compound-engineering-plugin-mirror/docs/specs/codex.md

Codex Spec (Config, Prompts, Skills, Subagents, MCP)

Last verified: 2026-04-18

Primary sources

https://developers.openai.com/codex/config-basic
https://developers.openai.com/codex/config-advanced
https://developers.openai.com/codex/custom-prompts
https://developers.openai.com/codex/skills
https://developers.openai.com/codex/skills/create-skill
https://developers.openai.com/codex/subagents
https://developers.openai.com/codex/guides/agents-md
https://developers.openai.com/codex/mcp

Config location and precedence

• Codex reads local settings from ~/.codex/config.toml, shared by the CLI and IDE extension. citeturn2view0
• Configuration precedence is: CLI flags → profile values → root-level values in config.toml → built-in defaults. citeturn2view0
• Codex stores local state under CODEX_HOME (defaults to ~/.codex) and includes config.toml there. citeturn4view0

Profiles and providers

• Profiles are defined under [profiles.<name>] and selected with codex --profile <name>. citeturn4view0
• A top-level profile = "<name>" sets the default profile; CLI flags can override it. citeturn4view0
• Profiles are experimental and not supported in the IDE extension. citeturn4view0
• Custom model providers can be defined with base URL, wire API, and optional headers, then referenced via model_provider. citeturn4view0

Custom prompts (slash commands)

• Custom prompts are Markdown files stored under ~/.codex/prompts/. citeturn3view0
• Custom prompts require explicit invocation and aren’t shared through the repository; use skills to share or auto-invoke. citeturn3view0
• Prompts are invoked as /prompts:<name> in the slash command UI. citeturn3view0
• Prompt front matter supports description: and argument-hint:. citeturn3view0turn2view3
• Prompt arguments support $1–$9, $ARGUMENTS, and named placeholders like $FILE provided as KEY=value. citeturn2view3
• Codex ignores non-Markdown files in the prompts directory. citeturn2view3

AGENTS.md instructions

• Codex reads AGENTS.md files before doing any work and builds a combined instruction chain. citeturn3view1
• Discovery order: global (~/.codex, using AGENTS.override.md then AGENTS.md) then project directory traversal from repo root to CWD, with override > AGENTS > fallback names. citeturn3view1
• Codex concatenates files from root down; files closer to the working directory appear later and override earlier guidance. citeturn3view1

Skills (Agent Skills)

• A skill is a folder containing SKILL.md plus optional scripts/, references/, and assets/. citeturn3view3turn3view4
• SKILL.md uses YAML front matter and requires name and description. citeturn3view3turn3view4
• Required fields are single-line with length limits (name ≤ 100 chars, description ≤ 500 chars). citeturn3view4
• At startup, Codex loads only each skill’s name/description; full content is injected when invoked. citeturn3view3turn3view4
• Skills can be repo-scoped in .agents/skills/ and are discovered from the current working directory up to the repository root. User-scoped skills live in ~/.agents/skills/. citeturn1view1turn1view4
• Inference: some existing tooling and user setups still use .codex/skills/ and ~/.codex/skills/ as compatibility paths, but those locations are not documented in the current OpenAI Codex skills docs linked above.
• Compound Engineering should avoid ~/.agents/skills for managed installs because that shared root can shadow Copilot's native plugin skills. Use the Codex-specific compatibility root ~/.codex/skills/compound-engineering/<skill-name>/SKILL.md for CE Codex skills, and track generated files with a CE manifest.
• Codex also supports admin-scoped skills in /etc/codex/skills plus built-in system skills bundled with Codex. citeturn1view4
• Skills can be invoked explicitly using /skills or $skill-name. citeturn3view3

Subagents and custom agents

• Codex subagent workflows are enabled by default in current releases.
• Codex only spawns subagents when explicitly asked.
• Custom agent files are standalone TOML files under ~/.codex/agents/ for personal agents or .codex/agents/ for project-scoped agents.
• Each TOML file defines one custom agent. Required fields:
  • name
  • description
  • developer_instructions
• Optional fields can include nickname_candidates, model, model_reasoning_effort, sandbox_mode, mcp_servers, and skills.config.
• The TOML name field is the source of truth; matching the filename to the agent name is only a convention.
• Current CE output still converts Claude Markdown agents into generated Codex skills. A future Codex migration can convert them to flat custom-agent TOML files once orchestration references and cleanup semantics are updated together.
• If CE generates Codex custom agents, those files are Codex-only artifacts and belong under ~/.codex/agents, not ~/.agents/skills.
• For future generated TOML agents, use CE-prefixed agent names, preferably derived from the source category and agent name such as ce-review-correctness-reviewer or ce-research-repo-research-analyst. Current docs describe one direct TOML file per agent under ~/.codex/agents; do not assume nested agent directories are discovered.

MCP (Model Context Protocol)

• MCP configuration lives in ~/.codex/config.toml and is shared by the CLI and IDE extension. citeturn3view2turn3view5
• Each server is configured under [mcp_servers.<server-name>]. citeturn3view5
• STDIO servers support command (required), args, env, env_vars, and cwd. citeturn3view5
• Streamable HTTP servers support url (required), bearer_token_env_var, http_headers, and env_http_headers. citeturn3view5