On April 30, 2026, OpenAI announced a significant update to its Codex CLI coding agent, with the release of version 0.128.0. The primary enhancement in this version is the introduction of an innovative /goal feature, designed to bolster the agent's autonomous execution capabilities.
This new functionality is described as OpenAI's own implementation of the "Ralph loop," allowing users to define a specific /goal for the agent. Once a goal is set, Codex will enter a persistent looping mechanism, autonomously evaluating its progress and continuing execution until the defined goal is deemed complete, or its configured token budget is exhausted.
Technically, the /goal feature primarily relies on two key prompt files: goals/continuation.md and goals/budget_limit.md. These prompts are automatically injected by the system at the conclusion of each turn, guiding Codex's subsequent actions and token budget adherence, ensuring efficient, goal-oriented operation.