npm i -g @openai/codex
or brew install --cask codex

Codex CLI is a coding agent from OpenAI that runs locally on your computer.

If you want Codex in your code editor (VS Code, Cursor, Windsurf), install in your IDE
If you are looking for the cloud-based agent from OpenAI, Codex Web, go to chatgpt.com/codex

Install globally with your preferred package manager. If you use npm:

npm install -g @openai/codex

Alternatively, if you use Homebrew:

brew install --cask codex

Then simply run codex to get started:

codex

If you're running into upgrade issues with Homebrew, see the FAQ entry on brew upgrade codex.

Run codex and select Sign in with ChatGPT. We recommend signing into your ChatGPT account to use Codex as part of your Plus, Pro, Team, Edu, or Enterprise plan. Learn more about what's included in your ChatGPT plan.

You can also use Codex with an API key, but this requires additional setup. If you previously used an API key for usage-based billing, see the migration steps. If you're having trouble with login, please comment on this issue.

Codex can access MCP servers. To configure them, refer to the config docs.

Codex CLI supports a rich set of configuration options, with preferences stored in ~/.codex/config.toml. For full configuration options, see Configuration.

Codex can enforce your own rules-based execution policy before it runs shell commands.

1. Create a policy directory: mkdir -p ~/.codex/policy.
2. Create one or more .codexpolicy files in that folder. Codex automatically loads every .codexpolicy file in there on startup.
3. Write prefix_rule entries to describe the commands you want to allow, prompt, or block:

prefix_rule(
    pattern = ["git", ["push", "fetch"]],
    decision = "prompt",  # allow | prompt | forbidden
    match = [["git", "push", "origin", "main"]],  # examples that must match
    not_match = [["git", "status"]],              # examples that must not match
)

• pattern is a list of shell tokens, evaluated from left to right; wrap tokens in a nested list to express alternatives (e.g., match both push and fetch).
• decision sets the severity; Codex picks the strictest decision when multiple rules match (forbidden > prompt > allow).
• match and not_match act as (optional) unit tests. Codex validates them when it loads your policy, so you get feedback if an example has unexpected behavior.

In this example rule, if Codex wants to run commands with the prefix git push or git fetch, it will first ask for user approval.

Use execpolicy2 CLI to preview decisions for policy files:

cargo run -p codex-execpolicy2 -- check --policy ~/.codex/policy/default.codexpolicy git push origin main

Pass multiple --policy flags to test how several files combine. See the codex-rs/execpolicy2 README for a more detailed walkthrough of the available syntax.

• Getting started
  • CLI usage
  • Slash Commands
  • Running with a prompt as input
  • Example prompts
  • Custom prompts
  • Memory with AGENTS.md
• Configuration
  • Example config
• Sandbox & approvals
• Authentication
  • Auth methods
  • Login on a "Headless" machine
• Automating Codex
  • GitHub Action
  • TypeScript SDK
  • Non-interactive mode (codex exec)
• Advanced
  • Tracing / verbose logging
  • Model Context Protocol (MCP)
• Zero data retention (ZDR)
• Contributing
• Install & build
  • System Requirements
  • DotSlash
  • Build from source
• FAQ
• Open source fund

This repository is licensed under the Apache-2.0 License.