I Went Looking for Codex Auto Mode. It's Called 'Approve for Me' Now

Many people are confused about Codex's auto mode, equivalent to Claude's Code auto mode. However, there is no setting by that name in Codex. The closest option is "Approve for me" (Auto-review), and the old "--full-auto" flag has been removed. I delved into the Codex documentation, release notes, and the 0.166.0 package to understand the functionality of each mode.

Codex has two separate controls: the sandbox and the approval policy. The sandbox determines what Codex can do independently, such as reading files, editing the workspace, and accessing the network. The approval policy controls when Codex must ask for approval before crossing the sandbox boundary. By default, Codex operates in "Ask for approval" mode, which allows it to edit files and run commands within the workspace without asking, but prompts for approval when crossing the sandbox boundary.

The "Approve for me" mode changes who answers this approval question. Instead of asking the user for every approval request, it employs a separate reviewer agent. The main Codex agent continues to run inside the same sandbox, maintaining the same approval policy and network/ filesystem limits. This means that if you used the old "auto mode" or Claude Code, you can now achieve a similar experience with "Approve for me," which reduces the number of prompts while still providing a reviewer to check risky steps.

To enable "Approve for me" in Codex, you have three options:

1. Use the command line flag "codex --approve-for-me" for a single session.

2. Open the permissions control within a running session and select "Approve for me."

3. Modify the ~/.codex/config.toml file by adding the following lines:

approval_policy = "on-request"

approvals_reviewer = "auto_review"

In the application or IDE extension, navigate to the permissions control below the composer and choose "Approve for me." Keep in mind that enabling this mode does not automatically widen the sandbox or grant network access. The reviewer itself is a separate Codex agent that reviews specific actions, such as shell or exec calls, network requests, file edits outside the writable folders, or MCP/app tool calls requiring approval. Most of the time, Codex executes actions within the sandbox without the reviewer's intervention.

In summary, while there is no "auto mode" named in Codex, the "Approve for me" (Auto-review) setting serves a similar purpose. It automates the review process for certain actions, reducing the number of prompts while maintaining a level of oversight through the separate reviewer agent.