In-session `/profile` command for Codex CLI

Resolved 💬 3 comments Opened May 1, 2026 by civilizedBaboon Closed May 2, 2026
💡 Likely answer: A maintainer (github-actions[bot], contributor) responded on this thread — see the highlighted reply below.

Motivation

Codex CLI can select a profile at startup, but switching profiles in the middle of an active session currently requires restarting.

Requested feature

It would be useful to have an in-session /profile command that lets me switch between named profiles already defined in ~/.codex/config.toml.

Example profiles

[profiles.lite]
model = "gpt-5.4-mini"
model_reasoning_effort = "low"

[profiles.lite-fast]
model = "gpt-5.4-mini"
model_reasoning_effort = "low"
service_tier = "fast"

[profiles.deep-fast]
model = "gpt-5.5"
model_reasoning_effort = "high"
service_tier = "fast"

[profiles.deep-fast-xhigh]
model = "gpt-5.5"
model_reasoning_effort = "xhigh"
service_tier = "fast"

Example commands

/profile lite
/profile lite-fast
/profile deep-fast
/profile deep-fast-xhigh

Expected behavior

When a profile is switched during a session:

  • Codex loads the selected profile from config
  • the new profile applies to subsequent turns
  • the current conversation context stays intact
  • the UI shows the active profile
  • Codex clearly indicates if any settings require a restart

Use case

A lighter lite or lite-fast profile would be helpful for quick questions, while deep-fast or deep-fast-xhigh would be useful for harder reasoning or implementation work, without needing to start a new session.

Notes

This is specifically about switching profiles mid-session, not only at startup.

View original on GitHub ↗

3 Comments

github-actions[bot] contributor · 3 months ago

Potential duplicates detected. Please review them and close your issue if it is a duplicate.

  • #20477

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etraut-openai contributor · 3 months ago

Thanks for the suggestion. We are planning to deprecate the current profile mechanism and replace it with something different. We'll see if this makes sense once that's in place.

civilizedBaboon · 3 months ago

I appreciate the update. I’ll keep an eye out for the new approach. I’ll close this for now since the current profile mechanism is planned for deprecation.