# Shell tool in Responses API not available bug **URL:** \ **Category:** Bugs\ **Tags:** shell-tool\ **Created:** [March 5, 2026, 11:45am UTC](https://community.openai.com/t/shell-tool-in-responses-api-not-available-bug/1375776 "2026-03-05T11:45:57Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![michprev](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/openai1/user_avatar/community.openai.com/michprev/32/727452_2.png) [@michprev](https://community.openai.com/u/michprev)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2026, 11:45am UTC](https://community.openai.com/t/shell-tool-in-responses-api-not-available-bug/1375776/1 "2026-03-05T11:45:57Z")
Since today, the native local shell tool stopped working. The LLM complains that it has no shell available. Tested with GPT 5.1 and 5.2. Tested both with leaving `environment` unset and setting it to `local`. ---
**Author:** ![realglyph](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/openai1/user_avatar/community.openai.com/realglyph/32/567472_2.png) [@realglyph](https://community.openai.com/u/realglyph)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2026, 4:02pm UTC](https://community.openai.com/t/shell-tool-in-responses-api-not-available-bug/1375776/2 "2026-03-08T16:02:27Z")
Need an update to this fix @OpenAI_Support ---
**Author:** ![davide.sanvito](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/openai1/user_avatar/community.openai.com/davide.sanvito/32/448283_2.png) [@davide.sanvito](https://community.openai.com/u/davide.sanvito)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2026, 9:54am UTC](https://community.openai.com/t/shell-tool-in-responses-api-not-available-bug/1375776/3 "2026-03-09T09:54:28Z")
Same issue here @OpenAI_Support ---
**Author:** ![sven.den.hartog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/58f4c7/32.png) [@sven.den.hartog](https://community.openai.com/u/sven.den.hartog)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2026, 2:07pm UTC](https://community.openai.com/t/shell-tool-in-responses-api-not-available-bug/1375776/4 "2026-03-09T14:07:03Z")
Same issue. It’s very annoying that features will break within a few days of implementing around it. Maybe there should be a set of features that are marked as “beta” so we won’'t build production ready code around it. @OpenAI_Support ---
**Author:** ![wendyjiao](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/openai1/user_avatar/community.openai.com/wendyjiao/32/511350_2.png) [@wendyjiao](https://community.openai.com/u/wendyjiao)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2026, 3:37pm UTC](https://community.openai.com/t/shell-tool-in-responses-api-not-available-bug/1375776/5 "2026-03-09T15:37:56Z")
Hi, openai engineer here. Can I get some request id for the failed calls? ---
**Author:** ![realglyph](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/openai1/user_avatar/community.openai.com/realglyph/32/567472_2.png) [@realglyph](https://community.openai.com/u/realglyph)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2026, 4:05pm UTC](https://community.openai.com/t/shell-tool-in-responses-api-not-available-bug/1375776/6 "2026-03-09T16:05:42Z")
@wendyjiao have lost them, but you can reproduce this in the playground select the built in tools: apply\_patch and shell then add a custom function tool i.e weather tool. if you try prompting it, the model says “i dont have access to the shell/apply\_patch tools” removing the custom function tool is the only fix for them to work properly ---
**Author:** ![davide.sanvito](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/openai1/user_avatar/community.openai.com/davide.sanvito/32/448283_2.png) [@davide.sanvito](https://community.openai.com/u/davide.sanvito)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2026, 1:47pm UTC](https://community.openai.com/t/shell-tool-in-responses-api-not-available-bug/1375776/7 "2026-03-10T13:47:48Z")
As of today, the bug seems fixed ---
**Author:** ![wendyjiao](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/openai1/user_avatar/community.openai.com/wendyjiao/32/511350_2.png) [@wendyjiao](https://community.openai.com/u/wendyjiao)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2026, 2:23pm UTC](https://community.openai.com/t/shell-tool-in-responses-api-not-available-bug/1375776/8 "2026-03-10T14:23:01Z")
We’ve fixed the bug yesterday. Thanks everyone for reporting this! ---
**Author:** ![jwehrstein](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/c77e96/32.png) [@jwehrstein](https://community.openai.com/u/jwehrstein)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2026, 2:26pm UTC](https://community.openai.com/t/shell-tool-in-responses-api-not-available-bug/1375776/9 "2026-03-11T14:26:54Z")
The issue appeared today again @wendyjiao @OpenAI_Support Experienced it with gpt-5.4-2026-03-05 (with tool-search-tool). Shell & Apply-Patch tools are not visible to the agent, only my custom function tools. LLM Output states that it does not have Shell or ApplyPatch Tool. Not even seeing Tool-Search-Tool. Though response log (properties section) shows all tools are present (respID: resp\_036dd8334816af9c0069b1716f53c0819abd03a41f0be5d38e ) ---
**Author:** ![mjasny](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a88e4f/32.png) [@mjasny](https://community.openai.com/u/mjasny)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2026, 3:04pm UTC](https://community.openai.com/t/shell-tool-in-responses-api-not-available-bug/1375776/10 "2026-03-11T15:04:16Z")
Also with older models like “gpt-5.3-codex” it is still not working reliably and all our agent workflows are broken! Please fix!! @wendyjiao @OpenAI_Support ---
**Author:** ![wendyjiao](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/openai1/user_avatar/community.openai.com/wendyjiao/32/511350_2.png) [@wendyjiao](https://community.openai.com/u/wendyjiao)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2026, 3:27pm UTC](https://community.openai.com/t/shell-tool-in-responses-api-not-available-bug/1375776/11 "2026-03-11T15:27:24Z")
thanks for reporting, taking a look ---
**Author:** ![wendyjiao](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/openai1/user_avatar/community.openai.com/wendyjiao/32/511350_2.png) [@wendyjiao](https://community.openai.com/u/wendyjiao)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2026, 4:00pm UTC](https://community.openai.com/t/shell-tool-in-responses-api-not-available-bug/1375776/12 "2026-03-11T16:00:38Z")
@jwehrstein could you share what your input looks like? couldn’t repro on my side. ---
**Author:** ![jwehrstein](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/c77e96/32.png) [@jwehrstein](https://community.openai.com/u/jwehrstein)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2026, 4:18pm UTC](https://community.openai.com/t/shell-tool-in-responses-api-not-available-bug/1375776/13 "2026-03-11T16:18:36Z")
Thanks for looking into it. You can e.g. check this multi-turn trace (send via Agents SDK today Mar 11, 2026, 1:43 PM UTC) with response ID resp\_036dd8334816af9c0069b1716f53c0819abd03a41f0be5d38e - i hope you have access to it. It is a 12k token input, containing several user/assistant interactions and a system prompt explaining all tools (including shell and apply-patch tool explanations similar to the github examples). Tools include two custom FunctionTools, and the OpenAI provided Shell-Tool, Apply-Patch Tool and ToolSearchTool. Can I assist you with additional information? ---
**Author:** ![\_j](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/openai1/user_avatar/community.openai.com/_j/32/766292_2.png) [@\_j](https://community.openai.com/u/_j)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2026, 10:50pm UTC](https://community.openai.com/t/shell-tool-in-responses-api-not-available-bug/1375776/14 "2026-03-12T22:50:24Z")
I checked hosted shell and shell function in the chat playground. ![image](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/openai1/original/4X/b/3/2/b325e1bdf37f916fb69c6f7b5e109d43b32e4ea6.png) Both seem to be working. I returned some stdout of the AI’s failure (to make it think it had Powershell), in the site’s offered template for the multiple function call return, and AI tried again. ![image](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/openai1/original/4X/b/7/2/b7229a5c43eb0b1a3c2a7abe43108deee63b8eed.png) ### Hosted, transmitted: ```json { "model": "gpt-5.2", "input": [ { "role": "developer", "content": [ { "type": "input_text", "text": "..." } ] }, { "role": "user", "content": [ { "type": "input_text", "text": "..." } ] } ], "tools": [ { "type": "shell", "environment": { "type": "container_auto" } } ], "text": { "format": { "type": "text" }, "verbosity": "medium" }, "reasoning": { "effort": "medium", "summary": "auto" }, "stream": true, "store": false, "include": [ "reasoning.encrypted_content", "web_search_call.action.sources" ] } ``` ### Local ```json { "model": "gpt-5.2", "input": [ { "role": "developer", "content": [ { "type": "input_text", "text": "..." } ] }, { "role": "user", "content": [ { "type": "input_text", "text": "..." } ] } ], "tools": [ { "type": "shell" } ], "text": { "format": { "type": "text" }, "verbosity": "medium" }, "reasoning": { "effort": "medium", "summary": "auto" }, "stream": true, "store": false, "include": [ "reasoning.encrypted_content", "web_search_call.action.sources" ] } ``` The problem might be persistence of another forum topic’s issue: developer functions along with shell or apply\_patch breaks the API. I added a custom function with plausible plaintext, also gave a try with patch function, and the AI still gave its “bad shell code” a retry, no error. * * * ## Moar ### GPT-5.2 ![image](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/openai1/original/4X/b/8/6/b86a8b028a697cf500f1aa94e1714a9847493299.png) ### GPT-5.4 ![image](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/openai1/original/4X/8/c/1/8c1dfb2b6907566d56ba25797ad0300d372ec5c0.png) All local == all functions ---
**Author:** ![VeitB](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/openai1/user_avatar/community.openai.com/veitb/32/712987_2.png) [@VeitB](https://community.openai.com/u/VeitB)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2026, 10:51pm UTC](https://community.openai.com/t/shell-tool-in-responses-api-not-available-bug/1375776/15 "2026-03-19T22:51:21Z")
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