Add `codex upgrade` command for self-updates

[rafaell-lycan]

What feature would you like to see?

Introducing a built-in codex upgrade command to automatically detect the installation method (npm/homebrew) and update Codex CLI to the latest version.

This eliminates the need for users to remember or manually check their install method, similar to OpenCode's streamlined approach.

Additional information

Feature already exists in:

• OpenCode CLI: opencode upgrade
• Claude Code: claude update

[itstrivial]

I’d like to take this one. Could you please assign it to me?

[etraut-openai]

Codex CLI already automatically detects when a new version is available and offers to install it for you. I don't know that a separate command is needed here.

I'll leave this feature request open and see if it gathers enough upvotes for us to consider it.

[itstrivial]

If a separate codex update command (update appears more consistent to me with the rest of the codebase than upgrade) is implemented one day, here are a couple of leads. I only reviewed the codebase very briefly, so please use this at your own risk and consider whether there're better options.

Potential Implementation

There's a pub(crate) fn get_update_action() -> Option<UpdateAction> function in tui/src/update_action.rs that determines how Codex CLI was installed by checking the environment variables. It can be exposed to add something similar to codex-rs/cli/src/main.rs:

Some(Subcommand::Update) => {
            #[cfg(not(debug_assertions))]
            {
                match get_update_action() {
                    Some(action) => {
                        run_update_action(action)?;
                    }
                    None => {
                        eprintln!(
                            "Could not detect installation method. Please update manually: https://developers.openai.com/codex/cli/"
                        );
                        std::process::exit(1);
                    }
                }
            }
            #[cfg(debug_assertions)]
            {
                eprintln!(
                    "The update command is not available in debug builds. Build with --release or install to use this command."
                );
                std::process::exit(1);
            }
        }

Good luck!

[not-an-llm]

It's a small thing, but it is not a great experience to run codex update only to realize this kicks off a convo with a silly one-word prompt "update".

Then I have to kill it and exit and type the command that's right there then restart.

Other coding agents support a update|upgrade subcommand. codex does stick out here.

[0xdeafbeef]

Would be nice to have something like rustup or tiup. So user can do oai install codex / codex-ui without npm or relying on a system package manager to keep up with the release cadence.
Or simple install.sh like in zed with auto-updates driven by codex

[m3ac-AllbrittenJ]

commenting to show support/desire for this. I hate node ecosystem and package management. I try to avoid it wherever possible. used the recently introduced install.sh introduced today, but wish for native update command like copilot cli, claude code, and opencode

codex cli is the only standout here that does not support this

[nvictor]

Let's call it update please 😊

I think it's needed because self-detect and auto-install usually runs into permission issues typically when sandboxing the tool.