When a Codex Responses API response contains only reasoning items
(encrypted thinking state) with no message text or tool calls, the
_normalize_codex_response method was setting finish_reason='stop'.
This sent the response into the empty-content retry loop, which
burned 3 retries and then failed — exactly the pattern Nester
reported in Discord.
Two fixes:
1. _normalize_codex_response: reasoning-only responses (reasoning_items_raw
non-empty but no final_text) now get finish_reason='incomplete', routing
them to the Codex continuation path instead of the retry loop.
2. Incomplete handling: also checks for codex_reasoning_items when deciding
whether to preserve an interim message, so encrypted reasoning state is
not silently dropped when there is no visible reasoning text.
Adds 4 regression tests covering:
- Unit: reasoning-only → incomplete, reasoning+content → stop
- E2E: reasoning-only → continuation → final answer succeeds
- E2E: encrypted reasoning items preserved in interim messages
Test
eccf3da31d