Shell commands hang for several minutes or abort in Codex session while same commands run instantly locally
What version of Codex CLI is running?
codex-cli 0.144.3
What subscription do you have?
ChatGPT Plus
Which model were you using?
gpt-5-codex
What platform is your computer?
Microsoft Windows NT 10.0.26200.0 x64
What terminal emulator and version are you using (if applicable)?
Windows PowerShell / PowerShell on Windows. Codex was running from the Codex chat/session environment. No tmux/screen/zellij. I also tested similar commands outside Codex and they completed instantly.
Codex doctor report
{
"schemaVersion": 1,
"generatedAt": "1784019655s since unix epoch",
"overallStatus": "ok",
"codexVersion": "0.144.3",
"checks": {
"app_server.status": {
"id": "app_server.status",
"category": "app-server",
"status": "ok",What issue are you seeing?
Codex shell commands in one session became extremely slow or hung indefinitely after attempting to write a Markdown spec file into
a local repository path.
The repository path was:
C:\Users\barth\Desktop\school\Web Dev Tech\Hostel Link
After that, even very small commands such as:
```powershell
Get-Location
Test-Path "C:\Users\barth\Desktop\school\Web Dev Tech\Hostel Link"
cmd /c echo ok
echo ok
either aborted or took roughly 8-11 minutes to return.
The same commands run instantly in my own PowerShell and in another local tool/session, so the issue appears specific to the Codex
session/tool runner rather than my machine, PowerShell, or the repository.
The agent was not running network commands, git pull, git push, or remote GitHub operations. It was only trying local filesystem/
shell operations.
What steps can reproduce the bug?
Uploaded thread: 019f5dee-ed58-7300-a6cc-f774fbe416e1
What is the expected behavior?
Small local shell commands should complete quickly, usually within a few seconds.
If a file write fails or hangs, aborting it should not leave the Codex session's command runner in a degraded state where unrelated
commands like `Get-Location` or `echo ok` take many minutes.
### Additional information
The issue caused several hours of lost work because the agent repeatedly tried small diagnostic commands and they kept hanging or
returning after many minutes.
I verified that the local machine and repository are not the bottleneck:
- The same `Get-ChildItem`, `Test-Path`, and simple shell commands run quickly outside this Codex session.
- Another tool/session was able to access the same folder normally.
- The issue seems isolated to the Codex session/tool runner state.
Please also note: the repository's git remote had previously contained an embedded GitHub token. I am not including that remote URL
here for security reasons.
3 Comments
Potential duplicates detected. Please review them and close your issue if it is a duplicate.
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I would like to add my case as a related but slightly different symptom.
In my case, the tool calls usually complete successfully. For example:
However, after the tool result is returned, the Agent does not continue to the next step. It remains stuck on progress messages such as:
"Confirming to keep Home component"
"Verifying build status..."
"Implementing local count updates..."
The task only resumes after I manually click "Stop" and send another prompt asking Codex to continue from the current progress.
After the additional prompt, Codex can usually continue normally.
So my case seems to be related to the tool-call pipeline/state transition issue, but the difference is that the child process/tool itself is not always hanging. The failure happens after the tool execution completes, when the Agent should process the result and continue the workflow.
Environment:
This started after the recent Codex update. Before the update, the same project and workflow worked normally.
Thanks everyone. Since multiple related reports are now being added here, I’ll keep this issue open as a
consolidation point unless maintainers prefer that we move discussion to another existing issue.
Current pattern from reports so far:
Get-Location,git status,cmd /c echo ok, and file reads are affected.layer.
Maintainers, please let us know if you want this consolidated under another issue number instead.