Summary

Today, every Codex setting that an Openclaw user might want to flip lives inside ~/.openclaw/openclaw.json (or behind a one-off CLI). There is no slash command, no picker, and no Telegram surface for the most common Codex operations: enabling/disabling a sub-plugin, switching the approval policy, checking which Codex account is signed in. Add a first-party /codex slash command with a small picker tree so these operations are reachable from chat.

Problem to solve

Codex now ships with a handful of sub-plugins (chrome, browser, computer-use, documents, spreadsheets, presentations, and the curated catalog). Every one of them has to be wired into openclaw by hand-editing plugins.entries.codex.config.codexPlugins.plugins and then restarting the gateway. That is friction for two reasons:

1. The user has to know the marketplace name, the plugin name, the exact JSON shape, and the migration story. Mis-entering any of that silently drops the plugin.
2. Even when the JSON is right, there is no easy way to flip a plugin on or off from chat. The Telegram and Discord users who run openclaw the most never see openclaw.json at all.

Beyond plugins, two other Codex knobs are also chat-invisible: the approval-policy mode (default vs yolo, plus a quick "what mode am I in") and the active Codex account (which OpenAI account is currently bound). These get asked about often enough that they belong in the chat surface too.

Proposed solution

Add a /codex slash command, owned by the @openclaw/codex plugin, with these top-level verbs:

• /codex plugins. List, enable, disable, toggle, add, remove for Codex sub-plugins. When called with no name, opens a picker.
• /codex permissions. Show the current approval policy mode and switch between default and yolo.
• /codex account. Show the currently bound Codex account.
• /codex help. Codex-scoped help listing every verb.

When /codex is called with no verb on Telegram, the bot should reply with a 4-button picker (plugins, permissions, account, help) in a 2x2 grid. Picker buttons should edit the message in place (mirrors the /model Browse providers pattern), with parent-aware back buttons. The plugin enable/disable/toggle pickers should be dynamic, populated from the live ~/.openclaw/openclaw.json instead of a hardcoded list, so that Codex migration adding new plugins (e.g. a future computer-use rename) shows up automatically.

The chat surface should not duplicate verbs that already exist at the openclaw level (/status, /help, /stop, /models, /fast). Those stay typeable but do not need a button.

Alternatives considered

• Document the JSON schema better and point users at openclaw.json directly. Discoverable but does nothing for Telegram users and still requires a restart guess.
• Add only a flag-based CLI command (openclaw codex plugins enable chrome). Useful for power users but invisible in chat. Telegram and Discord users still cannot manage Codex without dropping out of their channel.
• Surface Codex plugins inside /model or some other existing command. Overloads a command that is already busy, mixes provider routing with plugin management.

The chat-first picker is the only path that solves Telegram, Discord, and CLI in one stroke.

Impact

Affected: every Openclaw user with the Codex plugin enabled. That is anyone running agentRuntime.id=codex on Mac Gateway, Telegram, or Discord.
Severity: Medium. Codex still works without this, but the bundled and primary-runtime sub-plugins are effectively invisible. The day-to-day "is computer-use on, do I need to restart, how do I flip yolo for one task" loop is currently a JSON edit plus a gateway restart.
Frequency: Daily for active Codex users.
Consequence: People either give up on the non-curated plugins or maintain their openclaw.json by hand. The bot has no answer when a Telegram user asks "what Codex plugins do I have on right now".

Evidence/examples

Prior art inside this repo for the same pattern:

• /model Browse providers picker. Cross-extension UI ownership (extensions/telegram/src/model-buttons.ts owns the Telegram surface for an extension shipped elsewhere). In-place message edit via callback_query handlers.
• extensions/codex/src/migration/apply.ts already knows how to materialize the Codex sub-plugins into openclaw.json on openclaw update. The chat surface just has to read/write that same structure.

Issue #82216 (Codex bundled plugins like chrome and computer-use cannot be enabled from openclaw.json) is the data-layer counterpart to this UX issue. Without it, the chat surface can only manage curated plugins. Both should land together. The data-layer fix is in flight as PR #82219.

Additional information

PR #82224 covers the full chat surface: the /codex plugins subcommand (list, enable, disable, toggle, add, remove, help) AND the picker UX redesign (4-button top picker in 2x2 grid, in-place message edit via cdx_* callbacks, parent-aware back navigation, dynamic plugin pickers reading the live config). The /codex slash command was written from scratch for this issue specifically. There is no prior /codex to extend.

Searched for related issues before filing:

• CLI commands ~14s cold-start regression after 2026.5.12 update #82070 Codex cold-start regression (unrelated, same plugin family)
• [Codex×Pi parity Phase 3] Codex-plugin lifecycle harness #80174 Codex x Pi parity Phase 3 lifecycle harness (parallel Codex lifecycle work)
• [QA-lab] Publish standalone Codex plugin wrapper for OpenClaw parity harness #80365 Standalone Codex plugin wrapper for Openclaw parity harness (parallel)
• [Bug]: Codex bundled plugins like chrome and computer-use cannot be enabled from openclaw.json #82216 Codex marketplace allowlist is too narrow (data-layer counterpart, filed today; fixed by fix(codex): accept first-party OpenAI plugin marketplaces (bundled and primary-runtime) #82219)
• No existing issue covers chat-side Codex management.