Codex Orchestrator

Spawn specialized Codex CLI subagents for focused development tasks. Each profile injects a custom AGENTS.md persona that shapes the agent's behavior, focus areas, and output format.

Architecture

Claude Code (orchestrator)
    ↓ invokes skill
codex-orchestrator scripts
    ↓ spawns via Bash
Codex CLI with AGENTS.md
    ↓ executes
Specialized subagent task

Prerequisites

Verify Codex CLI is installed and configured:

~/.claude/skills/codex-orchestrator/scripts/codex-status.sh

Required:

• Codex CLI: npm install -g @openai/codex
• API Key: export OPENAI_API_KEY=sk-...

Auto-Update

The skill automatically checks for Codex CLI updates on each invocation and updates if needed. This prevents issues caused by outdated CLI versions.

To manually check/update:

# Check version only
~/.claude/skills/codex-orchestrator/scripts/codex-version-check.sh

# Check and auto-update if needed
~/.claude/skills/codex-orchestrator/scripts/codex-version-check.sh --auto-update

Available Profiles

Profile	Purpose	Use When
reviewer	Code quality, bugs, performance	Pre-commit review, PR assessment
debugger	Root cause analysis, fixes	Investigating bugs, tracing issues
architect	System design, component boundaries	Planning changes, evaluating architecture
security	OWASP, vulnerabilities, secrets	Security audits, compliance checks
refactor	Code cleanup, modernization	Reducing tech debt, improving structure
docs	API docs, READMEs, comments	Documentation tasks
planner	ExecPlan design documents	Multi-hour tasks, complex features, significant refactors
syseng	Infrastructure, DevOps, CI/CD, monitoring	Deployment, containers, observability, production ops
builder	Greenfield implementation, new features	Creating new code from specs, incremental feature development
researcher	Read-only Q&A, codebase analysis	Questions, analysis, comparisons (no file changes)

Quick Execution

Execute a one-shot task with a specific profile:

~/.claude/skills/codex-orchestrator/scripts/codex-exec.sh <profile> "<prompt>"

Examples:

# Code review
~/.claude/skills/codex-orchestrator/scripts/codex-exec.sh reviewer "Review src/auth.ts for security issues"

# Debug investigation
~/.claude/skills/codex-orchestrator/scripts/codex-exec.sh debugger "Debug the login timeout on slow networks"

# Architecture design
~/.claude/skills/codex-orchestrator/scripts/codex-exec.sh architect "Design a caching layer for the API"

# Security audit
~/.claude/skills/codex-orchestrator/scripts/codex-exec.sh security "Audit the payment module for vulnerabilities"

# Full-auto mode (no approval prompts)
~/.claude/skills/codex-orchestrator/scripts/codex-exec.sh reviewer "Fix all lint errors" --full-auto

# Create execution plan for complex feature
~/.claude/skills/codex-orchestrator/scripts/codex-exec.sh planner "Create an ExecPlan for adding WebSocket support"

# Build new feature from spec
~/.claude/skills/codex-orchestrator/scripts/codex-exec.sh builder "Implement user authentication with JWT"

# Continue from previous builder session
~/.claude/skills/codex-orchestrator/scripts/codex-exec.sh builder "continue"

# Ask a question about the codebase (read-only, no file changes)
~/.claude/skills/codex-orchestrator/scripts/codex-exec.sh researcher "Explain the authentication flow in this project"

# Research with Exa web search (injects Exa guide into AGENTS.md)
~/.claude/skills/codex-orchestrator/scripts/codex-exec.sh researcher "What are the latest React Server Component patterns?" --web-search

# Research with native Codex web search (model-level tool, works in all sandboxes)
~/.claude/skills/codex-orchestrator/scripts/codex-exec.sh researcher "What are the latest React patterns?" --search

# Review a screenshot (vision input)
~/.claude/skills/codex-orchestrator/scripts/codex-exec.sh reviewer "Review this mockup for UX issues" --image screenshot.png

# Resume previous builder session
~/.claude/skills/codex-orchestrator/scripts/codex-exec.sh builder "continue" --resume

# JSONL output for structured capture
~/.claude/skills/codex-orchestrator/scripts/codex-exec.sh researcher "What is 2+2?" --json | head -5

Session Management

For more control, use the Python session manager:

# List available profiles
python3 ~/.claude/skills/codex-orchestrator/scripts/codex-session.py list

# Start non-interactive session
python3 ~/.claude/skills/codex-orchestrator/scripts/codex-session.py start debugger "Trace the null pointer in UserService"

# Start interactive session
python3 ~/.claude/skills/codex-orchestrator/scripts/codex-session.py interactive architect

# Show profile details
python3 ~/.claude/skills/codex-orchestrator/scripts/codex-session.py info security

Profile Selection Guide

Review Tasks

• reviewer for general code quality and bugs
• security for vulnerability-focused review
• refactor for cleanup opportunities

Investigation Tasks

• debugger for bug investigation
• architect for understanding system behavior
• researcher for questions and analysis (read-only, no changes)

Creation Tasks

• architect for design decisions
• builder for new feature implementation
• docs for documentation
• refactor for implementation improvements
• planner for multi-hour implementation plans

Chaining Patterns

Review → Debug → Fix

# 1. Identify issues
~/.claude/skills/codex-orchestrator/scripts/codex-exec.sh reviewer "Review src/api/ for bugs"

# 2. Investigate specific bug
~/.claude/skills/codex-orchestrator/scripts/codex-exec.sh debugger "Debug the race condition found in cache.ts"

Planner → Architect → Builder

# 1. Create comprehensive ExecPlan
~/.claude/skills/codex-orchestrator/scripts/codex-exec.sh planner "Create ExecPlan for new authentication system"

# 2. Validate architecture
~/.claude/skills/codex-orchestrator/scripts/codex-exec.sh architect "Review the auth system ExecPlan for design issues"

# 3. Build (plan guides implementation)
~/.claude/skills/codex-orchestrator/scripts/codex-exec.sh builder "Implement milestone 1 from the auth ExecPlan" --full-auto

Architect → Builder → Reviewer

# 1. Design approach
~/.claude/skills/codex-orchestrator/scripts/codex-exec.sh architect "Design a caching layer for the API"

# 2. Build the feature
~/.claude/skills/codex-orchestrator/scripts/codex-exec.sh builder "Implement the caching layer from architect's design"

# 3. Review the implementation
~/.claude/skills/codex-orchestrator/scripts/codex-exec.sh reviewer "Review the new caching implementation"

Architect → Review → Refactor

# 1. Design approach
~/.claude/skills/codex-orchestrator/scripts/codex-exec.sh architect "Design repository layer extraction"

# 2. Validate design
~/.claude/skills/codex-orchestrator/scripts/codex-exec.sh reviewer "Review the proposed repository pattern"

# 3. Implement
~/.claude/skills/codex-orchestrator/scripts/codex-exec.sh refactor "Extract repository pattern from services"

Syseng → Architect → Planner

# 1. Assess infrastructure needs
~/.claude/skills/codex-orchestrator/scripts/codex-exec.sh syseng "Evaluate current deployment for scaling to 10x traffic"

# 2. Design architecture changes
~/.claude/skills/codex-orchestrator/scripts/codex-exec.sh architect "Design infrastructure to support 10x scale"

# 3. Create implementation plan
~/.claude/skills/codex-orchestrator/scripts/codex-exec.sh planner "Create ExecPlan for infrastructure scaling"

Security → Syseng

# 1. Security audit
~/.claude/skills/codex-orchestrator/scripts/codex-exec.sh security "Audit the Kubernetes cluster configuration"

# 2. Infrastructure hardening
~/.claude/skills/codex-orchestrator/scripts/codex-exec.sh syseng "Implement security recommendations from audit"

Researcher → Architect → Builder

# 1. Understand the problem space
~/.claude/skills/codex-orchestrator/scripts/codex-exec.sh researcher "How does the current caching work? What are its limitations?"

# 2. Design the solution
~/.claude/skills/codex-orchestrator/scripts/codex-exec.sh architect "Design a new caching layer addressing the limitations"

# 3. Implement
~/.claude/skills/codex-orchestrator/scripts/codex-exec.sh builder "Implement the caching layer from architect's design"

Script Options

codex-exec.sh Options

Option	Description
--model <model>	Override model (default: per-profile, see below)
--reasoning <level>	Override reasoning effort: minimal, low, medium, high, xhigh
--sandbox <mode>	read-only, workspace-write, danger-full-access
--full-auto	Skip approval prompts
--web-search	Enable Exa web search (injects guide into AGENTS.md)
--search	Enable native Codex web search (model-level tool, works in all sandboxes)
--json	Output JSONL event stream (pipe to jq, logs, etc.)
--image <file>	Attach image to prompt (vision input)
--resume	Resume previous exec session (builder "continue" workflow)
--with-mcp	Keep global MCP servers enabled (disabled by default for speed)

Model & Reasoning Defaults

Each profile has a default model and reasoning effort. User flags override these.

Profile Type	Profiles	Model	Reasoning
Coding	builder, reviewer, debugger, refactor, syseng, security, docs	gpt-5.4	high
Planning	planner, architect	gpt-5.4-pro	high
Research	researcher	gpt-5.4	medium

Reasoning effort levels: none < minimal < low < medium < high < xhigh

# Uses profile defaults (builder → gpt-5.4 + high)
~/.claude/skills/codex-orchestrator/scripts/codex-exec.sh builder "Implement auth module"

# Uses profile defaults (planner → gpt-5.4-pro + high)
~/.claude/skills/codex-orchestrator/scripts/codex-exec.sh planner "Create ExecPlan for caching"

# Override model for quick tasks
~/.claude/skills/codex-orchestrator/scripts/codex-exec.sh reviewer "Style check" --model gpt-5-mini

# Override reasoning only
~/.claude/skills/codex-orchestrator/scripts/codex-exec.sh builder "Quick lint fix" --reasoning medium

# Override both
~/.claude/skills/codex-orchestrator/scripts/codex-exec.sh planner "Design distributed cache" --model gpt-5.4 --reasoning high

Testing

Run the test suite to verify installation:

~/.claude/skills/codex-orchestrator/scripts/test-codex.sh         # Full tests
~/.claude/skills/codex-orchestrator/scripts/test-codex.sh --quick # Skip API test

Reference Documentation

For detailed information:

• references/codex-cli.md - Complete CLI command reference
• references/agents-md-format.md - AGENTS.md syntax and best practices
• references/subagent-patterns.md - Delegation patterns and examples

Troubleshooting

"Codex CLI not found"

npm install -g @openai/codex

"Authentication error"

export OPENAI_API_KEY=sk-...
# or
codex login

"Model not supported with ChatGPT account"

Older model names (codex-mini, o3, o4-mini) have been deprecated. Current models: gpt-5.4, gpt-5.4-pro, gpt-5-mini, gpt-5-nano. Previous generation (gpt-5.3-codex, gpt-5.3-codex-spark, gpt-5.2) still works but is superseded. Set an API key instead of using codex login:

export OPENAI_API_KEY=sk-...

"Profile not found"

Available profiles: reviewer, debugger, architect, security, refactor, docs, planner, syseng, builder, researcher

Check profile exists:

ls ~/.claude/skills/codex-orchestrator/agents/

Poor Results

• Narrow the task scope
• Provide more context in the prompt
• Try a different profile
• Use --model gpt-5.4-pro for complex tasks