How to list Codex feature flags

Knowing which Codex feature flags are active helps explain why certain capabilities appear, disappear, or behave differently between environments. A current list is useful when comparing results across machines or attaching diagnostic details to a bug report.

The codex CLI exposes a set of named features that may be released in stages such as stable, beta, or experimental. The codex features list command prints each feature name with its stage and effective boolean state.

Feature availability can vary by Codex version, account access, and local configuration overrides. Re-run the list after upgrades or configuration changes when validating expected behavior, and treat experimental features as potentially unstable.

1. List feature flags and their effective state.

   $ codex features list
   undo  stable  false
   shell_tool  stable  true
   web_search_request  stable  false
   web_search_cached  experimental  false
   unified_exec  beta  false
   ##### snipped #####

   Output fields are feature name, release stage, and effective state (true or false).

2. Filter the list to a single feature when checking a specific capability.

   $ codex features list | grep -E '^shell_tool[[:space:]]'
   shell_tool  stable  true

   Replace shell_tool with the target feature name.

3. Save the current feature list to a file for sharing or later comparison.

   $ codex features list > codex-feature-flags.txt

4. Compare the current list to a previous snapshot to spot changes.

   $ diff -u codex-feature-flags.prev codex-feature-flags.txt
   --- codex-feature-flags.prev
   +++ codex-feature-flags.txt
   @@
   -shell_tool  stable  false
   +shell_tool  stable  true

   Rename a prior capture to codex-feature-flags.prev before diffing.

5. Confirm the saved file contains the expected entries.

   $ head -n 5 codex-feature-flags.txt
   undo  stable  false
   shell_tool  stable  true
   web_search_request  stable  false
   web_search_cached  experimental  false
   unified_exec  beta  false