Slash commands in the extension
Resolved 💬 11 comments Opened Sep 1, 2025 by honjo-hiroaki-gtt Closed Nov 27, 2025
💡 Likely answer: A maintainer (etraut-openai, contributor)
responded on this thread — see the highlighted reply below.
What version of the VS Code extension are you using?
[Codex VS Code extension v0.4.0]
Which IDE are you using?
Visual Studio Code [1.103.2]
What platform is your computer?
macOS [15.6.1] (arm64) uname -mprs: [Darwin 24.6.0 arm64 arm]
What steps can reproduce the bug?
This is a FEATURE REQUEST (not a bug).
Reproduction of current limitation:
- Open the Codex panel in the VS Code extension.
- Focus the input field and type “/”.
- No command suggestions appear.
- Enter “/clear” and press Enter.
- The message is treated as plain text; no slash command is executed.
What is the expected behavior?
- Typing “/” opens a slash-command palette with discoverable options (e.g., /clear, /diff, /init, /approvals, /model).
- Keyboard navigation (Tab/Enter, Up/Down) to select a command.
- Basic argument support (e.g.,
/diff --staged,/model o4-mini). - Commands that affect state (e.g., approvals) mirror the extension’s existing UI switcher (Chat / Agent / Agent (Full Access)).
- Respect approval/sandbox settings; non-applicable commands are disabled with a tooltip.
What do you see instead?
- The input treats “/” as normal text.
- No suggestions appear.
/clear(and other slash commands that exist in the CLI) do not execute in the extension.- I have to use the mouse/UI to switch modes or run equivalent actions.
Additional information
Why this matters:
- Parity with the Codex CLI/TUI, which already exposes slash commands.
- Better discoverability for new users; faster workflows for power users.
- Useful initial set: /clear, /diff, /init, /approvals, /model.
Environment:
- VS Code extension: [v0.4.0]
- VS Code: [1.103.2]
- OS: macOS [15.6.1] (arm64)
- CLI (if installed): [codex v0.27.0]
Optional ideas:
- Setting to disable slash commands or require confirmation.
- Allow custom slash commands mapped to user-defined prompts.
11 Comments
yes please
I started to thinking, that it's about me and my configuration because /command didn't appear in Codex IDE. Thanks for the request
+1 this feels necessary
+1 this is a design mismatch between codex cli and codex for vs code.
Thanks for the feedback. The next version of the codex extension will have basic support for slash commands, but the full list of slash commands supported in the CLI are not yet supported in the extension. There are some commands that make more sense in the CLI and some that make more sense in the extension, so full parity isn't necessarily our goal. Let us know which slash commands you'd like to see prioritized in the extension.
+1...
By the way, the VS Code extension for Claude Code is way better than the one for Codex.
I think many of us is requesting the need to be able run our own custom prompts/commands. Not necessarily basic available commands.
It also seems the extension is not using
.codexfolder for anything, like the Codex CLI does. It would make sense that the extension reads.codexfolder, as a place to live for codex custom rules and prompts/commands.Keep up the good work - Codex is great 🙏
General support for slash commands are now included in the VS Code extension. Some commands have already been added, and we will add more over time. If you'd like to see a specific command added, please open or upvote an enhancement request for that command specifically. That will help us prioritize.
I'm using Claude Code and Codex in a Windows environment with VS Code. To put it simply, Codex seems fast and requires less setup, but it lacks practicality. If it were self-explanatory, this wouldn't be an issue. However, there are issues like it rejecting too many documents when parsing them, or it failing to add MCP servers properly.
One of the most critical issues is that custom commands can't be registered. Having to point out the same issue every time is incredibly frustrating.
Definetely the \compact command! and hopefully a \web or \search command to employ the same search-in-reasoning of chat gpt...
@bakaburg1, this issue is closed. If you'd like to suggest specific slash commands, please upvote other issues — or create new ones if you can't find one that covers the functionality you'd like to see.
I'm going to lock this issue to prevent additional posts.