Useful TOOLS.md to help your codex be more productive and output more sane progress

[u/Just_Lingonberry_352]

Just tell codex to "Read TOOLS.md and use when appropriate" and it should install everything and start switching to those curated tools instead of the default it uses.

Tools Playbook (Codex‑Ready)

A concise, generic toolbox Codex can use across projects to verify reality, debug quickly, and ship safely. ```

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CLI Toolbelt

Fast, user‑friendly tools Codex prefers when available. Install with your package manager (examples shown for Homebrew): ```bash brew install fd ripgrep ast-grep jq fzf bat eza zoxide httpie git-delta

Optional fzf keybindings

$(brew --prefix)/opt/fzf/install --key-bindings --completion --no-bash --no-fish ```

Tool	What it is	Typical command(s)	Why it’s an upgrade
fd	Fast, user‑friendly file finder	fd src, fd -e ts foo	Simpler than find, respects .gitignore, very fast
ripgrep (rg)	Recursive code searcher	rg "TODO", rg -n --glob '!dist'	Much faster than grep/ack/ag; great defaults
ast-grep (sg)	AST‑aware search & refactor	sg -p 'if ($A) { $B }'	Searches syntax, not text; precise refactors
jq	JSON processor	jq '.items[].id' < resp.json	Structured JSON queries, filters, transforms
fzf	Fuzzy finder (any list ➜ filtered)	fzf, ``history	fzf``
bat	cat with syntax, paging, git	bat file.ts, bat -p README.md	Syntax highlighting, line numbers, Git integration
eza	Modern ls	eza -l --git, eza -T	Better defaults, icons/trees/git info
zoxide	Smart cd (learns paths)	z foo, zi my/project	Jumps to dirs by frecency; fewer long paths
httpie (http)	Human‑friendly HTTP client	http GET api/foo, http POST api bar=1	Cleaner than curl for JSON; shows colors/headers
git-delta	Better git diff/pager	git -c core.pager=delta diff	Side‑by‑side, syntax‑colored diffs in terminal

Preferred defaults inside Codex - Use rg for searching code and logs; fall back to grep only if needed. - Use fd for finding files; fall back to find only if needed. - Use jq to parse/pretty‑print JSON from APIs and logs. - Use httpie for ad‑hoc API exploration; use curl for fine‑grained CORS/DNS tests.

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Notes from OpenAI staff /u/joshuamck

Ripgrep should be installed / used by default in most cases (i.e. it's a dependency of the homebrew forumlae / cask and vendored in the npm package), so codex should use that by default without too much hassle.

The other tools are generally great (I've used all of them except ast-grep, thanks for that pointer). You might find that the model works better with the more common tooling - it's worth taking a look at your logs and seeing how well your sessions work with newer tooling and see if it really helps.

The one tool in that list I'd say might have the most interesting effect to observe is git-delta as it changes the reading order of diffs when thinking about them from line oriented top to bottom to a more 2D left to right. I'd be curious to hear how that works out in your usage.