Codex Universal Proxy

Use Ollama, OpenRouter, and other OpenAI-compatible providers with Codex while preserving:

Codex plugins
MCP tools
tool_search
apply_patch
Image generation tools

The proxy runs locally, translates Codex-specific tool formats into provider-compatible function calls, and converts the responses back into the format Codex expects.

This project is unofficial and experimental. Codex tool formats may change between releases.

Install

npm install -g codex-universal-proxy

codex-universal-proxy init
codex-universal-proxy install

Upgrading from codex-ollama-proxy is automatic. The first universal command
migrates ~/.codex/ollama-shape-proxy to
~/.codex/codex-universal-proxy, copies legacy catalog/reference files
forward, and replaces legacy background-service registrations. If the old
runtime path is also a source checkout, only runtime-owned configuration,
presets, and discovery cache data are copied.

The old codex-ollama-proxy executable remains an alias for scripts and shell
history. Existing Codex tasks that name the legacy
ollama-launch-codex-app provider continue to work through a compatibility
provider entry. Existing attachment files remain at their original paths so
historical task JSONL references are not broken.

install uses the native per-user background service for the current platform:

macOS: a launchd agent in ~/Library/LaunchAgents
Linux: a systemd user service in ~/.config/systemd/user
Windows: a Task Scheduler task that runs at sign-in

The restart, uninstall, and logs commands use the same cross-platform setup. On Linux,
the user systemd session must be available. To run without installing a background service,
use codex-universal-proxy serve in a terminal.

If CODEX_HOME is set during installation, the generated background service preserves that
directory for future starts. Linux installations also honor XDG_CONFIG_HOME when locating
the systemd user-unit directory.

The local proxy listens on:

http://127.0.0.1:11436

Continuous Integration

Pull requests run static checks, the complete Node test suite, and an npm pack installation
smoke test on Linux, Windows, and macOS. These checks do not receive provider credentials.

The Codex Proxy Integration workflow is manual and weekly. It installs the current Codex CLI,
starts the packed proxy in the foreground, and verifies real shell and apply_patch tool calls on
Linux and Windows. Configure its protected proxy-live-test environment with:

Secret PROXY_TEST_API_KEY
Variables PROXY_TEST_URL and PROXY_TEST_MODEL
Optional variable PROXY_TEST_ADAPTOR for non-Responses providers

Require reviewers on that environment and use a dedicated, budget-limited provider credential.
The workflow is intentionally not triggered by pull requests and never uses pull_request_target.
Native service lifecycle checks are a separate manual workflow: Windows uses a hosted runner, while
Linux requires a self-hosted runner labeled linux and codex-proxy-systemd with a working systemd
user session.

Recommended Workflow: Provider Presets

A preset saves your:

Provider endpoint
Text and image models
API key
Responses or Chat Completions adaptor
Routing and compatibility options

Create each provider once, then start it by name:

codex-universal-proxy run PRESET_NAME

Ollama Preset

Ollama exposes a local Responses-compatible API at http://127.0.0.1:11434/v1.

codex-universal-proxy preset add ollama \
  --url "http://127.0.0.1:11434/v1" \
  --text-model "MODEL"

codex-universal-proxy run ollama

Example:

codex-universal-proxy preset add glm \
  --url "http://127.0.0.1:11434/v1" \
  --text-model "z-ai/glm-5.2"

codex-universal-proxy run glm

GLM with Kimi auto-routing:

codex-universal-proxy preset add glm-kimi \
  --url "http://127.0.0.1:11434/v1" \
  --text-model "glm-5.2:cloud" \
  --image-model "kimi-k2.7-code:cloud" \
  --auto-image

codex-universal-proxy run glm-kimi

OpenRouter Preset

Export your OpenRouter key:

export OPENROUTER_API_KEY="sk-or-..."

Create the preset:

codex-universal-proxy preset add openrouter \
  --provider openrouter \
  --text-model "PROVIDER/MODEL" \
  --api-key "$OPENROUTER_API_KEY"

Run it whenever you want to use OpenRouter:

codex-universal-proxy run openrouter

Example:

codex-universal-proxy preset add openrouter-glm \
  --url "https://openrouter.ai/api/v1" \
  --text-model "z-ai/glm-5.2" \
  --api-key "$OPENROUTER_API_KEY"

codex-universal-proxy run openrouter-glm

The selected OpenRouter model must support the required API and tool-calling behavior.

Anthropic Preset

Anthropic is supported through its OpenAI-compatible Chat Completions API. The
proxy does not translate requests to the native Messages API.

export ANTHROPIC_API_KEY="..."

codex-universal-proxy preset add claude \
  --provider anthropic \
  --text-model "claude-sonnet-5" \
  --api-key "$ANTHROPIC_API_KEY"

codex-universal-proxy run claude

--provider claude is an alias for --provider anthropic. Authenticated model
discovery reads Anthropic's complete /v1/models inventory, including its
published capability and token-limit metadata. If discovery is unavailable,
the last successful cache or bundled Anthropic catalog is used. The bundled
catalog is generated from an authenticated 11-model inventory and enriches
exact documented model IDs with text output, OpenAI-compatible tool calling,
and the documented default high effort. Unknown future IDs remain
unenriched until Anthropic publishes their capabilities.

OpenAI Preset

OpenAI uses direct Responses API passthrough:

export OPENAI_API_KEY="..."

codex-universal-proxy preset add openai \
  --provider openai \
  --text-model "gpt-5.6-sol" \
  --api-key "$OPENAI_API_KEY"

codex-universal-proxy run openai

OpenAI discovery retains every non-embedding model returned by the
authenticated /v1/models endpoint. Image, audio, moderation, fine-tuned,
legacy, and other non-embedding models remain available even when they may
not accept Codex Responses requests. The last successful discovery cache and
a bundled snapshot normalized from Codex's models_cache.json provide
fallbacks.

Custom Responses API Preset

For any provider that exposes POST /v1/responses:

export PROVIDER_API_KEY="..."

codex-universal-proxy preset add custom-responses \
  --url "https://provider.example/v1" \
  --text-model "MODEL" \
  --api-key "$PROVIDER_API_KEY"

codex-universal-proxy run custom-responses

Chat Completions Provider Preset

Some providers only expose:

POST /v1/chat/completions

Use the built-in Chat Completions adaptor for these providers:

export PROVIDER_API_KEY="..."

codex-universal-proxy preset add custom-chat \
  --adaptor chat-completion \
  --url "https://provider.example/v1" \
  --text-model "MODEL" \
  --api-key "$PROVIDER_API_KEY"

codex-universal-proxy run custom-chat

The adaptor converts Codex Responses API traffic into Chat Completions requests.

NVIDIA Example

export NVIDIA_API_KEY="nvapi-..."

codex-universal-proxy preset add nvidia \
  --provider nvidia \
  --text-model "z-ai/glm-5.2" \
  --image-model "thinkingmachines/inkling" \
  --auto-image \
  --api-key "$NVIDIA_API_KEY"

codex-universal-proxy run nvidia

Avoid Storing API Keys

To save the provider configuration without storing its key:

codex-universal-proxy preset add openrouter \
  --provider openrouter \
  --text-model "PROVIDER/MODEL"

Supply the key when activating the preset:

codex-universal-proxy preset use openrouter \
  --api-key "$OPENROUTER_API_KEY"

Use run PRESET_NAME when the preset already contains its API key.

Running Presets

Start a preset in the background:

codex-universal-proxy run openrouter

Show live logs in the current terminal:

codex-universal-proxy run openrouter --foreground

Apply a preset without starting the proxy:

codex-universal-proxy preset use openrouter --no-start

Both run and preset use configure the selected provider and start or restart the required local proxy processes unless --no-start is used.

After changing providers, restart Codex or open a new Codex thread.

Windows Desktop Model Picker Workaround

The Windows Codex Desktop app may fail to load the proxy-generated model picker
catalog. When that happens, activate the preset with a hardcoded Codex model
override:

codex-universal-proxy run glm-kimi --model-override "glm-5.2:cloud"

--model-override writes the top-level model = "..." value in
~/.codex/config.toml, forcing every Codex request to that model. It does not
change the proxy route default_model, image_model, or the stored preset.
Use --text-model or --default-model only when you want to change proxy
routing instead.

Text and Image Models

A preset can use separate text and image models:

codex-universal-proxy preset add multimodal \
  --url "https://provider.example/v1" \
  --text-model "TEXT_MODEL" \
  --image-model "IMAGE_MODEL" \
  --auto-image \
  --api-key "$PROVIDER_API_KEY"

Run it normally:

codex-universal-proxy run multimodal

With --auto-image, images in the current user turn or its tool outputs are routed to the image model.

Use the same model for both when the provider has one multimodal model:

codex-universal-proxy preset add multimodal \
  --url "https://provider.example/v1" \
  --text-model "MODEL" \
  --image-model "MODEL" \
  --auto-image \
  --api-key "$PROVIDER_API_KEY"

Set persist_inline_images = true in proxy-models.toml to cache inline images
under ~/.codex/attachments and replace historical pixels with path references.
Generated images are stored in the same session cache instead of temporary
storage, so their saved paths remain usable across follow-up turns.
Persistence requires a stable session, thread, conversation, or prompt-cache
identifier; requests without one retain their inline images. Session caches
unused for 30 days are removed lazily by default. Configure
inline_image_retention_days, or set it to 0 to retain caches indefinitely.
The same settings can be changed without editing TOML directly:

codex-universal-proxy route --persist-images --image-retention-days 30

Image Generation

Image generation is configured separately and applies across provider presets.

Gemini

codex-universal-proxy imagine \
  --enable \
  --service gemini \
  --model "gemini-2.5-flash-image" \
  --api-key "$GEMINI_API_KEY"

OpenAI

codex-universal-proxy imagine \
  --enable \
  --service openai \
  --model "gpt-image-2" \
  --api-key "$OPENAI_API_KEY"

Ollama

codex-universal-proxy imagine \
  --enable \
  --service ollama \
  --model "x/z-image-turbo" \
  --base-url "http://127.0.0.1:11434"

Check the image-generation configuration:

codex-universal-proxy imagine --doctor

The proxy uses Codex's existing generate_image tool. It does not inspect ordinary prompts and automatically turn them into image requests.

Advanced Preset Options

Presets can also save proxy compatibility options:

codex-universal-proxy preset add tuned \
  --url "https://provider.example/v1" \
  --text-model "MODEL" \
  --dedupe-large-input \
  --dedupe-min-chars 1024 \
  --verbose-tools \
  --enable-find-skill \
  --no-stream-loop

Available preset toggles include:

--auto-image / --no-auto-image
--dedupe-large-input / --no-dedupe-large-input
--dedupe-min-chars N
--verbose-tools / --no-verbose-tools
--log-upstream-body / --no-log-upstream-body
--enable-find-skill / --no-enable-find-skill
--stream-loop / --no-stream-loop

Runtime options such as --foreground remain on the run or serve command rather than being stored in the preset.

What the Proxy Fixes

Codex can send plugins and MCP tools using OpenAI-specific namespace, dynamic-tool, managed-tool, and freeform-tool formats.

Many custom providers reject these formats or fail with problems such as:

unsupported call
MCP tools are visible but never invoked
tool_search aborts
namespace tools are rejected
apply_patch uses the wrong format

The proxy translates these tools into ordinary provider-callable functions and restores the original Codex format when calls are returned.

Namespace and MCP Tools

A Codex tool such as:

mcp__storefront_builder.list_storefront_build_sessions

can be exposed to the model as:

mcp__storefront_builder__list_storefront_build_sessions

The returned call is translated back into the namespace and tool name expected by Codex.

`tool_search`

When a provider cannot call Codex's native managed tool_search tool, the proxy exposes a regular function shim and maps the result back into a native tool_search_call.

Deferred tools discovered by tool_search are also made callable on the following request.

`apply_patch`

Codex may expose apply_patch as a custom or freeform tool. The proxy preserves the format Codex requires while making the surrounding tool list compatible with custom providers.

Supported Providers

Ollama-compatible Responses API servers
OpenRouter models with compatible API behavior
Anthropic through its OpenAI-compatible Chat Completions API
OpenAI through its native Responses API
Custom providers exposing POST /v1/responses
Chat Completions providers through the built-in adaptor
Local Responses API shims

Image generation can independently use Gemini, OpenAI, or Ollama.

Useful Commands

codex-universal-proxy status
codex-universal-proxy upstream --status
codex-universal-proxy logs --tail 100
codex-universal-proxy restart
codex-universal-proxy run PRESET_NAME
codex-universal-proxy run PRESET_NAME --foreground
codex-universal-proxy switch openai

Codex Skill

Give Codex this skill URL:

https://raw.githubusercontent.com/bharat2808/codex-universal-proxy/main/skills/codex-universal-proxy/SKILL.md

Then ask Codex:

Install this skill and use it to set up codex-universal-proxy.

Configuration Files

Runtime configuration and logs are stored under:

~/.codex/codex-universal-proxy/proxy-models.toml
~/.codex/codex-universal-proxy/imagine.toml
~/.codex/codex-universal-proxy/proxy.log

Debug logging is disabled by default:

verbose_tools = false
log_upstream_body = false

Be careful when enabling request-body logging because it may include prompts, tool arguments, or other sensitive data.

Known Limitations

This package is not affiliated with OpenAI.
Codex internal tool schemas may change.
Compatibility depends on the selected provider and model.
Models must support reliable tool calling for plugins and MCP tools to work well.
Some providers expose only Chat Completions and require the adaptor.
Web search falls back from Ollama cloud search, to local Ollama search, to DuckDuckGo HTML search.

Install a Specific Version

npm install -g \
  https://registry.npmjs.org/codex-universal-proxy/-/codex-universal-proxy-0.5.0.tgz

Uninstall

codex-universal-proxy switch openai
codex-universal-proxy uninstall
npm uninstall -g codex-universal-proxy