| name | ask-codex |
| description | Runs Codex CLI for a second opinion on a decision, or as a cheap subagent for bulky work. Use before a significant approach is settled, or instead of reading pages and long output here. |
Ask Codex
Two jobs, two commands. Both take a self-contained prompt: Codex sees none of this
conversation, so whatever it cannot infer has to be in the prompt.
Second opinion
codex exec "<question>"
Leave the model alone — the reasoning effort in Codex's own config is what makes
the answer worth having. Treat the reply as one data point: compare it against your
own reading of the codebase, report both views to the user with the disagreements
intact, and prefer established project patterns where they conflict.
Delegated grunt work
codex exec --skip-git-repo-check --ephemeral -m gpt-5.6-luna "<task>"
For work whose output is bulky but whose conclusion is small: web search, page
reading, codebase investigation, summarising long output, drafting a commit message
from a diff. A cheap model is the point — the subscription pays for it and only the
answer costs tokens here. codex exec --help carries the rest; reach for -o to
capture the final message alone, and --sandbox/--add-dir to widen what it may
touch.
Measured, and not visible in the help output:
- Keep
model_reasoning_effort at medium or above. At low it answered a
"latest release version" search from stale knowledge.
- Never
--disable multi_agent. Native web search runs through it, so disabling it
makes a search task hang indefinitely with no tool call.
- Shell commands only reach the network under
--sandbox workspace-write with
-c sandbox_workspace_write.network_access=true. The native web search needs
neither.
exa cannot run there at all: no sandbox mode reaches its 1Password key, so run
exa in this session. ax and tgrab live in ~/.agents/skills/web-fetch/ —
prepend that to PATH when the task needs them.
Briefing it:
- Say which facts to return, and demand a citation for each — a URL, or a
file:line.
- Ask for verbatim quotes wherever exact spelling matters: API options, flags,
version numbers. A digest paraphrases them away.
- The
web-fetch skill holds the search tool selection; name the choice rather
than leaving it open.
