Guide
How to know when OpenAI Codex finishes a task or needs your approval
Codex works through a task, then stops: it wants approval for a command, asks you a question, or has simply finished. Codex has notification settings of its own, but they are specific to Codex. If you also use other agents, you want one place that covers them all.
What Herdbell shows and lets you do for Codex
- Permission requests: the command shows as a card with Allow and Deny.
- Questions with choices: when Codex asks a multiple-choice question, you can tap an answer in Herdbell and it is sent back as your reply.
- Finished: the pointer glows green, and you can reply to continue in the same chat.
- Stopped by you: if you stop Codex yourself, Herdbell notices within a few seconds.
Terminal and app
Codex running in a terminal can also be stopped from Herdbell. A chat inside the Codex app is stopped in the app, because Herdbell never signals the app's shared engine. If the Codex app has a chat open, nothing else can write to it, so Herdbell says to reply in Codex.
Set it up
- Connect Codex in onboarding or on the Agents page. Herdbell adds its hooks to
~/.codex/hooks.jsonafter backing up the file. - Start a Codex task. It appears in Herdbell by itself.
- The first time, Codex may ask you to approve the new hooks once. Open Codex, type
/hooksand approve Herdbell.
Common questions
Does Herdbell replace Codex's own notifications?
No. They can run side by side. Herdbell adds one place that also covers Claude Code, Cursor and Antigravity, and lets you answer.
Can I reply to Codex from Herdbell after it finishes?
Yes, right after a turn ends. In the Codex app, a chat that is open there has to be answered in the app.