diff --git a/hypaware-core/plugins-workspace/codex/src/exchange-projector.js b/hypaware-core/plugins-workspace/codex/src/exchange-projector.js
index d9b078f..b0b8edd 100644
--- a/hypaware-core/plugins-workspace/codex/src/exchange-projector.js
+++ b/hypaware-core/plugins-workspace/codex/src/exchange-projector.js
@@ -98,7 +98,7 @@ export function createCodexExchangeProjector(opts = {}) {
         request_id: resolveRequestId(input),
         prompt_id: codexContext?.turn_id,
         model: resolveModel(reqBody, responseBody),
-        system_text: extractSystemText(reqBody.system),
+        system_text: extractSystemText(reqBody.system ?? reqBody.instructions),
         tools: /** @type {any} */ (reqBody.tools),
         attributes: projectionAttributes,
         messages,
@@ -701,7 +701,14 @@ function resolveModel(reqBody, responseBody) {
   return stringValue(reqBody.model) ?? stringValue(readKey(responseBody, 'model'))
 }
 
-/** @param {unknown} system */
+/**
+ * Accepts the Chat Completions `system` field (string or content blocks)
+ * or the Responses API top-level `instructions` string. Codex traffic
+ * uses the latter, so without it `system_text` is empty for every
+ * Responses-shaped exchange.
+ *
+ * @param {unknown} system
+ */
 function extractSystemText(system) {
   if (typeof system === 'string' && system.length > 0) return system
   if (Array.isArray(system)) {
diff --git a/test/plugins/codex-exchange-projector.test.js b/test/plugins/codex-exchange-projector.test.js
index b99abe4..e54f92b 100644
--- a/test/plugins/codex-exchange-projector.test.js
+++ b/test/plugins/codex-exchange-projector.test.js
@@ -104,6 +104,39 @@ test('OpenAI Responses with output_text in the body produces an assistant messag
   assert.deepEqual(projection.messages[1].content, [{ type: 'text', text: 'because' }])
 })
 
+test('OpenAI Responses captures top-level instructions into system_text', () => {
+  const projector = createCodexExchangeProjector({ env: {} })
+  const projection = /** @type {any} */ (projector.project(exchange({
+    path: '/backend-api/codex/responses',
+    provider: 'chatgpt',
+    request_body: JSON.stringify({
+      model: 'gpt-5',
+      instructions: 'You are Codex, a coding agent.',
+      input: [{ role: 'user', content: [{ type: 'input_text', text: 'how' }] }],
+    }),
+    response_body: JSON.stringify({ id: 'resp_1', output_text: 'because' }),
+  }), context()))
+
+  assert.equal(projection.system_text, 'You are Codex, a coding agent.')
+})
+
+test('OpenAI Chat system field still wins over instructions', () => {
+  const projector = createCodexExchangeProjector({ env: {} })
+  const projection = /** @type {any} */ (projector.project(exchange({
+    path: '/v1/chat/completions',
+    provider: 'openai',
+    request_body: JSON.stringify({
+      model: 'gpt-5',
+      system: 'chat-system',
+      instructions: 'responses-instructions',
+      messages: [{ role: 'user', content: 'hi' }],
+    }),
+    response_body: JSON.stringify({ choices: [{ message: { role: 'assistant', content: 'yo' } }] }),
+  }), context()))
+
+  assert.equal(projection.system_text, 'chat-system')
+})
+
 test('OpenAI Responses SSE deltas reconstruct the assistant body', () => {
   const projector = createCodexExchangeProjector({ env: {} })
   const projection = /** @type {any} */ (projector.project(exchange({