Codex CLI can't access any file #3477

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1. MartinKnopf

   added

   bugSomething isn't workingSomething isn't working

   on Sep 11, 2025
2. looper200 commented on Sep 11, 2025

   

   looper200

   on Sep 11, 2025

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   also its can't suggest files using @
3. MartinKnopf commented on Sep 12, 2025

   

   MartinKnopf

   on Sep 12, 2025

   Author

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   also its can't suggest files using @

   Thanks for mentioning. Fuzzy search using @ works in interactive mode. But it can't read the files that I point it to.
4. icianfi commented on Sep 13, 2025

   

   icianfi

   on Sep 13, 2025

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   same issue here, seems sandbox limitation.
5. minhluuquang commented on Sep 13, 2025

   

   minhluuquang

   on Sep 13, 2025

   Last edited by minhluuquang

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   For anyone running into this problem, here is my case

   The Codex cli always runs commands by calling:

   bash -lc "your command"

   (for example, bash -lc "ls -la" or bash -lc "pwd").

   If you’re using fish (or any shell other than bash) as your main shell, this can break if your ~/.bash_profile or ~/.bashrc forces bash to immediately exec into another shell. In my case, my ~/.bash_profile looked like this:

   export PATH="${PATH}:${HOME}/.local/bin"
   export SHELL=/bin/zsh
   exec /bin/zsh -l

   Because of the exec /bin/zsh -l, bash never actually ran the command — it just switched over to zsh and stopped, causing empty output for codex cli

   Fix:
   Check your ~/.bash_profile or ~/.bashrc for any lines like exec /bin/zsh -l (or exec fish -l) and remove them. After I removed that line, Codex worked perfectly again, even though my main shell is still fish.

   👍React with 👍3Reacted by Johannes Villmow, Martin Knopf and Yifei Wang

   🎉React with 🎉3Reacted by Johannes Villmow, Martin Knopf and Yifei Wang
6. MartinKnopf commented on Sep 15, 2025

   

   MartinKnopf

   on Sep 15, 2025

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   Thank you @minhluuquang! Your fix worked for me.
7. MartinKnopf

   closed this as completedon Sep 15, 2025
8. Umupa commented on Oct 26, 2025

   

   Umupa

   on Oct 26, 2025

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   I ran into a similar issue and was able to resolve it by integrating the filesystem MCP tool. Here’s the exact configuration that worked for me:

   ~/.codex/config.toml

   [mcp_servers.filesystem]
   command = "npx"
   args = ["-y", "@modelcontextprotocol/server-filesystem", "/your/project/path"]
   

   With this setup, the Codex CLI can properly access and read files from the specified directory, effectively resolving the file access problem.

   Feel free to replace "your/project/path" with the actual path to your project. Hope this helps!