Codex Desktop automation_update schema is cron-only, blocking same-thread heartbeat creation

Codex Desktop automation_update schema is cron-only, blocking same-thread heartbeat creation

What version of the Codex App are you using?

ChatGPT/Codex desktop 26.721.41059 (bundle 5848).

What platform is your computer?

macOS 27.0 (26A5388g), Apple Silicon (arm64).

What issue are you seeing?

In a local Codex Desktop task, codex_app.automation_update is available, but its create schema permits only:

kind: "cron"
executionEnvironment: "local"
destination: "local"

It exposes neither kind: "heartbeat" nor a target_thread_id/current-task delivery option. As a result, Codex can create a detached recurring cron automation, but it cannot create a recurring automation that wakes and continues the existing task.

This is a creation-path regression or tool-schema exposure mismatch rather than a general removal of heartbeats:

• Existing task-bound heartbeat automations continue to work.
• Existing heartbeat definitions contain kind = "heartbeat" and a target_thread_id.
• Current official Scheduled Tasks documentation still distinguishes standalone scheduled tasks from scheduled tasks in a chat that return to that chat with its existing context.

Steps to reproduce

1. Open a local Codex task in Desktop.
2. Ask Codex to create a recurring task every 15 minutes that returns each run to this same task.
3. Have Codex discover and inspect codex_app.automation_update.
4. Observe that the create/update schema allows only kind: "cron" and provides no current-task or explicit target-task field.
5. Repeat from inside the intended persistent owner task itself.
6. Observe that the task still cannot create a same-task heartbeat; the only supported creation path is a detached cron job.

In the reproduced case, the owner task first checked for a matching automation, found none, and stopped without creating a standalone cron job or editing automation files by hand.

Expected behavior

When invoked from an existing task, automation_update should support creating or updating one task-bound heartbeat by either:

• implicitly targeting the current task; or
• accepting an explicit target_thread_id.

Each scheduled run should append to and continue that persistent task instead of creating a new task per run.

Actual behavior

Only detached cron creation is exposed. The requested same-task heartbeat cannot be created through the supported tool surface.

Concrete product impact: Tend

This blocks a core operating contract of EveryInc/tend:

• Tend's README says each feed's dedicated Codex task binds itself to the feed and installs or updates one heartbeat.
• The current Tend Manual defines a heartbeat as the recurring wake-up for that same task.
• Tend's current runner contract explicitly requires creating or updating one same-task heartbeat automation.
• Tend's changelog contains no compatibility change or removal of this requirement.

Without same-task heartbeat creation, a newly configured Tend feed can be bound and refreshed manually but cannot perform its intended recurring operation.

Related issues

• #29184 documents that detached cron creates a separate task per run while heartbeat continues in one persistent task, and requests clearer delivery controls.
• #26489 documents missing heartbeat automation tooling in Remote Control. This report reproduces in a local task where automation_update is present but its schema is cron-only.
• #32294 documents a different Desktop automation tool failure: the tool is advertised but has no handler.

Additional information

No raw automation file was written or modified as a workaround, and no duplicate automation was created.