Start idle Codex 5-hour windows with a real new-session request instead of a synthetic warmup #5833

Area

Authentication and account pool

What are you trying to accomplish?

I run a Codex account pool and want each account's 5-hour reset clock to start as early as possible, without OpenCodex sending synthetic traffic. An account whose window has not started wastes time: its clock only begins on the first real request.

What prevents this today?

OpenCodex already records quota passively from every response's x-codex-* headers and from operator refreshes. The only way to start an idle window today is codexQuotaAutoRefresh, which sends a synthetic warmup request. Constructed probe requests are a known account-risk pattern (in one report, self-built pings led to every account being logged out).

What should OpenCodex do?

With an opt-in flag, when a brand-new conversation (no thread binding) arrives and an eligible pool account's last recorded short window reads 0% with a reset a full window after the observation, route that one real request to it. That request starts the clock; routing then returns to the configured strategy. Bound conversations are never moved, a pinned account wins, and each account is steered at most once per window. Nothing extra is sent.

Example usage or interface

ocx config set codexPool '{"startIdleWindows":true}'

Alternatives or workarounds

codexQuotaAutoRefresh (synthetic warmup), or an external scheduler that polls usage every minute and sends pings. Both add traffic that looks unlike a real client.

Additional context

Open question: the "not started" signal (0% usage, reset about one full window after the observation) is inferred from how an idle window's reset slides with the clock. It has not yet been checked against a captured live response for an idle account, so detection uses a one-minute tolerance and fails closed (no match means ordinary routing).

Checks

• I searched existing issues and documentation.
• This request describes a concrete OpenCodex workflow rather than merely naming a desired technology.
• I removed secrets and personal data.