The loop moved
OpenAI’s Agents API runs the Codex harness on OpenAI’s servers, with no zero-retention option
OpenAI put an Agents API into public beta on 10 September. In OpenAI’s words, it lets developers “build agents with a managed Codex harness while OpenAI handles session orchestration, context compaction, and recovery.” The part that moves is the part most teams wrote themselves. When a long session nears its context limit, OpenAI’s server now chooses what to compress; when a run dies, it chooses where to resume.
The developer still supplies the tools, picks an OpenAI-hosted or self-hosted sandbox and connects MCP servers. Model usage bills at the chosen model’s standard rates and sandbox time separately, with no per-session fee listed, and the guide names nothing the API replaces.
Two limits decide who can use it at all. Data residency is “currently” the United States only, and the API does not support Zero Data Retention. A self-hosted sandbox looks like the way round that and is not: the guide says it does not make the API eligible. The verdict is that a team under a zero-retention agreement cannot use this yet, and any other team trades compaction code it could read for a server-side policy it cannot.
What it changes If you already run your own compaction and recovery, keep them until OpenAI documents what its compaction discards.
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