Symlinked .codex breaks the entire macOS sandbox in rust-v0.149.0
What version of the Codex App are you using (From “About Codex” dialog)?
26.818.31338
What subscription do you have?
Pro 200 for OSS
What platform is your computer?
macOS 26.6.2
What issue are you seeing?
rust-v0.149.0 introduced a regression for users who symlink ~/.codex/visualizations (for example, to a RAM-backed or temporary filesystem).
PR #39599 now rejects any writable root containing a nested symlink component. Since Codex automatically adds .codex/visualizations/... as a writable root, a symlink at ~/.codex/visualizations causes Seatbelt preparation to fail entirely, even when the visualization functionality is not being used.
Would it be possible to address this in one of these ways?
Do not add .codex/visualizations/... to writable roots when the visualization/plugin functionality is disabled or unused.
Allow configuring the visualization output directory explicitly.
For Codex-managed auxiliary writable roots, resolve the symlink before sandbox creation and authorize the resolved target, while preserving the security guarantees introduced by #39599.
The important part is that an optional Codex-managed output directory should not make the entire sandbox unusable merely because that directory is symlinked.
A common use case is intentionally redirecting ephemeral visualization output to RAM-backed storage.
What steps can reproduce the bug?
What is the expected behavior?
_No response_
Additional information
ls -al:
lrwxr-xr-x@ 1 [REDACTED] staff 30B Aug 13 14:48 visualizations -> /Volumes/TMP/Codex/visualizationsTemp fix:
rm ~/.codex/visualizations
mkdir -p ~/.codex/visualizations
1 Comment
+1 in hopes of a patch, Im generally ok with added security but not to the detriment of loosing all sessions and work progress. Perhaps there is a better migration here that supports the change while keeping session data available post update. This one is defiantly impacting me as well on Mac OS. Can this be fixed in a patch? The new build has broken all previous session history leaving codex chat unusable. With error :
Fatal error: Session data under .codex/sessions looks corrupt or unreadable. Clearing the sessions directory may help (this will remove saved threads). (underlying error: failed to load AGENTS.md instructions for environment local: failed to prepare fs sandbox: failed to prepare Seatbelt sandbox: writable root .agents contains symlink component {redacted} ; symlinked writable roots are not supported)