Codex OpenAI proxy fails because OPENAI_API_KEY is excluded from AWF sandbox

[chrizbo]

Summary

After trying the v0.74.2 prerelease, the original Codex model-selection issue appears fixed: generated lock files now invoke Codex with --model "$GH_AW_MODEL_AGENT_CODEX" instead of -c model=....

However, workflows using the OpenAI Codex engine now fail because the sandboxed Codex process reports:

Missing environment variable: `OPENAI_API_KEY`.

Reproduction Context

Repo/PR:

• Repo: https://github.com/chrizbo/agentics-beyond-code
• PR with v0.74.2 compiled locks: Switch agentic workflows to OpenAI Codex chrizbo/agentics-beyond-code#131
• Compile commit: chrizbo/agentics-beyond-code@701a1fb
• Failed workflow run: https://github.com/chrizbo/agentics-beyond-code/actions/runs/25929907528

Workflow tested:

• .github/workflows/daily-standup-prep.lock.yml
• Triggered manually against branch openai-aw-updates
• Repo secret OPENAI_API_KEY is configured
• CODEX_API_KEY is not configured

What Worked

The prerelease fixes the model flag generation. In the failed run, the logs show the requested model reaching Codex:

codex --model openai/gpt-5-mini exec ...
model: "openai/gpt-5-mini", model_provider_id: "openai-proxy"
Model: openai/gpt-5-mini

What Failed

The agent fails before useful work with:

Missing environment variable: `OPENAI_API_KEY`.

The generated lock validates OPENAI_API_KEY successfully during activation and later sets both env vars for the Codex step:

CODEX_API_KEY: ${{ secrets.CODEX_API_KEY || secrets.OPENAI_API_KEY }}
OPENAI_API_KEY: ${{ secrets.CODEX_API_KEY || secrets.OPENAI_API_KEY }}

But the generated awf command excludes both variables from the sandboxed execution:

--exclude-env CODEX_API_KEY ... --exclude-env OPENAI_API_KEY

The generated Codex config also points Codex at the OpenAI proxy while still declaring an env var requirement:

model_provider = "openai-proxy"

[model_providers.openai-proxy]
name = "OpenAI AWF proxy"
base_url = "http://172.30.0.30:10000"
env_key = "OPENAI_API_KEY"
supports_websockets = false

Expected Behavior

When gh-aw runs Codex through the AWF OpenAI proxy, the sandboxed Codex process should not fail because the raw provider secret is intentionally excluded from the agent container.

Question

Should gh-aw:

• inject a non-secret placeholder OPENAI_API_KEY for the proxy provider,
• configure Codex to use a different auth path when openai-proxy is active, or
• omit/avoid env_key = "OPENAI_API_KEY" in the generated Codex config for proxied execution?

Related

This was discovered while testing the prerelease suggested in #32413 (comment). I also left an initial comment there before realizing this should probably be tracked as a separate issue.

[pelikhan]

/scout investigate the run and figure out if we are configuring codex properly as with something like ollama

[lpcox]

🔗 AWF tracking issue: https://github.com/github/gh-aw-firewall/issues/github/gh-aw-firewall#3232

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