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