Codex CLI
OpenAI's open-source coding agent that runs in the terminal.
HN commenters use it daily as a main coding agent123, report solid results on hands-on tasks like CAD and PCB design456, and like that it is lighter on memory and battery than GUI apps.78 The most common complaint is a background auto-update daemon added in recent versions9101112, along with bugs that block long-running goals.1314
Why people recommend it
Real-task results · 3
Commenters report solid results on CAD, PCB design and performance work.
“I literally did this yesterday with solid results using Codex CLI”
“Highly recommend. Uses quite a lot of tokens.”
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“I was using codex cli with 5.4xhigh.”
Daily driver · 3
Several use it as their main agent, some preferring it over Claude Code or Cursor.
“still use Codex CLI as my main driver”
“These days I reach for Codex CLI more than Claude Code.”
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“Codex is both faster and better.”
Flexible setup · 3
Runs in containers, over SSH on a VM, or with OpenRouter models.
“For codex, I run the cli in my working dir prefixed with `CODEX_HOME=./codex-home codex`”
“I have a codex cli instance on a Debian VM connected to ChatGPT on iOS via SSH. That works since.. about a month and has pretty good UX.”
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“CodeX with OpenRouter”
Lightweight · 2
Uses less memory than GUI apps and doesn't drain the battery.
“Both are really good, they don't eat memory like the GUI apps.”
“I use Codex CLI now, it doesn't drain the battery.”
Open source · 2
Commenters note it has been open source from the start.
“These days I reach for Codex CLI more than Claude Code.”
“Looks like it's still a more-or-less-open-source product called Codex CLI.”
Caveats and dissent
Background daemon · 3
A persistent auto-update daemon outlives sessions and causes problems, prompting users to disable it.
“they installed this persistent nonsense”
“it is extremely annoying how many bugs Codex has. I basically can't trust it to execute on any goal”
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“It's managing the installation by itself not using existing package managers.”
Frequent bugs · 3
Bugs like broken mouse copy and failed context compaction block work.
“it is extremely annoying how many bugs Codex has. I basically can't trust it to execute on any goal”
“Recently they broke the most essential thing you can do in TUI”
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“codex cli compaction is garbage so I made my own custom implementation”
Windows issues · 2
Windows users report screen flashing and new console windows per command.
“most Windows users had to rollback/downgrade to an older version because of the annoying excessive terminal screen flashing issue”
“I don't know how and why they ruined this CLI with needless "features".”
Permissions · 2
Users report it acting outside granted permissions and call its permission model broken.
“one day Codex+GLM went ahead and did things in my ~/.dotfiles folder which I had granted only READ access for”
“Codex CLI permissions for example are extremely broken”
Token usage · 2
It can burn through a lot of tokens.
“Highly recommend. Uses quite a lot of tokens.”
“These days I reach for Codex CLI more than Claude Code.”
Harness quality · 2
Some find the harness bare bones or its system prompt limiting.
“Codex CLI is pretty bare bones in a bad way”
“it feels like its extensive system prompt cripples the agent a lot vs Kimi 2.7”
Often compared with
3 moved from Claude Code to Codex CLI
1 moved from Claude to Codex CLI
2 moved from Codex CLI to Pi
Who recommends it in their own words
From the makers not counted in the ranking
“If anyone wants Codex CLI containers with various MCP tools available, I built this”
Threads where it came up
- Codex CLI installs a persistent, self-updating background daemon by default 9 mentions
- Unrolling the Codex Agent Loop 6 mentions
- OpenAI are quietly adopting skills, now available in ChatGPT and Codex CLI 6 mentions
- Building more with GPT-5.1-Codex-Max 4 mentions
- ChatGPT Desktop (Codex Desktop) for Linux 3 mentions
- JSLinux Now Supports x86_64 3 mentions
Also written as OpenAI Codex CLI. Data: codex-cli.json. Quotes are verbatim; the verdict and theme labels are written by a model from these comments, and every clause links to its sources.
All comments 43
I submitted one of those originally and do think that incident is relevant. Not related, but it does qualify as a red flag generally for the company and their attention to their system designs with respect to security. Our read on the situation is too much eyes and brain free coding, that they assumed the ai redesign of the configuration system was sound. It took a couple of PRs and explanations for them to bring the
“Highly recommend. Uses quite a lot of tokens.”
“Recently they broke the most essential thing you can do in TUI”
“one day Codex+GLM went ahead and did things in my ~/.dotfiles folder which I had granted only READ access for”
“goal-breaking bugs I've run into”
“It's managing the installation by itself not using existing package managers.”
“I used codex the first time yesterday and quickly decided I need to sandbox it”
“I don't know how and why they ruined this CLI with needless "features".”
“it is extremely annoying how many bugs Codex has. I basically can't trust it to execute on any goal”
“they installed this persistent nonsense”
“There aren't any documented settings to disable this, but there is a feature flag it currently sits behind.”
“most Windows users had to rollback/downgrade to an older version because of the annoying excessive terminal screen flashing issue”
“The last time I used codex CLI it gave me a summary in Chinese lol (and the entire session was English)”
“Codex CLI permissions for example are extremely broken”
“codex cli compaction is garbage so I made my own custom implementation”
“it feels like its extensive system prompt cripples the agent a lot vs Kimi 2.7”
“At work I use Codex CLI with GPT 5.4 - it hits a sweet spot”
“send the worktree to codex cli for the review, then read the verdict”
“unexpected server response: HTTP 404”
“Codex CLI is pretty bare bones in a bad way”
“Looks like it's still a more-or-less-open-source product called Codex CLI.”
“/fork IIRC for forking.”
“Codex is both faster and better.”
“I prefer the CLI but the remote control with the phone app only works with the phone AFAIK, so that’s the only reason I use it.”
“I have a codex cli instance on a Debian VM connected to ChatGPT on iOS via SSH. That works since.. about a month and has pretty good UX.”
“Both are really good, they don't eat memory like the GUI apps.”
“Codex CLI, Claude Code, Qwen”
“codex e --skip-git-repo-check”
“it should be fairly trivial to open the codex cli in the project directory, ask it to do some analysis and planning -> save to md”
“when coding agents like Codex CLI and Claude Code got better, I started to port epy from Python to Rust.”
“recently switched to codex cli w/ vim keybinds”
“Download the Codex CLI client from https://github.com/openai/codex”
“have been using chatgpt pro from codex cli for months now”
“I've made a passive workaround: a pair of Codex CLI hooks”
“I use it via llamacpp and codex-cli.”
“CodeX with OpenRouter”
“still use Codex CLI as my main driver”
“I literally did this yesterday with solid results using Codex CLI”
“the AI coding agents I use daily — Claude Code, Codex CLI, Aider”
“How come the official codex install instructions say use npm install?”
“I use Codex CLI now, it doesn't drain the battery.”
“These days I reach for Codex CLI more than Claude Code.”
“I was using codex cli with 5.4xhigh.”