Image: OpenAI
Why it mattersA coding agent that can spin up its own worktrees stops colliding with the files you have open, and a shared pin list lets a team keep the same long-running tasks in view across sessions.
A Codex agent that opens a new worktree before it starts changing files no longer fights the branch you have checked out.
OpenAI published Codex 0.162. The release notes list six new features in the TUI and the Command Center, bug fixes for the Linux and Windows sandboxes, and a signed PowerShell installer for the Windows build.
Managed worktrees from inside the agent
The headline feature is a new pair of tools for creating and listing managed Git worktrees from trusted local projects, available when the worktrees feature is enabled. OpenAI frames this as a way for the agent to work on a separate copy of the repository without touching the one the user has open, which matters most when a long task is kicked off from inside an editor on the same clone.
A follow-up note in the release says the agent now clarifies Git worktree choices when a conversation is new or forked, so the user is told which worktree the next turn will run against rather than finding out from a surprising diff. On fresh TUI threads the server's model and reasoning-summary defaults are respected, with explicit launch overrides preserved.
Shared task pinning in the Command Center
Users can press p to pin a task in the agent Command Center and the pin lands in a shared Pinned group that is kept in sync when the server supports it. The release notes also list a new transcript copy keybinding (/copy), Ctrl+Insert for copying selections and a configurable mouse-wheel scroll speed through tui.mouse_scroll_speed. The command centre remembers its grouping across launches, so a team that pins the same investigation across machines sees it on next open.
A second cluster of fixes makes URLs clickable in approval headers, user input questions, MCP elicitation prompts, warnings, banners and verification prompts, including when a link wraps across two lines. OpenAI lists these under a single theme in the pull-request list: a wrapped help link in a Windows sandbox prompt should still be clickable, and the status bar should keep its hyperlink when the URL wraps.
Sandbox and installer fixes
OpenAI says the Linux sandbox startup is fixed when multiple files are denied, writable sandbox-construction executables are rejected, and ripgrep configuration is kept from weakening deny-glob masks. On Windows 10 the release restores ordinary drive-letter file access for no-follow filesystem operations, matches sandbox temp permissions to the child process environment, and corrects installer checksum verification under PowerShell when PowerShell 7 module paths are present. The chores list includes a signed PowerShell installer for the Windows build and a guard that stops stable release pointers from moving backward, so an older build cannot overwrite a newer one.
The release follows 0.161 closely. 0.161 added GPT-6.1 Sol as the default model, a shorter MCP login flow and GovCloud support; 0.162 is the one with the agent-workflow features in it.
Source
openai/codex v0.162.0 release notes, OpenAI.
This item was written by an AI system from the linked source. Reveneau is responsible for what it publishes.
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