Local skills in ~/.agents/skills are no longer discovered in new Codex sessions
OpenAI Developer Community
April 22, 2026
Title: Local skills in ~/.agents/skills are no longer discovered in new Codex sessions
Environment:
* Codex desktop on macOS
* Workspace: /Users/muheng/workspace/agentbuilder-ai.com
* Config: ~/.codex/config.toml
* Current date: 2026-04-22
Expected:
* Skills placed in ~/.agents/skills//SKILL.md should appear in newly started sessions after restarting Codex
Actual:
* Local skills do not appear in the session-exposed skills list, even after full app restart and starting a brand-new thread
Repro:
1. Install a local skill package under ~/.codex/superpowers
2. Symlink top-level skills into ~/.agents/skills, e.g.
~/.agents/skills/brainstorming → ~/.codex/superpowers/skills/brainstorming
~/.agents/skills/writing-plans → ~/.codex/superpowers/skills/writing-plans
3. Confirm each symlink target contains SKILL.md
4. Restart Codex desktop fully
5. Start a new session
6. Ask for a local skill by name, e.g. “use brainstorming”
Result:
* The local skills are still not available to the agent
Notes:
* This previously worked before a recent Codex update
* Filesystem layout is valid
* The issue appears to be skill discovery / injection regression, not installation error
Discussion in the ATmosphere