Improve explanation of how the shell handles quotes in config.md (#3169)

* Clarify how the shell's handling of quotes affects the interpretation
of TOML values in `--config`/`-c`
* Provide examples of the right way to pass complex TOML values
* The previous explanation incorrectly demonstrated how to pass TOML
values to `--config`/`-c` (misunderstanding how the shell’s handling of
quotes affects things) and would result in invalid invocations of
`codex`.
This commit is contained in:
Robert
2025-09-08 18:58:25 -04:00
committed by GitHub
parent 5eaaf307e1
commit 79cbd2ab1b

View File

@@ -6,9 +6,12 @@ Codex supports several mechanisms for setting config values:
- Config-specific command-line flags, such as `--model o3` (highest precedence). - Config-specific command-line flags, such as `--model o3` (highest precedence).
- A generic `-c`/`--config` flag that takes a `key=value` pair, such as `--config model="o3"`. - A generic `-c`/`--config` flag that takes a `key=value` pair, such as `--config model="o3"`.
- The key can contain dots to set a value deeper than the root, e.g. `--config model_providers.openai.wire_api="chat"`. - The key can contain dots to set a value deeper than the root, e.g. `--config model_providers.openai.wire_api="chat"`.
- Values can contain objects, such as `--config shell_environment_policy.include_only=["PATH", "HOME", "USER"]`. - For consistency with `config.toml`, values are a string in TOML format rather than JSON format, so use `key='{a = 1, b = 2}'` rather than `key='{"a": 1, "b": 2}'`.
- For consistency with `config.toml`, values are in TOML format rather than JSON format, so use `{a = 1, b = 2}` rather than `{"a": 1, "b": 2}`. - The quotes around the value are necessary, as without them your shell would split the config argument on spaces, resulting in `codex` receiving `-c key={a` with (invalid) additional arguments `=`, `1,`, `b`, `=`, `2}`.
- If `value` cannot be parsed as a valid TOML value, it is treated as a string value. This means that both `-c model="o3"` and `-c model=o3` are equivalent. - Values can contain any TOML object, such as `--config shell_environment_policy.include_only='["PATH", "HOME", "USER"]'`.
- If `value` cannot be parsed as a valid TOML value, it is treated as a string value. This means that `-c model='"o3"'` and `-c model=o3` are equivalent.
- In the first case, the value is the TOML string `"o3"`, while in the second the value is `o3`, which is not valid TOML and therefore treated as the TOML string `"o3"`.
- Because quotes are interpreted by one's shell, `-c key="true"` will be correctly interpreted in TOML as `key = true` (a boolean) and not `key = "true"` (a string). If for some reason you needed the string `"true"`, you would need to use `-c key='"true"'` (note the two sets of quotes).
- The `$CODEX_HOME/config.toml` configuration file where the `CODEX_HOME` environment value defaults to `~/.codex`. (Note `CODEX_HOME` will also be where logs and other Codex-related information are stored.) - The `$CODEX_HOME/config.toml` configuration file where the `CODEX_HOME` environment value defaults to `~/.codex`. (Note `CODEX_HOME` will also be where logs and other Codex-related information are stored.)
Both the `--config` flag and the `config.toml` file support the following options: Both the `--config` flag and the `config.toml` file support the following options: