ide/features.md Codex Docs, 2026-02-19 20:37 UTC → 2026-04-24 18:20 UTC

1# Codex IDE extension features1# Codex IDE extension features

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3What you can do with the Codex IDE extension

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5The Codex IDE extension gives you access to Codex directly in VS Code, Cursor, Windsurf, and other VS Code-compatible editors. It uses the same agent as the Codex CLI and shares the same configuration.3The Codex IDE extension gives you access to Codex directly in VS Code, Cursor, Windsurf, and other VS Code-compatible editors. It uses the same agent as the Codex CLI and shares the same configuration.

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7## Prompting Codex5## Prompting Codex

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23## Adjust reasoning effort21## Adjust reasoning effort

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25You can adjust reasoning effort to control how long Codex thinks before responding. Higher effort can help on complex tasks, but responses take longer. Higher effort also uses more tokens and can consume your rate limits faster (especially with GPT-5-Codex).23You can adjust reasoning effort to control how long Codex thinks before responding. Higher effort can help on complex tasks, but responses take longer. Higher effort also uses more tokens and can consume your rate limits faster, especially with higher-capability models.

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27Use the same model switcher shown above, and choose `low`, `medium`, or `high` for each model. Start with `medium`, and only switch to `high` when you need more depth.25Use the same model switcher shown above, and choose `low`, `medium`, or `high` for each model. Start with `medium`, and only switch to `high` when you need more depth.

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60## Web search58## Web search

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62Codex ships with a first-party web search tool. For local tasks in the Codex IDE Extension, Codex enables web search by default and serves results from a web search cache. The cache is an OpenAI-maintained index of web results, so cached mode returns pre-indexed results instead of fetching live pages. This reduces exposure to prompt injection from arbitrary live content, but you should still treat web results as untrusted. If you configure your sandbox for [full access](https://developers.openai.com/codex/security), web search defaults to live results. See [Config basics](https://developers.openai.com/codex/config-basic) to disable web search or switch to live results that fetch the most recent data.60Codex ships with a first-party web search tool. For local tasks in the Codex IDE Extension, Codex enables web search by default and serves results from a web search cache. The cache is an OpenAI-maintained index of web results, so cached mode returns pre-indexed results instead of fetching live pages. This reduces exposure to prompt injection from arbitrary live content, but you should still treat web results as untrusted. If you configure your sandbox for [full access](https://developers.openai.com/codex/agent-approvals-security), web search defaults to live results. See [Config basics](https://developers.openai.com/codex/config-basic) to disable web search or switch to live results that fetch the most recent data.

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64You'll see `web_search` items in the transcript or `codex exec --json` output whenever Codex looks something up.62You'll see `web_search` items in the transcript or `codex exec --json` output whenever Codex looks something up.

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70Hold down `Shift` while dropping an image. VS Code otherwise prevents extensions from accepting a drop.68Hold down `Shift` while dropping an image. VS Code otherwise prevents extensions from accepting a drop.

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72## See also70## Image generation

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74- [Codex IDE extension settings](https://developers.openai.com/codex/ide/settings)72Ask Codex to generate or edit images without leaving your editor. This is useful for UI assets, layouts, illustrations, sprite sheets, and quick placeholders while you work. Add a reference image to the prompt when you want Codex to transform or extend an existing asset.

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74You can ask in natural language or explicitly invoke the image generation skill by including `$imagegen` in your prompt.

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76[Previous76Built-in image generation uses `gpt-image-2`, counts toward your general Codex usage limits, and uses included limits 3-5x faster on average than similar turns without image generation, depending on image quality and size. For details, see [Pricing](https://developers.openai.com/codex/pricing#image-generation-usage-limits). For prompting tips and model details, see the [image generation guide](https://developers.openai.com/api/docs/guides/image-generation).

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78Overview](https://developers.openai.com/codex/ide)[Next78For larger batches of image generation, set `OPENAI_API_KEY` in your environment variables and ask Codex to generate images through the API so API pricing applies instead.

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80Settings](https://developers.openai.com/codex/ide/settings)80## See also

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82- [Codex IDE extension settings](https://developers.openai.com/codex/ide/settings)