codex_hooks do not fire in interactive sessions when configured via repo-local .codex/config.toml

[hahnpierre]

Bug Report Draft

Title

codex_hooks do not fire in interactive sessions when configured via repo-local .codex/config.toml

Summary

Repo-local .codex/config.toml appears to be loaded for normal project configuration, but hook configuration inside that file does not result in interactive SessionStart or Stop hooks firing.

Environment

• Codex CLI version: 0.120.0
• Installation: npm global package
• Platform: macOS Apple Silicon
• Repo uses project-local config: ./.codex/config.toml

Reproduction

1. Create a repo-local .codex/config.toml with:

hooks = "/absolute/path/to/repo/.codex/hooks.json"

[features]
codex_hooks = true

2. Create hooks.json with SessionStart and Stop command hooks.
3. Point the hook commands at scripts that:
   • read hook payload JSON from stdin
   • emit valid hook JSON on stdout
   • write debug artifacts to disk so execution can be confirmed
4. Start an interactive session with codex from the repo root.
5. Try to confirm:
   • startup context injection
   • stop-time block/reminder behavior

Expected

• SessionStart should fire when the interactive session starts
• Stop should fire when the interactive session exits
• hook output should affect the live session just like manual hook execution output does

Actual

• interactive sessions start and stop normally
• no evidence that SessionStart fired
• no evidence that Stop fired
• no startup additionalContext appears in the session rollout log
• no stop block/reminder occurs

Important Control Result

The same hook scripts work when run manually:

• SessionStart script emits valid JSON with hookSpecificOutput.additionalContext
• Stop script emits valid JSON with decision = "block" and a reason
• debug artifacts are written correctly

This suggests the problem is not the script payload format itself, but that repo-local hook config is not actually being honored by interactive hook execution.

Notes

• Moving hooks = ".../hooks.json" under [features] is invalid and causes a TOML type error. The correct placement is top-level.
• The repo-local config format itself parses cleanly once hooks is top-level.
• The issue affects at least both SessionStart and Stop, which suggests a config-loading or hook-registration problem rather than an event-specific matcher issue.

[github-actions]

Potential duplicates detected. Please review them and close your issue if it is a duplicate.

• Greeting message hook #17518

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[driptaroop]

can confirm. faced the same issue.

[sly-codechum]

Same

[abhinav-oai]

Just setup a Stop hook locally and I'm not able to repro

Here's my local setup:

─────┬──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
     │ File: .codex/hooks.json
─────┼──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
   1 │ {
   2 │   "hooks": {
   3 │     "Stop": [
   4 │       {
   5 │         "hooks": [
   6 │           {
   7 │             "type": "command",
   8 │             "command": "/usr/bin/python3 \"$(git rev-parse --show-toplevel)/.codex/hooks/stop_keep_going.py\"",
   9 │             "timeout": 30,
  10 │             "statusMessage": "blocking end of turn"
  11 │           }
  12 │         ]
  13 │       }
  14 │     ]
  15 │   }
  16 │ }
─────┴──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
─────┬──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
     │ File: .codex/config.toml
─────┼──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
   1 │ [features]
   2 │ codex_hooks = true
─────┴──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
─────┬──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
     │ File: .codex/hooks/stop_keep_going.py
─────┼──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
   1 │ #!/usr/bin/env python3
   2 │
   3 │ import json
   4 │ import sys
   5 │ import time
   6 │
   7 │
   8 │ def main() -> int:
   9 │     json.load(sys.stdin)
  10 │     json.dump({"decision": "block", "reason": "keep going"}, sys.stdout)
  11 │     sys.stdout.write("\n")
  12 │     return 0
  13 │
  14 │
  15 │ if __name__ == "__main__":
  16 │     raise SystemExit(main())
─────┴──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────

As well as how my conversation looks

› hi


• Hi.

• Stop hook (blocked)
  feedback: keep going

Would be super helpful if you could attach more details, thank you!

---

Also FWIW we don't support a custom path to a hooks.json via top-level hooks field in the config.toml. Codex will resolve the hooks.json by looking in the same directories as any enabled config layers.

[leorrose]

same