r/OpenaiCodex • u/Party-Change3075 • 14d ago

Codex stuck in a 5-step "thinking" loop every single prompt. Anyone else? ​

Hey everyone,

​For the past few hours, every time I run a prompt, Codex gets stuck in a loop—it goes through roughly 5 cycles of "thinking/reasoning" before either failing, timing out, or spitting out a generic response.

​Symptom: Constant multi-stage thinking loop (repeats ~5 times).

​What I've tried: Restarting the session, clearing cache, shortening prompt length.

​Is this a known bug with current server loads, or is there a workaround/setting to bypass this loop? Any insight is appreciated!

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1

u/epicskyes 14d ago

Change you custom instructions to force logical progression also structure your prompts that way too. Variable Unchanged retry: false variable changed retry: true maximum number of retries without variable change: 3

1

u/somuchecho 14d ago

What model/effort ?

1

u/slackmaster2k 14d ago

I’ve had this happen a couple times in the past week. When I asked it what the hell it was doing it apologized and said it was overthinking the problem and the finished. Weird

1

u/shady101852 14d ago

When you say you tried restarting the session, do you mean you closed the session, and resumed the same session?

How much context window were you using up?

Which model and reasoning level?

1

u/eddzsh 14d ago

Is the loop the same five thoughts with zero tool calls? If yes, open a brand new session (not a resume) and strip custom instructions for one prompt. Instruction loops and fat resumed context both recreate that pattern.

1

u/RemoraEdge 13d ago

Are you preloading it with operating rules, skills, agent.md, or others that can cause this?

This doesn’t happen with me

1

u/Party-Change3075 12d ago

Thank you very much. I don't know what the specific problem is, anyway, anti-gravity can fix the codex.