MCP Initialization Issue #10652
Description
What version of the Codex App are you using (From “About Codex” dialog)?
260203.1501 (523)
What subscription do you have?
Plus
What issue are you seeing?
One of my MCPs is not working with the codex app, though it works fine with the CLI. When serena starts it opens up a web dashboard to show information (statistics/tools/config/etc).
With the codex CLI it works fine, but with the codex app it is giving me "Unable to connect". It also keeps trying to relaunch every once in a while, again opening up blank web pages.
What steps can reproduce the bug?
Add this to config.toml
[mcp_servers.serena]
args = ["--from", "git+https://github.com/oraios/serena", "serena", "start-mcp-server", "--context", "codex"]
command = "uvx"Then launch the codex app.
What is the expected behavior?
The MCP starts as expected with the codex app just like it does with the CLI.
Additional information
I checked the codex app logs in /Users/tyler/Library/Logs/com.openai.codex/2026/02/04/ to see if there was any MCP information and there was nothing relating to MCPs or errors. Here's the tail of the log files in that directory when I enabled the MCP again and got it to try to start it, I saw the blank web page:
==> /Users/tyler/Library/Logs/com.openai.codex/2026/02/04/codex-desktop-770cccdf-1a21-467b-af17-c6aea35f70d9-41988-t0-i1-173611-0.log <==
2026-02-04T17:43:09.576Z info [electron-message-handler] Received app server result: 39bc7577-cb7b-4a69-8592-b1910cdca3e4 object(keys=2)
2026-02-04T17:43:13.654Z info [electron-message-handler] [desktop-notifications] service starting
2026-02-04T17:43:13.661Z info [electron-message-handler] [desktop-notifications] service starting
2026-02-04T17:43:15.088Z info [electron-message-handler] [desktop-notifications] service starting
2026-02-04T17:43:16.233Z info [electron-message-handler] Received app server result: 6aeb3cd1-3c58-4deb-94d0-78b21ac07ff1 object(keys=2)
2026-02-04T17:43:29.573Z info [electron-message-handler] Received app server result: 8f34325a-8f27-4ec2-8ce1-e3965f3d10f9 object(keys=4)
2026-02-04T17:43:29.590Z info [electron-message-handler] Received app server result: 526020bb-ccec-4665-9b4d-c8c8d53e5898 object(keys=3)
2026-02-04T17:43:32.336Z info [electron-message-handler] [desktop-notifications] service starting
2026-02-04T17:43:32.365Z warning [git] [7c4d884d] encountered an error running git command code=1 stderr=
2026-02-04T17:43:34.890Z info [electron-message-handler] Received app server result: 6b8bee0c-845c-418a-ba3d-f4bd3652a6ac object(keys=2)
==> /Users/tyler/Library/Logs/com.openai.codex/2026/02/04/codex-desktop-770cccdf-1a21-467b-af17-c6aea35f70d9-41988-t1-i1-173613-0.log <==
2026-02-04T17:36:13.555Z info [git-repo-watcher] Starting git repo watcher for /Users/tyler/LE
==> /Users/tyler/Library/Logs/com.openai.codex/2026/02/04/codex-desktop-ff1b936f-d6e2-49c7-95f3-c2dcfe44aad9-76157-t0-i1-000616-0.log <==
2026-02-04T17:36:00.715Z info [electron-message-handler] Received app server result: af0fbf51-72f0-440a-8fcd-8444d61d586b object(keys=1)
2026-02-04T17:36:00.715Z info [electron-message-handler] Skills/list ok entries=1
2026-02-04T17:36:00.732Z info [electron-message-handler] Received app server result: d3e2e4b9-9b2f-41b8-ba6b-bbdc4c989b7b object(keys=3)
2026-02-04T17:36:00.926Z info [electron-message-handler] Received app server result: ae4be481-1c61-4f3a-9f5a-40307f0a8173 object(keys=3)
2026-02-04T17:36:00.948Z info [electron-message-handler] Received app server result: 37aa98fa-d073-4889-b875-63d6f9bf5e34 object(keys=2)
2026-02-04T17:36:01.866Z info [electron-message-handler] Received app server result: 2f6d50ab-c1ff-417b-8967-5e905d2c5d14 object(keys=2)
2026-02-04T17:36:02.623Z info [sparkle] Check for updates requested via menu.
2026-02-04T17:36:02.623Z info [sparkle] Sparkle manual check.
2026-02-04T17:36:07.253Z info [sparkle] Sparkle installUpdatesIfAvailable requested.
2026-02-04T17:36:07.320Z warning [worker-manager] Worker exited { code: 1 }
==> /Users/tyler/Library/Logs/com.openai.codex/2026/02/04/codex-desktop-770cccdf-1a21-467b-af17-c6aea35f70d9-41988-t0-i1-173611-0.log <==
2026-02-04T17:47:08.478Z info [electron-message-handler] Skills/list request cwdsCount=1 forceReload=false
2026-02-04T17:47:08.485Z info [electron-message-handler] Received app server result: effec53c-9f5c-4790-96a5-3b0024eda9c3 object(keys=1)
2026-02-04T17:47:08.485Z info [electron-message-handler] Skills/list ok entries=1
2026-02-04T17:47:08.486Z info [electron-message-handler] Received app server result: a09a5993-0ce5-428a-9449-f178d2b7bea9 object(keys=3)
2026-02-04T17:47:08.511Z warning [git] [606fc97b] encountered an error running git command code=1 stderr=
2026-02-04T17:47:09.993Z info [electron-message-handler] Received app server result: 022c62b0-272e-43c5-ad2f-2362eaf1d1b9 object(keys=2)
2026-02-04T17:47:38.855Z warning [git] [41b131f4] encountered an error running git command code=1 stderr=
2026-02-04T17:47:40.611Z info [electron-message-handler] Received app server result: 129d0baa-10d3-456d-85bd-44b6ee7c95ad object(keys=2)
2026-02-04T17:47:45.876Z info [electron-message-handler] [desktop-notifications] service starting
2026-02-04T17:47:45.891Z info [electron-message-handler] [desktop-notifications] service starting
2026-02-04T17:47:54.073Z info [electron-message-handler] [desktop-notifications] service starting
2026-02-04T17:47:58.332Z info [electron-message-handler] [desktop-notifications] service starting
2026-02-04T17:47:59.907Z info [electron-message-handler] [desktop-notifications] service starting
2026-02-04T17:48:01.151Z info [electron-message-handler] Received app server result: 651582fb-9f39-451f-8a53-9f1679db83ef object(keys=2)
2026-02-04T17:48:18.990Z info [electron-message-handler] Received app server result: ea453b57-7abb-4426-ad0d-2715ec56b33d object(keys=4)
2026-02-04T17:48:19.012Z info [electron-message-handler] Received app server result: 2c0bf8d4-e07f-4b69-b89c-7e5b1b511798 object(keys=3)
2026-02-04T17:48:22.909Z info [electron-message-handler] [desktop-notifications] service starting
2026-02-04T17:48:23.486Z info [electron-message-handler] [desktop-notifications] service starting
2026-02-04T17:48:24.707Z info [electron-message-handler] [desktop-notifications] service starting
2026-02-04T17:48:24.735Z warning [git] [0ba1516d] encountered an error running git command code=1 stderr=
2026-02-04T17:48:24.902Z info [electron-message-handler] Received app server result: 853714e8-f26b-469e-8685-d531a41207d2 object(keys=2)
2026-02-04T17:48:36.279Z warning [git] [5a7b3ab8] encountered an error running git command code=1 stderr=
2026-02-04T17:48:38.445Z info [electron-message-handler] Received app server result: a2e318e3-af82-4b20-84d1-5b64af75bec3 object(keys=2)
2026-02-04T17:48:42.341Z info [electron-message-handler] [desktop-notifications] service starting
2026-02-04T17:48:42.358Z info [electron-message-handler] [desktop-notifications] service starting
2026-02-04T17:48:43.847Z info [electron-message-handler] [desktop-notifications] service starting
2026-02-04T17:48:45.160Z info [electron-message-handler] Received app server result: bacc4c23-7780-453b-bc75-a809b871e776 object(keys=2)
2026-02-04T17:48:46.802Z info [electron-message-handler] Received app server result: 71e9d083-72b1-4743-a240-4a3d469cb404 object(keys=4)
2026-02-04T17:48:46.821Z info [electron-message-handler] Received app server result: 41a20da0-e5d6-4d7c-b673-b3118f9e56bf object(keys=3)