Codex workspace bootstrap files

How AGENTS.md, persona, skills, and memory files reach a native Codex turn. Part of the Codex harness reference; Where each section moved lists every section.

Workspace bootstrap files

The full generic developer policy, including a before_prompt_build.systemPrompt replacement, remains native session configuration for compaction and native-child inheritance. Ordinary persistent cold or changed-configuration resumes require an uninterrupted managed local stdio process owner and observed native unload before OpenClaw injects the full current policy. Merely sending developerInstructions on thread/resume does not refresh the model-visible policy on stock Codex. Explicit systemPrompt: "" sends a withdrawal, not a fallback to older instructions.

Ordinary incognito turns can reuse unchanged generic policy, but changed or emptied policy is rejected without sending another native turn or discarding the live conversation. Parent-local model-request instructions remain a separate surface. See Hook boundaries for recovery.

Codex normally handles AGENTS.md itself through native project-doc discovery. OpenClaw does not write synthetic Codex project-doc files or depend on Codex fallback filenames for persona files, because Codex fallbacks only apply when AGENTS.md is missing. Ordinary policy-restricted turns have no native filesystem environment, so OpenClaw instead sends the bounded workspace AGENTS.md snapshot as thread-level developer instructions. Ring-zero, lightweight, message-only, and tool-disabled internal turns suppress that carrier.

For OpenClaw workspace parity, local tool notes live in the ## Tools section of AGENTS.md and normally ride Codex's native project-doc discovery. The Codex harness forwards the other bootstrap files as developer instructions:

• On the managed bundled stdio app-server, SOUL.md, IDENTITY.md, and USER.md are added to parent-only model request instructions. The private relay leaves native base/catalog instructions and history intact, so newly delivered persona and user-profile context are not automatically inherited by native Codex subagents.
• The compact loaded OpenClaw skills list uses the same parent-local layer.
• Heartbeat turns receive generic initiative guidance through collaboration mode. Monitor cron scratch is appended to the heartbeat prompt instead of injected as workspace context.
• MEMORY.md content from the configured agent workspace is not pasted into native Codex turn input when memory tools are available for that workspace; when it exists, the harness adds a small workspace-memory pointer to the parent-local instruction layer and Codex should use memory_search or memory_get when durable memory is relevant. If tools are disabled, memory search is unavailable, or the active workspace differs from the agent memory workspace, MEMORY.md uses the bounded turn input reference path instead.
• BOOTSTRAP.md, when present, uses the same turn input reference path. These references are introduced on the first turn of a new native thread, after a cold resume (including a Gateway restart), after native compaction, or when their rendered content changes. Unchanged references are omitted on subsequent warm turns once the complete reference block has been submitted. If prompt fitting drops or truncates the block, a later turn introduces it again. Tracking is process-local; reference content remains ordinary user input in native history.

The managed relay supports native API-key and ChatGPT accounts on the standard OpenAI endpoints and also works with Gateway-owned inference plus remote-exec. Its HTTP and WebSocket hops honor the Gateway's HTTP(S) proxy and TLS configuration. Native login, token refresh, backend routing, and approval-reviewer checks stay native-owned. It rejects oversized prepared context instead of truncating it (256 KiB maximum); model request bodies and WebSocket frames are bounded at 32 MiB. Reduce bootstrap/skills budgets or attached context when those limits are exceeded.

Custom commands, Desktop attachments, external Unix/WebSocket connections, non-OpenAI native providers, custom upstream endpoints, unsupported native account modes, locked upstream configuration, and native features.respect_system_proxy profiles keep the legacy collaboration carrier, which model-owned catalog instructions can replace. A warning and unverified persona accounting identify that the workaround is not active. OpenClaw does not reroute or shut down those sessions. Previously embedded persona, conversation text, and explicit task handoffs are not removed from existing histories or full-history forks.