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codex app-server daemon version should show a better output when daemon is not running

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Assessment

Difficulty
2/5
Estimated time
1-3 hours
Newbie friendliness
62/100
Issue type
Feature
Clarity
Mostly clear
Activity status
Active
Tech stack
cli, rust
Domain
cli

Research direction

The daemon version subcommand of the codex CLI is the entry point; find where it connects to the control socket and where the os error from that connection is turned into the printed error. Check what the command currently returns on failure, then make it emit the JSON shape from the issue with status unreachable, the socket path and original error kept, and a hint to run daemon start. Done when the failure case prints that JSON and a test covers the refused-connection path.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Description

app-server CLI enhancement windows-os

What happened

Running codex app-server daemon version gives this:

Error: failed to connect to C:\Users\<user>\.codex\app-server-control\app-server-control.sock

Caused by:
    No connection could be made because the target machine actively refused it. (os error 10061)

The error shows a socket failure, but doesn't explain what it means or what to do next.

Environment

  • Windows, PowerShell
  • codex-cli 0.162.0
  • Installed through Scoop

What I checked

  • The control socket file still exists.
  • No managed daemon process was found.
  • Codex desktop is running its own separate app-server process.
  • Running the command again gives the same error.

The daemon's exact stop reason is unknown.

Expected output

Can we have a better output here? Show the CLI version, explain that the daemon could not be reached, and suggest the next command.

Since daemon version is documented to return JSON, something like:

{
  "cliVersion": "0.162.0",
  "appServerVersion": null,
  "status": "unreachable",
  "reason": "Control socket connection refused (os error 10061)",
  "hint": "The daemon may not be running. Try: codex app-server daemon start"
}

Keep the socket path and original error available for troubleshooting. Only report not running if the process state has been checked.

Related

#47495 also asks for missing daemon start guidance, but this report is specifically about the output from daemon version.

Dominant language
Rust
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Forks
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Avg merge
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Merged PRs (30d)
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