AI AGENTS

OpenAI Codex CLI

by OpenAI

agentsource:help.openai.comcoding-agentdeveloper-toolsterminalcliopen-sourceopenaicodex

Overview

OpenAI’s lightweight coding agent for the terminal, designed to work locally with a developer’s codebase.

Details

OpenAI Codex CLI is described by OpenAI as a lightweight coding agent for the terminal. The OpenAI Developers documentation says Codex CLI can read, change, and run code in a selected directory and identifies it as open source. OpenAI’s Codex product page positions Codex as an AI coding partner for building and shipping with AI, including terminal workflows through Codex CLI. The project is published under OpenAI’s GitHub organization with separate docs in the repository.

When to Use

Use when you want an OpenAI coding agent in a local terminal workflow against a selected code directory. Use when evaluating open-source coding-agent options that can read, modify, and run code in a developer workspace. Use when comparing OpenAI’s Codex product experience across hosted/product-page workflows and local CLI workflows.

Getting Started

Review the OpenAI Developers Codex CLI page for the current usage guidance.
Inspect the openai/codex GitHub repository and its docs directory before adopting it in a project.
Try it first in a selected directory where you are comfortable allowing an agent to read, change, and run code.
Check OpenAI’s Codex product page and help article for current product positioning and support information.

Key Features

•Terminal-based coding agent from OpenAI.
•Designed to work locally with a developer’s codebase.
•Can read, change, and run code in a selected directory, according to OpenAI Developers documentation.
•Open-source project published in the OpenAI GitHub organization.
•Documented through OpenAI Developers pages and the repository docs.

Capabilities

•terminal coding agent
•local codebase interaction
•code reading
•code modification
•code execution in a selected directory

Last updated Jul 1, 2026