# Codex IDE Extension The Codex IDE Extension is the editor-embedded surface of [[OpenAI Codex]]. It is the answer to "I want Codex inside the editor I already use," covering the [[VS Code]] line and the JetBrains family with first-party support. Functionally it is closest to Cursor's chat panel or Claude Code's IDE integrations; same authentication and config as the [[Codex CLI]], rendered as an editor sidebar instead of a terminal pane. ## Supported IDEs - [[Visual Studio Code (VSCode)|VS Code]] (primary) - VS Code Insiders - [[Cursor.com|Cursor]] (VS Code fork) - Windsurf (VS Code fork) - JetBrains: IntelliJ IDEA, PyCharm, WebStorm, Rider All on macOS, Windows, Linux. Authentication via the ChatGPT account or an OpenAI API key, shared with the CLI / App / Cloud surfaces. ## Capabilities - **Editor context awareness**; references open files, selections, and cursor location for relevant turns; reduces the prompt-precision burden the CLI puts on the user. - **Approval modes**; Chat, Agent, and Agent (Full Access). Mirrors the CLI's permission profiles in a GUI. - **Model switching**; same picker as elsewhere; GPT-5.5 default. - **Reasoning effort control**; low / medium / high toggle; trades latency for depth. - **Image generation in-editor**; via [[ChatGPT Images 2.0]]. - **Slash commands**; same vocabulary as the CLI; project-defined commands surface here too. - **Cloud delegation**; promote a job to [[Codex Cloud]] from the sidebar without leaving the editor. - **Customizable shortcuts**; rebind the common entry points (chat focus, agent run, accept hunk). ## When to choose the IDE Extension - Day-to-day editing where the IDE is already the home base; the extension keeps Codex one keystroke away rather than in another window. - Heavy use of editor context (selections, breakpoints, debugger state); the extension can feed those automatically; the CLI cannot. - JetBrains users; the JetBrains build is first-class, unlike most other agentic-coding tools that treat JetBrains as an afterthought. The CLI is still the right surface for scripting, CI, and unattended runs. The [[Codex App]] beats the extension when the work involves multiple parallel threads or computer-use beyond the editor. Cloud is the right surface for long-running async work. ## Trade-offs - **Surface drift**; the IDE Extension and CLI diverge on minor features release-by-release; what is in the latest CLI may not be in the extension yet, and vice versa. - **Editor overhead**; in heavy projects the extension can compete for memory with the editor's own LSP / index; the CLI has no such cost. - **Less programmable**; no `codex exec --json` equivalent; the extension is for humans, not pipelines. ## References - Documentation: https://developers.openai.com/codex/ide - Codex umbrella: https://openai.com/codex/ ## Related - [[OpenAI Codex]] - [[Codex CLI]] - [[Codex App]] - [[Codex Cloud]] - [[Codex plugin for Claude Code]] - [[Visual Studio Code (VSCode)]] - [[Cursor.com]] - [[AI Agent Harnesses (MoC)]] - [[AI Agent Harness]]