Graduated Codex delegation for Claude Code: advisory at 70%, enforced at 85%, full handoff at 95%.

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What it looks like

Your statusline shows the current tier:

Opus 4.6 │ ██████░░░░ 72% │ 5h:72% │ CDX:adv │ ⎇ main │ my-project
Opus 4.6 │ ████████░░ 87% │ 5h:87% │ CDX:dlg │ ⎇ main │ my-project
Opus 4.6 │ █████████░ 96% │ 5h:96% │ CDX:full │ ⎇ main │ my-project

At 70% (advisory): Claude can still write code, but gets nudged to delegate large tasks.

You:     "refactor the auth module"
Claude:  "This is a big refactor. Let me delegate to Codex."
         > codex:codex-rescue(Refactor auth module...)

At 85% (delegation): Heavy work must go through Codex. Small edits still allowed.

You:     "fix this typo on line 42"     → Claude fixes it directly
You:     "build me a REST API"          → Delegated to Codex

At 95% (full): Everything gets delegated. Claude reads, plans, and coordinates only.

You:     "build me a REST API with auth"
Claude:  > codex:codex-rescue(Build Express REST API with JWT auth)
         > Done (1 tool use - 15.2k tokens - 12s)
Claude:  "Done. Here's what was created: ..."

Quick install

claude plugin marketplace add https://github.com/bambushu/codex-mode
claude plugin install codex-mode@bambushu

Then add the statusline snippet to your ~/.claude/statusline.sh. See the full README for setup and details.

The problem

Claude Code's Max plan gives you a 5-hour rolling usage window. Hit the limit mid-task and you're stuck waiting. codex-mode solves this with graduated delegation: at 70% Claude gets nudged to offload big tasks, at 85% heavy work is enforced through Codex, at 95% everything is delegated. Codex runs on its own token pool, so you keep working without interruption.

What we learned building this

A few discoveries for anyone building Claude Code plugins:

• Statusline JSON is the richest data source hooks can't access
• Flag file bridge pattern connects statusline data to hooks via disk
• JSON flag with TTL prevents zombie flags from crashed sessions
• Graduated constraint language matches urgency to usage level
• hookSpecificOutput wrapping required for additionalContext injection
• --plugin-dir doesn't load hooks - must install via marketplace

Full technical writeup in the plugin README.

License

MIT - Bambushu