Slash Commands & Shortcuts

Codex CLI's interactive terminal UI (TUI) exposes slash commands for controlling the session without restarting it: switching models, changing permissions, compacting the transcript, resuming saved chats, and more. Type / in the composer to open the slash popup, then keep typing to filter. This page groups the built-in commands by purpose, lists the documented keyboard shortcuts, and summarizes the IDE extension's commands.

Skills also appear as commands: pick one with /skills, or mention it directly. See Skills.

tipp

While a turn is running, type a slash command and press Tab to queue it for the next turn. Codex parses queued commands when they run, so menus and errors appear after the current turn finishes.

Session & Navigation

Command	What it does
/new [name]	Start a fresh chat in the same CLI session. Pass a name to label it as you create it (/new bug bash). Does not clear the terminal view.
/clear [name]	Clear the terminal and start a fresh chat (/clear release prep). Unavailable while a task is running. Use Ctrl+L to clear only the screen and keep the chat.
/resume	Open the saved-session picker and reload a previous chat with its transcript intact.
/fork	Clone the current chat into a new chat with a fresh ID, leaving the original untouched. To fork a saved session instead, run codex fork from the shell.
/side [prompt], /btw	Start an ephemeral side chat for a focused follow-up without touching the main transcript. The TUI keeps showing the parent chat's status. Unavailable inside another side chat or in review mode.
/rename [name]	Rename the current saved chat.
/archive	Archive the current session and exit. The transcript is kept; restore with codex unarchive <SESSION>.
/delete	Permanently delete the current session (and spawned descendant sessions) and exit.
/app	Continue the current session in the ChatGPT desktop app (macOS and Windows).
/copy	Copy the latest completed Codex output to the clipboard (same as Ctrl+O).
/raw [on|off]	Toggle raw scrollback mode for easier terminal text selection (default binding Alt+R; persist with tui.raw_output_mode = true).
/exit, /quit	Exit the CLI.

Model & Output

Command	What it does
/model	Choose the active model (for example gpt-5.6-terra or gpt-5.6-luna) and, when the model supports it, the reasoning effort. Confirm with /status.
/fast [on|off|status]	Toggle the model's Fast service tier and persist the choice. Only shown when the model catalog advertises a Fast tier. See Managing Context.
/personality	Choose friendly, pragmatic, or none. Hidden when the active model does not support personalities. Default in config.toml with personality = "pragmatic".
/plan [prompt]	Switch the chat to plan mode, optionally with an inline first planning request. Temporarily unavailable while Codex is working.
/goal [objective]	Set a persistent goal Codex tracks across turns. /goal alone shows it; /goal edit, /goal pause, /goal resume, and /goal clear manage it. Objectives are capped at 4,000 characters.
/review	Ask Codex to review the working tree, focusing on behavior changes and missing tests. Uses review_model from config.toml if set. Follow with /diff.

Context & Session State

Command	What it does
/compact	Replace earlier turns with a concise summary to free context. Codex also compacts automatically; see Managing Context.
/status	Show the active model, approval policy, sandbox writable roots, and token usage including remaining context. In remote sessions it also shows the server address and version.
/usage [daily|weekly|cumulative]	Show ChatGPT account token activity or redeem an earned rate-limit reset. Requires ChatGPT sign-in.
/diff	Show the Git diff, including staged, unstaged, and untracked files.
/mention <path>	Attach a file to the chat so follow-up turns reference it directly.
/ide [text]	Include open files, the current selection, and other IDE context in the next prompt.
/ps	List background terminals and up to three recent output lines each (populated when unified_exec is in use).
/stop	Stop all background terminals started by the session (alias: /clean).
/agent, /subagents	Switch the active agent thread to inspect or continue a spawned subagent. See Subagents.

Permissions & Safety

Command	What it does
/permissions	Pick an approval preset such as Auto or Read Only, or a named custom permission profile. See Permissions & Sandbox.
/approve	Approve one retry of an action that automatic review denied. See Auto-review.
/hooks	Browse configured lifecycle hooks by event; trust, disable, or re-enable non-managed hooks. See Hooks.
/setup-default-sandbox	Windows only: set up the elevated agent sandbox when Codex is running the degraded restricted-token sandbox.
/sandbox-add-read-dir <path>	Windows only: grant the sandbox read access to an absolute directory outside the current readable roots.

Configuration & Appearance

Command	What it does
/memories	Choose whether the current chat may use existing memories or generate new ones. See AGENTS.md & Memories.
/experimental	Toggle experimental features (for example Network proxy or Prevent sleep while running); saved to config.toml, some require a restart.
/debug-config	Print config layer order, on/off state, and policy sources (allowed_approval_policies, allowed_sandbox_modes, mcp_servers, rules, experimental_network).
/keymap	Inspect and remap TUI shortcuts; writes to tui.keymap in config.toml.
/vim	Toggle Vim mode in the composer for this session. Default it with tui.vim_mode_default = true.
/statusline	Pick and order footer items (model, model+reasoning, context stats, rate limits, git branch, token counters, session id, directory, Codex version); persists to tui.status_line.
/title	Pick and order terminal title items (app name, project, spinner, status, thread, branch, model, task progress); persists to tui.terminal_title.
/theme	Preview and persist a syntax-highlighting theme (tui.theme). Custom .tmTheme files go in $CODEX_HOME/themes.
/pets, /pet	Choose or hide an ambient terminal pet (/pets off).

Project, Tools & Integrations

Command	What it does
/init	Generate an AGENTS.md scaffold in the current directory.
/skills	Browse local skills and insert one so the next request follows its instructions.
/mcp [verbose]	List configured MCP servers and tools; verbose adds server diagnostics. See MCP.
/apps	Browse apps (connectors) and insert one into the prompt as $app-slug.
/plugins	Browse installed and discoverable plugins by marketplace; press Space to toggle an installed plugin. See Plugins.
/import	Import Claude Code or Cursor setup, project files, and up to 50 chats from the last 30 days. Unavailable during a running task, in remote sessions, or when connected to the app-server daemon.

Account & Support

Command	What it does
/logout	Clear local credentials.
/feedback	Send logs and diagnostics to the Codex maintainers (can be disabled by admins via feedback.enabled).

Keyboard shortcuts

These are the shortcuts the official CLI reference documents. Remap them with /keymap.

Shortcut	What it does
Enter (while Codex is working)	Inject new instructions into the current turn (steer).
Tab (while Codex is working)	Queue a follow-up prompt, slash command, or shell command for the next turn.
Esc Esc (empty composer)	Edit the previous user message and fork the chat from that point.
Ctrl+C	Close the session (same as /exit).
Ctrl+L	Clear the terminal view; keeps the current chat. Disabled while a task runs.
Ctrl+O	Copy the latest completed Codex output (same as /copy).
Ctrl+R	Search prompt history; Enter uses a match, Esc cancels.
Up / Down	Restore draft history.
Ctrl+G	Open the current prompt in the editor set by VISUAL (or EDITOR). Save and close to return the text to the composer.
Alt+R	Toggle raw scrollback mode (same as /raw).

Quick prefixes

Prefix	What it does
/	Open the slash command popup.
@	Search for a file in the workspace and insert its path into the prompt.
!	Run a local shell command under the current approval and sandbox settings (! npm test).
$	App mention inserted by /apps ($app-slug).

Multiline input and long prompts

The CLI reference does not document a dedicated newline key for the composer. The documented options are:

• Press Ctrl+G to write the prompt in your external editor, then save and close.
• Paste multi-line text directly. Codex detects burst pastes; disable that detection with disable_paste_burst = true in config.toml if your terminal misbehaves.
• Bind your own keys. The keymap uses names such as shift-enter, ctrl-m, and page-down, and the composer.submit action accepts a list of bindings, so you can control which keys send and which do not.

Customizing the CLI

Keymap

Shortcuts live under [tui.keymap.<context>] in config.toml. Supported contexts are global, chat, composer, editor, vim_normal, vim_operator, vim_text_object, pager, list, and approval. Composer actions fall back to matching tui.keymap.global bindings, context-specific bindings take precedence, and an empty list unbinds an action.

# ~/.codex/config.toml
[tui.keymap.global]
open_transcript = "ctrl-t"
open_external_editor = []          # unbind

[tui.keymap.composer]
submit = ["enter", "ctrl-m"]

[tui.keymap.chat]
interrupt_turn = "f12"

Run /keymap to edit bindings interactively instead of by hand.

Editor

Ctrl+G opens the editor from VISUAL, falling back to EDITOR. Set one in your shell profile:

export VISUAL="code --wait"

Shell completions

codex completion zsh        # also: bash, fish, power-shell, elvish

Load the script from your shell configuration. For zsh:

autoload -Uz compinit && compinit   # only if you see "command not found: compdef"
eval "$(codex completion zsh)"

Restart the shell, type codex, and press Tab to verify.

Themes and TUI options

/theme previews and saves a syntax theme to tui.theme. Add .tmTheme files to $CODEX_HOME/themes to make them selectable. Other [tui] keys worth knowing:

Key	Purpose
tui.alternate_screen	auto (default), always, or never. Use never to keep terminal scrollback; --no-alt-screen does the same for one run.
tui.notifications	true, false, or a list of event types (agent-turn-complete, approval-requested).
tui.notification_method	auto, osc9, or bel.
tui.notification_condition	unfocused or always.
tui.animations	Enable or disable ASCII animations and shimmer effects.
tui.show_tooltips	Show or hide onboarding tooltips.
tui.resume_cwd	current or session, to skip the working-directory prompt on codex resume and codex fork.
file_opener	URI scheme for clickable citations: vscode (default), vscode-insiders, cursor, windsurf, or none.

IDE extension commands

The IDE extension exposes VS Code Command Palette commands you can bind to keys via Preferences: Open Keyboard Shortcuts (search for Codex or the command ID).

Command ID	Default key	Description
chatgpt.newChat	Cmd+N (macOS) / Ctrl+N	Create a new chat
chatgpt.addToThread	none	Add the selected text range as context for the current chat
chatgpt.addFileToThread	none	Add the entire file as context
chatgpt.newCodexPanel	none	Open a new Codex panel
chatgpt.openCommandMenu	none	Open the Codex command menu
chatgpt.openSidebar	none	Open the Codex sidebar

Two extension settings change how Enter behaves in the composer:

• chatgpt.composerEnterBehavior: enter (always sends, default), cmdIfMultiline (Cmd/Ctrl+Enter sends multiline prompts), or cmdAlways.
• chatgpt.followUpQueueMode: queue (default, messages sent during a run wait for the next run) or steer. Press Cmd/Ctrl+Shift+Enter to invert the behavior for one message.

IDE slash commands

Command	What it does
/model, /reasoning, /fast, /personality	Choose model, reasoning effort, Fast tier, and communication style for the current chat
/plan, /goal	Toggle plan mode; set a persistent goal
/compact, /status	Compact the chat; show chat ID, context usage, and rate limits
/local, /cloud, /cloud-environment, /worktree	Run the chat locally, in Codex cloud, pick the cloud environment, or run it in a new Git worktree
/review	Review uncommitted changes or compare against a base branch
/ide-context	Turn automatic IDE context on or off
/project	Choose a project for new chats
/fork, /side	Copy a local chat into a new local chat; start a temporary side chat
/init, /mcp, /memories, /approve, /feedback	Same behavior as in the CLI

Notes

• Some commands are conditional: /fast only appears when the model catalog exposes a Fast tier, /personality only when the model supports it, and the two sandbox commands only on native Windows.
• /compact, /clear, /archive, /delete, /plan, and /import are unavailable (or deferred) while a task is running; queue them with Tab instead.
• /quit and /exit do not save anything on the way out. Commit or stash important work first.

Compared with Claude Code

• Session control maps closely: Codex /new and /clear both start a fresh chat (Claude Code's /clear does the same); Codex /fork creates a new chat in the same TUI, whereas Claude Code's /fork spins off a background session and /branch stays in-session.
• Codex /side is the equivalent of Claude Code's /btw for asides, and Codex accepts /btw as an alias.
• Codex has no /config settings UI; edit config.toml or use /experimental, /keymap, /statusline, /theme, and /debug-config for the pieces that have interactive editors.
• Effort is chosen inside /model in the Codex CLI (a separate /reasoning command exists only in the IDE), while Claude Code has a dedicated /effort.
• Both tools use ! for shell commands and @ for file paths. Codex adds $ for app mentions.
• Codex's Tab to queue versus Enter to steer a running turn has no direct Claude Code counterpart.

See Claude Code Slash Commands & Shortcuts for the full Claude Code list.