npm i -g @ixe1/codexel
brew install --cask Ixe1/tap/codexel
or download from GitHub Releases

Codexel is an unofficial community fork of OpenAI Codex CLI (a local coding agent).
This repository is community-maintained and is not an official OpenAI project.

IDE extension: developers.openai.com/codex/ide
Hosted agent: chatgpt.com/codex

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What's different in Codexel?

Codexel is a fork of upstream Codex CLI with extra UX and workflow improvements. Recent highlights include:

• Plan Mode: /plan with plan approval, plan variants, and automatic execution after approval.
• ask_user_question: a tool to ask structured multiple-choice clarifying questions.
• spawn_subagent: a read-only parallel research tool surfaced in the TUI (with live activity and token usage).
• TUI improvements for streaming status, tool visibility, and long-running work.
• Isolated state by default in ~/.codexel (separate from the legacy ~/.codex).
• Packaging and update-check fixes for Codexel's release channels.

For the full list of Codexel-only changes, see CHANGELOG.md.

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Quickstart

Install

Install globally with your preferred package manager. If you use npm:

npm install -g @ixe1/codexel

Alternatively, if you use Homebrew:

brew install --cask Ixe1/tap/codexel

Then run codexel:

codexel

If you're running into upgrade issues with Homebrew, see the FAQ entry on brew upgrade codexel.

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: codexel-aarch64-apple-darwin.tar.gz
  • x86_64 (older Mac hardware): codexel-x86_64-apple-darwin.tar.gz
• Linux
  • x86_64: codexel-x86_64-unknown-linux-musl.tar.gz
  • arm64: codexel-aarch64-unknown-linux-musl.tar.gz

Each archive contains a single codexel binary.

Authenticate

Run codexel and select Sign in with ChatGPT, or use an OpenAI API key. If you're not sure which one to use, start with ChatGPT sign-in and see the authentication guide.

If you previously used a usage-based billing API key with older versions, see the migration steps.

Configure (optional)

Codexel stores preferences in ~/.codexel/config.toml by default (override with CODEXEL_HOME). For full options, see Configuration.

Common next steps:

• Sandbox & approvals
• Execpolicy quickstart
• Model Context Protocol (MCP)

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Docs

• Getting started (usage, tips, /plan, session resume)
• Authentication
• Configuration and Example config
• Sandbox & approvals (security posture and safe defaults)
• Execpolicy (command execution rules)
• Slash commands and Custom prompts
• Non-interactive runs (codexel exec) and TypeScript SDK
• GitHub Action (upstream): https://github.com/openai/codex-action
• Install & build from source
• FAQ

Releases & support

• Codexel releases: GitHub Releases
• Codexel-only changes: CHANGELOG.md.
• Upstream release notes: https://github.com/openai/codex/releases

If you hit a bug in Codexel, please open an issue in this repository: Issues. If you can reproduce the same issue in upstream Codex CLI, linking the upstream report is helpful.

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License

This repository is licensed under the Apache-2.0 License.