Codex Delegate

---
name: codex-delegate
description: Delegate coding tasks to the OpenAI Codex CLI only when the user explicitly
  requests it, while the orchestrator retains review and landing responsibility.
risk: critical
category: agent-orchestration
source: https://github.com/amElnagdy/delegate-skills
source_repo: amElnagdy/delegate-skills
source_type: community
date_added: '2026-08-26'
license: MIT
license_source: https://github.com/amElnagdy/delegate-skills/blob/master/LICENSE
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: 0.5.0
---
# Codex Delegate

## When to Use

- You want to delegate a bounded coding task to a separate `codex` implementer (`OpenAI Codex`) and then review its diff yourself.
- The user explicitly asked for delegation to this implementer.

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)

1. `codex --version` succeeds. If not, install (`npm i -g @openai/codex`) and `codex login`.
2. **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.
3. 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 receives no orchestrator chat history; normal local configuration, instructions, memories and connected tools may still load. 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](references/writing-the-brief.md).

### 2. Dispatch

This distribution is documentation-only: `scripts/relay.mjs` is absent. Obtain,
pin and review the upstream runtime separately before using these examples. Do not
search the whole home directory and trust an arbitrary relay. The chosen CLI version,
configuration, tool integrations and effective sandbox must be verified before dispatch.

```bash
node "<skill-dir>/scripts/relay.mjs" --brief brief.txt --cd /path/to/repo
# read-only (review/diagnosis, no edits):   add --read-only
# continue the exact Codex session:         add --session <threadId>  (from result.json; send only the delta brief)
# fallback when no thread id is available:  add --resume-last
# hard time limit (watchdog):               add --timeout 2h  (default: off; implementation runs routinely need 1-2h)
# see all options:                          node .../relay.mjs --help
```

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](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. The implementer's full report is
the `finalMessage` field in `result.json` (also printed in full on stdout between the report markers).

### 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](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 `--session <threadId>` from the prior `result.json`
  (use `--resume-last` only when no thread id is available), and review again.

## Read-only second opinions

The relay doubles as a clean way to get an adversarial second opinion with a verified read-only filesystem profile: dispatch
`--read-only` with a brief that lists the agreed points, then each contested point with both
positions, and ask Codex to defend or concede each — deliverable in its final message, touching no
files. Any delegation skill whose implementer offers a read-only mode supports the same use, but
check how hard that mode's guarantee is first: Codex's sandbox enforces it, while Grok's is
best-effort and only flagged after the fact (`readOnlyViolation`) — for those implementers,
verify `touchedFiles` came back empty instead of assuming no edits.

## 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/review-and-land.md).

## If you have the openai-codex plugin

The official openai-codex Claude Code plugin is excellent and **complementary** — `codex-delegate`
builds on the same `codex` CLI, it doesn't replace the plugin. They point in different directions:

- The plugin's `codex:codex-rescue` agent is a **forwarder**: it hands one task to Codex and returns
  the output. It deliberately does not poll, review, or commit.
- The plugin's review command and stop-review gate run the **inverse** direction: **Codex reviews your work**.
- `codex-delegate` is the **orchestration loop in the other direction**: *you* drive Codex to
  implement across one task or a queue, and *you* review and land each result. That loop — brief →
  dispatch → poll → review → commit, with the orchestrator owning the commit — is what the plugin
  leaves to you, and what this skill encodes.

If you have the plugin installed, its companion CLI is an optional alternative dispatch backend; the
upstream `relay.mjs` is a separate runtime dependency beyond the `codex` binary
(Node and `git`, which the relay also needs, are prerequisites for every skill here).

## References

- [references/writing-the-brief.md](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](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](references/review-and-land.md) — the review checklist, the commit
  boundary, and the exact-session rework cycle.
- [references/multi-task-queues.md](references/multi-task-queues.md) — running a sequential queue:
  carrying constraints forward, progress tracking, and the end-of-run coherence check.


## Limitations

- Docs-only import — executable `scripts/relay.mjs` not included; see upstream for full runtime. Requires `codex` CLI, Node 18+, git.
- Relay never commits — it only returns structured result JSON; you review and land the commit.

> Adapted from [amElnagdy/delegate-skills](https://github.com/amElnagdy/delegate-skills) (MIT) — docs-only, runtime not bundled.