Codex Adapter

The codex_local adapter runs OpenAI Codex CLI on the host machine as a SLAW agent, resuming the previous session across Heartbeats.

Type key: codex_local

Prerequisites

• Codex CLI installed: npm install -g @openai/codex
• OpenAI credentials configured (codex login or OPENAI_API_KEY set)

Configuration

Set adapterType: codex_local on the agent and provide the config below.

Config fields

Field	Type	Default	Description
cwd	string	—	Absolute working directory; created if missing
instructionsFilePath	string	—	Absolute path to a markdown file prepended to the stdin prompt at runtime
model	string	gpt-5.3-codex	Codex model ID (see Models)
modelReasoningEffort	string	—	Reasoning effort: minimal, low, medium, high, or xhigh; passed as -c model_reasoning_effort=…
promptTemplate	string	—	Template for the run prompt
search	boolean	false	Run Codex with --search
fastMode	boolean	false	Enable Codex Fast mode; supported on gpt-5.4 and manual model IDs
dangerouslyBypassApprovalsAndSandbox	boolean	true	Run with the bypass flag for unattended runs
command	string	codex	Override the Codex binary path
extraArgs	string[]	—	Additional CLI arguments
env	object	—	Environment variables injected into the agent process
workspaceStrategy	object	—	Execution workspace strategy; supports git_worktree
workspaceRuntime	object	—	Reserved for workspace runtime metadata
timeoutSec	number	0	Run timeout in seconds
graceSec	number	15	SIGTERM grace period

Models

Model ID	Label
gpt-5.4	gpt-5.4
gpt-5.3-codex	gpt-5.3-codex (default)
gpt-5.3-codex-spark	gpt-5.3-codex-spark
gpt-5	gpt-5
o3	o3
o4-mini	o4-mini
gpt-5-mini	gpt-5-mini
gpt-5-nano	gpt-5-nano
o3-mini	o3-mini
codex-mini-latest	Codex Mini

Minimal example

{
  "adapterType": "codex_local",
  "adapterConfig": {
    "cwd": "/home/agent/workspace",
    "model": "gpt-5.3-codex",
    "dangerouslyBypassApprovalsAndSandbox": true,
    "timeoutSec": 0,
    "graceSec": 15
  }
}

Session behaviour

SLAW stores the session ID and cwd after each run. On the next Heartbeat, Codex resumes the prior session when the stored cwd matches the current working directory.

Notes

• Prompts are piped to Codex via stdin; Codex receives "-" as the prompt argument.
• If instructionsFilePath is set, SLAW prepends that file's contents to the stdin prompt on every run.
• SLAW uses a per-squad managed CODEX_HOME directory by default (~/.slaw/instances/<id>/squads/<squadId>/codex-home/). When CODEX_HOME is explicitly overridden in the adapter config, that path is used instead.
• SLAW injects skills into CODEX_HOME/skills/ so Codex can discover $slaw and related skills without polluting the project working directory.
• Codex exec automatically applies repo-scoped AGENTS.md from the active workspace; SLAW cannot suppress that discovery.
• fastMode is supported on gpt-5.4 and manual model IDs. When enabled, SLAW applies service_tier="fast" and features.fast_mode=true.
• Some model/tool combinations reject certain effort levels — for example minimal with web search enabled.
• When SLAW provisions a workspace or runtime, it injects SLAW_WORKSPACE_* and SLAW_RUNTIME_* environment variables.

Next steps

• Adapters Overview
• Creating an Adapter