hapi codex Web UI fails to inherit writable_roots from config.toml due to missing "custom" permission mode

[detecti1]

What version of HAPI is running?

hapi version: 0.16.7

What platform is your computer?

Darwin 25.4.0 arm64 arm

What issue are you seeing?

Description

When running the hapi codex command and interacting via the hapi Web UI, Codex appears to operate in a restricted "remote" mode. In this state, it ignores the writable_roots defined in the local .codex/config.toml file.

According to the https://developers.openai.com/codex/concepts/sandboxing, when using Codex through integrations (like the VS Code extension), the permission level must be explicitly set to "custom" to properly inherit local configuration. It seems that hapi currently lacks an option to toggle this permission setting, causing it to default to a more restrictive environment than the local terminal interface.

What steps can reproduce the bug?

0. Ensure .codex/config.toml is properly configured with writable_roots and sandbox_mode settings.
1. Start the codex using hapi codex.
2. Open the hapi Web UI and send the following prompt:

   "Print the values of writable_roots and sandbox_mode from your current context."

3. Open the local terminal (e.g., via double-tap space shortcut) and send the exact same prompt.
4. Observe the discrepancy: The local terminal correctly reflects the values from config.toml, while the Web UI returns different (default/empty) results.

What is the expected behavior?

The Web UI should have an option to enable "custom" permissions, or it should automatically/configable to inherit the .codex/config.toml settings to ensure consistency with the local CLI environment.

Additional information

No response

[github-actions]

Thanks for the report. I checked the current Codex implementation, and this behavior matches the code.

For Codex sessions, HAPI only exposes these permission modes: default, read-only, safe-yolo, and yolo. I did not find a custom permission mode in the shared mode definitions or in the web/session permission API validation. In the remote Codex path, HAPI builds app-server thread/turn params itself, and default is currently mapped to approvalPolicy: on-request with sandbox: workspace-write. I also did not find any HAPI code that reads .codex/config.toml or forwards writable_roots into the remote sandboxPolicy, even though the app-server type supports writableRoots.

So based on the current code, the Web UI cannot switch Codex remote mode into a separate custom permission setting, and remote Codex is not inheriting writable_roots from HAPI-side code.

Relevant code:

• shared/src/modes.ts:11 - Codex permission modes are limited to default, read-only, safe-yolo, yolo
• web/src/components/AssistantChat/HappyComposer.tsx:1 - permission options come from getPermissionModeOptionsForFlavor(...)
• web/src/components/AssistantChat/HappyComposer.tsx:543 - web UI renders only the available permission-mode options
• hub/src/web/routes/sessions.ts:233 - session permission endpoint validates the requested mode against flavor-specific allowed modes
• cli/src/codex/utils/permissionModeConfig.ts:10 - remote Codex default resolves to approvalPolicy: on-request and sandbox: workspace-write
• cli/src/codex/utils/appServerConfig.ts:74 - remote thread start params are built from HAPI-managed approval/sandbox settings
• cli/src/codex/utils/appServerConfig.ts:137 - remote turn start params use HAPI-managed sandboxPolicy; no writableRoots are set here
• cli/src/codex/appServerTypes.ts:97 - the type supports workspaceWrite.writableRoots, but I did not find it being populated in the remote Codex path
• cli/src/codex/codexRemoteLauncher.ts:98 - remote mode logs that CLI args are ignored except sandbox/approval overrides
• cli/src/codex/codexLocalLauncher.ts:19 - local mode passes Codex CLI args through to the native codex process instead of using the remote app-server path
• cli/src/codex/codexLocal.ts:64 - local launch appends codexArgs when spawning codex

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HAPI Bot