feat(app-server): thread/rollback API (#8454)

Add `thread/rollback` to app-server to support IDEs undo-ing the last N
turns of a thread.

For context, an IDE partner will be supporting an "undo" capability
where the IDE (the app-server client) will be responsible for reverting
the local changes made during the last turn. To support this well, we
also need a way to drop the last turn (or more generally, the last N
turns) from the agent's context. This is what `thread/rollback` does.

**Core idea**: A Thread rollback is represented as a persisted event
message (EventMsg::ThreadRollback) in the rollout JSONL file, not by
rewriting history. On resume, both the model's context (core replay) and
the UI turn list (app-server v2's thread history builder) apply these
markers so the pruned history is consistent across live conversations
and `thread/resume`.

Implementation notes:
- Rollback only affects agent context and appends to the rollout file;
clients are responsible for reverting files on disk.
- If a thread rollback is currently in progress, subsequent
`thread/rollback` calls are rejected.
- Because we use `CodexConversation::submit` and codex core tracks
active turns, returning an error on concurrent rollbacks is communicated
via an `EventMsg::Error` with a new variant
`CodexErrorInfo::ThreadRollbackFailed`. app-server watches for that and
sends the BAD_REQUEST RPC response.

Tests cover thread rollbacks in both core and app-server, including when
`num_turns` > existing turns (which clears all turns).

**Note**: this explicitly does **not** behave like `/undo` which we just
removed from the CLI, which does the opposite of what `thread/rollback`
does. `/undo` reverts local changes via ghost commits/snapshots and does
not modify the agent's context / conversation history.

Author: owenlin0

codex-rs/app-server-protocol/src/protocol/common.rs

@@ -113,6 +113,10 @@ client_request_definitions! {
         params: v2::ThreadArchiveParams,
         response: v2::ThreadArchiveResponse,
     },
+    ThreadRollback => "thread/rollback" {
+        params: v2::ThreadRollbackParams,
+        response: v2::ThreadRollbackResponse,
+    },
     ThreadList => "thread/list" {
         params: v2::ThreadListParams,
         response: v2::ThreadListResponse,

codex-rs/app-server-protocol/src/protocol/thread_history.rs

@@ -6,6 +6,7 @@ use crate::protocol::v2::UserInput;
 use codex_protocol::protocol::AgentReasoningEvent;
 use codex_protocol::protocol::AgentReasoningRawContentEvent;
 use codex_protocol::protocol::EventMsg;
+use codex_protocol::protocol::ThreadRolledBackEvent;
 use codex_protocol::protocol::TurnAbortedEvent;
 use codex_protocol::protocol::UserMessageEvent;
 
@@ -57,6 +58,7 @@ impl ThreadHistoryBuilder {
             EventMsg::TokenCount(_) => {}
             EventMsg::EnteredReviewMode(_) => {}
             EventMsg::ExitedReviewMode(_) => {}
+            EventMsg::ThreadRolledBack(payload) => self.handle_thread_rollback(payload),
             EventMsg::UndoCompleted(_) => {}
             EventMsg::TurnAborted(payload) => self.handle_turn_aborted(payload),
             _ => {}
@@ -130,6 +132,23 @@ impl ThreadHistoryBuilder {
         turn.status = TurnStatus::Interrupted;
     }
 
+    fn handle_thread_rollback(&mut self, payload: &ThreadRolledBackEvent) {
+        self.finish_current_turn();
+
+        let n = usize::try_from(payload.num_turns).unwrap_or(usize::MAX);
+        if n >= self.turns.len() {
+            self.turns.clear();
+        } else {
+            self.turns.truncate(self.turns.len().saturating_sub(n));
+        }
+
+        // Re-number subsequent synthetic ids so the pruned history is consistent.
+        self.next_turn_index =
+            i64::try_from(self.turns.len().saturating_add(1)).unwrap_or(i64::MAX);
+        let item_count: usize = self.turns.iter().map(|t| t.items.len()).sum();
+        self.next_item_index = i64::try_from(item_count.saturating_add(1)).unwrap_or(i64::MAX);
+    }
+
     fn finish_current_turn(&mut self) {
         if let Some(turn) = self.current_turn.take() {
             if turn.items.is_empty() {
@@ -213,6 +232,7 @@ mod tests {
     use codex_protocol::protocol::AgentMessageEvent;
     use codex_protocol::protocol::AgentReasoningEvent;
     use codex_protocol::protocol::AgentReasoningRawContentEvent;
+    use codex_protocol::protocol::ThreadRolledBackEvent;
     use codex_protocol::protocol::TurnAbortReason;
     use codex_protocol::protocol::TurnAbortedEvent;
     use codex_protocol::protocol::UserMessageEvent;
@@ -410,4 +430,95 @@ mod tests {
             }
         );
     }
+
+    #[test]
+    fn drops_last_turns_on_thread_rollback() {
+        let events = vec![
+            EventMsg::UserMessage(UserMessageEvent {
+                message: "First".into(),
+                images: None,
+            }),
+            EventMsg::AgentMessage(AgentMessageEvent {
+                message: "A1".into(),
+            }),
+            EventMsg::UserMessage(UserMessageEvent {
+                message: "Second".into(),
+                images: None,
+            }),
+            EventMsg::AgentMessage(AgentMessageEvent {
+                message: "A2".into(),
+            }),
+            EventMsg::ThreadRolledBack(ThreadRolledBackEvent { num_turns: 1 }),
+            EventMsg::UserMessage(UserMessageEvent {
+                message: "Third".into(),
+                images: None,
+            }),
+            EventMsg::AgentMessage(AgentMessageEvent {
+                message: "A3".into(),
+            }),
+        ];
+
+        let turns = build_turns_from_event_msgs(&events);
+        let expected = vec![
+            Turn {
+                id: "turn-1".into(),
+                status: TurnStatus::Completed,
+                error: None,
+                items: vec![
+                    ThreadItem::UserMessage {
+                        id: "item-1".into(),
+                        content: vec![UserInput::Text {
+                            text: "First".into(),
+                        }],
+                    },
+                    ThreadItem::AgentMessage {
+                        id: "item-2".into(),
+                        text: "A1".into(),
+                    },
+                ],
+            },
+            Turn {
+                id: "turn-2".into(),
+                status: TurnStatus::Completed,
+                error: None,
+                items: vec![
+                    ThreadItem::UserMessage {
+                        id: "item-3".into(),
+                        content: vec![UserInput::Text {
+                            text: "Third".into(),
+                        }],
+                    },
+                    ThreadItem::AgentMessage {
+                        id: "item-4".into(),
+                        text: "A3".into(),
+                    },
+                ],
+            },
+        ];
+        assert_eq!(turns, expected);
+    }
+
+    #[test]
+    fn thread_rollback_clears_all_turns_when_num_turns_exceeds_history() {
+        let events = vec![
+            EventMsg::UserMessage(UserMessageEvent {
+                message: "One".into(),
+                images: None,
+            }),
+            EventMsg::AgentMessage(AgentMessageEvent {
+                message: "A1".into(),
+            }),
+            EventMsg::UserMessage(UserMessageEvent {
+                message: "Two".into(),
+                images: None,
+            }),
+            EventMsg::AgentMessage(AgentMessageEvent {
+                message: "A2".into(),
+            }),
+            EventMsg::ThreadRolledBack(ThreadRolledBackEvent { num_turns: 99 }),
+        ];
+
+        let turns = build_turns_from_event_msgs(&events);
+        assert_eq!(turns, Vec::<Turn>::new());
+    }
 }

codex-rs/app-server-protocol/src/protocol/v2.rs

@@ -89,6 +89,7 @@ pub enum CodexErrorInfo {
     InternalServerError,
     Unauthorized,
     BadRequest,
+    ThreadRollbackFailed,
     SandboxError,
     /// The response SSE stream disconnected in the middle of a turn before completion.
     ResponseStreamDisconnected {
@@ -119,6 +120,7 @@ impl From<CoreCodexErrorInfo> for CodexErrorInfo {
             CoreCodexErrorInfo::InternalServerError => CodexErrorInfo::InternalServerError,
             CoreCodexErrorInfo::Unauthorized => CodexErrorInfo::Unauthorized,
             CoreCodexErrorInfo::BadRequest => CodexErrorInfo::BadRequest,
+            CoreCodexErrorInfo::ThreadRollbackFailed => CodexErrorInfo::ThreadRollbackFailed,
             CoreCodexErrorInfo::SandboxError => CodexErrorInfo::SandboxError,
             CoreCodexErrorInfo::ResponseStreamDisconnected { http_status_code } => {
                 CodexErrorInfo::ResponseStreamDisconnected { http_status_code }
@@ -1055,6 +1057,30 @@ pub struct ThreadArchiveParams {
 #[ts(export_to = "v2/")]
 pub struct ThreadArchiveResponse {}
 
+#[derive(Serialize, Deserialize, Debug, Clone, PartialEq, JsonSchema, TS)]
+#[serde(rename_all = "camelCase")]
+#[ts(export_to = "v2/")]
+pub struct ThreadRollbackParams {
+    pub thread_id: String,
+    /// The number of turns to drop from the end of the thread. Must be >= 1.
+    ///
+    /// This only modifies the thread's history and does not revert local file changes
+    /// that have been made by the agent. Clients are responsible for reverting these changes.
+    pub num_turns: u32,
+}
+
+#[derive(Serialize, Deserialize, Debug, Clone, PartialEq, JsonSchema, TS)]
+#[serde(rename_all = "camelCase")]
+#[ts(export_to = "v2/")]
+pub struct ThreadRollbackResponse {
+    /// The updated thread after applying the rollback, with `turns` populated.
+    ///
+    /// The ThreadItems stored in each Turn are lossy since we explicitly do not
+    /// persist all agent interactions, such as command executions. This is the same
+    /// behavior as `thread/resume`.
+    pub thread: Thread,
+}
+
 #[derive(Serialize, Deserialize, Debug, Clone, PartialEq, JsonSchema, TS)]
 #[serde(rename_all = "camelCase")]
 #[ts(export_to = "v2/")]
@@ -1193,7 +1219,7 @@ pub struct Thread {
     pub source: SessionSource,
     /// Optional Git metadata captured when the thread was created.
     pub git_info: Option<GitInfo>,
-    /// Only populated on a `thread/resume` response.
+    /// Only populated on `thread/resume` and `thread/rollback` responses.
     /// For all other responses and notifications returning a Thread,
     /// the turns field will be an empty list.
     pub turns: Vec<Turn>,

codex-rs/app-server/README.md

@@ -72,6 +72,7 @@ Example (from OpenAI's official VSCode extension):
 - `thread/resume` — reopen an existing thread by id so subsequent `turn/start` calls append to it.
 - `thread/list` — page through stored rollouts; supports cursor-based pagination and optional `modelProviders` filtering.
 - `thread/archive` — move a thread’s rollout file into the archived directory; returns `{}` on success.
+- `thread/rollback` — drop the last N turns from the agent’s in-memory context and persist a rollback marker in the rollout so future resumes see the pruned history; returns the updated `thread` (with `turns` populated) on success.
 - `turn/start` — add user input to a thread and begin Codex generation; responds with the initial `turn` object and streams `turn/started`, `item/*`, and `turn/completed` notifications.
 - `turn/interrupt` — request cancellation of an in-flight turn by `(thread_id, turn_id)`; success is an empty `{}` response and the turn finishes with `status: "interrupted"`.
 - `review/start` — kick off Codex’s automated reviewer for a thread; responds like `turn/start` and emits `item/started`/`item/completed` notifications with `enteredReviewMode` and `exitedReviewMode` items, plus a final assistant `agentMessage` containing the review.