Added support for live updates to skills by etraut-openai · Pull Request #10478 · openai/codex

etraut-openai · 2026-02-03T07:35:49Z

Add a centralized FileWatcher in codex-core (using notify) that watches skill roots from the config layer stack (recursive)

Send SkillsChanged events when relevant file system changes are detected

On SkillsChanged:

Invalidate the skills cache immediately in ThreadManager
Emit EventMsg::SkillsUpdateAvailable to active sessions
* Broadcast a new app-server notification: SkillsListUpdatedNotification

This change does not inject new items into the event stream. That means the agent will not know about new skills, so it won't be able to implicitly invoke new skills. It also won't know about changes to existing skills, so if it has already read the contents of a modified skill, it will not honor the new behavior.

This change also does not detect modifications to AGENTS.md.

I plan to address these limitations in a follow-on PR modeled after #9985. Injection of new skills and AGENTS was deemed to risky, hence the need to split the feature into two stages. The changes in this PR were designed to easily accommodate the second stage once we have some other foundational changes in place.

Testing: In addition to automated tests, I did manual testing to confirm that newly-created skills, deleted skills, and renamed skills are reflected in the TUI skill picker menu. Also confirmed that modifications to behaviors for explicitly-invoked skills are honored.

Add a centralized FileWatcher in codex-core (using notify) that watches skill roots from the config layer stack (recursive) Send `SkillsChanged` events when relevant file system changes are detected On `SkillsChanged`: * Invalidate the skills cache immediately in ThreadManager * Emit EventMsg::SkillsUpdateAvailable to active sessions * Broadcast a new app-server notification: skills/list/updated Add SkillsListUpdatedNotification to the app-server protocol and gate broadcast until after initialize. This change does not inject new events into the event stream. That means the agent will not know about new skills, so it won't be able to implicitly invoke new skills. It also won't know about changes to existing skills, so if it has already read the contents of a modified skill, it will not honor the new behavior. I plan to address these limitations in a follow-on PR modeled after #9985. Injection of new skills (and AGENTS) was deemed to risky at this point, hence the need to split the feature into two stages. Testing: * In addition to automated tests, I did manual testing to confirm that newly-created skills, deleted skills, and renamed skills are reflected in the TUI skill picker menu. Also confirmed that modifications to behaviors for explicitly-invoked skills are honored.

etraut-openai · 2026-02-03T07:40:00Z

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codex-rs/core/src/thread_manager.rs

…l_update_part1 # Conflicts: # codex-rs/core/src/codex.rs

xl-openai · 2026-02-03T18:33:15Z

codex-rs/app-server-protocol/schema/json/v2/SkillsListUpdatedNotification.json

+  "$schema": "http://json-schema.org/draft-07/schema#",
+  "title": "SkillsListUpdatedNotification",
+  "type": "object"
+}


Add new line?

This is an auto-generated file.

xl-openai · 2026-02-03T18:44:20Z

codex-rs/core/src/project_doc.rs

 /// directory (inclusive). Symlinks are allowed. When `project_doc_max_bytes`
 /// is zero, returns an empty list.
 pub fn discover_project_doc_paths(config: &Config) -> std::io::Result<Vec<PathBuf>> {
+    let search_dirs = project_doc_search_dirs(config)?;


Irrelevant change?

pakrym-oai · 2026-02-03T18:46:43Z

codex-rs/app-server/src/message_processor.rs

    config: Arc<Config>,
    initialized: bool,
    experimental_api_enabled: Arc<AtomicBool>,
+    initialized_flag: Arc<AtomicBool>,


nit: maybe more descriptive name? requested_skills? send_skill_updated_events?

ArcSwap might be a good primitive here but not required.

xl-openai · 2026-02-03T18:48:11Z

codex-rs/core/src/skills/manager.rs

-                err.into_inner().insert(cwd.to_path_buf(), outcome.clone());
-            }
-        }
+        let mut cache = match self.cache_by_cwd.write() {


pakrym-oai · 2026-02-03T18:48:56Z

codex-rs/core/src/file_watcher.rs

+    }
+
+    #[test]
+    fn throttles_and_coalesces_within_interval() {


We might want a few more file watcher specific tests in the future. Not blocking.

add basic tests on util functions.

pakrym-oai · 2026-02-03T18:53:05Z

codex-rs/app-server/src/message_processor.rs

+
+        // Watch for on-disk skill changes and send notifications to the client.
+        let initialized_flag = Arc::new(AtomicBool::new(false));
+        let mut skills_updates_rx = thread_manager.subscribe_file_watcher();


A little surprising we don't do subscription somewhere in core while the watcher lives in core.

Feels a bit like a leaking abstraction where we create the watcher in core but then expose it as is and have the external consumer manage it.

Have you considered adding a SkillsChanged core event instead?

Ah, you did add the event. Should we use it here instead of resubscribing to watcher directly?

pakrym-oai · 2026-02-03T18:54:56Z

codex-rs/core/tests/suite/live_reload.rs

+use tokio::time::timeout;
+
+fn sse_completed(id: &str) -> String {
+    load_sse_fixture_with_id("../fixtures/completed_template.json", id)


prefer the existing shared sse_completed helper

I don't see a shared sse_completed helper?

responses::ev_completed("resp-1"),

pakrym-oai · 2026-02-03T18:59:23Z

codex-rs/core/tests/suite/live_reload.rs

+        // Some environments do not reliably surface file watcher events for
+        // skill changes. Clear the cache explicitly so we can still validate
+        // that the updated skill body is injected on the next turn.
+        test.thread_manager.skills_manager().clear_cache();


Is this test too weak?

I can’t find a way to make this behave consistently. I agree that if we swallow the error, this test becomes largely meaningless.

pakrym-oai · 2026-02-03T19:00:18Z

codex-rs/core/tests/suite/live_reload.rs

+    let mut rx = test.thread_manager.subscribe_file_watcher();
+    write_skill(test.codex_home_path(), "demo", "demo skill", skill_v2);
+
+    let changed_paths = timeout(Duration::from_secs(5), async move {


Should we assert EventMsg::SkillsUpdateAvailable event instead?

pakrym-oai · 2026-02-03T19:00:45Z

codex-rs/core/tests/suite/live_reload.rs

+        .expect("request captured after skill update");
+
+    assert!(
+        contains_skill_body(&last_request, skill_v2),


Surprised the skill is getting reinjected on next turn.

The submit_skill_turn explicitly mentioned the skill again. Currently we do not dedupe pre-injection if you mention the same skills multiple times in a thread.

pakrym-oai

I think we should peek file watcher as code implementation detail and only expose/consume EventMsg::SkillsUpdateAvailable event.

xl-openai · 2026-02-03T19:08:59Z

codex-rs/core/src/file_watcher.rs

+    }
+
+    pub(crate) fn register_config(&self, config: &Config) {
+        self.register_skills_root(config.codex_home.join("skills"));


skill_roots_from_layer_stack_with_agents should cover this already?

# Conflicts: # codex-rs/app-server-protocol/schema/json/codex_app_server_protocol.schemas.json # codex-rs/app-server-protocol/schema/typescript/v2/index.ts

xl-openai · 2026-02-04T03:46:41Z

codex-rs/core/src/codex.rs

        }

+        // Start the watcher after SessionConfigured so it cannot emit earlier events.
+        sess.start_file_watcher_listener();


So we will still emit EventMsg::SkillsUpdateAvailable (for each session) for app-server clients right?

chatgpt-codex-connector bot reviewed Feb 3, 2026

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codex-rs/core/src/thread_manager.rs Show resolved Hide resolved

etraut-openai added 9 commits February 2, 2026 23:53

Fixed failing tests

d594589

Simplified fix

4cce84a

Merge branch 'etraut/live_skill_update_part1-1' into etraut/live_skil…

a647a40

…l_update_part1 # Conflicts: # codex-rs/core/src/codex.rs

Undid unnecessary test change

9c22c7b

Another unnecessary change

20c6f19

Removed more unnecessary changes

7a83429

Fixed failing test

24087d2

Merge branch 'main' into etraut/live_skill_update_part1

8a3c219

Merge branch 'main' into etraut/live_skill_update_part1

22de58c

xl-openai reviewed Feb 3, 2026

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pakrym-oai reviewed Feb 3, 2026

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xl-openai reviewed Feb 3, 2026

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pakrym-oai reviewed Feb 3, 2026

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pakrym-oai approved these changes Feb 3, 2026

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xl-openai reviewed Feb 3, 2026

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Merge remote-tracking branch 'origin/main' into live_skill_update_part1

d73ff90

# Conflicts: # codex-rs/app-server-protocol/schema/json/codex_app_server_protocol.schemas.json # codex-rs/app-server-protocol/schema/typescript/v2/index.ts

xl-openai reviewed Feb 4, 2026

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xl-openai force-pushed the etraut/live_skill_update_part1 branch from 446394d to 7ceda56 Compare February 4, 2026 19:44

Remove SkillsListUpdatedNotification and Address comments.

f870207

xl-openai force-pushed the etraut/live_skill_update_part1 branch from 7ceda56 to f870207 Compare February 4, 2026 22:02

Skip nearest_existing_ancestor

66abc4f

xl-openai merged commit 7bcc552 into main Feb 4, 2026
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xl-openai deleted the etraut/live_skill_update_part1 branch February 4, 2026 23:25

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etraut-openai commented Feb 3, 2026 •

edited by xl-openai

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