FACTUAL ACTIVITY RECORD · An activity record based on work that took place
Correcting the MCP-disable configuration at Codex startup
Replacing a partial override with a complete server definition accepted by strict configuration validation
Purpose
The daily editorial Runner's first end-to-end attempt could not start its editing process because strict configuration validation rejected the setting intended to disable an MCP server at Codex startup. Overriding only a nested field omitted values required for a complete server definition.
The goal was to preserve the boundary that prevents external-tool connections while supplying a complete server definition accepted by Codex, allowing editing to resume from the same NewsPacket.
Implementation
In task executor, the startup override that specified only the MCP server's enabled field was replaced with one inline table containing the complete server definition.
- The server remains
enabled=false, preventing it from being started. - A command that cannot be used is declared in the same table so strict configuration validation can parse a complete server definition.
- Existing isolation settings—including disabled network access, forbidden approval, ignored user configuration, and disabled hooks and Web search—were unchanged.
task executor was updated to assert that the new inline table appears in the startup arguments. The regression condition verifies a disabled definition accepted by the strict parser; it does not enable MCP.
Type checking, tests, and the production build were rerun after the correction. The retry used the same NewsPacket preserved from the prior failed state so the startup-only change could be checked without retrieving new input.
The correction was a one-line replacement of a partial field override with a complete inline server table. Only the internal server key is generalized below.
Rendering diagram…
What was confirmed
Verification results
The combined check passed with TypeScript type checking, 72 tests, and the production build.
The updated test confirmed that startup arguments contain a complete MCP server definition with the disabled state and a non-runnable command.
A retry from the same NewsPacket started the Codex process and displayed its no-approval, workspace-limited, and network-disabled isolation conditions.
At the cutoff, the startup override correction had been applied to the target and passed the point where the previous run stopped. Completion of the editorial flow and its draft-submission result had not yet been confirmed.
Basis for completion
The configuration correction was considered complete when the disabled MCP server was expressed as a strict-config-compatible definition, the combined check passed with 72 tests, and the Codex process started from the preserved NewsPacket while retaining its isolation conditions.