| name | codex-cto |
| description | Inverted orchestration—Codex CLI acts as CTO (planning and reviewing), Claude Code executes with native tools. Use when a task benefits from external architectural oversight before and after implementation. |
| argument-hint | ["objective"] |
| disable-model-invocation | true |
Codex CTO — Inverted Orchestration
Codex plans and reviews. Claude Code executes. This inverts the codex-orchestrator pattern: instead of Claude Code delegating to Codex subagents, Codex directs Claude Code as the engineering team.
Protocol
1. CTO plans → cto-invoke.sh plan "<objective>"
2. You execute → native tools (Read, Edit, Write, Bash, Glob, Grep)
3. CTO reviews → cto-invoke.sh review "<objective + results>"
4. Loop → if "revise", fix and re-submit for review (max 5 iterations)
Step 1: Get the Plan
Run the plan phase with the user's objective:
~/.claude/skills/codex-cto/scripts/cto-invoke.sh plan "<OBJECTIVE>" [--model MODEL]
Parse the returned JSON. It contains:
objective — what to accomplishanalysis — CTO's assessment of the codebasestrategy — high-level approachtasks[] — ordered task list with IDs, actions, targets, descriptions, acceptance criteria, and dependenciesverification — commands to run after all tasks complete
Step 2: Execute Tasks
Work through each task in dependency order using native tools. For each task:
- Read the
description and acceptance_criteria
- Execute the action (
create_file, modify_file, delete_file, run_command, verify)
- Verify each acceptance criterion before moving to the next task
- Track what was done and what the outcome was
Do not deviate from the plan without reason. If a task is blocked or the plan has an error, note it and continue with unblocked tasks. Report blockers in the review submission.
Step 3: Submit for Review
After executing all tasks, run the review phase. Include the original objective and a summary of what was done:
~/.claude/skills/codex-cto/scripts/cto-invoke.sh review "<OBJECTIVE>. Results: <summary of what was done, any issues encountered>"
Parse the returned JSON:
verdict: "approve" — done. Report success to the user.verdict: "revise" — check task_reviews for feedback and revised_tasks for new/updated tasks. Fix issues and re-submit.verdict: "abort" — fundamental problem. Report the CTO's reason to the user and stop.
Step 4: Iterate (if revise)
On a "revise" verdict:
- Read each
task_reviews entry with status fail or partial
- Execute the fixes described in
feedback and any revised_tasks
- Re-submit for review (step 3)
- Maximum 5 review iterations. If the CTO issues 3 consecutive "revise" verdicts, escalate to the user.
Model Selection
The --model flag passes through to codex exec. Available models:
| Model | ID | Notes |
|---|
| GPT-5.4 Pro | gpt-5.4-pro | Default for plan phase. Deepest reasoning for architectural decomposition. |
| GPT-5.4 | gpt-5.4 | Default for review phase. Unified coding + reasoning flagship. |
| GPT-5 Mini | gpt-5-mini | Cost-optimized, fast iteration. |
| GPT-5.3-Codex | gpt-5.3-codex | Previous generation. Still functional. |
Omit --model to use the default from ~/.codex/config.toml.
Options
| Option | Description |
|---|
--model <id> | Override model (default: config default) |
--dry-run | Print command without executing |
Artifacts
Plan and review JSON files are saved to .codex-cto/<PID>/ in the working directory. Each invocation creates sequentially numbered files (plan-001.json, review-001.json, etc.). PID namespacing prevents conflicts between concurrent sessions.
Diagnostics
Reuse codex-orchestrator's status script for CLI diagnostics:
~/.claude/skills/codex-orchestrator/scripts/codex-status.sh
Examples
/codex-cto Add a health check endpoint at /health returning {status: "ok"}
/codex-cto Refactor the auth module to use JWT --model gpt-5-mini
~/.claude/skills/codex-cto/scripts/cto-invoke.sh plan "Add rate limiting" --dry-run
Sister Skill
This skill is the inverse of codex-orchestrator. Use codex-orchestrator when Claude Code should delegate one-shot specialist tasks to Codex. Use codex-cto when Codex should direct Claude Code through a plan-execute-review loop.
