The Codex IDE extension has two settings layers:
- Codex settings control agent behavior shared with Codex CLI, including the
model, reasoning effort, permissions, sandbox, MCP servers, and
personalization. Codex reads these settings from
config.toml. - Editor settings control how the extension behaves inside VS Code and
compatible editors. These settings use
chatgpt.*keys in the editor’s settings system.
Open Codex settings
Select the gear icon in the Codex sidebar, then select Codex Settings. Use the settings panel for common agent controls, or select Open config.toml to edit the active configuration layer directly.
For the configuration layer order and common keys, see Config
basics. For every supported config.toml key, see the
Configuration reference.
Change an editor setting
To change a setting, follow these steps:
- Open your editor settings.
- Search for
@ext:openai.chatgpt,Codex, or the setting name. - Update the value.
The extension also honors VS Code’s built-in chat font settings for Codex chat surfaces.
Editor settings reference
| Setting | Default | Description |
|---|---|---|
chatgpt.commentCodeLensEnabled | true | Show CodeLens above TODO comments so Codex can address them. |
chatgpt.openOnStartup | false | Focus the Codex sidebar when the extension finishes starting. |
chatgpt.followUpQueueMode | queue | Choose whether messages sent during a run wait for the next run (queue) or steer the current run (steer). The extension treats the legacy interrupt value as steer. Press Cmd/Ctrl+Shift+Enter to invert the behavior for one message. |
chatgpt.composerEnterBehavior | enter | Choose whether Enter always sends (enter), Cmd/Ctrl+Enter sends multiline prompts (cmdIfMultiline), or the modifier is always required (cmdAlways). |
chatgpt.reviewDelivery | inline | Run /review in the current chat when possible (inline) or start a separate review chat (detached). |
chatgpt.localeOverride | Auto | Set the preferred language for the Codex UI. Leave empty to detect it automatically. |
chatgpt.runCodexInWindowsSubsystemForLinux | false | Windows only: Run Codex in WSL when WSL is available. Use this when your repositories and tooling live in WSL2 or when you need Linux-native tooling. Changing this setting reloads VS Code. |
chatgpt.cliExecutable | Unset | Development only: Set the path to the Codex CLI executable. You don’t need this setting unless you’re developing the Codex CLI; manually overriding the bundled executable can prevent parts of the extension from working. |
chat.fontSize | Editor default | Control chat text in the Codex sidebar, including chat content and the composer. |
chat.editor.fontSize | Editor default | Control code-rendered content in Codex chats, including code snippets and diffs. |
The chatgpt.* keys above belong to the IDE extension and don’t go in
config.toml. For shared agent settings, use Config
basics, Advanced configuration,
and the Configuration reference.