| name | codex-delegate |
| description | Delegate a coding task to the OpenAI Codex CLI as a background implementer, then review its diff and land it yourself. Use this whenever the user wants to hand implementation work to Codex — phrasings like "have Codex do X", "delegate this to Codex", "run it through Codex", or "use Codex to implement/fix/refactor" — or to run a queue of coding tasks through Codex while staying the reviewer. Prefer it over a one-shot Codex forwarder (such as the codex-rescue agent) when the user will review the diff and commit it themselves. DO NOT USE for tasks small enough to do inline, or when the user wants the code written directly without delegating. |
| license | MIT |
| compatibility | Requires the `codex` CLI (OpenAI Codex) installed and authenticated, Node 18+, and git. The orchestrating agent must be able to run shell commands and read files. Shell examples assume bash/zsh (macOS/Linux, or Git Bash/WSL on Windows). |
| metadata | {"version":"0.1.0"} |
Codex Delegate
You are the orchestrator. This skill lets you hand a bounded coding task to a separate
implementer — the OpenAI Codex CLI — then review what it produced and land it yourself. You write
the brief and own the judgment; Codex does the typing in its own sandbox; you verify and commit.
Nothing here is specific to one orchestrating agent. The loop needs only the ability to run a shell
command and read a file, so it works the same whether you are Claude Code, OpenCode with a selected
model, or any comparable agent. (It is designed for and run on Claude Code; treat other orchestrators
as designed-for, not yet proven.)
When NOT to use this
- The task is small enough to just do inline — delegation overhead is not worth it.
- The
codex CLI is not installed or not authenticated (run codex login).
- You want to write the code yourself, or you only need a review (use Codex's own
review command).
Prerequisites (check once)
codex --version succeeds. If not, install (npm i -g @openai/codex) and codex login.- Confirm which
codex is on PATH. Multiple installs are common (e.g. a current npm/nvm copy and
a stale Homebrew one). command -v codex shows the active one and codex --version its version —
an old binary predates flags this skill relies on (codex exec --json, -o, exec resume). The
relay also records the version it ran into result.json, so a stale binary is visible after the fact.
- You are in (or will point
--cd at) the target git repository.
The loop
Run these five steps per task. Steps 1, 4, and 5 are your judgment; 2 and 3 are mechanical.
1. Write the brief
Codex sees only the text you send — no repo memory, no chat history, no shared context. Everything the
task needs goes in the brief: the goal, the current state, what to change, what to leave untouched,
the project's actual gate commands (discover them from the repo's CLAUDE.md/AGENTS.md/Makefile —
do not assume), and a report contract. Tell Codex it will not commit (you will). Keep one task per
brief. Full guidance and a template: references/writing-the-brief.md.
2. Dispatch
Send the brief to Codex with the bundled helper. It wraps codex exec, captures the run, and writes a
structured result.json — so your only job is "run a command, read a file." (<skill-dir> below is
this skill's installed directory — the folder containing this SKILL.md, i.e. the directory you loaded
the skill from. Claude Code prints it as "Base directory for this skill" when the skill loads; on other
orchestrators use that same directory — if unsure where it landed, run
find ~ -name relay.mjs -path '*codex-delegate*' and substitute the directory above it.)
node "<skill-dir>/scripts/relay.mjs" --brief brief.txt --cd /path/to/repo
The helper defaults to a write-capable (workspace-write) sandbox and writes its artifacts to a temp
dir, so the repo under review stays clean. It never commits — see step 5. Mechanics, flags, and the
result.json shape: references/dispatch-and-poll.md.
3. Wait for completion
The helper blocks until Codex finishes, so back it with whatever your orchestrator offers and resume
when it returns:
- Claude Code: run the Bash call with
run_in_background: true; you are notified on completion.
- Plain shell / other agents: run it in the foreground for short tasks, or background it and poll
the result file —
… & in bash/zsh (including Git Bash/WSL), or your shell's equivalent (Start-Job
in PowerShell, start /b in cmd). The run is done when result.json exists with a status. (A
pre-run usage error — bad args or an empty brief — instead exits with code 2 and a stderr message and
writes no result file, so check the exit code too. A missing codex binary exits 127 but does write
a result.json with status codex_unavailable.)
Do not trust progress trackers over reality: a run is finished when result.json is written and the
process has exited. Read the working tree, not a status line.
4. Review — do not trust the self-report
Codex's result.json includes its own summary and gate claims. Re-verify, don't accept:
- Re-run the project's gates yourself (the test/lint/build commands from step 1). Never take
"gates passed" on faith.
- Read the diff against the brief: did Codex do what was asked, nothing more (scope creep) and
nothing less?
touchedFiles in the result is your starting point.
- Run the relevant guard skills on the diff if you have them installed (clean-code-guard,
test-guard, etc. from
guard-skills) — this skill produces the work; those skills judge it.
- For schema/migration changes, round-trip them; for removals, grep for dangling references.
Full checklist: references/review-and-land.md.
5. Land it
Because Codex's sandbox cannot reliably write .git (it varies by version, OS, and path), the
orchestrator commits. Only after the gates pass and the diff holds:
- Commit the verified work yourself, with a clear message.
- If it needs changes, send a delta brief with
--resume-last (don't restate the whole task) and
review again.
Authorization model
Delegation is something the human opts into. Once they have ("run this queue", "proceed"), committing
verified, gate-passing work is the agreed contract — that is the whole point. Two limits on that
mandate: surface, don't absorb (report Codex's design decisions, defensible-but-unasked turns, and
non-blocking nitpicks rather than silently keeping them) and stop for scope changes (if correct
completion needs going beyond the brief, ask — don't expand the mandate yourself). The full treatment
is in references/review-and-land.md.
References
- references/writing-the-brief.md — how to write a brief Codex can
execute blind: structure, XML blocks, the report contract, embedding the real gate commands.
- references/dispatch-and-poll.md —
relay.mjs flags, the
result.json contract, backgrounding per orchestrator, and recovery when a run misbehaves.
- references/review-and-land.md — the review checklist, the commit
boundary, and the rework cycle via
--resume-last.
- references/multi-task-queues.md — running a sequential queue:
carrying constraints forward, progress tracking, and the end-of-run coherence check.
