collaborating-with-codex

Collaborating with Codex

Use this skill as the router and shared safety contract for every Codex workflow. Retain responsibility for the work, and compose this guidance with applicable planning, debugging, review, and verification skills instead of replacing them.

Shared workflow

1. Call codex_status before a paid call. Proceed only when both ready: true and extra_args_valid: true. If either is false, stop and surface the corresponding readiness or operator-configuration detail.
2. Treat rate_limit as advisory, with one exception. codex_status reads it live from the Codex app-server (no model spend, nothing persisted), so it is current when ready: true. Decide spend from it: proceed on available; defer non-urgent calls on limited or exhausted; treat unknown (the live read failed, or it succeeded but reported no currently usable window — note says which) or unavailable (this codex/account exposes no quota data) as uncertainty — neither permission nor denial. The account reports only the windows that currently bind it, so primary (shorter/rolling) or secondary (longer) may be null. Read note for plain-language caveats before relying on it.
3. Do not make a paid call when rate_limit.status is blocked. This is the exception to advisory: the backend reports a spend control (spend_control_reached: true) and the call will fail, so deferring does not help — no quota reset clears it. Stop and tell the user spending is administratively blocked on their Codex account.
4. Select one route below and load only its needed reference. Use a free dry-run when one exists, and read what it does not cover (see Data exposure).
5. Declare the paid-call cap before the first active call, then stay within it.
6. Branch on ok, then on the concrete tool/result type. Verify claims before acting.

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