Approval Modes — suggest / auto-edit / full-auto

~14 min · codex, approval, auto-edit, full-auto

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The trust dial, Codex edition

Codex exposes three approval modes plus --yolo. suggest (default) — shows plan, waits for approval before every action. auto-edit — edits files automatically, asks for shell commands. full-auto — edits and runs commands within the sandbox, no prompts. --yolo / --dangerously-bypass-approvals-and-sandbox — removes all gates (Docker only).

The flag-level equivalents: --ask-for-approval untrusted (suggest), --ask-for-approval on-request (the recommended default for trusted code), --ask-for-approval never (CI / sandbox VMs only). Mid-session, /permissions auto-edit switches modes without restarting.

Code

All three modes, when to use each·bash

# suggest (default) — first time on a codebase, sensitive code
codex                              # equivalent to --ask-for-approval untrusted
codex --ask-for-approval untrusted

# auto-edit — familiar codebase, normal coding
codex --approval-mode auto-edit
# in config.toml: approval_policy = "on-request"

# full-auto — trusted local automation
codex --full-auto
# = --ask-for-approval on-request --sandbox workspace-write

# yolo — Docker / sandbox VM only
codex --yolo
codex --dangerously-bypass-approvals-and-sandbox

Mid-session toggle·text

# In the TUI:
/permissions

# Browse current settings, switch modes:
/permissions auto-edit
/permissions suggest

# Useful pattern: start in suggest while exploring,
# bump to auto-edit once you trust the agent's
# direction, drop back to suggest before risky changes.

External links

Codex approval modes

Exercise

Run the same task in all three modes (suggest, auto-edit, full-auto) on a real repo. Note where each mode helps and where each gets in the way. Pick a default for your workflow and pin it in config.toml.

Progress

Progress is local-only — sign in to sync across devices.

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