Codex Desktop: false terminal workspace-mismatch warning for equivalent paths ending in `/.`

Summary

After running a Local Environment Build action in a Codex-managed worktree, the integrated terminal displayed:

This terminal's workspace does not match this chat's current worktree

The action's displayed command entered the intended worktree using a trailing /., and the build succeeded there. Inspecting the installed app separately confirmed that its workspace comparison treats <worktree> and <worktree>/. as different paths, causing the warning predicate to return true for those equivalent directories.

Both pwd -P and git rev-parse --show-toplevel confirm that the affected terminal is in the task’s expected worktree. Codex’s internal terminal binding has not been captured, so the independently reproduced /. comparison defect remains a suspected—not confirmed—cause of this warning.

Environment

• Codex desktop experience in ChatGPT for macOS: 26.831.21537, build 7579
• macOS 27.0, Apple Silicon (arm64)
• Terminal shell: zsh
• Observed: September 2, 2026

Observed workflow

1. Create a task in Worktree mode with a selected Local Environment.

2. Let its setup script complete successfully.

3. Run its configured Build action:

   [[actions]]
   name = "Build"
   icon = "run"
   command = "mise run --skip-tools codex-action -- build"
   

4. The terminal displays a command in this form:

   cd "<worktree>/." && mise run --skip-tools codex-action -- build
   

5. The TypeScript/esbuild build succeeds, but the workspace-mismatch warning appears.

The build output existed in the intended worktree, and git status --porcelain remained clean. The Local Environment TOML in this setup is a private sidecar file linked into .codex/environments/; this has not yet been repeated with a plain, tracked environment file.

Isolated comparison reproduction

I extracted and evaluated the installed bundle's actual pure path-comparison helpers and warning predicate in an isolated Node VM. With matching host IDs, no dismissed target, and both the current target and workspace-roots list set to <worktree>, the results were:

In this build, webview/assets/terminal-workspace-warning-state-51edff1f7aae.js uses a path comparator from app-initial-b09f80199db1.js. Its normalization removes trailing slashes but does not remove the redundant trailing /..

This is a unit-level reproduction using the installed implementation, not a clean end-to-end UI reproduction.

Expected behavior / possible fix

Equivalent workspace roots should not produce a mismatch warning. Normalize redundant trailing /. consistently when binding or comparing terminal workspace roots.

Regression coverage should accept <worktree>, <worktree>/, and <worktree>/. as equivalent while preserving warnings for genuinely different worktrees or hosts.

Related

Issue #15448 reports another workspace path-equivalence problem involving symlinks and thread visibility. It has a different symptom and is not a confirmed duplicate.

Start by examining webview/assets/terminal-workspace-warning-state-51edff1f7aae.js and the path-comparison helper in app-initial-b09f80199db1.js. Re-run the isolated Node VM comparison with , /, and /. before tracing the terminal binding and warning predicate. Done means equivalent roots no longer warn while different worktrees or hosts still do, with regression coverage for all three forms.