Codex CLI v0.160 and how to configure automatic review (Guardian)

#codex #codexcli #releasenotes #guardian

Originally published at https://aicoding-guide.com.

Codex CLI v0.160.0 is mostly bug fixes, with one change worth configuring: the opt-in Guardian review got broader.

In short, the setting to know is the review policy. Write it as Markdown in auto_review.policy in config.toml, and use the managed guardian_policy_config when an organization needs one policy everywhere.

This article treats the release notes as the primary source and only states configuration keys the official configuration reference confirms, naming what it could not.

Key point
What you will learn

The four new features in v0.160.0

How auto_review.policy relates to the managed guardian_policy_config

What is still absent from the configuration reference

Four new features

From the release notes:

Change	What it does
Agent command center	A keyboard-accessible "Show more" for browsing older tasks (#49106)
Select and copy on X11	Select transcript text and paste with middle-click in fullscreen mode on supported local Linux X11 terminals (#49112)
Sessions outside a project	Start with workspace defaults where policy permits, and restore saved permissions on resume (#49160)
Guardian review	Opt-in capabilities to retrieve earlier user instructions and include context from agent handoffs (#49036, #49057)

Of these, Guardian is the one with configuration behind it. For the other three, no corresponding key appears in the configuration reference.

Configuring automatic review (Guardian)

Two keys in the configuration reference set the policy for automatic review.

Key	Type	What the reference says
`auto_review.policy`	string	Local Markdown policy instructions for automatic review. Managed `guardian_policy_config` takes precedence. Blank values are ignored
`auto_review.extra_policy`	string	Additional local Markdown policy for automatic review, included alongside the main policy. Managed `guardian_extra_policy` takes precedence. Blank values are ignored

The policy is prose in Markdown. Think of it as the brief you hand a reviewer, not a list of settings.

auto_review.policy = """
## Review policy

- For any diff that changes a public API, state whether it is backwards compatible
- Flag behavior changes that arrive without tests
- Do not comment on generated output (dist/, *.lock)
"""

auto_review.extra_policy = """
- This repository does not swallow exceptions. Always flag a swallowed exception.
"""

Glossary
Local versus managed: auto_review.* lives in your own config.toml. guardian_policy_config and guardian_extra_policy are the managed-settings keys, and the reference states the managed ones take precedence. For one policy across an organization, put it in managed settings so a local file cannot override it.

Blank values are ignored, so you cannot disable a policy by emptying it. Remove the key instead.

For the file's overall structure and profiles, see Configuring Codex with config.toml.

Starting a session outside a project

The release notes say sessions can "start with workspace defaults when policy permits, and restore saved permissions when resuming" — a change to what happens when you launch Codex outside a repository.

Relatedly, the configuration reference documents per-profile workspace roots:

Key	Type	What the reference says
`permissions.<name>.workspace_roots`	table	Profile-defined workspace roots that receive `:workspace_roots` filesystem rules alongside the session's runtime workspace roots
`permissions.<name>.workspace_roots.<path>`	boolean	Opt a path into the profile's workspace root set when `true`. Disabled entries remain inactive
`permissions.<name>.description`	string	Human-readable description for this named profile. A profile does not inherit its parent's description through `extends`

The workspace defaults key could not be confirmed
Whether the release notes' "workspace defaults" means the permissions.<name>.workspace_roots above, or a separate mechanism, could not be confirmed in the configuration reference as of October 5, 2026. To be explicit about where a projectless session may write, start from the workspace_roots keys that are documented. The wider picture is in Extending where Codex can write with writable_roots.

Windows and the other fixes

The bug fixes concern the runtime environment, with Windows work continuing from v0.158:

Windows sandbox PowerShell fallbacks, long-path permission repairs, and suppressing unwanted console windows from background helpers (#49019, #49058, #49098, #49164, #49386)
Unsent queued messages resuming after a reconnection once uncertain submissions resolve, without duplicate sends (#49105)
The TUI preserving server provider, reasoning-summary and verbosity settings, and showing the correct sessions in resume and fork history (#49144, #49161, #49171)
Subagents retaining environments that are still starting, and receiving their configuration or preparation failure (#49075)
Preventing SQLite stalls during connection setup and logging, surfacing initialization errors instead of masking them as timeouts (#49032, #49102)
Explicit provider model catalogs no longer including unsupported bundled models or reusing stale entries after a refresh failure (#49135)

For approvals and the sandbox, see Codex approval modes and sandbox; for what led here, Codex CLI v0.158.

Summary

v0.160.0 has four new features, and automatic review (Guardian) is the only one with configuration behind it
Write the policy as Markdown in auto_review.policy, with auto_review.extra_policy alongside it
The managed guardian_policy_config and guardian_extra_policy take precedence over the local keys
Blank values are ignored, so remove the key rather than emptying it
The "workspace defaults" key and the TUI copy settings were not in the configuration reference on October 5, 2026

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