abhigyanpatwari/GitNexus · error · Error

Codex CLI not found. Install Codex CLI and ensure `codex` is

Error message

Codex CLI not found. Install Codex CLI and ensure `codex` is on PATH.

What it means

The wiki `--provider codex` path shells out to the local Codex CLI. detectLocalCLI runs `codex --version`; on ENOENT (not on PATH) or non-zero exit the provider is cached as unavailable and callCodexLLM throws before doing any work. The call itself uses `codex exec --sandbox read-only` writing the final message to a temp file.

Source

Thrown at gitnexus/src/core/wiki/local-cli-client.ts:127

  }
  const fullPrompt = systemPrompt ? `${systemPrompt}\n\n---\n\n${prompt}` : prompt;

  const response = await runLocalCLI('claude', commandInfo, args, config, fullPrompt, options);
  if (!response.content) {
    throw new Error('claude CLI returned empty output');
  }
  return response;
}

export async function callCodexLLM(
  prompt: string,
  config: LocalCLIConfig,
  systemPrompt?: string,
  options?: CallLLMOptions,
): Promise<LLMResponse> {
  const commandInfo = getDetectedCommand('codex');
  if (!commandInfo) {
    throw new Error('Codex CLI not found. Install Codex CLI and ensure `codex` is on PATH.');
  }

  const outputDir = await fs.mkdtemp(path.join(os.tmpdir(), 'gitnexus-wiki-codex-'));
  const outputPath = path.join(outputDir, 'last-message.txt');
  const workingDirectory = config.workingDirectory || process.cwd();
  const fullPrompt = systemPrompt ? `${systemPrompt}\n\n---\n\n${prompt}` : prompt;
  const args = [
    'exec',
    '--cd',
    workingDirectory,
    '--sandbox',
    'read-only',
    '-c',
    'approval_policy="never"',
    '--color',
    'never',
    '--output-last-message',
    outputPath,

View on GitHub (pinned to aac7515d2a)

Solutions

1. Install the Codex CLI and verify `codex --version` succeeds in the same environment gitnexus runs in
2. Ensure the install's bin directory is on PATH (export PATH="$PATH:$(npm bin -g)" or equivalent)
3. Authenticate (`codex` login) after installing
4. Or use an HTTP provider instead: `--provider openai --api-key ...`

Example fix

# before
gitnexus wiki --provider codex   # codex: not found

# after
npm install -g @openai/codex
codex --version
gitnexus wiki --provider codex

import { execFileSync } from 'child_process';
function codexCliAvailable(): boolean {
  try { execFileSync('codex', ['--version'], { stdio: 'ignore' }); return true; }
  catch { return false; }
}
if (!codexCliAvailable()) throw new Error('Install Codex CLI first');

function codexCliAvailable(): boolean {
  try { execFileSync('codex', ['--version'], { stdio: 'ignore' }); return true; }
  catch { return false; }
}

try {
  await callCodexLLM(prompt, config);
} catch (err) {
  if (err instanceof Error && err.message.includes('Codex CLI not found')) {
    return callLLM(prompt, httpConfig); // fall back to an HTTP provider
  }
  throw err;
}

When it happens

Trigger: Running `gitnexus wiki --provider codex` without the Codex CLI installed; `codex` not on PATH in the current shell, service, or CI container; broken install where `codex --version` fails.

Common situations: CI environments without the CLI; PATH missing the install dir (npm global bin, Homebrew bin) in non-login shells; assuming `--provider codex` uses an OpenAI API key instead of the local CLI.

Related errors

• Claude CLI not found. Install Claude Code and ensure `claude
• codex CLI returned empty output
• --allow-insecure-connection / GITNEXUS_ALLOW_INSECURE_CONNEC
• Invalid LLM base URL: must be a well-formed http:// or https
• LLM base URL must use http:// or https:// (got ${parsed.prot

AI-assisted analysis of abhigyanpatwari/GitNexus@aac7515d2a (2026-08-20). Data as JSON: /api/errors/59782b55d06fec9b. Report an issue: GitHub.