OpenAI Codex MCP Server

OpenAI Codex MCP Server

Wraps OpenAI Codex CLI as an MCP (Model Context Protocol) server for integration with Claude.

🚀 Features

This MCP server provides the following tools:

• codex_agent: Comprehensive tool with access to all OpenAI Codex CLI features

  • Code generation, explanation, debugging, refactoring
  • Security analysis, test creation, documentation generation
  • Multimodal support (image input)
  • Multiple AI provider support
  • 3-level automation modes (suggest/auto-edit/full-auto)

• codex_interactive: Tool for starting interactive sessions

🔌 Supported Modes

• stdio mode: Uses standard input/output (for Claude Desktop)
• SSE mode: Uses Server-Sent Events (for Web API)

📋 Prerequisites

1. OpenAI Codex CLI:

   npm install -g @openai/codex
   

2. Python 3.12 or higher

3. Environment setup: Copy .env.example to .env and configure

🛠️ Installation

1. Clone the repository

git clone https://github.com/Tomatio13/openai-codex-mcp.git
cd openai-codex-mcp

2. Setup

./setup.sh

3. Start the server

stdio mode (for Claude Desktop)

./run.sh

SSE mode (for Web API)

./run_sse.sh [port] [host]

# Examples:
./run_sse.sh 8080 0.0.0.0  # Port 8080, listen on all interfaces
./run_sse.sh              # Default: localhost:8000

Manual startup

# stdio mode
python codex_server.py --mode stdio

# SSE mode
python codex_server.py --mode sse --port 8000 --host localhost

Or run setup and start in one command:

./setup_and_run.sh

Manual installation

# Install dependencies
pip install -e .

# Start server
python codex_server.py

🔧 Claude Configuration

stdio mode (recommended)

To use the MCP server with Claude Desktop, add the following to your configuration file:

macOS

~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "openai-codex": {
      "command": "python",
      "args": ["/path/to/openai-codex-mcp/codex_server.py", "--mode", "stdio"],
      "env": {
        "PATH": "/usr/local/bin:/usr/bin:/bin"
      }
    }
  }
}

Windows

%APPDATA%\Claude\claude_desktop_config.json:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "openai-codex": {
      "command": "python",
      "args": ["C:\\path\\to\\openai-codex-mcp\\codex_server.py", "--mode", "stdio"],
      "env": {
        "PATH": "C:\\Program Files\\nodejs;C:\\Windows\\System32"
      }
    }
  }
}

SSE mode

In SSE mode, you can access the MCP server via HTTP endpoints:

# Start server
./run_sse.sh 8000

# Available endpoints
# GET  http://localhost:8000/sse - SSE connection
# POST http://localhost:8000/message - Send message

💡 Usage

Once the MCP server is configured in Claude Desktop, you can use the tools as follows:

Basic code generation

@openai-codex codex_agent prompt="Create a Python function to calculate Fibonacci numbers"

Task-specific optimization

@openai-codex codex_agent prompt="Explain this code" task_type="code-explanation"
@openai-codex codex_agent prompt="Fix the bug in utils.py" task_type="debugging" model="o4-preview"
@openai-codex codex_agent prompt="Check for security vulnerabilities" task_type="security"

Automation level settings

# Suggestions only (default, safest)
@openai-codex codex_agent prompt="Refactor this code" approval_mode="suggest"

# Auto-edit (automatic file read/write, command execution requires confirmation)
@openai-codex codex_agent prompt="Explain this codebase" approval_mode="auto-edit"

# Full auto (fully automatic execution in network-disabled sandbox)
@openai-codex codex_agent prompt="Create and run tests" approval_mode="full-auto"

Multimodal (image input)

@openai-codex codex_agent prompt="Implement this UI design" images=["design.png"] task_type="code-generation"

Using different AI providers

@openai-codex codex_agent prompt="Review this code" provider="azure" model="gpt-4.1"
@openai-codex codex_agent prompt="Explain this" provider="ollama" model="llama3"

Interactive sessions

@openai-codex codex_interactive initial_prompt="Tell me about the project structure" approval_mode="auto-edit"

🎯 Task Types

Use the task_type parameter to generate prompts optimized for specific tasks:

• general: General coding assistance (default)
• code-generation: Generate new code
• code-explanation: Explain existing code
• debugging: Find and fix bugs
• refactoring: Improve code structure
• testing: Write or fix tests
• security: Security analysis and fixes
• documentation: Generate or improve documentation

🤖 AI Providers

Supported AI providers through the provider parameter:

• openai: OpenAI (default)
• azure: Azure OpenAI
• gemini: Google Gemini
• ollama: Ollama (local models)
• mistral: Mistral AI
• deepseek: DeepSeek
• xai: xAI
• groq: Groq

🔒 Approval Modes

• suggest: Only suggests changes, requires approval for all actions (safest)
• auto-edit: Can read and write files automatically, asks for shell commands
• full-auto: Full autonomy with network-disabled sandbox (most powerful)

🛡️ Security

• The full-auto mode runs in a network-disabled sandbox for security
• File operations are limited to the current working directory
• All shell commands require explicit approval unless in full-auto mode

🐛 Troubleshooting

Common Issues

1. "codex command not found"

   npm install -g @openai/codex
   

2. Permission denied on scripts

   chmod +x *.sh
   

3. Python version issues

   • Ensure Python 3.12+ is installed
   • Use virtual environment: python3 -m venv venv && source venv/bin/activate

4. MCP connection issues

   • Check Claude Desktop configuration file syntax
   • Verify file paths are absolute
   • Restart Claude Desktop after configuration changes

📝 License

MIT License with Attribution - see LICENSE file for details.

🤝 Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Please feel free to submit a Pull Request.

📞 Support

If you encounter any issues or have questions, please open an issue on GitHub.

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Made with ❤️ for the Claude + OpenAI Codex community