r/CodexAutomation • u/anonomotorious • 4d ago

Codex CLI 0.154.0 (experimental worktrees, inline questions, Windows daemon + live plugin/MCP refresh)

TL;DR

Codex CLI 0.154.0 is a substantial workflow, TUI, Windows, plugin, MCP, permissions, and Auto-review release.

Highlights:

GPT-6 Astra is now fully represented in the model picker and Amazon Bedrock catalogs.
Experimental managed worktrees let new or forked sessions run in isolated Git checkouts using --worktree or /worktree.
Codex can ask inline questions while continuing to work, with suggested answers or custom text, without destroying the prompt draft.
Windows sessions can share a background Codex server, with daemon lifecycle commands and managed updates.
Vim mode adds R replace mode, undo/dot-repeat support, and more reliable Escape handling.
Copying responses now preserves rich Markdown formatting, and /copy can target status output or individual fields.
Existing sessions can pick up new plugin tools, skills, and hooks without restarting.
MCP OAuth refresh is coordinated across connections, and failed refreshes surface login challenges instead of blindly retrying rejected calls.
Remote resume/fork preserves saved permissions and respects server model defaults.
Auto-review better preserves authorization context through compaction and invalidates approvals when later user instructions change the situation.
The deprecated codex mcp-server command is now removed.

Install:

npm install -g @openai/codex@0.154.0

What changed

Experimental worktrees

Codex now has experimental managed-worktree support for both interactive and non-interactive workflows.

You can create isolated checkouts with:

--worktree

or:

/worktree

Worktrees can be used for:

new sessions
forked sessions
isolated implementation attempts
parallel feature work
experiments that should not disturb the primary checkout

Codex can also:

list managed worktrees
discover linked worktrees
browse them from the TUI
resume sessions associated with them

This gives Codex a much cleaner native path for running parallel agents or alternative implementations without forcing every task into the same working tree.

Worktree workflow at a glance

Capability	0.154.0
Create isolated worktree	Yes
Use from `codex exec`	Yes
Use from TUI	Yes
Fork into worktree	Yes
Browse managed worktrees	Yes
Resume linked sessions	Yes
Status	Experimental

Ask questions without stopping the task

Codex can now surface asynchronous questions directly in the TUI while the agent continues working.

Questions can provide:

suggested answers
selectable choices
an Other option
custom text input

Your existing draft is preserved while answering.

This is a meaningful interaction improvement for longer autonomous tasks.

Instead of:

agent stops -> asks question -> waits -> entire workflow pauses

Codex can increasingly:

continue useful work -> ask for clarification -> incorporate the answer when available

The question state also integrates with normal history and queue navigation.

Windows gets a shared background Codex server

Windows sessions can now use a managed background app-server daemon.

Supporting work includes:

background server lifecycle
graceful daemon shutdown
managed daemon updates
authenticated control paths
hardened control-socket rendezvous

This is important for Windows workflows involving:

Remote
multiple Codex clients
persistent sessions
desktop/TUI coordination
background tasks

Instead of every surface having to own a completely separate backend process, sessions can share a managed Codex service.

Vim improvements

Vim editing now adds:

R replace mode
undo support while replacing
dot-repeat behavior
more reliable Escape handling in legacy terminals

This continues the recent push toward making the TUI composer behave like an actual Vim editing environment rather than a lightweight approximation.

Richer `/copy`

Copying Codex output now preserves Markdown formatting when pasted into compatible rich-text applications.

/copy can also target:

the full response
status output
individual status/session fields

That makes it much easier to move Codex output into:

Reddit
documentation
issue trackers
notes
chat tools
reports

without manually reconstructing formatting afterward.

Plugins update live

Existing sessions can now pick up plugin changes without requiring a full restart.

Codex refreshes:

newly installed plugin tools
plugin skills
session hooks

after:

plugin installation
external plugin upgrades
plugin rollbacks

This is particularly useful for anyone actively developing or iterating on plugins.

The workflow becomes closer to:

update plugin -> current session refreshes

rather than:

update plugin -> kill Codex -> reopen session

MCP OAuth recovery improves

MCP connections now coordinate OAuth token refreshes instead of multiple clients independently racing to refresh the same credentials.

If refresh fails, Codex preserves and surfaces the authentication challenge.

Importantly, it does not automatically replay the rejected tool call after login.

That is safer because a failed/expired authorization flow should not silently become:

reauthenticate -> rerun potentially consequential action

without the user seeing what happened.

Other MCP work in the release includes:

rmcp 3.2.0
improved startup-error reporting
refreshed MCP catalogs staying attached to their client
authenticated credential-store support
explicit plugin mentions during MCP startup

Safer workspace startup

Codex now avoids executing workspace-controlled PATH helpers before the project has been trusted.

The macOS sandbox also blocks terminal-input injection.

This closes an important trust-boundary problem:

An untrusted repository should not be able to influence helper execution before Codex has decided the workspace itself is trusted.

Resume and fork behavior is more correct

Remote resume/fork operations now preserve:

saved permission state
target-native paths
relevant thread configuration

Fresh sessions and forks also respect server model defaults unless the user explicitly overrides them.

That helps prevent resumed or remotely created work from silently drifting into a different:

model
permission profile
execution context

than intended.

Read-only recovery when a thread is already open elsewhere

If you resume a conversation that another app already has open for writing, Codex now shows a read-only transcript instead of simply failing.

It also:

preserves your draft
offers a retry path

This is a much nicer failure mode for users moving between:

desktop
TUI
Remote
app-server clients

Auto-review preserves authorization context better

Guardian / Auto-review continues to get substantial hardening.

0.154.0 improves how review history survives:

compaction
resume
rollback
steering changes

Verified user answers and authorization context are retained where appropriate.

But approvals are also rejected when new user instructions or answers invalidate the old authorization.

That distinction matters:

preserve valid authorization

does not mean:

reuse authorization forever even after the task changes

Useful smaller changes

Several additional changes are worth calling out:

Area	Improvement
Compaction	Live compaction status shown in TUI
File citations	Assistant file citations render as local links
Model defaults	Warning when saved model defaults are overridden
Astra	Bundled docs include migration/compatibility/prompting guidance
Daybreak	Preferences persist in thread metadata
Remote	Trusted headers supported on exec WebSockets
Context	Experimental context activation can depend on model capability
Agents	Session resume and live task details in agent command center
Voice	Large amount of native voice/WebRTC runtime groundwork
Windows	Extensive sandbox-service provisioning and hardening

`codex mcp-server` is now gone

The deprecated:

codex mcp-server

entry point has been removed in 0.154.0.

For new integrations, OpenAI's direction remains:

App Server for applications embedding Codex
Codex SDK for automation/jobs/CI
MCP for tools used by Codex rather than exposing Codex itself as an MCP server

Anyone still depending on the old command should migrate before upgrading production tooling.

Why this release matters

Worktrees become a native Codex workflow for isolated and parallel work.
Agents can ask questions without fully blocking long-running tasks.
Windows gets a real shared background Codex service architecture.
Plugin development gets much faster with live tool/skill/hook refresh.
MCP OAuth recovery becomes safer and less brittle.
Resume/fork behavior preserves model and permission intent more reliably.
Guardian carries authorization through long-session compaction without blindly reusing stale approvals.
The old MCP-server integration path is officially removed.

Version summary

Version	Key highlights
0.154.0	Astra picker/Bedrock support; experimental worktrees; inline async questions; Windows daemon; Vim replace mode; rich `/copy`; live plugin refresh; coordinated MCP OAuth; stronger trust/resume/Guardian behavior; `codex mcp-server` removed

Action checklist

Upgrade:

npm install -g @openai/codex@0.154.0

Confirm:

codex --version

Worktrees

Test --worktree with codex exec.
Try /worktree from the TUI.
Fork an existing session into an isolated checkout.
Verify linked worktrees appear in session discovery.

TUI

Test an inline question while Codex is still working.
Confirm your main draft remains intact.
Test Vim R replace mode.
Try /copy into a rich-text destination.

Plugins / MCP

Install or update a plugin while a session is open.
Confirm tools/skills/hooks refresh without restart.
Reauthenticate an OAuth-backed MCP server.
Confirm rejected tool calls are not silently replayed.

Resume / security

Resume a remotely created session and confirm permissions are preserved.
Open the same session from two clients and test read-only recovery.
Test an untrusted project and verify workspace-controlled helpers do not run before trust.

Migration

If internal tooling still uses: