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codex - 💡(How to fix) Fix Codex Desktop MCP panel shows only global/plugin servers while repo-scoped MCP servers are active and usable [1 participants]

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openai/codex#20539•Fetched 2026-05-01 05:42:03
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Codex Desktop’s MCP panel shows only global/plugin MCP servers, while repo-scoped MCP servers from the current workspace are active and usable in the session.

This appears related to:

  • #10499: Desktop/project MCP visibility mismatch vs CLI
  • #17360: runtime MCP registration does not match Desktop MCP Settings UI

But this repro is distinct because the repo-scoped MCPs are actually loaded and callable from the active repo session; only the Desktop MCP panel is missing them.

Root Cause

But this repro is distinct because the repo-scoped MCPs are actually loaded and callable from the active repo session; only the Desktop MCP panel is missing them.

RAW_BUFFERClick to expand / collapse

Summary

Codex Desktop’s MCP panel shows only global/plugin MCP servers, while repo-scoped MCP servers from the current workspace are active and usable in the session.

This appears related to:

  • #10499: Desktop/project MCP visibility mismatch vs CLI
  • #17360: runtime MCP registration does not match Desktop MCP Settings UI

But this repro is distinct because the repo-scoped MCPs are actually loaded and callable from the active repo session; only the Desktop MCP panel is missing them.

What version of the Codex App are you using (From “About Codex” dialog)?

26.429.20946

What subscription do you have?

API access

What platform is your computer?

macOS 26.4
Darwin 25.4.0 arm64

What issue are you seeing?

In a workspace with a project-level .codex/config.toml defining multiple repo-scoped MCP servers, codex mcp list from that workspace shows the repo-scoped MCP servers enabled, plus 4 global/plugin entries.

However, the Desktop MCP panel only shows these 4:

  • chrome-devtools
  • computer-use
  • figma
  • pagerduty

The repo-scoped MCP servers are not shown in the panel even though they are active and usable in the session.

Example proof:

  • splunk-mcp-server is configured in the workspace
  • it does not appear in the Desktop MCP panel
  • but a direct MCP call from the active session succeeds (get_user_info() returned successfully)

What steps can reproduce the bug?

  1. Configure repo-scoped MCP servers in a workspace .codex/config.toml.
  2. Also have some global/plugin MCP servers enabled.
  3. Open Codex Desktop in that workspace.
  4. Restart the app.
  5. Run codex mcp list in the workspace.
  6. Confirm repo-scoped MCP servers are enabled.
  7. Use one of the repo-scoped MCP tools successfully from the session.
  8. Open the Desktop MCP panel.

What is the expected behavior?

The Desktop MCP panel should show the MCP servers actually active for the current workspace/session, including repo-scoped MCP servers from the workspace .codex/config.toml.

What is the actual behavior?

The Desktop MCP panel appears to show only the global/plugin MCP set, not the merged workspace-scoped MCP set for the active repo session.

Additional information

Examples of repo-scoped MCPs expected in such a workspace:

  • aws-mail-dev
  • aws-mail-prod
  • splunk-mcp-server
  • statsig
  • ...

Local evidence:

  • codex mcp list in the workspace shows repo-scoped MCP servers enabled
  • codex mcp list outside the workspace collapses to the same 4 entries shown in the Desktop panel
  • direct repo-scoped MCP calls succeed from the active session

This makes it look like the Desktop MCP panel is resolving server status without the workspace/repo overlay applied.

extent analysis

TL;DR

The Desktop MCP panel may not be properly merging global and repo-scoped MCP servers, causing it to only show global/plugin MCP servers.

Guidance

  • Verify that the codex/config.toml file is correctly formatted and contains the expected repo-scoped MCP server configurations.
  • Check if the issue persists after restarting the Codex Desktop app to ensure it's not a caching or initialization problem.
  • Compare the output of codex mcp list within and outside the workspace to confirm the discrepancy between the command-line output and the Desktop MCP panel.
  • Investigate if there are any known issues or limitations in version 26.429.20946 of the Codex App that might be related to MCP server visibility.

Example

No specific code snippet is applicable in this case, as the issue seems related to configuration and application behavior rather than code.

Notes

The issue might be related to how the Codex Desktop app merges global and repo-scoped MCP servers, potentially overlooking the workspace-specific configurations. The fact that codex mcp list shows the correct information but the Desktop MCP panel does not, suggests a UI or data synchronization issue.

Recommendation

Apply a workaround by regularly checking codex mcp list for the current status of MCP servers, as the command-line output appears to reflect the correct, merged set of global and repo-scoped MCP servers for the active workspace.

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codex - 💡(How to fix) Fix Codex Desktop MCP panel shows only global/plugin servers while repo-scoped MCP servers are active and usable [1 participants]