Codex: description: exceeds maximum length of 1024 characters

[zeusihere]

OpenAI Codex CLI (v0.116.0)
When running Codex CLI, it prompts: .codex/skills/gstack/SKILL.md: invalid description: exceeds maximum length of 1024 characters

[wmzhai]

I hit the same issue locally after reinstalling the latest main into Codex and was able to get a more precise repro.

Environment:

• gstack 0.9.0
• Codex CLI 0.116.0

Repro:

1. Install/reinstall gstack for Codex with ./setup --host codex
2. Run a minimal Codex command such as:

   codex exec "Use the gstack-review skill if available. In one short paragraph, tell me whether you can access it and what it is for. If it is unavailable, say unavailable." --json -s read-only

3. Codex logs this during skill loading:

   failed to load skill /Users/diweiming/gstack/.agents/skills/gstack/SKILL.md: invalid description: exceeds maximum length of 1024 characters
   

What I found:

• The failing file is the generated root skill: .agents/skills/gstack/SKILL.md
• Its frontmatter description is currently 1972 characters long
• More specific generated skills like gstack-review still appear to load, but the root gstack skill itself does not load cleanly in Codex

Expected:

• Codex should be able to load the generated root gstack skill without validation errors

Actual:

• Codex rejects the root skill because the generated description exceeds its 1024-character limit

Likely fix:

• Truncate or otherwise rewrite the generated Codex description for the root gstack skill so it stays under Codex's 1024-character limit

[songlairui]

I hit too

~/.claude/skills/gstack/.agents/skills/gstack/SKILL.md: invalid description: exceeds
  maximum length of 1024 characters

[Edmund-a7]

the same
.codex/skills/gstack/SKILL.md: invalid description: exceeds maximum length of 1024 characters

[robotlearning123]

Confirmed here as well on Codex CLI v0.116.0, but with the current Codex install layout the failing file is the root skill at ~/.codex/skills/gstack/SKILL.md (not just .agents/skills/gstack/SKILL.md).

What I measured locally:

• Parsed YAML description length before the fix: 1973 chars
• Codex limit from the loader error: 1024
• The long text is coming from the root gstack frontmatter description in SKILL.md.tmpl, and it gets copied into the generated root skill metadata

Local workaround that removed the warning for me:

• Shortened the root description in SKILL.md.tmpl
• Regenerated SKILL.md and .agents/skills/gstack/SKILL.md
• Parsed YAML description length after the fix: 559 chars

Validation after the patch:

• codex exec --skip-git-repo-check ... no longer emitted the invalid description: exceeds maximum length of 1024 characters warning during startup
• I also re-checked all installed ~/.codex/skills/gstack* skills and none of their parsed descriptions were over 1024

So the minimal fix looks like: keep the root gstack frontmatter description short enough for Codex, instead of embedding the full proactive-suggestion policy into metadata.