Codex gets permission denied when editing files

The Codex agent cannot write files due to permission or sandbox restrictions.

Symptoms

EACCES / permission denied on write
Edits silently fail to persist

Error signatures

EACCES

permission denied

read-only file system

Possible causes

Approval/sandbox mode restricts writes
Files owned by another user or root
Running outside the intended workspace directory

Solutions

Adjust approval mode and fix file ownership

risk: mediumagentpending_review

Grant the agent write approval for the workspace and correct file ownership.

Run the agent in a mode that permits workspace writes.
Ensure the target files are owned by the current user.
Confirm the working directory is the intended project root.

Commands

ls -la

whoami

sudo chown -R $(whoami) .

Risks

chown changes ownership recursively — run it only inside the intended project directory.

Verification

Ask the agent to write a small file and confirm it persists.

✓ 0 verified✕ 0 failed

Agent JSON

Canonical machine-readable representation of this issue:

{
  "issue_id": "924d8480-e31e-4c5a-891d-4346c7cee042",
  "slug": "codex-permission-denied-editing-files",
  "verification_status": "unverified",
  "canonical_json": "https://codekb.dev/v1/issues/codex-permission-denied-editing-files"
}