Codex CLI v0.160.0 starts sessions outside a project

Codex CLI v0.160.0 can start a session outside any project. In a folder without a saved trust decision, it skips the trust prompt and applies workspace defaults, when your local settings and managed policy allow it.

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01 02 03 04 Sessions outside a project

openai/codex · GitHub release rust-v0.160.0 · openai/codex · pull request #49160

Released October 1, 2026 When policy permits

When you resume a task, Codex now restores the permissions you saved for it. An explicit override still wins, and ordinary turns stop overwriting the permission profile the server saved.

Next, the terminal screen.

The agent command center used to list only your ten most recent sessions. Now a Show more row, which you can select from the keyboard, loads up to ten older tasks at a time.

In fullscreen mode on Linux, selecting transcript text now puts it in the X11 primary selection, and middle-click pastes it. That's local X11 only. Wayland, SSH, tmux, WSL and VS Code terminals are excluded.

If your connection drops with messages still queued, Codex now sends them once it reconnects. A message whose delivery it can't confirm stays paused, with a notice naming it, so you don't get a duplicate.

Connected to an app server, the terminal now keeps that server's settings. Its model provider, its reasoning summary and verbosity. And the resume and fork pickers now list the right sessions.

Then, Guardian reviews.

Guardian, the reviewer that checks actions with side effects before approving them, can now search your earlier messages. That surfaces instructions or revoked permissions its transcript may be missing. It's opt-in, and off by default.

A second opt-in feature covers work handed to another agent. Guardian reviews that worker's actions against the messages just before each handoff, plus your latest ones, so a recent cancellation still counts.

And the fixes.

On Windows, the sandbox now swaps the Microsoft Store PowerShell, which it can't run, for a compatible one. Permission repair handles paths past the old length limit. And background helpers stop opening console windows.

A subagent spawned while an environment was still starting used to lose that environment. Now it keeps it, and gets its configuration or its failure when preparation finishes.

Codex's SQLite database could stall while opening a connection or writing logs, and that's fixed. When setup does fail, you now see the real error, instead of a timeout.

If your model provider publishes its own model catalog, Codex now treats it as the complete list. Bundled models it doesn't support drop out, and a failed refresh stops leaving stale entries behind.

Plugins load with less repeated work, because Codex caches their parsed manifests and reuses connections for remote plugins. And the log database now reclaims unused space in the background, so it takes up less disk.

The release notes list every change in this version. You'll find them on the Codex releases page on GitHub, under v0.160.0.