OpenAI shipped Codex CLI 0.163.0 on October 15. It is a quality-of-life release, and a lot of it is stuff you feel every day in the terminal.
The good stuff
Steer while it talks. Send a follow-up while Codex is responding and it steers immediately. Interrupting a turn now also stops active Code Mode cells and their nested tool calls.
Searchable /config. Search preferences across categories, change supported settings right away, and see which ones need a restart.
Leader key. Configure one in /keymap. Default is Ctrl+X, and voice mute moves to F9.
Parallel read-only tools. Independent read-only lookups — skills, memory, conversation history — can run at the same time.
/daemon restart. Restart a managed background server from the TUI. It warns you about work the restart could interrupt, then reconnects.
Daybreak is also on by default for eligible accounts, and codex exec can select it with an API key when the server offers access.
The security-minded fixes
This is the part the network guy in me appreciates. The network proxy now checks permission before a DNS lookup, rejects duplicate Host headers, and stops credential aliases from bypassing inspection hooks. Resuming a saved thread restores its permissions and network approvals while still respecting current managed policy. Docs also clarify that the Linux sandbox uses bubblewrap for filesystem isolation and seccomp for syscall filtering.
One housekeeping change: Codex now uses its standard shell executor and no longer bundles a patched zsh. If you used the retired shell flags, you will get a migration notice.
Small release notes, real daily wins. Update and try steering mid-answer — it changes how you work with it.
Have a blessed day! And Happy Hacking!