Slash Commands

Control Codex with special commands that modify behavior, manage state, and trigger specific features

What are Slash Commands?

Slash commands are special commands that start with / and give you control over Codex’s behavior. They’re used to modify settings, manage conversation state, trigger specific features, and control the agent’s workflow.

Slash commands are entered in the Codex prompt and are processed before being sent to the AI model.

Available Commands

Workflow Control

/review - Code Review Mode

Triggers a specialized code review of your changes.

/review

What it does:

• Spawns a sub-agent with specialized review instructions
• Analyzes your code changes for bugs, security issues, and maintainability problems
• Provides structured feedback with priority levels (P0-P3)
• Outputs an overall correctness verdict
• Exits automatically when review is complete

Features:

• Uses dedicated review prompt and model
• Can be configured with custom review model via review_model in config
• Auto-approval enabled (no interruptions during review)
• Web search and collaborative tools disabled for focused review

See Code Review for detailed usage.

/use - Load a Skill

Explicitly load a specific skill for the current task.

/use skill-name

Examples:

/use pdf-editor
/use skill-creator
/use bigquery-analytics

This ensures the skill is loaded into context even if it wouldn’t trigger automatically.

/apps - Manage App Connectors

Lists available and installed ChatGPT app connectors.

/apps

Shows:

• Connected apps (labeled as “connected”)
• Available apps that can be installed

See Apps & Connectors for more details.

Session Management

/clear - Clear Conversation History

Clears the current conversation history while keeping configuration.

/clear

Useful when you want to start fresh without restarting Codex.

/reset - Full Reset

Resets both conversation history and session state.

/reset

More thorough than /clear - resets all session state.

Configuration

/model - Switch Model

Switch to a different AI model mid-conversation.

/model gpt-4o
/model o1-mini
/model claude-3-5-sonnet-20241022

Changes the model for the current session without restarting.

/approval - Change Approval Mode

Change the approval policy for the current session.

/approval suggest
/approval auto-edit
/approval full-auto

Approval modes:

• suggest - Agent asks for approval on all file writes and shell commands
• auto-edit - Agent can write files but asks before running commands
• full-auto - Agent can write files and run commands (sandboxed)

/sandbox - Change Sandbox Mode

Adjust the sandbox policy for the current session.

/sandbox read-only
/sandbox workspace-write
/sandbox danger-full-access

See Security & Sandboxing for details on each mode.

Information

/help - Show Help

Display help information and available commands.

/help

/status - Show Session Status

Display current configuration and session state.

/status

Shows:

• Current model
• Approval mode
• Sandbox mode
• Active skills
• Session information

Using Slash Commands

In the TUI

Slash commands are entered at the prompt:

> /review
> /use pdf-editor
> /model gpt-4o

Press Tab for autocomplete suggestions when typing slash commands.

In Scripts

You can pass slash commands in non-interactive mode:

codex exec "/review" --ephemeral

Command Aliases

Some commands have shorter aliases for convenience:

Command	Alias
/review	/r
/clear	/c
/help	/h
/status	/s

Advanced Usage

Combining Commands

You can chain multiple commands in a single session:

> /clear
> /model gpt-4o
> /approval full-auto
> "Now refactor the authentication module"

Commands in AGENTS.md

You can include default slash commands in your AGENTS.md project documentation:

# Project Configuration

Always use the following settings:
- Model: gpt-4o
- Approval: auto-edit

This sets project-specific defaults without requiring manual slash commands each time.

Creating Custom Commands

While Codex doesn’t currently support custom slash commands, you can achieve similar behavior using:

1. Skills - Create a skill that triggers on specific phrases
2. AGENTS.md - Add project-specific instructions
3. Aliases - Use shell aliases to wrap common command patterns

Example: Custom Workflow Alias

# In your shell config (.bashrc, .zshrc, etc.)
alias codex-review='codex exec "/review"'
alias codex-fast='codex --model gpt-4o-mini --approval full-auto'

Then use:

codex-review
codex-fast "write unit tests"

Command Reference

Workflow

• /review - Code review mode
• /use - Load a skill
• /apps - Manage app connectors

Session

• /clear - Clear history
• /reset - Full reset

Configuration

• /model - Switch model
• /approval - Change approval mode
• /sandbox - Change sandbox mode

Information

• /help - Show help
• /status - Show status

Keyboard Shortcuts

While not slash commands, these keyboard shortcuts work in the TUI:

Shortcut	Action
Ctrl+C	Cancel current operation (press twice to quit)
Ctrl+D	Exit Codex (press twice if needed)
Tab	Autocomplete slash commands
↑ / ↓	Navigate command history
Ctrl+L	Clear screen (not history)

Best Practices

Use /clear between unrelated tasks

Starting a new task? Use /clear to remove irrelevant context from the previous task. This helps Codex focus on what matters.

Configure approval mode per task

For exploratory tasks, use /approval suggest to review each action. For well-defined tasks in sandboxed environments, use /approval full-auto for speed.

Explicitly load skills for complex tasks

If you know you need a specific skill, use /use skill-name at the start to ensure it’s loaded, rather than relying on automatic triggering.

Check /status when debugging

If Codex behaves unexpectedly, use /status to verify your current configuration.

Next Steps

Code Review

Learn more about the /review command

Skills System

Understand how skills work with /use