Codex CLI Commands: The Essential Reference for PowerShell and WSL

Installing Codex takes an hour. Learning what it can do takes longer, because most of the useful commands never show up on screen. This guide lists the ones worth knowing.

If Codex is not installed yet, start with a setup guide and come back:

• Set up Codex CLI natively on Windows with PowerShell
• Set up Codex CLI on Windows with WSL

Commands and flags below were checked against codex --help. Codex ships often, so run codex --version and codex <command> --help if something does not match your install.

Starting Codex

codex

Permissions

codex --dangerously-bypass-approvals-and-sandbox
codex --yolo
codex --sandbox danger-full-access

--yolo is the short alias of --dangerously-bypass-approvals-and-sandbox. Both skip every approval prompt and every sandbox, so use them only inside a container or VM that is already isolated. --sandbox danger-full-access removes the sandbox but keeps the approval policy.

Inside a session, /permissions changes the same settings without a restart.

For more flag details, check codex --help.

Resume a session

Codex saves every interactive session.

codex resume            # pick a previous session from a list
codex resume --last     # reopen the most recent session

Troubleshooting

• codex doctor checks the install, config, auth and network. Run it first when Codex will not start or connect. codex doctor --json prints a redacted report you can attach to a ticket.
• codex completion powershell (Windows) or codex completion bash (WSL) generates tab completion.

Slash commands inside a session

Type / in an empty composer to open the menu, and keep typing to filter it.

Model

Command	What it does
/model	Choose the model and reasoning effort
/fast	Run at 1.5x speed, with higher usage

Planning and context

Command	What it does
/init	Create an AGENTS.md file with instructions for Codex
/plan	Switch to Plan mode
/goal	Set or view the goal for a long-running task
/compact	Summarize the conversation to stay under the context limit
/side (alias /btw)	Start a side conversation in a throwaway fork
/new	Start a new chat

Code and review

Command	What it does
/review	Review your current changes and find issues
/diff	Show the Git diff, including untracked files

Tools and integrations

Command	What it does
/mcp	List MCP tools; /mcp login <name> to sign in
/plugins	Browse plugins
/skills	Use skills to improve how Codex handles specific tasks
/hooks	View and manage lifecycle hooks

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What's next?

• Not installed yet? Follow the Codex CLI on Windows with PowerShell guide or the Codex CLI on Windows with WSL guide
• Read Run Codex as an Operating System for the practices that turn these commands into a daily workflow
• Add ready-made skills to Codex with Krithi Skills: accessibility scans and repo documentation

These are the commands our engineers use when they run Codex inside Krithi, the lowtouch.ai SDLC agent that takes a ticket through planning, coding, testing and a compliance audit to a reviewed pull request, with a named human approving each stage.