feat: add user-defined safe commands configuration and approval logic #380 (#386)

This pull request adds a feature that allows users to configure
auto-approved commands via a `safeCommands` array in the configuration
file.

## Related Issue
#380 

## Changes
- Added loading and validation of the `safeCommands` array in
`src/utils/config.ts`
- Implemented auto-approval logic for commands matching `safeCommands`
prefixes in `src/approvals.ts`
- Added test cases in `src/tests/approvals.test.ts` to verify
`safeCommands` behavior
- Updated documentation with examples and explanations of the
configuration

README.md

@@ -288,6 +288,9 @@ Codex looks for config files in **`~/.codex/`**.
 model: o4-mini # Default model
 fullAutoErrorMode: ask-user # or ignore-and-continue
 notify: true # Enable desktop notifications for responses
+safeCommands:
+  - npm test # Automatically approve npm test
+  - yarn lint # Automatically approve yarn lint
 ```
 
 You can also define custom instructions:

codex-cli/src/approvals.ts

@@ -4,6 +4,7 @@ import {
   identify_files_added,
   identify_files_needed,
 } from "./utils/agent/apply-patch";
+import { loadConfig } from "./utils/config";
 import * as path from "path";
 import { parse } from "shell-quote";
 
@@ -296,6 +297,24 @@ export function isSafeCommand(
 ): SafeCommandReason | null {
   const [cmd0, cmd1, cmd2, cmd3] = command;
 
+  const config = loadConfig();
+  if (config.safeCommands && Array.isArray(config.safeCommands)) {
+    for (const safe of config.safeCommands) {
+      // safe: "npm test" → ["npm", "test"]
+      const safeArr = typeof safe === "string" ? safe.trim().split(/\s+/) : [];
+      if (
+        safeArr.length > 0 &&
+        safeArr.length <= command.length &&
+        safeArr.every((v, i) => v === command[i])
+      ) {
+        return {
+          reason: "User-defined safe command",
+          group: "User config",
+        };
+      }
+    }
+  }
+
   switch (cmd0) {
     case "cd":
       return {

codex-cli/src/utils/config.ts

@@ -56,6 +56,8 @@ export type StoredConfig = {
     saveHistory?: boolean;
     sensitivePatterns?: Array<string>;
   };
+  /** User-defined safe commands */
+  safeCommands?: Array<string>;
 };
 
 // Minimal config written on first run.  An *empty* model string ensures that
@@ -87,6 +89,8 @@ export type AppConfig = {
     saveHistory: boolean;
     sensitivePatterns: Array<string>;
   };
+  /** User-defined safe commands */
+  safeCommands?: Array<string>;
 };
 
 // ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
@@ -271,6 +275,7 @@ export const loadConfig = (
         : DEFAULT_AGENTIC_MODEL),
     instructions: combinedInstructions,
     notify: storedConfig.notify === true,
+    safeCommands: storedConfig.safeCommands ?? [],
   };
 
   // -----------------------------------------------------------------------
@@ -348,6 +353,13 @@ export const loadConfig = (
     };
   }
 
+  // Load user-defined safe commands
+  if (Array.isArray(storedConfig.safeCommands)) {
+    config.safeCommands = storedConfig.safeCommands.map(String);
+  } else {
+    config.safeCommands = [];
+  }
+
   return config;
 };
 
@@ -389,6 +401,10 @@ export const saveConfig = (
       sensitivePatterns: config.history.sensitivePatterns,
     };
   }
+  // Save: User-defined safe commands
+  if (config.safeCommands && config.safeCommands.length > 0) {
+    configToSave.safeCommands = config.safeCommands;
+  }
 
   if (ext === ".yaml" || ext === ".yml") {
     writeFileSync(targetPath, dumpYaml(configToSave), "utf-8");

codex-cli/tests/approvals.test.ts

@@ -1,7 +1,13 @@
 import type { SafetyAssessment } from "../src/approvals";
 
 import { canAutoApprove } from "../src/approvals";
-import { describe, test, expect } from "vitest";
+import { describe, test, expect, vi } from "vitest";
+
+vi.mock("../src/utils/config", () => ({
+  loadConfig: () => ({
+    safeCommands: ["npm test", "sl"],
+  }),
+}));
 
 describe("canAutoApprove()", () => {
   const env = {
@@ -89,4 +95,27 @@ describe("canAutoApprove()", () => {
 
     expect(check(["cargo", "build"])).toEqual({ type: "ask-user" });
   });
+
+  test("commands in safeCommands config should be safe", async () => {
+    expect(check(["npm", "test"])).toEqual({
+      type: "auto-approve",
+      reason: "User-defined safe command",
+      group: "User config",
+      runInSandbox: false,
+    });
+
+    expect(check(["sl"])).toEqual({
+      type: "auto-approve",
+      reason: "User-defined safe command",
+      group: "User config",
+      runInSandbox: false,
+    });
+
+    expect(check(["npm", "test", "--watch"])).toEqual({
+      type: "auto-approve",
+      reason: "User-defined safe command",
+      group: "User config",
+      runInSandbox: false,
+    });
+  });
 });