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Codex app automations run at medium reasoning even when global model_reasoning_effort is xhigh #13536

@johnsilvavlogs

Description

@johnsilvavlogs

What version of Codex is running?

  • Extension host: Cursor + OpenAI Codex extension 0.4.79 (Windows)
  • Automation run reports cli_version = 0.108.0-alpha.8
  • Local global CLI binary: codex-cli 0.110.0

Which model are you using?

gpt-5.3-codex

What is the issue?

Automations appear to ignore global reasoning config:

  • Global config is set to model_reasoning_effort = "xhigh".
  • Manual non-automation runs start with effort = "xhigh".
  • Automation runs (Codex app automation, e.g. Daily bug scan) start with effort = "medium" and summary = "auto".

This makes automations less reliable for complex bug triage compared to manual runs under the same environment.

Steps to reproduce

  1. Set global config:
    • model = "gpt-5.3-codex"
    • model_reasoning_effort = "xhigh"
  2. Create an automation in Codex app (for example, a recurring bug scan).
  3. Let the automation run.
  4. Inspect the run JSONL turn_context.
  5. Compare against a normal manual thread in the same environment.

Expected behavior

Either:

  1. Automations inherit global model_reasoning_effort (xhigh), or
  2. Automations expose an explicit reasoning-effort setting (low/medium/high/xhigh).

Actual behavior

Automation run turn_context shows:

  • effort = "medium"
  • collaboration_mode.settings.reasoning_effort = "medium"

while manual runs show xhigh.

Notes

  • The automation definition file currently has schedule/prompt/cwd but no reasoning field.
  • A prompt-level workaround helps but does not guarantee deterministic model effort.

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