Codex CLI v0.163.0 Release Notes — What's New

New Features

Open /config to search preferences across categories, change supported settings immediately, and see which changes require a restart. (#52990, #53429)
Send a follow-up while Codex is responding to steer it immediately. Interrupting a turn also stops active Code Mode cells and their nested tool calls. (#51812, #51835)
Configure a leader key in /keymap. The default is Ctrl+X, shortcut hints stay open until you choose or cancel, and voice mute moves to F9. (#52273)
Restart a managed background server from /daemon. Codex warns about work the restart could interrupt, then reconnects automatically. (#53173)
Codex can run independent read-only tools in parallel, including skill, memory, and conversation-history lookups. (#52245)
Daybreak is enabled by default for eligible accounts. codex exec can also select it with an OpenAI API key when the server offers access. (#53701, #53717)

Bug Fixes

Resuming a saved thread restores its permissions and network approvals, while respecting explicit overrides and current managed policy. (#53150, #53419, #53424)
The network proxy now checks permission before a DNS lookup, rejects duplicate Host headers, and prevents credential aliases from bypassing inspection hooks. (#51650, #52661, #53506)
Return to an existing side conversation with /side after switching threads. Answers to pending prompts also go back to the thread that asked. (#52184, #53436)
On Windows, Ctrl+V and Shift+Insert paste text as well as images. On WSL, repeated pastes reuse the clipboard reader, and copy attempts time out instead of hanging. (#53224, #52967, #53453)
Local commands finish promptly when a child keeps an output pipe open. Remote commands preserve late-arriving output so the final poll can still collect it. (#52652, #53331, #53622)
codex exec no longer prints the same file diff again after an unrelated command. (#53444)

Documentation

Updated the bundled OpenAI Docs guidance for migrations to the GPT-6 family, including model-specific reasoning, tool use, and data residency considerations. (#51768)
Clarified how the Linux sandbox uses bubblewrap for filesystem isolation and seccomp for syscall filtering. (#52610)

Chores

Codex now uses its standard shell executor and no longer bundles a patched zsh. Configurations using the retired shell flags receive a migration notice. (#52160, #52213)
Reduced Linux and macOS release package size by stripping symbols from packaged binaries while preserving them in the original build outputs. (#52178)

Changelog

Full Changelog: https://github.com/openai/codex/compare/rust-v0.162.0...rust-v0.163.0

#51539 Add completion-aware realtime attachment and session-scoped detach @zahan-oai
#51547 Add a Windows MXC sandbox opt-out @iceweasel-oai
#51556 Complete dynamic tool lifecycles on cancellation @mikelam-oai
#51575 Expose package assembly helpers and support gzip DotSlash artifacts @bolinfest
#51595 Add thread ID exclusions to thread/list @btraut-openai
#51602 Distinguish thread listing failures from exhausted history @btraut-openai
#51611 Signal abandonment of unanswered MCP elicitations @nicksteele-oai
#51627 Stabilize Guardian snapshot prefixes by separating assistant context @jif-oai
#51642 Fix retained context handling for typed section content @jif-oai
#51650 Require hostname authorization before proxy DNS lookups @jif-oai
#51651 Persist Guardian review failures for reports across restarts @jif-oai
#51652 Record telemetry for AGENTS.md changes made by apply_patch @jif-oai
#51678 Move Windows sandbox tests into a dedicated integration binary @jif-oai
#51683 Roll back stale Guardian reviews before reusing reviewer history @olliem-oai
#51689 Wait for helper completion in HTTP header cancellation tests @jif-oai
#51690 Add a feature flag for Code Mode tool description ordering @swastik-oai
#51704 Honor tool-description-first ordering in Code Mode @swastik-oai
#51710 Fix a discovery race in the external auth refresh test @jgershen-oai
#51734 Load persisted sender context for Guardian reviews @jif-oai
#51755 Reuse MCP handler metadata for cache comparisons @owenlin0
#51761 Reduce tool metadata cloning in the code-mode runtime @akira-oai
#51768 Expand OpenAI Docs migration guidance to the GPT-6 model family @kkahadze-oai
#51775 Prevent recursive Tokio tracing in telemetry and SQLite logs @zbarsky-openai
#51786 Preserve sandbox overrides across execution requests @iceweasel-oai
#51794 Advertise Ultrafast for GPT-6.1 Sol on Amazon Bedrock @celia-oai
#51800 Remove duplicate field initializers in extension registry tests @anp-oai
#51808 Preserve diagnostic reasons for MCP user verification failures @berkdeniz-oai
#51812 Enable instant interrupts by default @pakrym-oai
#51819 Migrate the MXC sandbox to the 1.0.0 SDK @iceweasel-oai
#51822 Avoid sharing violations when repairing Windows runtime ACLs @johnl-oai
#51823 Share MCP binding tool metadata with prepared calls @owenlin0
#51828 Add policy-based file contents integrity checks @iceweasel-oai
#51831 Add MXC sandbox integrity dependency and policy preparation @iceweasel-oai
#51835 Enable code mode interruption by default @won-openai
#51840 Add a bubblewrap backend for sandbox integrity checks @iceweasel-oai
#51841 Add a macOS Seatbelt backend for sandbox integrity @iceweasel-oai
#51842 Add a sandbox integrity runner with outcome and timing metrics @iceweasel-oai
#51843 Run sandbox integrity checks before commands and filesystem operations @iceweasel-oai
#51847 Preserve Cargo package names in Bazel Rust builds @dkovalenko-oai
#51848 Align Bazel release builds with Cargo and fix platform compatibility @dkovalenko-oai
#51849 Fix package smoke tests for Cargo and Bazel debug symbols @dkovalenko-oai
#51850 Add Bazel release staging archives @dkovalenko-oai
#51855 Add Bazel support to the Codex package build action @dkovalenko-oai
#51856 Build Bazel release artifacts alongside Cargo artifacts @dkovalenko-oai
#51857 Add an app-server prompt prefix compatibility test @jif-oai
#51865 Use readable plugin mentions without suppressing same-name skills @canvrno-oai
#51866 Preserve line breaks and links in multiline async questions @pash-openai
#51868 Record tool registration metrics for each sampling request @akira-oai
#51872 Keep global app-server config independent of the launch directory @etraut-openai
#51884 Add experimental prediction forks that inherit parent context @liame-oai
#51890 Add the missing mxc-sdk UTF-8 resource patch for Bazel @iceweasel-oai
#51892 Preserve tool call completeness when recorded arguments are truncated @ningyi-oai
#51893 Record metrics for incremental tool updates @akira-oai
#51895 Report specific reasons for WebSocket continuation failures @pakrym-oai
#51896 Preserve native errors in Windows sandbox ACL diagnostics @alishobeiri-oai
#51897 Use a dedicated matcher for network domain policies @rafael-oai
#51908 Honor the user input setting for asynchronous questions @mandal-OAI
#51930 Support model-specific function description prefixes @tz-openai
#51963 Attribute compaction analytics to the correct voice session @reia-oai
#51974 Log Windows sandbox availability and backend selection @iceweasel-oai
#52034 Preserve agent state when unloading idle multi-agent v2 children @jif-oai
#52040 Add regression coverage for cancelled agent reloads @jif-oai
#52048 Cover instant interruption in steered-input persistence tests @jif-oai
#52061 Run Guardian conversation classifiers concurrently and preserve action order @felixxia-oai
#52062 Add scenario coverage for worker context across idle eviction @jif-oai
#52065 Require assessment text in the Guardian parser @ioanbudea-OAI
#52081 Fix idle cleanup for disconnected multi-agent v2 children @jif-oai
#52119 Expose originating tool call metadata in command environments @leo-oai
#52160 Remove the patched zsh shell execution backend @jif-oai

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