Codex Team

The lead orchestrates, Codex agents execute. Each agent gets one focused task. The team lead prevents file conflicts before spawning — the orchestrator IS the lock manager.

When to Use

• You have 2+ tasks (bug fixes, implementations, refactors)
• Tasks are well-scoped with clear instructions
• You want Codex execution with predictable isolation
• You may be in Claude or Codex runtime (skill auto-selects backend)

Don’t use when: Tasks need tight shared-state coordination. Use /swarm for dependency-heavy wave orchestration.

Backend Selection (MANDATORY)

Select backend in this order:

1. spawn_agent available -> Codex experimental sub-agents (preferred)
2. Otherwise -> Codex CLI via Bash (codex exec ...)

If neither is available, fall back to /swarm.

Pre-Flight (CLI backend only)

# REQUIRED before spawning with Codex CLI backend
if ! which codex > /dev/null 2>&1; then
  echo "Codex CLI not found. Install: npm i -g @openai/codex"
  # Fallback: use /swarm
fi

# Model availability test
CODEX_MODEL="${CODEX_MODEL:-gpt-5.3-codex}"
if ! codex exec --full-auto -m "$CODEX_MODEL" -C "$(pwd)" "echo ok" > /dev/null 2>&1; then
  echo "Codex model $CODEX_MODEL unavailable. Falling back to /swarm."
fi

Canonical Command

codex exec --full-auto -m "gpt-5.3-codex" -C "$(pwd)" -o <output-file> "<prompt>"

Flag order: --full-auto -> -m -> -C -> -o -> prompt. Always this order.

Valid flags: --full-auto, -m, -C, -o, --json, --output-schema, --add-dir, -s

DO NOT USE: -q, --quiet (don’t exist)

Cross-Project Tasks

When tasks span multiple repos/directories, use --add-dir to grant access:

codex exec --full-auto -m gpt-5.3-codex -C "$(pwd)" --add-dir /path/to/other/repo -o output.md "prompt"

The --add-dir flag is repeatable for multiple additional directories.

Progress Monitoring (optional)

Add --json to stream JSONL events to stdout for real-time monitoring:

codex exec --full-auto --json -m gpt-5.3-codex -C "$(pwd)" -o output.md "prompt" 2>/dev/null

Key events:

• turn.started / turn.completed — track progress
• turn.completed includes token usage field
• No events for 60s → agent likely stuck

Sandbox Levels

Use -s to control the sandbox:

For code review and analysis tasks, prefer -s read-only over --full-auto.

Execution

Step 1: Define Tasks

Break work into focused tasks. Each task = one Codex agent (unless merged).

Step 2: Analyze File Targets (REQUIRED)

Before spawning, identify which files each task will edit. Codex agents are headless — they can’t negotiate locks or wait turns. All conflict prevention happens here.

For each task, list the target files. Then apply the right strategy:

# Decision logic (team lead performs this mentally):

tasks = [
  {name: "fix spec_path",    files: ["cmd/zeus.go"]},
  {name: "remove beads field", files: ["cmd/zeus.go"]},
  {name: "fix dispatch counter", files: ["cmd/zeus.go"]},
]

# All touch zeus.go → MERGE into 1 agent

tasks = [
  {name: "fix auth bug",     files: ["pkg/auth.go"]},
  {name: "add rate limiting", files: ["pkg/auth.go", "pkg/middleware.go"]},
  {name: "update config",    files: ["internal/config.go"]},
]

# Task 1 and 2 share auth.go → MULTI-WAVE (1+3 parallel, then 2)
# Task 3 is independent → runs in Wave 1 alongside Task 1

tasks = [
  {name: "fix auth",    files: ["pkg/auth.go"]},
  {name: "fix config",  files: ["internal/config.go"]},
  {name: "fix logging", files: ["pkg/log.go"]},
]

# No overlap → PARALLEL (all 3 at once)

Step 3: Spawn Agents

Strategy: Parallel (no file overlap)

Codex sub-agent backend (preferred):

spawn_agent(message="Fix the null check in pkg/auth.go:validateToken around line 89...")
spawn_agent(message="Add timeout field to internal/config.go:Config struct...")
spawn_agent(message="Fix log rotation in pkg/log.go:rotateLogFile...")

Codex CLI backend:

Bash(command='codex exec --full-auto -m "gpt-5.3-codex" -C "$(pwd)" -o .agents/codex-team/auth-fix.md "Fix the null check in pkg/auth.go:validateToken around line 89..."', run_in_background=true)
Bash(command='codex exec --full-auto -m "gpt-5.3-codex" -C "$(pwd)" -o .agents/codex-team/config-fix.md "Add timeout field to internal/config.go:Config struct..."', run_in_background=true)
Bash(command='codex exec --full-auto -m "gpt-5.3-codex" -C "$(pwd)" -o .agents/codex-team/logging-fix.md "Fix log rotation in pkg/log.go:rotateLogFile..."', run_in_background=true)

Strategy: Merge (same file)

Combine all fixes into a single agent prompt:

spawn_agent(message="Fix these 3 issues in cmd/zeus.go: (1) rename spec_path to spec_location in QUEST_REQUEST payload (2) remove beads field (3) fix dispatch counter increment location")

# CLI equivalent:
Bash(command='codex exec --full-auto -m "gpt-5.3-codex" -C "$(pwd)" -o .agents/codex-team/zeus-fixes.md \
  "Fix these 3 issues in cmd/zeus.go: \
   (1) Line 245: rename spec_path to spec_location in QUEST_REQUEST payload \
   (2) Line 250: remove the spurious beads field from the payload \
   (3) Line 196: fix dispatch counter — increment inside the loop, not outside"', run_in_background=true)

One agent, one file, no conflicts possible.

Strategy: Multi-wave (partial overlap)

# Wave 1: non-overlapping tasks (sub-agent backend)
spawn_agent(message='Fix null check in pkg/auth.go:89...')
spawn_agent(message='Add timeout to internal/config.go...')

# Wait for Wave 1 (sub-agent backend)
wait(ids=["<id-1>", "<id-2>"], timeout_ms=120000)

# Wave 1: non-overlapping tasks (CLI backend)
Bash(command='codex exec ... -o .agents/codex-team/auth-fix.md "Fix null check in pkg/auth.go:89..."', run_in_background=true)
Bash(command='codex exec ... -o .agents/codex-team/config-fix.md "Add timeout to internal/config.go..."', run_in_background=true)

# Wait for Wave 1
TaskOutput(task_id="<id-1>", block=true, timeout=120000)
TaskOutput(task_id="<id-2>", block=true, timeout=120000)

# Read Wave 1 results — understand what changed
Read(.agents/codex-team/auth-fix.md)
git diff pkg/auth.go

# Wave 2: task that shares files with Wave 1 (sub-agent backend)
spawn_agent(message='Add rate limiting to pkg/auth.go and pkg/middleware.go. Note: validateToken now has a null check at line 89. Build on current file state.')

# Wave 2: CLI backend equivalent
Bash(command='codex exec ... -o .agents/codex-team/rate-limit.md \
  "Add rate limiting to pkg/auth.go and pkg/middleware.go. \
   Note: pkg/auth.go was recently modified — the validateToken function now has a null check at line 89. \
   Build on the current state of the file."', run_in_background=true)

TaskOutput(task_id="<id-3>", block=true, timeout=120000)

The team lead synthesizes Wave 1 results and injects relevant context into Wave 2 prompts. Don’t dump raw diffs — describe what changed and why it matters for the next task.

Step 4: Wait for Completion

# Sub-agent backend:
wait(ids=["<id-1>", "<id-2>", "<id-3>"], timeout_ms=120000)

# CLI backend:
TaskOutput(task_id="<id-1>", block=true, timeout=120000)
TaskOutput(task_id="<id-2>", block=true, timeout=120000)
TaskOutput(task_id="<id-3>", block=true, timeout=120000)

Step 5: Verify Results

• Read output files from .agents/codex-team/
• Check git diff for changes made by each agent
• Run tests if applicable
• For multi-wave: verify Wave 2 agents built correctly on Wave 1 changes

Output Directory

mkdir -p .agents/codex-team

Output files: .agents/codex-team/<task-name>.md

Prompt Guidelines

Good Codex prompts are specific and self-contained:

# GOOD: Specific file, line, exact change
"Fix in cmd/zeus.go line 245: rename spec_path to spec_location in the QUEST_REQUEST payload struct"

# BAD: Vague, requires exploration
"Fix the spec path issue somewhere in the codebase"

Include in each prompt:

• Exact file path(s)
• Line numbers or function names
• What to change and why
• Any constraints (don’t touch other files, preserve API compatibility)

For multi-wave Wave 2+ prompts, also include:

• What changed in prior waves (summarized, not raw diffs)
• Current state of shared files after prior edits

Limits

• Max agents: 6 per wave (resource-reasonable)
• Timeout: 2 minutes default per agent. Increase with timeout param for larger tasks
• Max waves: 3 recommended. If you need more, reconsider task decomposition

Fallback

If Codex is unavailable, use /swarm with Claude-native Task tool agents:

Task(description="Fix task 1", subagent_type="general-purpose", run_in_background=true, prompt="...")

Quick Reference