Codex in VS Code: the extension and the CLI

Which one you want

Installing the extension

code --install-extension openai.chatgpt

# Cursor and Windsurf ship their own CLI with the same flag
cursor --install-extension openai.chatgpt

What the extension is actually good at

Three things, and it is worth being blunt that everything else is better in the terminal.

Context you did not have to describe

Your open files and current selection are already context. In the terminal you would paste a path or a range and hope you got it right. For "why is this function slow" with the function on screen, that alone is the reason to use the extension.

Review that renders as a diff

Changes arrive as a summary plus a focused diff in the editor, with your own syntax highlighting, your own theme, and the ability to jump to any hunk. Terminal diffs are fine for twenty lines and painful for four hundred.

Handing a long task to the cloud

When a task turns out to be bigger than the sitting, the sidebar can move it to Codex cloud, which keeps running when you close the laptop. It works from a clone of your repository, so anything uncommitted is invisible to it. Commit or push first, or it will confidently solve the wrong version of the code.

Running the CLI in the integrated terminal

The integrated terminal is a real terminal, so the CLI needs nothing special. What follows is the setup that makes it pleasant rather than merely possible.

codex                          # interactive, cwd is the workspace root
codex -s read-only             # explore an unfamiliar repo safely
codex -C packages/api          # scope it to one package in a monorepo
codex resume                   # continue the previous session
codex exec "run the tests and fix what fails"   # non-interactive

A dedicated terminal profile

Give Codex its own profile and it gets a labelled tab instead of competing with your build output.

{
  "terminal.integrated.profiles.osx": {
    "codex": {
      "path": "codex",
      "icon": "sparkle"
    }
  },
  "terminal.integrated.profiles.linux": {
    "codex": {
      "path": "codex",
      "icon": "sparkle"
    }
  }
}

A task for the run you repeat

{
  "version": "2.0.0",
  "tasks": [
    {
      "label": "Codex: review staged diff",
      "type": "shell",
      "command": "codex exec -s read-only \"review the staged diff, P0 and P1 only\"",
      "presentation": { "reveal": "always", "panel": "dedicated" },
      "problemMatcher": []
    }
  ]
}

Other editors

In Cursor and Windsurf you now have two agents in one window. That is genuinely useful, and also the fastest way to lose track of which one made a change. Pick one per task rather than per file.

When it misbehaves

Questions people ask

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