Codex no longer ask for approval in Read-only

Resolved 💬 13 comments Opened Sep 16, 2025 by oscarlehuu Closed Oct 6, 2025

💡 Likely answer: A maintainer (dylan-hurd-oai, contributor) responded on this thread — see the highlighted reply below.

What version of Codex is running?

0.36.0

Which model were you using?

gpt-5-codex

What platform is your computer?

Darwin 24.1.0 arm64 arm

What steps can reproduce the bug?

Yesterday, before updating, Codex CLI still asks for approval to edit file or moving file. But today, on Read-only, it does not do it.

It said _I can move those files and fix the links, but the workspace is currently read-only. Could you grant write access (or run the moves yourself) so I can finish the update?_

Meanwhile, when i do /status, it says

/status
📂 Workspace
• Path:
• Approval Mode: on-request
• Sandbox: read-only
• AGENTS files: AGENTS.md

What is the expected behavior?

Codex CLI should be able to ask for approvals when edit file on read-only mode

What do you see instead?

Codex CLI asks me to change to Auto mode

Additional information

_No response_

View original on GitHub ↗

13 Comments

illumineawake · 10 months ago

Confirmed same issue only as of 0.36 using the codex model.

oscarlehuu · 10 months ago

Confirmed same issue only as of 0.36 using the codex model.

I saw some PR has been opened for this. Let see when Codex merge.

AtecAi · 10 months ago

I ran into the same issue. I got it to work by first asking it to outline the plan, then prompting “do it, I’ll approve.” The next response finally gave me the classic yes/no approval options we all used to have. Still, it’s a very annoying bug.

oscarlehuu · 10 months ago

Yeah. But I believe they gonna fix it soon. It is still fine. I am just doing some personal projects. For production I still use chat currently. I dont know if it is because version 0.36 or codex model.

I ran into the same issue. I got it to work by first asking it to outline the plan, then prompting “do it, I’ll approve.” The next response finally gave me the classic yes/no approval options we all used to have. Still, it’s a very annoying bug.

Aqualie · 10 months ago

Yeah. But I believe they gonna fix it soon. It is still fine. I am just doing some personal projects. For production I still use chat currently. I dont know if it is because version 0.36 or codex model. > I ran into the same issue. I got it to work by first asking it to outline the plan, then prompting “do it, I’ll approve.” The next response finally gave me the classic yes/no approval options we all used to have. Still, it’s a very annoying bug.

I tried this approach however found it's very hit or miss in some conversation it will automatically figure it out in others it wiill just flat-out keep refusing instantly with the generic read-only message. So I just copy paste the prompt into a new conversation and it usually works the 2nd time around.

dylan-hurd-oai contributor · 10 months ago

This issue should be fixed in rust-v0.37.0-alpha.4 and above

Jnorm911 · 10 months ago

For those using the vscode extension, you can edit the .toml

sandbox_mode = "read-only"
ask_for_approval = "always"

I've only used it a few times but no issues yet. If this stops working, this no longer asks for approval but solves the issue.

sandbox_mode = "workspace-write"
ask_for_approval = "workspace"

dylan-hurd-oai contributor · 10 months ago

@Jnorm911 et all, this should be improved (perhaps not fully fixed, but improved) in rust-v0.37.0. Please let us know if you're still seeing this on the latest version

oscarlehuu · 10 months ago

@Jnorm911 et all, this should be improved (perhaps not fully fixed, but improved) in rust-v0.37.0. Please let us know if you're still seeing this on the latest version

Hi Dylan,

Codex still said they don't have outbound network while in Read-only mode. Before 0.36.0, Codex will always ask me to approve for bash run.

I’m sandboxed (read‑only filesystem, no outbound network) so I can’t hit AWS myself. To test SES, run locally

oscarlehuu · 10 months ago

I think I found a solution. here is my settings in config.toml
[projects."{project_dir}"]
trust_level = "on-request"
sandbox_mode = "workspace-write"

aibrahim-oai contributor · 9 months ago

This should be fixed

Marlliton · 5 months ago

This worked for me.

[projects."/path/to/project"]
trust_level = "untrusted"
sandbox_mode = "workspace-write"

SzilvasiPeter · 3 months ago

@oscarlehuu This configuration is incorrect.

I think I found a solution. here is my settings in config.toml [projects."{project_dir}"] trust_level = "on-request" sandbox_mode = "workspace-write"

There is no on-request variant for the trust_level attribute. See the error message:

Error loading config.toml:
/home/szpeter/.codex/config.toml:13:15: unknown variant `on-request`, expected `trusted` or `untrusted`
   |
13 | trust_level = "on-request"
   |               ^^^^^^^^^^^^

Setting the trust level to untrusted solves the issues. After that, codex asks approval before actions.