---
title: "Codex"
icon: 'square-terminal'
description: "Add AI-native memory to OpenAI Codex"
sidebarTitle: 'Codex'
---

Give Codex long-term memory that survives context resets, session restarts, and fresh conversations. Codex remembers what you're working on, your preferences, and the decisions you've made — across every project. Lifecycle hooks capture each session to Honcho and inject the relevant context back at session start, so you never have to repeat yourself.

## Prerequisites

- **[Codex](https://developers.openai.com/codex) ≥ 0.136.0**
- **[Node](https://nodejs.org)** on your `PATH` (runs the installer and the hooks)

## Quick Start

### Step 1: Get Your Honcho API Key

1. Go to **[app.honcho.dev](https://app.honcho.dev)**
2. Sign up or log in
3. Copy your API key (starts with `hch-`)

### Step 2: Save Your API Key

Your key lives in **`~/.honcho/config.json`** — the single config file every Honcho integration reads. codex-honcho takes the key straight from there.

<Note>
**Already have your key in `~/.honcho/config.json`?** If another Honcho integration already wrote it there, there's nothing to do — skip to Step 3 and `install` picks it up automatically.
</Note>

**First time?** Create it with the Honcho CLI:

```bash
honcho init   # prompts for your key, writes ~/.honcho/config.json
              # no CLI yet? uv tool install honcho-cli && honcho init
```

If you'd rather write the file yourself:

```jsonc
// ~/.honcho/config.json
{ "apiKey": "hch-your-api-key-here" }
```

### Step 3: Install the Plugin

```bash
npm install -g @honcho-ai/codex-honcho
codex-honcho install      # registers hooks + MCP + skill in ~/.codex
```

`install` copies your resolved key into `~/.codex/config.toml` so the Honcho MCP server authenticates with no environment variable to set. If you ever rotate your key, re-run `codex-honcho install` to refresh it.

### Step 4: Restart Codex

Restart Codex (or start a new session) to load the hooks and the `[features].hooks` flag. On your next session start you'll see Honcho memory load into context.

### Step 5: (Optional) Tell Codex to use its memory

The bundled `honcho-memory` skill already nudges Codex to recall and save actively. To reinforce it, add a short directive to your global Codex instructions (`~/.codex/AGENTS.md`):

```markdown
# Honcho Memory

You have persistent memory via Honcho. Context about me is loaded at the start
of every session — trust it and act on it; don't ask me what you already know.
Use the Honcho MCP tools (`search`, `chat`) to recall more mid-task, and
`create_conclusions` to save new preferences, decisions, and patterns as you learn them.
```

## What You Get

- **Persistent Memory** — Codex remembers your preferences, projects, and context across sessions
- **Survives Context Resets** — Memory persists through `/clear`, compaction, and restarts
- **Active Recall** — Codex can search your history and query what Honcho knows about you mid-task, not just at startup
- **Git Awareness** — Optionally scope memory per branch, so feature work keeps its own context
- **Flexible Sessions** — Map memory per directory, per git branch, or per chat instance
- **Local-First Capture** — Conversations are queued to disk instantly and uploaded in the background — capture never blocks your turn or hits the network mid-conversation
- **Cross-Tool Context** — Shares `~/.honcho/config.json` with other Honcho integrations (Claude Code, Cursor, …), so context can follow you between tools

## Configuration

All settings live in `~/.honcho/config.json` (shared with other Honcho integrations). Codex-specific settings go under `hosts.codex`, falling back to the root fields. The hooks only ever read this file; `install` is the only writer.

```jsonc
{
  "apiKey": "hch-…",
  "peerName": "alice",              // your identity (default: $USER)
  "hosts": {
    "codex": {
      "workspace": "codex",          // Honcho workspace for Codex memory
      "sessionStrategy": "per-directory",
      "injectPerPrompt": false,      // re-inject context every turn (off by default)
      "saveMessages": true           // false = read memory but never write
    }
  }
}
```

### Session Strategies

Controls how Codex conversations map to Honcho sessions:

| Strategy | Session name | Best for |
| --- | --- | --- |
| `per-directory` (default) | `my-app` | Most users — each project accumulates its own memory |
| `git-branch` | `my-app-main` | Feature-branch workflows where context per branch matters |
| `chat-instance` | `my-app-019ea7df` | Ephemeral usage — a clean slate per conversation |

An explicit `sessions[cwd]` mapping overrides all strategies. Environment overrides: `HONCHO_API_KEY`, `HONCHO_PEER_NAME`, `HONCHO_CONFIG_DIR`.

## Building with Teammates

Because `~/.honcho/config.json` is shared across Honcho hosts, teammates can collaborate by pointing at the same workspace while keeping their own identities. Each person uses their own `peerName`, so their contributions are attributed to distinct peers even when they work in the same repo.

**Alice** (`~/.honcho/config.json`):
```json
{
  "apiKey": "hch-team-key...",
  "peerName": "alice",
  "hosts": {
    "codex": { "workspace": "team-acme" }
  }
}
```

**Bob** (`~/.honcho/config.json`):
```json
{
  "apiKey": "hch-team-key...",
  "peerName": "bob",
  "hosts": {
    "codex": { "workspace": "team-acme" }
  }
}
```

Both Alice and Bob write to the `team-acme` workspace. Working in the same repo, they share a session (named by directory, e.g. `my-app`) but appear in it as separate peers — so Honcho's dialectic reasoning can draw on context from both.

## MCP Tools

Once installed, Codex can call these Honcho tools directly:

| Tool | Description |
| --- | --- |
| `search` | Semantic search across your session messages |
| `chat` | Ask Honcho a natural-language question about you |
| `get_peer_context` | Fetch the current model of you (representation + peer card) |
| `get_representation` | Lightweight representation string |
| `create_conclusions` | Save durable insights to memory |
| `list_conclusions` | List saved conclusions |
| `query_conclusions` | Semantic search across derived conclusions |
| `delete_conclusion` | Remove a conclusion by ID |

## Commands

| Command | Effect |
| --- | --- |
| `codex-honcho install` | Install hooks + MCP + skill |
| `codex-honcho status` | Installed components, pending queue depth, GUI link |
| `codex-honcho remove` | Strip only what this installs |

## What Install Writes

| Path | Change |
| --- | --- |
| `~/.codex/honcho/` | staged copy of the bundle the hooks run (kept stable across npm/npx cache eviction) |
| `~/.codex/hooks.json` | adds the four hook entries (merged; your own hooks untouched) |
| `~/.codex/config.toml` | sets `[features].hooks = true`; registers `[mcp_servers.honcho]` → `mcp.honcho.dev` (native HTTP) |
| `~/.codex/skills/honcho-memory/` | the active-recall skill |
| `~/.honcho/config.json` | persists the resolved `apiKey` + `peerName` (other fields and `hosts.*` blocks preserved) |

`codex-honcho remove` reverses exactly these.

## Troubleshooting

**No memory loading / MCP not registered.** Confirm your key is in `~/.honcho/config.json` (`codex-honcho status` shows `honcho config: found`). If it's missing, run `honcho init` (or add `{ "apiKey": "hch-…" }` to the file yourself), then re-run `codex-honcho install` — without a key, install registers the hooks and skill but skips the MCP server.

**Hooks aren't firing.** Restart Codex after installing so it loads `hooks.json` and the `[features].hooks` flag. Check `codex-honcho status` for installed components and pending queue depth.

**Memory not persisting.** Make sure `saveMessages` isn't set to `false` under `hosts.codex`.

## Install from a GitHub Clone (no npm)

```bash
git clone https://github.com/plastic-labs/codex-honcho
cd codex-honcho
./install.sh              # bun install + bun run bin/codex-honcho.ts install
```

The clone path runs the TypeScript source directly and so requires **[bun](https://bun.sh)**; it wires the hooks to `bun run <this dir>/bin/codex-honcho.ts`, so keep the clone in place. The npm install instead stages the bundled `dist/codex-honcho.mjs` to `~/.codex/honcho/` and wires hooks to `node` — node-only, and stable across `npm update`, npx cache eviction, or removing the package.

## Next Steps

<CardGroup cols={2}>
  <Card title="GitHub Repository" icon="github" href="https://github.com/plastic-labs/codex-honcho">
    Source code, issues, and README.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Honcho Architecture" icon="sitemap" href="../../documentation/core-concepts/architecture">
    Learn about peers, sessions, and dialectic reasoning.
  </Card>
</CardGroup>