[Linux/Fedora] Single CLI tool call recursively spawns hundreds of Bash processes

What version of Codex CLI is running?

0.151.0. Also reproduced on 0.146.1

What subscription do you have?

Business

Which model were you using?

5.5, 5-6 luna, 5-6 sol

What platform is your computer?

Fedora 44 Workstation, Linux x86_64

What terminal emulator and version are you using (if applicable)?

VsCode, Codex cli

Codex doctor report

{
  "schemaVersion": 1,
  "generatedAt": "1788175646s since unix epoch",
  "overallStatus": "ok",
  "codexVersion": "0.151.0",
  "checks": {
    "app_server.status": {
      "id": "app_server.status",
      "category": "app-server",
      "status": "ok",
      "summary": "background server is not running",
      "details": {
        "control socket": "/home/biglawiet/.codex/app-server-control/app-server-control.sock",
        "daemon state dir": "/home/biglawiet/.codex/app-server-daemon",
        "mode": "ephemeral",
        "pid file": "/home/biglawiet/.codex/app-server-daemon/app-server.pid (missing)",
        "settings": "/home/biglawiet/.codex/app-server-daemon/settings.json (missing)",
        "status": "not running",
        "update-loop pid file": "/home/biglawiet/.codex/app-server-daemon/app-server-updater.pid (missing)"
      },
      "remediation": null,
      "durationMs": 0
    },
    "auth.credentials": {
      "id": "auth.credentials",
      "category": "auth",
      "status": "ok",
      "summary": "auth is configured",
      "details": {
        "auth file": "/home/biglawiet/.codex/auth.json",
        "auth storage mode": "File",
        "stored API key": "false",
        "stored ChatGPT tokens": "true",
        "stored agent identity": "false",
        "stored auth mode": "chatgpt"
      },
      "remediation": null,
      "durationMs": 0
    },
    "config.load": {
      "id": "config.load",
      "category": "config",
      "status": "ok",
      "summary": "config loaded",
      "details": {
        "CODEX_HOME": "/home/biglawiet/.codex",
        "config.toml": "/home/biglawiet/.codex/config.toml",
        "config.toml parse": "ok",
        "cwd": "/home/biglawiet",
        "enabled feature flags": "shell_tool, view_image, unified_exec, unified_exec_zsh_fork, shell_snapshot, content_item_kinds, code_mode_host, terminal_resize_reflow, sqlite, memories, hooks, enable_request_compression, unbounded_connection_retries, multi_agent, apps, tool_search_always_defer_mcp_tools, tool_suggest, plugins, in_app_browser, in_app_chat, in_app_dictation, in_app_local_automation, in_app_updates, browser_use, browser_use_full_cdp_access, browser_use_external, computer_use, remote_plugin, plugin_sharing, image_generation, resize_all_images, item_ids, skill_mcp_dependency_install, skill_search, mentions_v2, steer, guardian_approval, goals, collaboration_modes, tool_call_mcp_elicitation, auth_elicitation, personality, fast_mode, tui_app_server, remote_compaction_v2, compaction_image_budget, workspace_dependencies",
        "feature flag overrides": "memories=true",
        "feature flags enabled": "47",
        "log dir": "/home/biglawiet/.codex/log",
        "mcp servers": "0",
        "model": "gpt-5.5",
        "model provider": "openai",
        "sqlite home": "/home/biglawiet/.codex"
      },
      "remediation": null,
      "durationMs": 0
    },
    "git.environment": {
      "id": "git.environment",
      "category": "git",
      "status": "ok",
      "summary": "git version 2.55.0",
      "details": {
        "PATH git #1": "/usr/bin/git",
        "PATH git entries": "1",
        "git build options": "git version 2.55.0; cpu: x86_64; no commit associated with this build; sizeof-long: 8; sizeof-size_t: 8; shell-path: /bin/sh; rust: disabled; feature: fsmonitor--daemon; gettext: enabled; libcurl: 8.18.0; OpenSSL: OpenSSL 3.5.7 9 Jun 2026; zlib-ng: 2.3.3; SHA-1: SHA1_DC; SHA-256: SHA256_BLK; default-ref-format: files; default-hash: sha1",
        "git exec path": "/usr/libexec/git-core",
        "git version": "git version 2.55.0",
        "repo detected": "false",
        "selected git": "/usr/bin/git"
      },
      "remediation": null,
      "durationMs": 13
    },
    "installation": {
      "id": "installation",
      "category": "install",
      "status": "ok",
      "summary": "installation looks consistent",
      "details": {
        "PATH codex #1": "/home/biglawiet/.local/bin/codex",
        "current executable": "/home/biglawiet/.codex/packages/standalone/releases/0.151.0-x86_64-unknown-linux-musl/bin/codex",
        "install context": "standalone (unix, package /home/biglawiet/.codex/packages/standalone/releases/0.151.0-x86_64-unknown-linux-musl, bin /home/biglawiet/.codex/packages/standalone/releases/0.151.0-x86_64-unknown-linux-musl/bin, resources /home/biglawiet/.codex/packages/standalone/releases/0.151.0-x86_64-unknown-linux-musl/codex-resources, path /home/biglawiet/.codex/packages/standalone/releases/0.151.0-x86_64-unknown-linux-musl/codex-path)",
        "managed by bun": "false",
        "managed by npm": "false",
        "managed by pnpm": "false",
        "managed package root": "not set"
      },
      "remediation": null,
      "durationMs": 0
    },
    "mcp.config": {
      "id": "mcp.config",
      "category": "mcp",
      "status": "ok",
      "summary": "no MCP servers configured",
      "details": {},
      "remediation": null,
      "durationMs": 0
    },
    "network.env": {
      "id": "network.env",
      "category": "network",
      "status": "ok",
      "summary": "network-related environment looks readable",
      "details": {
        "managed proxy": "not configured",
        "proxy env vars": "none",
        "respect system proxy": "disabled"
      },
      "remediation": null,
      "durationMs": 0
    },
    "network.provider_reachability": {
      "id": "network.provider_reachability",
      "category": "reachability",
      "status": "ok",
      "summary": "active provider endpoints are reachable over HTTP",
      "details": {
        "ChatGPT inference URL": "https://chatgpt.com/backend-api/<redacted> reachable (HTTP 405)",
        "reachability mode": "ChatGPT auth"
      },
      "remediation": null,
      "durationMs": 127
    },
    "network.websocket_reachability": {
      "id": "network.websocket_reachability",
      "category": "websocket",
      "status": "ok",
      "summary": "Responses WebSocket handshake succeeded",
      "details": {
        "DNS": "2 IPv4, 2 IPv6, first IPv4",
        "auth mode": "chatgpt",
        "connect timeout": "15000 ms",
        "endpoint": "wss://chatgpt.com/backend-api/<redacted>",
        "handshake result": "HTTP 101 Switching Protocols",
        "model provider": "openai",
        "provider name": "OpenAI",
        "proxy env vars": "none",
        "reasoning header": "false",
        "server model present": "false",
        "supports websockets": "true",
        "wire API": "responses"
      },
      "remediation": null,
      "durationMs": 1112
    },
    "runtime.provenance": {
      "id": "runtime.provenance",
      "category": "runtime",
      "status": "ok",
      "summary": "running standalone on linux-x86_64",
      "details": {
        "commit": "unknown",
        "current executable": "/home/biglawiet/.codex/packages/standalone/releases/0.151.0-x86_64-unknown-linux-musl/bin/codex",
        "install method": "standalone (unix, package /home/biglawiet/.codex/packages/standalone/releases/0.151.0-x86_64-unknown-linux-musl, bin /home/biglawiet/.codex/packages/standalone/releases/0.151.0-x86_64-unknown-linux-musl/bin, resources /home/biglawiet/.codex/packages/standalone/releases/0.151.0-x86_64-unknown-linux-musl/codex-resources, path /home/biglawiet/.codex/packages/standalone/releases/0.151.0-x86_64-unknown-linux-musl/codex-path)",
        "platform": "linux-x86_64",
        "version": "0.151.0"
      },
      "remediation": null,
      "durationMs": 0
    },
    "runtime.search": {
      "id": "runtime.search",
      "category": "search",
      "status": "ok",
      "summary": "search is OK (bundled)",
      "details": {
        "search command": "/home/biglawiet/.codex/packages/standalone/releases/0.151.0-x86_64-unknown-linux-musl/codex-path/rg",
        "search command readiness": "file exists",
        "search provider": "bundled"
      },
      "remediation": null,
      "durationMs": 0
    },
    "sandbox.helpers": {
      "id": "sandbox.helpers",
      "category": "sandbox",
      "status": "ok",
      "summary": "sandbox configuration is readable",
      "details": {
        "approval policy": "OnRequest",
        "codex-linux-sandbox helper": "/home/biglawiet/.codex/tmp/arg0/codex-arg0BkcLfR/codex-linux-sandbox",
        "execve wrapper helper": "/home/biglawiet/.codex/tmp/arg0/codex-arg0BkcLfR/codex-execve-wrapper",
        "filesystem sandbox": "restricted",
        "network sandbox": "restricted"
      },
      "remediation": null,
      "durationMs": 0
    },
    "security.endpoint": {
      "id": "security.endpoint",
      "category": "security",
      "status": "ok",
      "summary": "endpoint protection is not inspected on this platform",
      "details": {
        "endpoint products": "not inspected on this platform"
      },
      "remediation": null,
      "durationMs": 0
    },
    "state.paths": {
      "id": "state.paths",
      "category": "state",
      "status": "ok",
      "summary": "state paths and databases are inspectable",
      "details": {
        "CODEX_HOME": "/home/biglawiet/.codex (dir)",
        "active rollout files": "160 files, 333558897 total bytes, 2084743 average bytes",
        "archived rollout files": "0 files, 0 total bytes, 0 average bytes",
        "goals DB": "/home/biglawiet/.codex/goals_1.sqlite (file)",
        "goals DB integrity": "ok",
        "log DB": "/home/biglawiet/.codex/logs_2.sqlite (file)",
        "log DB integrity": "ok",
        "log dir": "/home/biglawiet/.codex/log (missing)",
        "memories DB": "/home/biglawiet/.codex/memories_1.sqlite (file)",
        "memories DB integrity": "ok",
        "queue DB": "/home/biglawiet/.codex/queue_1.sqlite (file)",
        "queue DB integrity": "ok",
        "sqlite home": "/home/biglawiet/.codex (dir)",
        "standalone release cache": "1 entries in /home/biglawiet/.codex/packages/standalone/releases",
        "state DB": "/home/biglawiet/.codex/state_5.sqlite (file)",
        "state DB integrity": "ok",
        "thread history DB": "/home/biglawiet/.codex/thread_history_1.sqlite (file)",
        "thread history DB integrity": "ok"
      },
      "remediation": null,
      "durationMs": 64
    },
    "state.rollout_db_parity": {
      "id": "state.rollout_db_parity",
      "category": "threads",
      "status": "ok",
      "summary": "rollout files and state DB thread inventory agree",
      "details": {
        "default model provider": "openai",
        "rollout DB active files": "160",
        "rollout DB active rows": "160",
        "rollout DB archive mismatches": "0",
        "rollout DB archived files": "0",
        "rollout DB archived rows": "0",
        "rollout DB duplicate DB paths": "0",
        "rollout DB duplicate rollout thread ids": "0",
        "rollout DB malformed file names": "0",
        "rollout DB missing active rows": "0",
        "rollout DB missing archived rows": "0",
        "rollout DB model providers": "openai=160",
        "rollout DB rows": "160",
        "rollout DB scan cap reached": "false",
        "rollout DB scan errors": "0",
        "rollout DB sources": "vscode=92, subagent:other=46, cli=20, exec=2",
        "rollout DB stale rows": "0"
      },
      "remediation": null,
      "durationMs": 47
    },
    "system.disk": {
      "id": "system.disk",
      "category": "disk",
      "status": "ok",
      "summary": "sufficient free disk space (1074.8 GiB)",
      "details": {
        "CODEX_HOME available": "1074.8 GiB",
        "failure threshold": "1.0 GiB",
        "warning threshold": "5.0 GiB",
        "worktree available": "1074.8 GiB"
      },
      "remediation": null,
      "durationMs": 0
    },
    "system.environment": {
      "id": "system.environment",
      "category": "system",
      "status": "ok",
      "summary": "OS language en-US",
      "details": {
        "EDITOR": "set",
        "LANG": "en_US.UTF-8",
        "VISUAL": "not set",
        "os": "Fedora 44.0.0 [64-bit]",
        "os language": "en-US",
        "os type": "Fedora",
        "os version": "44.0.0"
      },
      "remediation": null,
      "durationMs": 0
    },
    "terminal.env": {
      "id": "terminal.env",
      "category": "terminal",
      "status": "ok",
      "summary": "terminal metadata was detected",
      "details": {
        "COLORTERM": "truecolor",
        "DISPLAY": "present",
        "WAYLAND_DISPLAY": "present",
        "color output": "enabled",
        "effective locale": "en_US.UTF-8",
        "stderr is terminal": "true",
        "stdin is terminal": "true",
        "stdout is terminal": "true",
        "terminal": "GNOME Terminal",
        "terminal size": "80x24"
      },
      "remediation": null,
      "durationMs": 0
    },
    "terminal.title": {
      "id": "terminal.title",
      "category": "title",
      "status": "ok",
      "summary": "terminal title default",
      "details": {
        "terminal title activity": "true",
        "terminal title items": "activity, project-name",
        "terminal title project source": "cwd",
        "terminal title project value": "biglawiet",
        "terminal title source": "default"
      },
      "remediation": null,
      "durationMs": 0
    },
    "updates.status": {
      "id": "updates.status",
      "category": "updates",
      "status": "ok",
      "summary": "update configuration is locally consistent",
      "details": {
        "cached latest version": "0.151.0",
        "check for update on startup": "true",
        "last checked at": "2026-08-31T10:21:49.271676017Z",
        "latest version": "0.151.0",
        "latest version status": "current version is not older",
        "update action": "standalone installer",
        "version cache": "/home/biglawiet/.codex/version.json"
      },
      "remediation": null,
      "durationMs": 529
    }
  }
}

What issue are you seeing?

On Fedora 44, a single normal Codex CLI shell/tool execution can recursively spawn hundreds of /bin/bash processes.

For example, asking Codex to run only:

git status --short --branch

causes the command to stall while the process tree rapidly multiplies. In an instrumented Codex 0.151.0 run, one tool call reached 672 cgroup tasks. With shell_snapshot=false, a process snapshot showed 662 Bash processes, while the model had emitted only one exec tool call and no subagent was spawned.

This can cause severe host resource exhaustion. Before adding external containment/tripwires, I observed approximately 1000–3700 tasks and about 26.2 GB RSS in the VS Code/Codex scope, eventually causing GNOME/Xwayland to be OOM-killed.

The issue is not specific to the repository or Git itself:

• normal Bash/Git outside Codex works correctly;
• codex sandbox -- /usr/bin/git ... works correctly;
• codex sandbox -- /bin/bash --noprofile --norc -c 'exec /usr/bin/git ...' works correctly;
• model-only Codex turns work correctly;
• the failure appears only when the normal Codex agent performs a shell/tool execution.

It reproduces on Codex CLI 0.151.0 and also reproduced on 0.146.1. It also reproduced with GPT-5.5, so it does not appear to be specific to one model.

The failure currently appears localized to the normal agent tool-dispatch / code-mode-host / exec handoff path, but I do not have source-level proof of the exact internal function causing it.

What steps can reproduce the bug?

1. On Fedora 44, install/run Codex CLI 0.151.0 using the official standalone installer.

2. Start a normal Codex CLI agent session in any local Git repository.

3. Ask the agent exactly:

   Run git status --short --branch and stop.

4. Observe the process tree / cgroup task count while the tool call is running.

Expected:

• one small, bounded shell/Git execution tree;
• git status completes normally and returns the repository status.

Actual:

• the tool execution stalls;
• hundreds of /bin/bash processes are recursively spawned;
• task/process count rapidly increases;
• the command may never complete unless the process group is externally terminated.

For comparison, the same Git command succeeds when bypassing the normal agent tool-dispatch path:

codex sandbox -- /usr/bin/git -C <repo> status --short --branch

and also succeeds through a clean Bash inside the standalone sandbox:

codex sandbox -- /bin/bash --noprofile --norc -c 'exec /usr/bin/git -C <repo> status --short --branch'

In my measurements:

• Codex 0.151.0 model-only: 35 tasks, PASS
• Codex 0.151.0 one git status: 672 tasks, FAIL
• Codex 0.146.1 model-only: 26 tasks, PASS
• Codex 0.146.1 one git status: 500+ tasks, FAIL
• standalone Codex sandbox + Git: 9 tasks, PASS
• standalone Codex sandbox + clean Bash + Git: 5 tasks, PASS

What is the expected behavior?

No response

Additional information

No response

Start by reproducing the report on Fedora with the Codex CLI and inspect the shell_tool, unified_exec, and codex-linux-sandbox paths mentioned in the doctor report. Trace the process-launch sequence to identify why one tool call recursively creates Bash processes. Done means the same call no longer causes process growth and the behavior is verified on Linux.