codex - 💡(How to fix) Fix Mobile Codex should inherit SSH hosts configured on the paired desktop app [1 comments, 2 participants]

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

Codex.app 26.513.31313 (2867)

What subscription do you have?

ChatGPT Pro

What platform is your computer?

Darwin 25.3.0 arm64 arm

What issue are you seeing?

I have several SSH hosts already configured and working in the Codex desktop app on my Mac. These hosts are reachable from my computer because the computer has the required SSH config, keys, and network/VPN access.

However, when using Codex on mobile, the app requires me to configure the SSH hosts again on the phone. This is problematic for two reasons:

1. It duplicates configuration that already exists and works on the paired desktop app.
2. More importantly, the phone may not have the same network access as the computer. For example, the computer may be connected to Tailscale or another VPN required to reach the SSH hosts, while the phone may need a different VPN/proxy to use Codex itself. On iOS, only one VPN-style network extension can generally be active at a time, so the phone cannot always both access Codex and access the private SSH network directly.

In this setup, the desktop app can already reach the SSH hosts, but the mobile app cannot use those existing desktop SSH hosts unless they are separately reachable from the phone.

What steps can reproduce the bug?

1. On macOS, configure SSH hosts in ~/.ssh/config, for example private hosts reachable through Tailscale or another desktop-only network path.
2. Verify that Codex desktop can connect to these SSH hosts successfully.
3. Open Codex on iOS/mobile while connected to the same account / paired desktop environment.
4. Try to use one of the SSH hosts that is already configured and working on the desktop.
5. Observe that the mobile app requires creating/configuring the SSH host again on the phone, rather than reusing the desktop app's working SSH host configuration.
6. If the phone does not have the same VPN/network path as the desktop, the mobile SSH connection cannot work even though the desktop already has working access.

What is the expected behavior?

Codex mobile should be able to inherit or select SSH hosts that are already configured and working in the paired desktop Codex app.

The mobile app should not require the phone itself to have direct network reachability to every SSH host if the paired desktop already has that reachability. Ideally, mobile would act as a controller for the desktop/host-side Codex environment, and SSH host connectivity would be resolved from the desktop side using the desktop's existing SSH config, keys, and network/VPN access.

This would avoid duplicated SSH setup and would support cases where the desktop is on a private network or VPN that the phone cannot simultaneously use.

Additional information

This is especially important on iOS because VPN/network-extension limitations make it hard or impossible to use two network paths at the same time. For example, a phone may need one VPN/proxy path to use Codex/ OpenAI services, while the SSH hosts are only reachable through Tailscale on the desktop.

The desktop already has the required SSH key material and network access, so requiring the phone to directly connect to the SSH host makes mobile usage much less reliable.