Commands fail for ancient versions of codex

[jasonLaster]

I got this error when I tried to run a command with codex v0.36. I recommend first checking the current version of codex and showing an upgrade pane if it's below a minimum version.

Received invalid JSON from codex app-server.

application logs

[2026-03-07T15:44:38.861Z] ---- APP SESSION START run=20ad2dd696e0 pid=41804 port=49250 cwd=/Users/jaylast ----
(node:41804) ExperimentalWarning: SQLite is an experimental feature and might change at any time
(Use `T3 Code (Alpha) --trace-warnings ...` to show where the warning was created)
[08:44:39.285] INFO (#10): Running migrations...
[08:44:39.291] INFO (#10): Migrations ran successfully
[08:44:39.853] INFO (#34): orchestration projection pipeline bootstrapped { projectors: 9 }
[08:44:39.854] INFO (#34): orchestration engine started { sequence: 0 }
[08:44:40.089] INFO (#10): T3 Code running {
  mode: 'desktop',
  port: 49250,
  cwd: '/Users/jaylast',
  keybindingsConfigPath: '/Users/jaylast/.t3/userdata/keybindings.json',
  host: '127.0.0.1',
  stateDir: '/Users/jaylast/.t3/userdata',
  staticDir: '/Applications/T3 Code (Alpha).app/Contents/Resources/app.asar/apps/server/dist/client',
  noBrowser: true,
  autoBootstrapProjectFromCwd: false,
  logWebSocketEvents: false,
  devUrl: undefined,
  authEnabled: true
}
[08:46:28.975] WARN (#70): provider command reactor failed to process event {
  eventType: 'thread.turn-start-requested',
  cause: 'Error: Provider adapter process error (codex) for thread cbc92f3f-6466-424c-81a7-629a0bdf5492: Timed out waiting for initialize.\n' +
    '    at catch (file:///Applications/T3%20Code%20(Alpha).app/Contents/Resources/app.asar/apps/server/dist/index.mjs:11173:22)\n' +
    '    at file:///Applications/T3%20Code%20(Alpha).app/Contents/Resources/app.asar/node_modules/effect/dist/internal/effect.js:685:103\n' +
    '    at Effect.fn (Alpha)\n' +
    '    at Effect.fn (definition) (Alpha) {\n' +
    '  [cause]: Error: Timed out waiting for initialize.\n' +
    '      at CodexAppServerManager.startSession (file:///Applications/T3%20Code%20(Alpha).app/Contents/Resources/app.asar/apps/server/dist/index.mjs:9644:10) {\n' +
    '    [cause]: Error: Timed out waiting for initialize.\n' +
    '        at Timeout._onTimeout (file:///Applications/T3%20Code%20(Alpha).app/Contents/Resources/app.asar/apps/server/dist/index.mjs:10008:28)\n' +
    '        at listOnTimeout (node:internal/timers:605:17)\n' +
    '        at process.processTimers (node:internal/timers:541:7)\n' +
    '  }\n' +
    '}'
}
[08:46:48.982] WARN (#70): provider command reactor failed to process event {
  eventType: 'thread.turn-start-requested',
  cause: 'Error: Provider adapter process error (codex) for thread cbc92f3f-6466-424c-81a7-629a0bdf5492: Timed out waiting for initialize.\n' +
    '    at catch (file:///Applications/T3%20Code%20(Alpha).app/Contents/Resources/app.asar/apps/server/dist/index.mjs:11173:22)\n' +
    '    at file:///Applications/T3%20Code%20(Alpha).app/Contents/Resources/app.asar/node_modules/effect/dist/internal/effect.js:685:103\n' +
    '    at Effect.fn (Alpha)\n' +
    '    at Effect.fn (definition) (Alpha) {\n' +
    '  [cause]: Error: Timed out waiting for initialize.\n' +
    '      at CodexAppServerManager.startSession (file:///Applications/T3%20Code%20(Alpha).app/Contents/Resources/app.asar/apps/server/dist/index.mjs:9644:10) {\n' +
    '    [cause]: Error: Timed out waiting for initialize.\n' +
    '        at Timeout._onTimeout (file:///Applications/T3%20Code%20(Alpha).app/Contents/Resources/app.asar/apps/server/dist/index.mjs:10008:28)\n' +
    '        at listOnTimeout (node:internal/timers:605:17)\n' +
    '        at process.processTimers (node:internal/timers:541:7)\n' +
    '  }\n' +
    '}'
}
[08:47:56.157] WARN (#70): provider command reactor failed to process event {
  eventType: 'thread.turn-start-requested',
  cause: "Error: Provider validation failed in ProviderService.sendTurn: Cannot route thread 'cbc92f3f-6466-424c-81a7-629a0bdf5492' because no persisted provider binding exists.\n" +
    '    at toValidationError (file:///Applications/T3%20Code%20(Alpha).app/Contents/Resources/app.asar/apps/server/dist/index.mjs:11379:9)\n' +
    '    at Array.<anonymous> (file:///Applications/T3%20Code%20(Alpha).app/Contents/Resources/app.asar/apps/server/dist/index.mjs:11477:31)\n' +
    '    at Effect.fn (Alpha)\n' +
    '    at Effect.fn (definition) (Alpha)'
}
[08:48:39.707] WARN (#70): provider command reactor failed to process event {
  eventType: 'thread.turn-start-requested',
  cause: 'Error: Provider adapter process error (codex) for thread 466e529d-dbd6-44c4-a3c6-f9c473dd27a5: Timed out waiting for initialize.\n' +
    '    at catch (file:///Applications/T3%20Code%20(Alpha).app/Contents/Resources/app.asar/apps/server/dist/index.mjs:11173:22)\n' +
    '    at file:///Applications/T3%20Code%20(Alpha).app/Contents/Resources/app.asar/node_modules/effect/dist/internal/effect.js:685:103\n' +
    '    at Effect.fn (Alpha)\n' +
    '    at Effect.fn (definition) (Alpha) {\n' +
    '  [cause]: Error: Timed out waiting for initialize.\n' +
    '      at CodexAppServerManager.startSession (file:///Applications/T3%20Code%20(Alpha).app/Contents/Resources/app.asar/apps/server/dist/index.mjs:9644:10) {\n' +
    '    [cause]: Error: Timed out waiting for initialize.\n' +
    '        at Timeout._onTimeout (file:///Applications/T3%20Code%20(Alpha).app/Contents/Resources/app.asar/apps/server/dist/index.mjs:10008:28)\n' +
    '        at listOnTimeout (node:internal/timers:605:17)\n' +
    '        at process.processTimers (node:internal/timers:541:7)\n' +
    '  }\n' +
    '}'
}

[DevTGhosh]

I faced the same issue. For me for some reason homebrew was not updating to the latest version. I had to reinstall use npm to get the latest version.

npm i -g @openai/codex

[itsjeremyjohnson]

I can confirm I am still hitting the same user-facing error string, but not in the original “ancient Codex CLI” setup from this issue.

On my machine this is happening with a much newer stack:

• T3 Code (Alpha) 0.0.20
• Codex CLI 0.121.0
• macOS 26.3 (25D125)
• Codex auth state: authenticated
• Account type: ChatGPT Pro

Relevant local evidence:

• T3’s cached provider health shows Codex as installed, authenticated, and ready:
  • version: 0.121.0
  • status: ready
  • auth.type: pro
• Current startup logs also show codex model/list and codex account/read succeeding normally.
• So at least in my case, this does not look limited to “Codex is too old and cannot speak the current app-server protocol.”

What makes this feel related to the broader stuck-thread lifecycle bugs:

• After these failures, T3’s local state.sqlite contains orphaned pending turns with turn_id = NULL, for example:
  • thread fe471aed-9aa0-403b-9022-2859be284ac2 requested at 2026-03-22T03:54:58.615Z
  • thread 2f883475-7954-43d5-b596-602e232e276b requested at 2026-03-07T18:41:15.471Z
  • thread 08094728-79ae-4624-a91b-3d6a9b235b62 requested at 2026-03-07T15:58:17.095Z
  • thread 75b2ae66-2360-48db-b407-edf34f2e512d requested at 2026-03-07T02:36:10.760Z
• Those rows look similar to the orphaned pending-turn / stuck-session shape discussed in:
  • #313
  • #1048

So my read is:

1. #393 is a real issue, but the title/root cause is probably too narrow now.
2. The same banner (Received invalid JSON from codex app-server.) can still show up on newer Codex versions.
3. In at least some cases, the downstream effect appears to be bad persisted turn/session state rather than just a one-time startup incompatibility.

I did not find the exact invalid-JSON line preserved in the current summary logs (server.log / server-child.log), which is also part of the problem: the visible banner survives in the UI longer than the actionable raw transport detail survives in logs.

It would help a lot if T3 logged the offending raw app-server line / parse failure cause alongside the thread id and provider session id whenever this banner is shown.

If useful, I can open a separate issue specifically for the newer-version + orphaned-pending-turn variant and link it back here.

[sashaduke]

Yup can repro this error msg consistently on latest versions of everything, it's the most common family of issues ive been encountering in various places

[juliusmarminge]

This report is tied to Codex v0.36 and the provider/update path has changed substantially. Please confirm whether it still reproduces with a currently supported Codex CLI and current T3 build, including both versions and the exact command/error.\n\n

[t3dotgg]

Note

🤖 GPT-5.6 Sol in Codex responding on behalf of Theo

Closing because the report does not have the current details needed to investigate. The report targets an unsupported Codex release. A July 20 request for a current reproduction received no reply.

A new issue can be opened with the current application version, reproduction steps, and relevant logs if the problem still occurs.