## Summary - launch shell tool processes in their own process group so Codex owns the full tree - on timeout or ctrl-c, send SIGKILL to the process group before terminating the tracked child - document that the default shell/unified_exec timeout remains 1000 ms ## Original Bug Long-lived shell tool commands hang indefinitely because the timeout handler only terminated the direct child process; any grandchildren it spawned kept running and held the PTY open, preventing Codex from regaining control. ## Repro Original Bug Install next.js and run `next dev` (which is a long-running shell process with children). On openai:main, it will cause the agent to permanently get stuck here until human intervention. On this branch, this command will be terminated successfully after timeout_ms which will unblock the agent. This is a critical fix for unmonitored / lightly monitored agents that don't have immediate human observation to unblock them. --------- Co-authored-by: Michael Bolin <mbolin@openai.com> Co-authored-by: Michael Bolin <bolinfest@gmail.com>
npm i -g @openai/codex
or brew install --cask codex
Codex CLI is a coding agent from OpenAI that runs locally on your computer.
If you want Codex in your code editor (VS Code, Cursor, Windsurf), install in your IDE
If you are looking for the cloud-based agent from OpenAI, Codex Web, go to chatgpt.com/codex
Quickstart
Installing and running Codex CLI
Install globally with your preferred package manager. If you use npm:
npm install -g @openai/codex
Alternatively, if you use Homebrew:
brew install --cask codex
Then simply run codex to get started:
codex
If you're running into upgrade issues with Homebrew, see the FAQ entry on brew upgrade codex.
You can also go to the latest GitHub Release and download the appropriate binary for your platform.
Each GitHub Release contains many executables, but in practice, you likely want one of these:
- macOS
- Apple Silicon/arm64:
codex-aarch64-apple-darwin.tar.gz - x86_64 (older Mac hardware):
codex-x86_64-apple-darwin.tar.gz
- Apple Silicon/arm64:
- Linux
- x86_64:
codex-x86_64-unknown-linux-musl.tar.gz - arm64:
codex-aarch64-unknown-linux-musl.tar.gz
- x86_64:
Each archive contains a single entry with the platform baked into the name (e.g., codex-x86_64-unknown-linux-musl), so you likely want to rename it to codex after extracting it.
Using Codex with your ChatGPT plan
Run codex and select Sign in with ChatGPT. We recommend signing into your ChatGPT account to use Codex as part of your Plus, Pro, Team, Edu, or Enterprise plan. Learn more about what's included in your ChatGPT plan.
You can also use Codex with an API key, but this requires additional setup. If you previously used an API key for usage-based billing, see the migration steps. If you're having trouble with login, please comment on this issue.
Model Context Protocol (MCP)
Codex can access MCP servers. To configure them, refer to the config docs.
Configuration
Codex CLI supports a rich set of configuration options, with preferences stored in ~/.codex/config.toml. For full configuration options, see Configuration.
Docs & FAQ
- Getting started
- Configuration
- Sandbox & approvals
- Authentication
- Automating Codex
- Advanced
- Zero data retention (ZDR)
- Contributing
- Install & build
- FAQ
- Open source fund
License
This repository is licensed under the Apache-2.0 License.

