openai / openai/codex

doctor: top-level Notes summary uses a hyphen while detail sections use an em dash for the same message

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bug CLI windows-os
Dominant language
Rust
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Description

Description

codex doctor's top-level "Notes" summary and the detailed sections below it both surface the same diagnostic messages, but join the summary/remediation text with different connector characters: the "Notes" digest uses a plain hyphen (-), while the corresponding detailed section uses an em dash (). Confirmed across multiple independent checks in a single run, so this is systematic rather than a one-off rendering glitch.

Steps to reproduce

codex doctor

in any directory/config state that triggers at least one warning or failure (e.g. no auth configured is enough on its own).

Actual behavior

In one run, three separate checks each showed the inconsistency:

Notes
   ⚠ git          ...significantly improve repository and filesystem performance - create a trusted Windows Dev Drive...
   ✗ auth         no Codex credentials were found - Run codex login...
   ⚠ websocket    ...HTTPS fallback may still work - Check proxy, VPN, firewall...
Environment
  ⚠ git          ...significantly improve repository and filesystem performance — create a trusted Windows Dev Drive...
...
Configuration
  ✗ auth         no Codex credentials were found — Run codex login...
...
Connectivity
  ⚠ websocket    ...HTTPS fallback may still work — Check proxy, VPN, firewall...

Same wording each time, - in "Notes", in the detail section.

A fourth instance shows up when CODEX_HOME points at a nonexistent directory (config could not be loaded - ... vs config could not be loaded — ...).

Expected behavior

The same diagnostic message should render identically wherever it appears in the report.

Root cause hint

codex doctor --json shows summary and remediation as clean, separate JSON fields with no dash of any kind in the underlying data:

"summary": "this worktree is not on a Windows Dev Drive; moving it to a trusted Dev Drive can significantly improve repository and filesystem performance",
"remediation": "create a trusted Windows Dev Drive for source repositories: https://learn.microsoft.com/..."

So this isn't data corruption — it's a text-rendering-layer bug. Two different code paths format the same summary + remediation pair with different connector characters: the compact "Notes" digest renderer (hyphen) vs. the detailed per-section renderer (em dash).

Environment

  • codex-cli version: 0.149.1
  • Install method: npm
  • OS: Windows 11 Pro (10.0.26100), x86_64

Contributor guide

Open the contributing guide

First steps

  1. Read the whole issue, then the project's contributing guide.
  2. Comment on the issue to say you are picking it up — it saves two people doing the same work.
  3. Fork the repository and make your change on a branch.
  4. Open a pull request that references the issue number.

Research direction

Start with the codex doctor output path and compare its compact "Notes" digest renderer with the detailed per-section renderer; use codex doctor --json to confirm that summary and remediation remain separate fields. Reproduce with an auth or other warning state, then verify that the same diagnostic message uses the same connector in both views.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Tech stack
rust
Domain
cli
Issue type
Bug
Difficulty
3/5
Estimated time
1-2 days
Activity status
Active
Clarity
Mostly clear
Newbie friendliness
68/100

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