codex exec fails at startup with "failed to initialize in-process app-server client: Operation not permitted (os error 1)" in non-interactive/CI-like environments

codex exec fails at startup with "failed to initialize in-process app-server client: Operation not permitted (os error 1)" in non-interactive/CI-like environments

On macOS (Darwin 25.6.0, Apple Silicon), codex-cli 0.147.0 installed at /opt/homebrew/bin/codex, invoking codex exec --sandbox read-only --cd "" from a non-interactive automation context (spawned by another agent tool, no TTY) consistently fails before doing any work. First it warns WARNING: proceeding, even thoughus could not create PATH aliases: Operation not permitted (os error 1) (note the "even thoughus" typo in the message itself), then exits with Error: failed to initialize in-process app-server client: Operation not permitted (os error 1). Pointing CODEX_HOME at a fresh writable temp directory occasionally gets past init, after which streaming to https://chatgpt.com/backend-api/codex/responses was unstable in our restricted-network environment (Reconnecting... 5/5 on WebSocket, then stream disconnected before completion twice on the HTTPS fallback, exit 1) — that part may be our network policy, but the app-server init failure reproduces even with all sandboxing on our side disabled. Expected: codex exec should either run headless or say exactly which file/socket it could not create and where. Happy to provide RUST_LOG output if you tell me which env var to set.

Start by reproducing the reported codex exec --sandbox read-only --cd <repo> "<prompt>" command without a TTY on macOS, including the fresh CODEX_HOME comparison. Trace the startup path that creates PATH aliases and initializes the in-process app-server client, then identify the specific permission failure. Done means headless execution works or the error names the file or socket it could not create.