Guides

How to know when OpenAI Codex needs your approval

Updated October 21, 2026

Short answer: In the Codex CLI, keep notifications on under [tui] in ~/.codex/config.toml, with “approval-requested” in the list, so your terminal alerts you when Codex is waiting; the older notify setting only fires when a turn finishes. In the ChatGPT desktop app, turn on permission and question notifications, and pair the ChatGPT phone app to approve actions from your phone. To answer without switching windows, Lowtide shows Codex's approvals in your Mac's menu bar with Allow and Don't allow.

Codex works until it needs a yes from you, and then it waits, however long you're in another window. Knowing when that happens, and answering quickly, is most of what keeps a long task moving.

When Codex asks

Your permission mode decides. Ask for approval, the recommended starting point, asks before Codex edits files outside the project or uses the internet. Approve for me hands those decisions to a reviewer agent and asks you only about what it judges potentially unsafe. Full access doesn't ask. Switch with /permissions in the CLI, or the control below the message box in the app.

1. Notifications in the CLI

The Codex CLI notifies you through your terminal, and by default only while the terminal isn't in front. The notifications setting under [tui] in ~/.codex/config.toml is on by default; to choose which moments notify you, list them. “approval-requested” covers commands, file edits and tool prompts that need your OK.

[tui]
notifications = ["agent-turn-complete", "approval-requested"]
notification_condition = "unfocused"

The older notify setting runs a program of your own with details of the turn, but only when a turn completes, never when Codex is waiting for approval.

2. The ChatGPT desktop app

The desktop app, where Codex now lives, has its own notification settings: alerts when a task finishes (never, only while the app is in the background, or always), and separate switches for permission requests and questions. Its activity view lists every chat that's running or waiting for you. The IDE extension has no notification settings of its own.

3. On your phone

Pair the ChatGPT phone app with the desktop app (Settings → Connections in the desktop app shows a QR code), and you can approve actions from your phone, approve them for good, tell Codex what to do instead, or deny them, while the work runs on your computer. Your computer has to stay awake and online.

4. Hooks, for answering elsewhere

Codex's PermissionRequest hook runs just before it asks for approval, and can allow, deny, or leave the decision to the usual prompt. That's how other apps answer Codex for you. Hooks go in ~/.codex/hooks.json or under [hooks] in config.toml, and Codex runs a new hook only after you approve it with /hooks.