Codex CLI¶

Uses the OpenAI API via Codex CLI for inference.

Setup¶

Install Codex CLI globally:
```
npm install -g @openai/codex
```
Ensure your OpenAI API key is available:
- OPENAI_API_KEY or CODEX_API_KEY environment variable
- Or ~/.codex/.credentials.json
Set sidekick.inferenceProvider to codex in settings

How It Works¶

Spawns the Codex CLI as a subprocess for each inference request
No SDK dependency — direct CLI invocation
Uses OpenAI API billing

Session Monitoring¶

Codex CLI sessions are monitored from ~/.codex/sessions/. Set sidekick.sessionProvider to codex or leave as auto.

Rate Limits¶

Codex CLI embeds rate-limit data in its event stream (via token_count events with rate_limits). Sidekick extracts this automatically and displays it in:

VS Code dashboard: The quota section shows "Rate Limits" with primary and secondary window gauges
CLI dashboard: The Sessions panel Summary tab shows a "Rate Limits" section with utilization bars
sidekick quota: When the active provider is Codex, shows rate-limit bars with reset countdowns

No separate API polling is needed — rate-limit data arrives as part of normal session monitoring.

Provider Status¶

Sidekick monitors OpenAI API health via status.openai.com when Codex is the active provider. Degraded or outage states appear as a banner in the dashboard gauge row. Also available via sidekick status.

Troubleshooting¶

Connection issues¶

Verify OPENAI_API_KEY or CODEX_API_KEY is set
Check ~/.codex/.credentials.json exists if using file-based credentials
Verify Codex CLI is installed: codex --version