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OpenAI Codex CLI: Lightweight coding agent that runs in your terminal

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Re: OpenAI Codex CLI: Lightweight coding agent that runs in your terminal

#271

Post by ChadMoran »

_joel wrote: post #226
ChadMoran wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've spent more than 40 hours/week and close to $1,000 in API credits using these tools. For me the ranking goes. But, we all will have difference experiences. 1. Claude Code 2. Cursor 3. Cline. 4. Windsurf

How you can place windsuf in number 4 is interesting, especially given it's very similar to cursor but is leaner on the UI and Cline is a vs-code plugin that very verbose. I'll stick with Windsurf, especially given their upcoming announcement.

I care a lot less about UI and more about quality of output. Windsurf has had some of the lowest quality outputs for me.

Re: OpenAI Codex CLI: Lightweight coding agent that runs in your terminal

#273

Post by Hansenq »

jzig wrote: post #158
flakiness wrote: post #47

https://github.com/openai/codex/blob/main/codex-cli/src/comp... Hey comment this thing in! const thinkingTexts = ["Thinking"]; /* [ "Consulting the rubber duck", "Maximizing paperclips", "Reticulating splines", "Immanentizing the Eschaton", "Thinking", "Thinking about thinking", "Spinning in circles", "Counting dust specks", "Updating priors", "Feeding the utility monster", "Taking off", "Wireheading", "Counting to i…

Uhh… why is React in a terminal tool?

React is used to render the CLI through ink: https://github.com/vadimdemedes/ink

Re: OpenAI Codex CLI: Lightweight coding agent that runs in your terminal

#274

Post by rafaelmn »

_neil wrote: post #38
retinaros wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

too expensive. I cant understand why everyone is into claude code vs using claude in cursor or windsurf.

Anecdotally, Claude code performs much better than Claude within Cursor. Not sure if it’s a system prompt thing or if I’ve just convinced myself of it because the aesthetic is so much better, but either way the end result feels better to me.

One has the incentive to burn through as much tokens and the other has an incentive to use as little as possible

Re: OpenAI Codex CLI: Lightweight coding agent that runs in your terminal

#275

Post by udbhavs »

primitivesuave wrote: post #50
udbhavs wrote: post #13

Next, set your OpenAI API key as an environment variable: export OPENAI_API_KEY="your-api-key-here" Note: This command sets the key only for your current terminal session. To make it permanent, add the export line to your shell's configuration file (e.g., ~/.zshrc). Can't any 3rd party utility running in the same shell session phone home with the API key? I'd ideally want only codex to be able to access this var

You could create a shell function - e.g. `codex() { OPENAI="xyz" codex "$@" }'. To call the original command use `command codex ...`. People downvoting legitimate questions on HN should be ashamed of themselves.

That's neat! I only asked because I haven't seen API keys used in the context of profile environment variables in shell before - there might be other common cases I'm unaware of

Re: OpenAI Codex CLI: Lightweight coding agent that runs in your terminal

#276

Post by winrid »

dingnuts wrote: post #269
artdigital wrote: post #250

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, Amazon Q is using Amazon Q. You can't change the model, it's calling itself "Q" and it's capped to $20 (Q Developer Pro plan). There is also a free tier available - https://aws.amazon.com/q/developer/ It's very much a "Claude Code" in the sense that you have a "q chat" command line command that can do everything from changing files, running shell commands, reading and researching, etc. So I can say "q chat" and t…

> the entire appeal of Claude Code is that it does everything itself, like figuring out what files to read/change how is this appealing? I think I must be getting old because the idea of letting a language model run wild and run commands on my system -- that's unsanitized input! --horrifies me! What do you mean just let it change random files?? I'm going to have to learn a new trade, IDK

It shows you the diff and you confirm it, asks you before running commands, and doesn't allow accessing files outside the current dir. You can also tell it to not ask again and let it go wild, I've built full features this way and then just go through and clean it up a bit after.

Re: OpenAI Codex CLI: Lightweight coding agent that runs in your terminal

#277

Post by ekabod »

razemio wrote: post #216
ekabod wrote: post #181

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"gemini 2.5 pro exp" is superior to Claude Sonnet 3.7 when I use it with Aider [1]. And it is free (with some high limit). [1] https://aider.chat/

Compared to cline aider had no chance, the last time I tried it (4 month ago). Has it really changed? Always thought cline is superior because it focuses on sonnet with all its bells an whistles. While aider tries to be an universal ide coding agent which works well with all models. When I try gemmini 2.5 pro exp with cline it does very well but often fails to use the tools provided by cline which makes it way less e…

I tried Cline, but I work faster using the command line style of Aider. Having the /run command to execute a script and having the console content added to the prompt, makes fixing bugs very fast.

Re: OpenAI Codex CLI: Lightweight coding agent that runs in your terminal

#278

Post by usecodenaija »

killerstorm wrote: post #253
usecodenaija wrote: post #229

So, OpenAI’s Codex CLI is Claude Code, but worse? Cursor-Agent-Tools > Claude Code > Codex CLI https://pypi.org/project/cursor-agent-tools/

This tool has nothing to do with Cursor. Very misleading to use popular brand like that, possible scam.

Maybe read the docs before replying:

Cursor Agent Tools is a Python-based AI agent that replicates Cursor's coding assistant capabilities, enabling function calling, code generation, and intelligent coding assistance with Claude, OpenAI, and locally hosted Ollama models.

https://github.com/civai-technologies/cursor-agent

Re: OpenAI Codex CLI: Lightweight coding agent that runs in your terminal

#279

Post by kristianp »

shekhargulati wrote: post #232

Not sure why they used React for a CLI. The code in the repo feels like it was written by an LLM—too many inline comments. Interestingly, their agent's system prompt mentions removing inline comments https://github.com/openai/codex/blob/main/codex-cli/src/util... . > - Remove all inline comments you added as much as possible, even if they look normal. Check using \`git diff\`. Inline comments must be generally avoide…

I find it irritating too when companies use react for a command line utility. I think its just my preference for anything else but javascript.

Re: OpenAI Codex CLI: Lightweight coding agent that runs in your terminal

#280

Post by kristianp »

I've been using Aider, it was irritating to use (couldn't supply changes in the diff format) until I switched away from chatgpt-4o to Claude 3.7 and then Gemini 2.5. This is admittedly for a small project. Gpt 4.1 should do better with the diff format so I will give it a go.
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