Slash commands in Codex CLI

Slash commands give you fast, keyboard-first control over Codex. Type / in the composer to open the slash popup, choose a command, and Codex will perform actions such as switching models, adjusting permissions, or summarizing long chats without leaving the terminal.

This guide shows you how to:

• Find the right built-in slash command for a task
• Steer an active session with commands like /model, /fast, /personality, /permissions, /approve, /raw, /agent, and /status

Built-in slash commands

Codex ships with the following commands. Open the slash popup and start typing the command name to filter the list.

When a chat is already running, you can type a slash command and press Tab to queue it for the next turn. Codex parses queued slash commands when they run, so command menus and errors appear after the current turn finishes. Slash completion still works before you queue the command.

/quit and /exit both exit the CLI. Use them only after you have saved or committed any important work.

Use /permissions to adjust what Codex can do without asking first. Use /approve only when you need to retry a recent action that automatic review denied.

Control your session with slash commands

The following workflows keep your session on track without restarting Codex.

Set the active model with /model

1. Start Codex and open the composer.
2. Type /model and press Enter.
3. Choose a model such as gpt-5.6-luna or gpt-5.6-terra from the popup.

Expected: Codex confirms the new model in the transcript. Run /status to verify the change.

Toggle Fast mode with /fast

1. Type /fast to turn the current model’s Fast service tier on.
2. Type /fast again to turn it off.

Expected: Codex toggles the tier and saves the selection. In the TUI footer, you can also show a Fast mode status-line item with /statusline.

Fast tier commands are catalog-driven. If the current model doesn’t advertise a Fast tier, Codex won’t show /fast.

Set a communication style with /personality

Use /personality to change how Codex communicates without rewriting your prompt.

1. In an active chat, type /personality and press Enter.
2. Choose a style from the popup.

Expected: Codex confirms the new style in the transcript and uses it for later responses in the chat.

Codex supports friendly, pragmatic, and none personalities. Use none to disable personality instructions.

If the active model doesn’t support personality-specific instructions, Codex hides this command.

Switch to plan mode with /plan

1. Type /plan and press Enter to switch the active chat into plan mode.
2. Optional: provide inline prompt text (for example, /plan Propose a migration plan for this service).
3. You can paste content or attach images while using inline /plan arguments.

Expected: Codex enters plan mode and uses your optional inline prompt as the first planning request.

While Codex is already working, /plan is temporarily unavailable.

Set or view a task goal with /goal

1. Type /goal <objective> to set the goal, for example /goal Finish the migration and keep tests green.
2. Type /goal to view the current goal.
3. Use /goal edit to revise the objective. Use /goal pause, /goal resume, or /goal clear to pause, resume, or remove it.

Expected: Codex keeps the goal attached to the active chat while work continues.

Goal objectives must be non-empty and at most 4,000 characters. For longer instructions, put the details in a file and point the goal at that file.

Toggle experimental features with /experimental

1. Type /experimental and press Enter.
2. Toggle the features you want (for example, Network proxy or Prevent sleep while running), then restart Codex if the prompt asks you to.

Expected: Codex saves your feature choices to config and applies them on restart.

Approve an auto review denial with /approve

Use /approve when the automatic reviewer denied a recent action and you want Codex to retry it once.

1. Type /approve.
2. Confirm the retry when Codex shows the relevant denied action.

Expected: Codex retries that denied action once under the current session policy.

Configure memories with /memories

1. Type /memories.
2. Choose whether Codex should use existing memories, generate new memories, or keep memory behavior disabled.

Expected: Codex updates the relevant memory settings for future sessions.

Use skills with /skills

1. Type /skills.
2. Pick the skill you want Codex to apply.

Expected: Codex inserts the selected skill context so the next request follows that skill’s instructions.

Import Claude Code or Cursor configuration with /import

1. Type /import.
2. Choose Claude Code or Cursor.
3. Select the setup, project files, or recent chats you want to migrate.

Expected: Codex opens the external-agent import picker and imports the selected supported artifacts into Codex configuration and local files. Session discovery includes up to 50 chats from the last 30 days.

Run /import from a local TUI session. It’s unavailable while a task is running, in remote sessions, and while connected to the local app-server daemon.

For the desktop app workflow and supported artifact types, see Import from another agent.

Clear the terminal and start a new chat with /clear

1. Type /clear and press Enter.

Expected: Codex clears the terminal, resets the visible transcript, and starts a fresh chat in the same CLI session.

To name the new chat as you create it, run /clear release prep.

Unlike Ctrl+L, /clear starts a new chat.

Ctrl+L only clears the terminal view and keeps the current chat. Codex disables both actions while a task is in progress.

Archive the current session with /archive

1. Type /archive and press Enter.
2. Confirm that you want to archive the current session and exit Codex.

Expected: Codex archives the current session and closes the interactive TUI. Codex keeps the session transcript stored locally; restore it later with codex unarchive <SESSION>.

/archive is unavailable while a task is running.

Delete the current session with /delete

1. Type /delete and press Enter.
2. Confirm that you want to delete the current session and exit Codex.

Expected: Codex deletes the current session transcript and closes the interactive TUI. Deletion is permanent and also removes spawned descendant sessions.

/delete is unavailable while a chat is running or in a side chat.

Update permissions with /permissions

1. Type /permissions and press Enter.
2. Select the approval preset that matches your comfort level, for example Auto for hands-off runs or Read Only to review edits. When named permission profiles are active, the picker also shows configured custom profiles and their descriptions.

Expected: Codex announces the updated policy. Future actions respect the updated approval mode until you change it again.

Include IDE context with /ide

1. Type /ide.
2. Add optional inline text if you want to explain what Codex should do with the current IDE selection or open files.

Expected: Codex includes available IDE context in the next prompt.

Toggle Vim mode with /vim

1. Type /vim.
2. Continue editing in the composer.

Expected: Codex toggles composer Vim mode for the current session. To make Vim mode the default for new sessions, set tui.vim_mode_default = true in config.toml.

Set up the elevated Windows sandbox with /setup-default-sandbox

This command appears only on Windows when Codex is using the degraded restricted-token sandbox.

1. Type /setup-default-sandbox.
2. Follow the administrator setup flow.

Expected: Codex configures the elevated Windows sandbox and selects the corresponding automatic approval preset.

Copy the latest response with /copy

1. Type /copy and press Enter.

Expected: Codex copies the latest completed Codex output to your clipboard.

If a turn is still running, /copy uses the latest completed output instead of the in-progress response. The command is unavailable before the first completed Codex output and immediately after a rollback.

You can also press Ctrl+O from the main TUI to copy the latest completed response without opening the slash command menu.

Toggle raw scrollback with /raw

1. Type /raw, /raw on, or /raw off.

Expected: Codex toggles raw scrollback mode, which makes terminal selection and copying more direct. You can also use the default Alt+R binding or persist the default with tui.raw_output_mode = true.

Grant sandbox read access with /sandbox-add-read-dir

This command is available only when running the CLI natively on Windows.

1. Type /sandbox-add-read-dir C:\absolute\directory\path and press Enter.
2. Confirm the path is an existing absolute directory.

Expected: Codex refreshes the Windows sandbox policy and grants read access to that directory for later commands that run in the sandbox.

Inspect the session with /status

1. In any chat, type /status.
2. Review the output for the active model, approval policy, writable roots, and current token usage. When the TUI connects remotely, the output also shows the remote address and the server version.

Expected: Codex prints a summary confirming that it’s operating where you expect.

View account usage with /usage

1. Type /usage to open the usage menu.
2. Choose whether to show token activity or redeem an available earned reset.
3. To open token activity directly, type /usage daily, /usage weekly, or /usage cumulative.

Expected: Codex opens usage actions or shows account token activity for the selected view. If the session doesn’t have Codex service account auth, Codex shows a sign-in requirement.

Inspect config layers with /debug-config

1. Type /debug-config.
2. Review the output for config layer order (lowest precedence first), on/off state, and policy sources.

Expected: Codex prints layer diagnostics plus policy details such as allowed_approval_policies, allowed_sandbox_modes, mcp_servers, rules, enforce_residency, and experimental_network when configured.

Use this output to debug why an effective setting differs from config.toml.

Configure footer items with /statusline

1. Type /statusline.
2. Use the picker to toggle and reorder items, then confirm.

Expected: The footer status line updates immediately and persists to tui.status_line in config.toml.

Available status-line items include model, model+reasoning, context stats, rate limits, git branch, token counters, session id, current directory/project root, and Codex version.

Configure terminal title items with /title

1. Type /title.
2. Use the picker to toggle and reorder items, then confirm.

Expected: The terminal window or tab title updates immediately and persists to tui.terminal_title in config.toml.

Available title items include app name, project, spinner, status, thread, git branch, model, and task progress.

Choose a syntax theme with /theme

1. Type /theme.
2. Preview a theme from the picker, then confirm.

Expected: Codex updates syntax highlighting and persists the choice to tui.theme in config.toml.

Choose a terminal pet with /pets

1. Type /pets (or /pet) to open the pet picker.
2. Choose a built-in or custom pet, or turn pets off.

Expected: Codex displays the selected ambient pet in supported terminals and persists the selection. You can also type /pets off to hide it.

Remap TUI shortcuts with /keymap

Use /keymap to inspect, update, and persist keyboard shortcut bindings for the TUI.

1. Type /keymap.
2. Pick the shortcut context and action you want to change.
3. Enter the new binding or remove the existing one.

Expected: Codex updates the active keymap and writes the custom binding to tui.keymap in config.toml.

Key bindings use names such as ctrl-a, shift-enter, and page-down. Context-specific bindings override tui.keymap.global; an empty binding list unbinds the action.

Check background terminals with /ps

1. Type /ps.
2. Review the list of background terminals and their status.

Expected: Codex shows each background terminal’s command plus up to three recent, non-empty output lines so you can gauge progress at a glance.

Background terminals appear when unified_exec is in use; otherwise, the list may be empty.

Stop background terminals with /stop

1. Type /stop.
2. Confirm if Codex asks before stopping the listed terminals.

Expected: Codex stops all background terminals for the current session. /clean is still available as an alias for /stop.

Keep transcripts lean with /compact

1. After a long exchange, type /compact.
2. Confirm when Codex offers to summarize the chat so far.

Expected: Codex replaces earlier turns with a concise summary, freeing context while keeping critical details.

Review changes with /diff

1. Type /diff to inspect the Git diff.
2. Scroll through the output inside the CLI to review edits and added files.

Expected: Codex shows changes you’ve staged, changes you haven’t staged yet, and files Git hasn’t started tracking, so you can decide what to keep.

Highlight files with /mention

1. Type /mention followed by a path, for example /mention src/lib/api.ts.
2. Select the matching result from the popup.

Expected: Codex adds the file to the chat, ensuring follow-up turns reference it directly.

Start a new chat with /new

1. Type /new and press Enter.

Expected: Codex starts a fresh chat in the same CLI session, so you can switch chats without leaving your terminal.

To name the new chat as you create it, run /new bug bash.

Unlike /clear, /new doesn’t clear the current terminal view first.

Rename the current chat with /rename

1. Type /rename <name>, or type /rename to open the naming prompt.
2. Enter a short name that will help you find the chat later.

Expected: Codex updates the saved chat name without changing its transcript.

Resume a saved chat with /resume

1. Type /resume and press Enter.
2. Choose the session you want from the saved-session picker.

Expected: Codex reloads the selected chat’s transcript so you can pick up where you left off, keeping the original history intact.

Fork the current chat with /fork

1. Type /fork and press Enter.

Expected: Codex clones the current chat into a new chat with a fresh ID, leaving the original transcript untouched so you can explore an alternative approach in parallel.

If you need to fork a saved session instead of the current one, run codex fork in your terminal to open the session picker.

Continue in the desktop app with /app

On macOS and Windows, type /app to open the current session in the ChatGPT desktop app. If the app isn’t installed or running, Codex shows an error asking you to install or launch it.

Expected: The desktop app opens the same saved chat so you can continue there.

Start a side chat with /side

Use /side to start an ephemeral fork from the current chat without switching away from the main chat.

1. Type /side to open a side chat.
2. Optionally add inline text, for example /side Check whether this plan has an obvious risk.
3. Return to the parent chat after the focused detour finishes.

Expected: Codex opens a side chat whose transcript is separate from the parent chat. While you are in side mode, the TUI continues to show the parent chat’s status so you can see whether the main chat is still running.

/side is unavailable inside another side chat and during review mode.

Generate AGENTS.md with /init

1. Run /init in the directory where you want Codex to look for persistent instructions.
2. Review the generated AGENTS.md, then edit it to match your repository conventions.

Expected: Codex creates an AGENTS.md scaffold you can refine and commit for future sessions.

Ask for a working tree review with /review

1. Type /review.
2. Follow up with /diff if you want to inspect the exact file changes.

Expected: Codex summarizes issues it finds in your working tree, focusing on behavior changes and missing tests. It uses the current session model unless you set review_model in config.toml.

List MCP tools with /mcp

1. Type /mcp.
2. Review the list to confirm which MCP servers and tools are available.

Expected: You see the configured Model Context Protocol (MCP) tools Codex can call in this session.

Use /mcp verbose to include detailed server diagnostics. If you pass anything other than verbose, Codex shows the command usage.

Browse apps with /apps

1. Type /apps.
2. Pick an app from the list.

Expected: Codex inserts the app mention into the composer as $app-slug, so you can immediately ask Codex to use it.

Browse plugins with /plugins

1. Type /plugins.
2. Choose a marketplace tab, then pick a plugin to inspect its capabilities or available actions.

Expected: Codex opens the plugin browser so you can review installed plugins, discoverable plugins that your configuration allows, and installed plugin state. Press Space on an installed plugin to toggle its enabled state.

View and manage lifecycle hooks with /hooks

1. Type /hooks.
2. Choose a hook event to inspect the matching handlers.
3. Trust, disable, or re-enable non-managed hooks as needed.

Expected: Codex opens the hook browser so you can review configured lifecycle hooks. Managed hooks appear as managed and can’t be disabled from the user hook browser.

Switch agent threads with /agent

1. Type /agent or /subagents and press Enter.
2. Select the thread you want from the picker.

Expected: Codex switches the active thread so you can inspect or continue that agent’s work.

Send feedback with /feedback

1. Type /feedback and press Enter.
2. Follow the prompts to include logs or diagnostics.

Expected: Codex collects the requested diagnostics and submits them to the maintainers.

Sign out with /logout

1. Type /logout and press Enter.

Expected: Codex clears local credentials for the current user session.

Exit the CLI with /quit or /exit

1. Type /quit (or /exit) and press Enter.

Expected: Codex exits immediately. Save or commit any important work first.