delegate

name	delegate
description	Delegate a sub-task to OpenAI Codex CLI. Use when a task is better handled by Codex (e.g. complex file editing, multi-step coding tasks, automated code generation).

Use the codex MCP tools to delegate tasks to OpenAI Codex CLI.

Prerequisites

Codex must be installed and signed in:

npm i -g @openai/codex
# sign in via the Codex app — no API key needed

Synchronous delegation (need result now)

Use codex_run when you need the output before continuing:

codex_run(
  prompt="<full task description with all context Codex needs>",
  cwd="/path/to/project"   # optional, defaults to current directory
)

Returns the final Codex message as a string.

Background delegation (parallel work)

Use codex_task_submit to fire off tasks and continue working:

1. Submit one or more tasks:

   codex_task_submit(name="Refactor auth module", prompt="...", cwd="...")
   codex_task_submit(name="Write tests for API", prompt="...", cwd="...")
   

2. Check status:

   codex_task_status(task_id="<id>")
   

3. Fetch result when completed:

   codex_task_result(task_id="<id>")
   

4. See all tasks:

   codex_tasks_list()
   

Environment variables

Variable	Purpose
CODEX_PATH	Override path to the codex binary
CODEX_SANDBOX	read-only, workspace-write, or danger-full-access — if unset, uses --dangerously-bypass-approvals-and-sandbox for headless operation

Writing good prompts for Codex

• Include full context — Codex starts fresh with no knowledge of prior work
• Specify the working directory if the task involves files
• Be explicit about what "done" looks like (files to edit, tests to pass, output expected)
• If the task spans multiple files, list the key ones