The harness moved house — OpenAI's Agents API is US-only, and the sandbox you host does not move it

OpenAI put the Agents API into public beta on 10 September 2026 — the Codex harness behind one call, with durable sessions, automatic context compaction, recovery and subagents, and eleven ways to choose where code executes: nine named sandbox partners, OpenAI's own sandbox, or your own infrastructure. The obvious reading is that the sandbox choice is the control, and OpenAI's own documentation corrects it: the Agents API supports data residency only in the United States, is not eligible for Zero Data Retention, and "choosing a self-hosted sandbox does not make the Agents API ZDR-eligible" — because the sandbox is the execution plane while the session, the compacted context and the artifacts belong to the endpoint. The split runs inside one vendor at endpoint level: the data controls page puts /v1/responses on the ZDR-eligible list and /v1/agents beside /v1/assistants and /v1/threads on the list that retains application state regardless, and eu.api.openai.com processes in-region while the Agents API has no European region at all. So the change a team books as a refactor is a third-country transfer, and it cannot be undone by a setting: OpenAI states that European residency can only be configured for new Projects and that existing Projects cannot be updated after creation. The instrument underneath it is Commission Implementing Decision (EU) 2023/1795, still in force — while the Supreme Court decided Trump v. Slaughter on 29 June 2026, ending for-cause removal protection for FTC Commissioners, and the EDPB wrote to the Commission on 31 July 2026 asking it to assess the consequences. The practitioner move is an inventory of Projects rather than of keys: every Project with the region it was created in, and every agent key mapped to a Project.

Post

OpenAI just made the agent harness a product. It ships in one region, and it is not this one.

On 10 September the Agents API went into public beta — the Codex harness behind a single call. Sessions, orchestration, automatic context compaction, recovery, subagents. No extra fee; you pay for tokens and tools. You choose where code executes from eleven options: nine sandbox partners (Blaxel, Cloudflare, Daytona, DigitalOcean, E2B, Modal, Oracle, Runloop, Vercel), OpenAI's own sandbox, or your own infrastructure.

What this changes for anyone shipping agents in the EU:

  1. Read the docs, not the launch post. OpenAI's Agents API guide says the Agents API "currently supports data residency only in the United States", and that it is not eligible for Zero Data Retention.

  2. Self-hosting the sandbox does not fix it. Same page: "Choosing a self-hosted sandbox does not make the Agents API ZDR-eligible." The sandbox is the execution plane. The session, the compacted context and the artifacts are the control plane — and the control plane is the endpoint you called.

  3. The split is inside one vendor, at endpoint level. OpenAI's data controls page lists /v1/responses as ZDR-eligible and puts /v1/agents on the other list, beside /v1/assistants and /v1/threads: endpoints that hold application state regardless of the setting. eu.api.openai.com processes in-region. The Agents API has no European region at all.

  4. So the change everyone will book as a refactor is a transfer. And residency is decided when a Project is created — OpenAI's words: existing Projects cannot be updated to have European data residency after creation. The Project your prototype was born in is the one you are stuck with.

  5. The adequacy decision underneath it is 2023/1795. The US Supreme Court decided Trump v. Slaughter on 29 June 2026, ending for-cause removal protection for FTC commissioners; the EDPB wrote to the Commission on 31 July asking it to assess the consequences. The decision is still in force. "Still" is carrying weight there.

My Monday: list every Project in the API dashboard with the region it was created in, then map each agent key to a Project rather than to the org. Half a day. It tells you whether your next agent is a refactor or a transfer.

Which one is yours?

#DSGVO #AIAct #AgenticAI #EUTech #Compliance

First comment

Sources, in the order the argument uses them.

OpenAI's announcement, 10 September 2026 — public beta, the sandbox partner list, context compaction, subagents, and the no-extra-fee pricing: https://openai.com/index/introducing-the-agents-api/

The Agents API guide — the two sentences points 1 and 2 turn on: US-only data residency, and self-hosting not making the endpoint ZDR-eligible: https://developers.openai.com/api/docs/guides/agents-api/overview

OpenAI's data controls documentation — the ZDR-eligible list against the endpoints that retain application state regardless, and the eu.api.openai.com region: https://developers.openai.com/api/docs/guides/your-data

OpenAI on European data residency, February 2025 — in-region handling for API Projects, and the line that residency cannot be added to an existing Project: https://openai.com/index/introducing-data-residency-in-europe/

Trump v. Slaughter, No. 25-332, decided 29 June 2026 — the opinion itself: https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/25pdf/25-332_qn12.pdf

Commission Implementing Decision (EU) 2023/1795 — the adequacy decision that every US transfer here rests on: https://eur-lex.europa.eu/eli/dec_impl/2023/1795/oj

IAPP's report on the EDPB's 31 July 2026 letter to the Commission — independent supervision as an element of adequacy: https://iapp.org/news/a/edpb-requests-review-of-eu-us-data-privacy-framework-following-trump-v-slaughter

Cut for length: Article 30(1)(e) GDPR makes you name the third country in your record of processing. A transfer you booked as a refactor is one nobody wrote down.

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