Terminal.skills
Skills/openai-codex-cli
>

openai-codex-cli

You are an expert in OpenAI's Codex CLI, the open-source terminal-based coding agent that reads your codebase, generates and edits code, runs shell commands, and applies changes — all within your terminal. You help developers use Codex CLI for code generation, refactoring, debugging, and automation with configurable approval modes (suggest, auto-edit, full-auto) and sandboxed execution for safety.

#ai-coding#terminal#cli#autonomous-agent#openai#code-generation
terminal-skillsv1.0.0
Works with:claude-codeopenai-codexgemini-clicursor
Source

Usage

$
✓ Installed openai-codex-cli v1.0.0

Getting Started

  1. Install the skill using the command above
  2. Open your AI coding agent (Claude Code, Codex, Gemini CLI, or Cursor)
  3. Reference the skill in your prompt
  4. The AI will use the skill's capabilities automatically

Example Prompts

  • "Review the open pull requests and summarize what needs attention"
  • "Generate a changelog from the last 20 commits on the main branch"

Information

Version
1.0.0
Author
terminal-skills
Category
Developer Tools
License
Apache-2.0

Use Cases

→Set Up AI Terminal Coding Agents for Your Team

Documentation

You are an expert in OpenAI's Codex CLI, the open-source terminal-based coding agent that reads your codebase, generates and edits code, runs shell commands, and applies changes — all within your terminal. You help developers use Codex CLI for code generation, refactoring, debugging, and automation with configurable approval modes (suggest, auto-edit, full-auto) and sandboxed execution for safety.

Core Capabilities

Basic Usage

bash
# Install
npm install -g @openai/codex

# Interactive mode
codex

# One-shot with a prompt
codex "Add input validation to all API endpoints in src/routes/"

# With specific model
codex --model o4-mini "Refactor the auth module to use JWT refresh tokens"

# Approval modes
codex --approval-mode suggest "Fix the failing tests"     # Show changes, ask before applying
codex --approval-mode auto-edit "Update all imports"       # Auto-apply edits, ask for commands
codex --approval-mode full-auto "Run tests and fix failures"  # Full autonomous mode

Configuration

yaml
# ~/.codex/config.yaml
model: o4-mini                            # Default model
approval_mode: suggest                    # suggest | auto-edit | full-auto
providers:
  - name: openai
    api_key_env: OPENAI_API_KEY
  - name: anthropic                       # Works with Claude too
    api_key_env: ANTHROPIC_API_KEY
sandbox:
  enabled: true                           # Run commands in sandbox
  network: false                          # No network access in sandbox
  writable_paths:                         # Only these paths are writable
    - ./src
    - ./tests

Project Instructions

markdown
# codex.md — Project-level instructions (checked into repo)

## Project Overview
This is a Next.js 14 app with tRPC, Drizzle ORM, and Tailwind.

## Conventions
- Use server components by default
- All database queries go through src/server/db/queries/
- Tests use Vitest with MSW for API mocking
- Commit messages follow Conventional Commits

## Do NOT
- Modify the database schema without creating a migration
- Use `any` type in TypeScript
- Install new dependencies without asking

Common Workflows

bash
# Fix failing tests
codex "The test suite is failing. Read the error output, find the broken tests, and fix them."

# Add a feature
codex "Add a /api/webhooks/stripe endpoint that handles subscription.created and subscription.deleted events. Update the user's plan in the database."

# Refactor
codex "Migrate all useState + useEffect patterns in src/components/ to use TanStack Query for data fetching."

# Documentation
codex "Generate JSDoc comments for all exported functions in src/lib/"

# Security audit
codex "Review src/server/ for SQL injection, XSS, and authentication bypass vulnerabilities. Fix any issues found."

Installation

bash
npm install -g @openai/codex
# Requires: OPENAI_API_KEY environment variable
# Works with: GPT-4o, o4-mini, o3 models

Best Practices

  1. Start with suggest mode — Review changes before applying; switch to auto-edit once you trust the patterns
  2. codex.md for context — Add project-level instructions; Codex reads them automatically for every session
  3. Sandbox for safety — Enable sandboxing to prevent unintended file deletions or network calls
  4. Specific prompts — "Fix the pagination bug in posts.ts" beats "fix bugs"; include file paths and expected behavior
  5. Full-auto for CI — Use full-auto mode in CI pipelines for automated test fixing and code generation
  6. Writable paths — Restrict writable paths in sandbox config; Codex can only modify files you allow
  7. Multiple providers — Configure both OpenAI and Anthropic; switch models based on task complexity
  8. Git integration — Codex respects .gitignore; changes are uncommitted so you can review diffs before committing