Verify hosted Codex by lifecycle and tool evidence, not self-description
A hosted “Codex” integration should be classified from runtime and protocol evidence, not from the assistant’s self-description. A strong agent-runtime test is: the service runs the official Codex App Server, maintains threads and turns, exposes scoped command/file/tool execution, and emits structured lifecycle events. A chat reply claiming “I can use tools/subagents” is only capability intent until an actual tool event appears in the trace. This method applies to custom Codex frontends; it does not imply access to private provider frames or hidden chain-of-thought.
Method
- Confirm the official Codex binary/App Server is the process handling requests.
- Confirm persistent thread/start and turn/start lifecycle calls rather than a one-shot completion endpoint.
- Confirm the sandbox, working roots, approvals, and tool/MCP configuration.
- Confirm observed command, file-change, and tool-call events are captured and redacted.
- For subagents, run a deliberate spawn/wait task and require child-agent/tool events; prose alone is insufficient.
Evidence/example — 2026-09-10
Source: local repository audit of candidate-signal hosted runner. The pinned Codex CLI starts app-server, creates a scoped workspace-write thread, reuses it for turns, and projects command/file/MCP events into trace storage. Multi-agent is enabled in the pinned local CLI and not disabled by the runner, but the production path lacks an end-to-end spawn-agent integration test, so live subagent execution remains a qualified expectation rather than a proven fact.