affaan-m/ECC · error · Error

Codex version could not be verified for tool-less review

Error message

Codex version could not be verified for tool-less review

What it means

Thrown by verifyToollessSupport() when `codex --version` ran successfully (probe returned 0) but its stdout did not match the regex /^codex-cli\s+([^\s]+)$/m. The script pins a specific supported Codex version and needs to parse the exact version string; an unexpected output format (a rebranded binary, a wrapper, a locale-formatted line) means the version cannot be trusted for the tool-less safety contract.

Source

Thrown at skills/council-multi-model/scripts/review-with-codex.js:142

    throw new Error(`Codex ${label} probe failed${detail ? `: ${detail}` : ''}`);
  }
  return (result.stdout || '').trim();
}

function verifyToollessSupport(dependencies = {}) {
  const spawn = dependencies.spawnSync || spawnSync;
  const options = {
    cwd: os.tmpdir(),
    env: buildEnvironment(dependencies.env || process.env),
    encoding: 'utf8',
    timeout: 5_000,
    maxBuffer: 256 * 1024,
    windowsHide: true,
  };
  const versionText = probeCodex(spawn, ['--version'], options, 'version');
  const versionMatch = versionText.match(/^codex-cli\s+([^\s]+)$/m);
  if (!versionMatch) {
    throw new Error('Codex version could not be verified for tool-less review');
  }
  if (versionMatch[1] !== SUPPORTED_CODEX_VERSION) {
    throw new Error(
      `unsupported Codex version ${versionMatch[1]}; `
      + `tool-less review requires exactly ${SUPPORTED_CODEX_VERSION}`
    );
  }

  const featuresText = probeCodex(spawn, ['features', 'list'], options, 'feature');
  const stages = new Map();
  for (const line of featuresText.split('\n')) {
    const match = line.trim().match(
      /^(\S+)\s+(stable|under development|experimental|deprecated|removed)\s+(true|false)$/
    );
    if (match) stages.set(match[1], match[2]);
  }
  const unavailable = REQUIRED_TOOLLESS_FEATURES.filter(
    (feature) => stages.get(feature) !== 'stable'

View on GitHub (pinned to 01e15490f0)

Solutions

  1. Run `codex --version` by hand and confirm it prints a line like `codex-cli <version>`.
  2. Remove or rename any wrapper/alias that shadows the real Codex binary.
  3. Ensure the shell RC does not print extra lines on non-interactive spawn (buildEnvironment tries to isolate this).

Example fix

// before: a wrapper shadows codex
$ codex --version
my-codex-wrapper v1.2.3

// after
$ unalias codex; rm ~/bin/codex  # remove the wrapper
$ hash -r
$ codex --version
codex-cli 0.146.0
Defensive patterns

Strategy: validation

Validate before calling

function parseCodexVersion(stdout) {
  const m = (stdout || '').match(/^codex-cli\s+([^\s]+)$/m);
  if (!m) throw new Error('Codex version could not be verified for tool-less review');
  return m[1];
}
// call parseCodexVersion(spawnSync('codex', ['--version'], opts).stdout) before relying on the version

Type guard

function looksLikeCodexCliVersion(stdout) {
  return /^codex-cli\s+[^\s]+$/m.test(stdout || '');
}

Try / catch

try {
  verifyToollessSupport({ spawnSync });
} catch (error) {
  if (/Codex version could not be verified/.test(error.message)) {
    // remove wrapper/alias shadowing codex, then retry
  } else {
    throw error;
  }
}

Prevention

When it happens

Trigger: A binary named codex that is not the real Codex CLI (a shim, alias, or different product); a Codex build whose --version output format changed (e.g. extra prefix text, different binary name); stdout polluted by a shell RC file or wrapper script so the first match line is not the version.

Common situations: A custom `codex` wrapper on PATH; an alias that prepends text; a different product also named codex; a preview/nightly build with a different version-string format.

Related errors

AI-assisted analysis of affaan-m/ECC@01e15490f0 (2026-08-13). Data as JSON: /api/errors/aad6804780fff644. Report an issue: GitHub.