Project is trusted.
  • approval_policy = "on-request" is set.
  • Recent affected rollout sessions include scheduled-looking runs on May 21 and May 22, 2026.
  • Sample affected files had exactly one line and no entries matching the automation prompt, tool calls, or assistant messages.

Scheduled work brief automations silently fail. The scheduler appears to fire, but the actual task does not run, so the user receives no brief or update.

View original on GitHub ↗

2 Comments

github-actions[bot] contributor · 3 months ago

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

  • #24019

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Pyfinart · 24 days ago

I hit a closely related Codex Desktop cron automation failure on macOS, with one additional symptom: the underlying run recorded a stream disconnect, but the Desktop UI summarized the turn as completed with error=null and no assistant output.

Environment:

  • ChatGPT Desktop app: 26.727.51351 (CFBundleVersion 6119)
  • Bundled Codex CLI path: /Applications/ChatGPT.app/Contents/Resources/codex
  • codex --version: codex-cli 0.146.0-alpha.9.2
  • Platform: macOS, Apple Silicon
  • Automation kind: cron, execution environment local, status ACTIVE
  • Schedule at the time: weekdays 08:30 local time

Observed on 2026-08-04:

  • Automation started at approximately 08:59:21 +08 and ended at 08:59:54 +08.
  • Local session event had task_complete.error: stream disconnected before completion.
  • No assistant messages were produced.
  • No tool calls were executed.
  • The automation's expected local artifacts were not updated: the previous day's scan artifact remained, and the expected report for 2026-08-04 was not created.
  • In the Desktop UI/thread summary, the run appeared as completed with error=null, which made it look like a successful empty run rather than a failed run.

Expected behavior:

  • If the automation prompt never starts, or the backend stream disconnects before any assistant/tool activity, the Desktop automation run should be surfaced as failed/incomplete.
  • The UI summary should expose the underlying error or at least not mark the run as completed with error=null.
  • Ideally the automation runner should retry or schedule a clear failed-run notification for pre-execution stream failures.

This seems related to the session_meta/no-output class of failures described here, but in this case there was also an explicit stream-disconnect error in the raw event state.