[nateEc]

Native Codex updates can lag the npm release: T3 compares a standalone install against npm, then repeatedly offers an update that codex update cannot install. Fixes #23937.

The standalone updater now gets its version advisory from the native installer's stable channel, through the existing cached installer-version lookup. It checks for the host platform's package plus checksum manifest, or the legacy platform npm archive, with valid SHA-256 metadata. npm installations keep their existing lookup. Failed or malformed native metadata or missing platform assets yields an unknown advisory instead of falling back to npm. Explicit release/channel overrides also remain unknown rather than guessing which release the installer will select. The HTTP request and JSON decoding have a four-second combined limit and run only when version checking is requested.

This is a focused correction to the established updater/version-check pairing, with no new update workflow or client layout changes. All clients consume the same server advisory.

Verification:

• Added a deterministic regression with native 0.163.0 and npm 0.164.0; the old implementation incorrectly returned npm's version (three initial regressions failed).
• Covered a newer native version, HTTP failure, malformed metadata, explicit release and alternate-channel overrides; maintenance capability discovery alone makes no HTTP request.
• Added asset fixtures for macOS, Linux and Windows on x64/arm64, legacy archives, missing platform assets/checksums and invalid digests. The four missing/invalid-asset regressions failed before the review fix.
• vp test run apps/server/src/provider/Drivers/CodexDriver.test.ts packages/provider-core/src/server/maintenanceResolver.test.ts: 80 tests pass.
• vp run check:changed: formatting, lint, dependency/export checks, affected typechecks and focused tests pass.
• Verified the channel contract against OpenAI's native installer and stable metadata. No installed Codex binary was updated. Tests use temporary standalone paths and HTTP fixtures; the historical staggered rollout cannot be reproduced against today's already-published release.

Additional real-client evidence: Maria's Linux verification tested this exact head (fc5dcafc4a4ead0830c483a8bf39e65689b29cc2) with the official standalone Codex binary and a real provider turn. The report reproduces the incorrect pinned-release update badge on main, verifies native stable/pinned/stable transitions and the neighboring npm installation, and records 80 passing tests plus the changed-scope checks. Its uploaded before/after images and recording are linked in that comment. This is contributor-reported Linux web evidence; it does not verify the historical staggered rollout, an actual upgrade, native macOS/Windows, packaged Electron, mobile or relay/tunnel modes.

Model and harness: GPT-6 in the Codex desktop harness.

[macroscopeapp]

Approvability

Verdict: Approved at fc5dcaf

Macroscope's review found this PR approvable — The production change is limited to version-advisory resolution for Codex standalone installs: it queries the installer’s native channel, validates platform assets, and reports unknown rather than comparing against npm when channel data is unavailable. Existing update execution and npm-managed paths remain unchanged, with focused coverage for platforms, failures, and overrides.

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[coderabbitai]

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📥 Commits

Reviewing files that changed from the base of the PR and between b6be1ad and 8062e86.

📒 Files selected for processing: 2

• apps/server/src/provider/Drivers/CodexDriver.test.ts
• apps/server/src/provider/Drivers/CodexDriver.ts

🚧 Files skipped from review as they are similar to previous changes: 1

• apps/server/src/provider/Drivers/CodexDriver.test.ts

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Walkthrough

The maintenance resolver now supports installer-specific latest-version lookups. The Codex driver uses the standalone release channel for version advisories and tests successful, unavailable, malformed, and environment-overridden lookup cases.

Changes: Standalone Codex advisory

Layer / File(s)	Summary
Installer-specific lookup support packages/provider-core/src/server/maintenanceResolver.ts	Native update configuration can provide an installer-specific version lookup. When configured, generated capabilities include that lookup and set latestVersion to null.
Codex release-channel lookup and validation apps/server/src/provider/Drivers/CodexDriver.ts, apps/server/src/provider/Drivers/CodexDriver.test.ts	Codex resolves the latest version from the native stable release channel. The lookup returns null for unsupported settings or platforms, unsuccessful responses, invalid metadata or assets, errors, and timeouts. Tests cover lookup results, request behavior, and advisory states.

Priority: Normal

Estimated code review effort: 3 (Moderate) | ~20 minutes

Change: Bug fix · Severity of issue fixed: Low

Sequence Diagram(s)

sequenceDiagram
  participant MaintenanceResolver
  participant CodexReleaseLookup
  participant HTTPClient
  participant StandaloneReleaseChannel
  MaintenanceResolver->>CodexReleaseLookup: Run latest-version lookup effect
  CodexReleaseLookup->>HTTPClient: Request release metadata
  HTTPClient->>StandaloneReleaseChannel: Fetch channel response
  StandaloneReleaseChannel-->>HTTPClient: Return release metadata
  HTTPClient-->>CodexReleaseLookup: Return HTTP response
  CodexReleaseLookup-->>MaintenanceResolver: Return version or null

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Suggested labels: bugfix

Merge Risk: Minimal · up to 8062e

No concrete issue remains identified that should delay merging the standalone Codex version advisory.

Pre-merge checks: 4

Check name	Status	Explanation
Title check		The title is concise, conventional, and clearly describes the main change: using the native Codex release channel for standalone update checks.
Linked Issues check		Issue #23937 requires the standalone advisory to match the official native installer instead of the npm registry. CodexDriver now uses the native stable-channel lookup. The lookup requires a valid p…
Out of Scope Changes check		The changes stay within issue #23937. The resolver addition supports an installer-specific advisory lookup. The driver implements the native channel lookup. The tests cover the related advisory and as…
Description check		The description provides the problem, implementation details, scope rationale, issue reference, focused verification results, limitations, and agent attribution. It does not use the template headings …

Full details: Linked Issues check

Explanation

Issue #23937 requires the standalone advisory to match the official native installer instead of the npm registry. CodexDriver now uses the native stable-channel lookup. The lookup requires a valid platform asset and checksum metadata or a compatible legacy archive. Failed, malformed, missing, explicit-release, and alternate-channel cases return an unknown version instead of an npm fallback. The reported regression and these failure cases have automated coverage.

Full details: Out of Scope Changes check

Explanation

The changes stay within issue #23937. The resolver addition supports an installer-specific advisory lookup. The driver implements the native channel lookup. The tests cover the related advisory and asset-selection behavior. The supplied change summary shows no unrelated update workflow, client layout, or provider behavior changes.

Full details: Description check

Explanation

The description provides the problem, implementation details, scope rationale, issue reference, focused verification results, limitations, and agent attribution. It does not use the template headings exactly and does not include an explicit maintainer approval comment, but the required information is mostly complete.

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[coderabbitai]

Actionable comments posted: 1

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• 🪄 Fix comments: Fix CodeRabbit comments on this PR

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Inline comments:
Review comments at @apps/server/src/provider/Drivers/CodexDriver.ts:
- Around line 84-87: Update lookupCodexNativeVersion to validate release assets
against the installer’s existing target mapping before returning the parsed
tag_name; return null when neither the matching codex-package asset with
codex-package_SHA256SUMS nor the supported platform npm asset is present. Add a
fixture with tag_name but no matching platform assets and verify it returns
null.

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• Source mode: Auto
• Repository: pingdotgg/t3code
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📥 Commits

Reviewing files that changed from the base of the PR and between 807319c and b6be1ad.

📒 Files selected for processing: 3

• apps/server/src/provider/Drivers/CodexDriver.test.ts
• apps/server/src/provider/Drivers/CodexDriver.ts
• packages/provider-core/src/server/maintenanceResolver.ts

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Dismissing prior approval to re-evaluate 8062e86

Dismissing prior approval to re-evaluate fc5dcaf

[maria-rcks]

Note

Written by gpt-6.1-sol on behalf of Maria

@nateEc, the native channel and platform asset validation match the official installer contract. preserved both original commits and merged current main.

fixed instance-specific release/channel overrides, including two instances sharing a standalone executable and version cache. unsupported overrides now return unknown before consulting the stable cache. simplified timeout handling. no update execution or client layout changes.

verification at fc5dcafc4a4ead0830c483a8bf39e65689b29cc2:

• reproduced the original bug against current main: expected native 0.163.0, received npm 0.164.0.
• reproduced both instance override failures, then both shared-cache failures before fixing them in the existing test file.
• blacksmith vp run check:changed passed formatting, lint, knip, graphql checks, 21 affected package typechecks and 80 focused tests. lint has one existing empty-pattern warning.
• installed official Linux standalone Codex 0.164.0 in disposable directories. the real web client received current; setting CODEX_RELEASE changed it to unknown despite a warm stable cache, and removing the override restored current.
• github checks passed; macroscope approved the final head. two independent gpt-6.1-sol reviewers approved after the cache fix, with no remaining findings. coderabbit reported review rate limiting on the latest head.

unverified: the historical staggered rollout against live endpoints (both currently serve 0.164.0), an actual upgrade, native macOS/Windows, packaged desktop and mobile. the isolated standalone install has no login; provider version/advisory resolution was exercised without starting a conversation.

matching before/after captures show today's live 0.164.0 state, not the historical rollout regression.

[maria-rcks]

Note

Written by gpt-6.1-sol on behalf of Maria

Verified in a real dev environment

verified as-is at fc5dcafc4a4ead0830c483a8bf39e65689b29cc2 on a disposable Linux x64 VM. no code changes or pushes.

• installed dependencies and ran separate main (c677d5fc45) and exact-head dev servers, sequentially, with isolated app state. drove the real web app using repository Playwright and /usr/bin/google-chrome.
• installed official standalone Codex 0.164.0. in settings > providers, selected its actual binary and home, then set CODEX_RELEASE=0.164.0. main incorrectly offered "update now" against npm 0.165.0. the pr reports unknown with no latest version or update badge for the same pin.
• removed the pin: real native-channel metadata produced behind_latest, latest 0.165.0, and the native codex update command. adding the pin after warming that cache returned unknown; removing it restored the native advisory.
• neighboring npm installation still reports latest 0.165.0 with npm install -g ... @openai/codex@latest. restoring the standalone binary restores codex update.
• added the real repository as a project through the app, created a thread, selected Codex gpt-6.1-sol, and submitted a real turn through the local provider proxy. the standalone app-server ran the git command and returned fc5dcafc4a native codex verified in 9.5 seconds.
• blacksmith: 80 focused tests passed. vp run check:changed 3de45c6254345f968fbdc64db7b149bf4f429855 passed format, lint, both knip passes, graphql, 21 affected package typechecks and 80 tests. the explicit ref is the actual main/head merge base; the worker initially lacked history, which was fetched before rerunning. one existing empty-pattern lint warning remains. git.cafe reports 32 successful checks, none failing or pending.

short runtime transcript, from the real client's provider WebSocket responses:

native 0.164.0 + CODEX_RELEASE=0.164.0 => unknown, latestVersion=null
native 0.164.0 + stable              => behind_latest, latestVersion=0.165.0
native + pin after warm cache       => unknown, latestVersion=null
native + stable restored            => behind_latest, latestVersion=0.165.0
npm 0.164.0                         => behind_latest, latestVersion=0.165.0
standalone provider turn:
  git rev-parse --short HEAD
  fc5dcafc4a native codex verified

same installed version, binary and home in both captures. unrelated settings layout differs because current main has advanced beyond this head. the recording shows native stable/pin/stable transitions at 2x speed; startup frames were trimmed. uploaded video playback and seeking were checked. the embedded recording uses gif for github compatibility.

Not verified

• the historical native/npm staggered rollout: today's live endpoints both publish 0.165.0. the live before/after reproduction covers the pinned-release advisory defect, not a fabricated release gap.
• an actual upgrade, unavailable/malformed external metadata, or separate concurrent provider instances in the real app. deterministic existing tests cover channel failures and shared-cache instance overrides.
• native macOS/Windows, packaged Electron, iOS/Android, or relay/tunnel connection modes. this pass exercises the shared server advisory through the Linux web client and real Codex provider.