Codex Restricts Third-Party API Access to Image Generation and Web Search Tools

According to Beating, developer Ye Lao's reverse analysis revealed that the new Codex version identifies model service providers. When third-party APIs are connected, the client may no longer load image generation and web search tools, though the model itself remains unchanged.

Two workarounds emerged from testing: renaming the Provider to OpenAI restores partial functionality but triggers remote dialog compression, potentially causing timeout issues for extended conversations. Alternatively, retaining a custom Provider and adding the x-openai-actor-authorization header can re-enable web search and image generation tools, according to Codex's open-source test code. OpenAI has not publicly addressed the restrictions.