MCP servers start but tools never cached (has_cached_tools=false)

Open 💬 3 comments Opened Jul 12, 2026 by ajiu1123

💡 Likely answer: A maintainer (github-actions[bot], contributor) responded on this thread — see the highlighted reply below.

Environment

Version: Codex Desktop 26.707.31428
OS: Windows 10
Setup: Custom model provider via wire_api="responses", requires_openai_auth=true

Issue

12 MCP servers start successfully (startup_complete=true, 94 tools total), but has_cached_tools is always false and model requests only include 15 built-in tools — never any MCP tools.

MCP servers configured (all start OK)

filesystem (14 tools)
git (12)
fetch (1)
playwright (24)
flaui (11)
serena (22)
context7 (2)
screenhand
wxauto (5)
windows-mcp
codex-node-repl
node_repl (3)

What I've tried

Permission profile: Custom / Full Access — same result
Removed [features] js_repl = false — same result
New sessions after config changes — same result
Tried switching wire_api to chat_completions but relay was unstable

Expected

MCP tools should be cached and included in model requests after startup_complete=true

View original on GitHub ↗

3 Comments

github-actions[bot] contributor · 1 month ago

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

#31750
#31374

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seanzng · 23 days ago

Confirming data point on codex CLI 0.146.0 TUI, Windows 11, custom model provider via wire_api="responses":

MCP server fully initialized: /mcp showed it active with all 22 tools listed, and its socket connection to the target app was established.
Despite that, the model's tool list for the entire session contained zero MCP tools — only built-ins. The agent could not call any of them.
A fresh restart with identical config exposed the tools correctly and calls succeeded.

Matches the "servers start but tools never cached on first session" pattern described here.

dqtz5vpvj9-create · 21 days ago

@/home/chris/.gh-comment-32574-finding.md