Why does Codex seem to assume that it's running airgapped?

What version of Codex is running?

codex-cli 0.23.0

Which model were you using?

gpt-5 medium

What platform is your computer?

Linux 6.14.0-15-generic x86_64 x86_64 (Ubuntu 25)

What steps can reproduce the bug?

• Run Codex
• Ask it to run any command that would require network access. Simple example: move to the root of a node project and prompt something like: "can you help me install the dependencies and get the dev server running?" (I know, I'm lazy)
• Observe the model's thinking

What is the expected behavior?

I would have thought that the default assumption should be that Codex is operating on a normal environment - ie, the computer is networked (to the internet) and Codex can execute those commands.

What do you see instead?

I see endless variations of the following (copying this from my last run):

_"Given that the repo's network is restricted, we won’t run npm install unless the user allows it."_

<img width="1682" height="484" alt="Image" src="https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/d29a7834-d215-4048-ace1-4abc5fc47720" />

Additional information

I'm guessing that this is coming from a system prompt baked into the model as my AGENTS.md does not mention anything about networking restrictions.

I appreciate the cautious approach. But it becomes a waste of time (and tokens) to have to repeatedly tell the model that no, there's internet, go ahead and run npm install (etc)