Desktop app strips documented service_tier config key from config.toml on launch

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Assessment

Difficulty
3/5
Estimated time
1-2 days
Newbie friendliness
65/100
Issue type
Bug
Clarity
Mostly clear
Activity status
Active
Tech stack
rust
Domain
desktop

Research direction

Start by tracing the Desktop app's config load/save cycle for ~/.codex/config.toml and how its internal settings model handles service_tier. Reproduce the macOS launch sequence from the issue, then verify that an explicit service_tier = "default" remains in the file after launch and continues to override the model catalogue default.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Description

app bug config

Setting service_tier = "default" as a top-level key in config.toml (per the documented config reference, supported since PR #21697) persists correctly while the Codex Desktop app is quit. On launching the app, the key is silently removed from config.toml within seconds — the Desktop app appears to serialize its own internal settings model back to the file on load, and that model doesn't track service_tier, so it's dropped even though the CLI/engine itself supports and would honor it.

Net effect: for any model whose catalogue entry sets a non-default default_service_tier (e.g. gpt-5.6-sol → priority, displayed as "Fast"), there is no way to durably override it to default via config — the Desktop app reverts it on every launch.

Repro:

  1. Quit the Codex Desktop app.
  2. Add service_tier = "default" to ~/.codex/config.toml (top-level key).
  3. Confirm it persists in the file while the app is quit.
  4. Relaunch the app.
  5. Re-read config.toml — the key is gone within seconds of launch.

Versions: bundled codex-cli 0.145.0-alpha.30; client_version 0.145.0 in ~/.codex/models_cache.json. macOS.

Expected: an explicit, documented, engine-supported service_tier config value should survive the Desktop app's own config load/save cycle, letting users durably override a model catalogue's default_service_tier (and its UI label, e.g. "Fast") to default.

Actual: the Desktop app's own settings serializer silently discards the key on every launch, since its internal settings model doesn't track that field.

Dominant language
Rust
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Merged PRs (30d)
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