zsh-codex-assistant

An on-demand codex session attached to your zsh shell. You can bring it forward any time, shell context is preserved.

How it works

Use @ your prompt to hop into Codex anytime.

$ # run your commands normally in the shell
$ cd ./zsh-codex-assistant
$ # prefix your prompts with '@'. first invocation starts a background codex session for this shell
$ @ explain this project
<codex CLI opens, responds to your request and exits>
$ # your shell returns to normal.
$ ls
session-notify.zsh zsh-codex-assistant.plugin.zsh ...
$ @ what was my last request?
$ <codex session resumes, your shell command history since the last invocation is put into the context>

Motivation

I decided to build this because none of the existing tools were quite satisfactory:

• I need a persistent harness process, not just an agent in oneshot mode - to preserve shell context and skip the warmup delay
• I do not want to trust a pile of overcomplicated slop for my root shell (there are plenty of other projects for AI in the shell that suffer from feature bloat)
• I only need codex support

If you need LLM command generation in-place, check out zsh-ai - it's decent.

Install

Requires Zsh and an installed, signed-in Codex CLI. Make sure codex works first.

Install manually

Clone this repository, then add this line to your ~/.zshrc, using the path where you cloned it:

source /path/to/zsh-codex-assistant/zsh-codex-assistant.plugin.zsh

Open a new terminal to load the plugin.

Load it after plugins that customize the Enter key if you have any.

With zplug

Add this alongside your other zplug declarations in ~/.zshrc, after any plugins that customize the Enter key and before zplug load:

zplug "klntsky/zsh-codex-assistant", use:"zsh-codex-assistant.plugin.zsh"

Open a new terminal, run zplug install, then open another new terminal to load the plugin. Your ~/.zshrc should already call zplug load after the declarations.

If you already cloned this repository and want zplug to use that checkout, register its path instead:

zplug "/path/to/zsh-codex-assistant", from:local, use:"zsh-codex-assistant.plugin.zsh"

Local checkouts do not need zplug install. Put the declaration before your existing zplug load line, then open a new terminal.

Optional settings

Add any of these settings to ~/.zshrc:

export ZSH_CODEX_ASSISTANT_MODEL="your-model"
export ZSH_CODEX_ASSISTANT_PROFILE="your-profile"
export ZSH_CODEX_ASSISTANT_INITIAL_PROMPT="Act as a shell assistant"