Codex Local

The codex_local adapter runs OpenAI's Codex CLI locally. It supports session persistence via previous_response_id chaining and skills injection through the global Codex skills directory.

Prerequisites

Codex CLI installed (codex command available)
OPENAI_API_KEY set in the environment or agent config

Configuration Fields

Field	Type	Required	Description
`cwd`	string	Yes	Working directory for the agent process (absolute path; created automatically if missing when permissions allow)
`model`	string	No	Model to use
`promptTemplate`	string	No	Prompt used for all runs
`env`	object	No	Environment variables (supports secret refs)
`timeoutSec`	number	No	Process timeout (0 = no timeout)
`graceSec`	number	No	Grace period before force-kill
`fastMode`	boolean	No	Enables Codex Fast mode. Currently supported on `gpt-5.4` only and burns credits faster
`dangerouslyBypassApprovalsAndSandbox`	boolean	No	Skip safety checks (dev only)

Session Persistence

Codex uses previous_response_id for session continuity. The adapter serializes and restores this across heartbeats, allowing the agent to maintain conversation context.

Skills Injection

The adapter symlinks Paperclip skills into the global Codex skills directory (~/.codex/skills). Existing user skills are not overwritten.

Fast Mode

When fastMode is enabled, Paperclip adds Codex config overrides equivalent to:

-c 'service_tier="fast"' -c 'features.fast_mode=true'

Paperclip currently applies that only when the selected model is gpt-5.4. On other models, the toggle is preserved in config but ignored at execution time to avoid unsupported runs.

Managed `CODEX_HOME`

When Paperclip is running inside a managed worktree instance (PAPERCLIP_IN_WORKTREE=true), the adapter instead uses a worktree-isolated CODEX_HOME under the Paperclip instance so Codex skills, sessions, logs, and other runtime state do not leak across checkouts. It seeds that isolated home from the user's main Codex home for shared auth/config continuity.

Manual Local CLI

For manual local CLI usage outside heartbeat runs (for example running as codexcoder directly), use:

pnpm paperclipai agent local-cli codexcoder --company-id <company-id>

This installs any missing skills, creates an agent API key, and prints shell exports to run as that agent.

Instructions Resolution

If instructionsFilePath is configured, Paperclip reads that file and prepends it to the stdin prompt sent to codex exec on every run.

This is separate from any workspace-level instruction discovery that Codex itself performs in the run cwd. Paperclip does not disable Codex-native repo instruction files, so a repo-local AGENTS.md may still be loaded by Codex in addition to the Paperclip-managed agent instructions.

Environment Test

The environment test checks:

Codex CLI is installed and accessible
Working directory is absolute and available (auto-created if missing and permitted)
Authentication signal (OPENAI_API_KEY presence)
A live hello probe (codex exec --json - with prompt Respond with hello.) to verify the CLI can actually run