Epic: Feature Comparison - Codex CLI vs ForgeCode

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Epic: Codex CLI vs ForgeCode Feature Comparison

Track features that OpenAI Codex CLI has and their status in ForgeCode. Use this issue to identify gaps and prioritize development.

Legend

• = ForgeCode already has this feature
• = ForgeCode does NOT have this feature yet
• [~] = Partial implementation

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Core CLI Features

Feature	Codex CLI	ForgeCode	Status	Notes
Interactive TUI	Yes	Yes	[x]
Non-interactive mode	Yes (codex exec)	Yes (forge -p)	[x]
Session resume	Yes (codex resume)	Yes (--conversation-id)	[x]
Session fork	Yes (codex fork)	Yes (conversation clone)	[x]	conversation clone <id> creates new conversation with new ID. Task tool session_id allows subagent resume.
Named sessions	Yes	Yes (conversation rename)	[x]	conversation rename <id> <name>
Session list	Yes	Yes (conversation list [--porcelain])	[x]
Pipe input	Yes	Yes	[x]
Output formats	Yes (text, json)	Partial (--porcelain, conversation dump --html)	[~]	--porcelain on most subcommands, JSON/HTML export via conversation dump. No stream-json event streaming.
Model selection	Yes (--model)	Yes (via config)	[x]
Agent selection	Yes	Yes (--agent)	[x]
Verbose/debug mode	Yes	Yes (--verbose)	[x]
Ask-for-approval mode	Yes (--ask-for-approval)	Yes (Policy Confirm)	[x]	Policy::Confirm with All/Any/Not operators. crates/forge_domain/src/policies/policy.rs
Image input	Yes (--image)	Yes (InputModality::Image)	[x]	fs_read tool reads images when model supports it. max_image_size_bytes configurable. crates/forge_domain/src/model.rs, crates/forge_domain/src/image.rs
Web search tool	Yes (--search)	No	[ ]	ForgeCode has Fetch tool for URL content retrieval, but no built-in web search.
Reasoning effort control	Yes	Yes (forge config set reasoning-effort)	[x]	Effort enum: none/minimal/low/medium/high/xhigh/max. max_tokens, exclude, enabled. crates/forge_config/src/reasoning.rs
Auto-update	Yes	Yes (forge update)	[x]

Sandbox & Security

Feature	Codex CLI	ForgeCode	Status	Notes
Sandbox modes	Yes (--sandbox read-only/workspace-write/danger-full-access)	Yes (--sandbox <name> git worktree + Policy)	[x]	--sandbox <name> creates git worktree. Policy enum (Allow/Deny/Confirm) with All/Any/Not operators. crates/forge_main/src/sandbox.rs
Auto-review (sandbox)	Yes	No	[ ]
Cyber safety checks	Yes	No	[ ]
Security plugin	Yes (Codex Security)	No	[ ]
Permission rules	Yes	Yes (Policy system)	[x]
Hooks system	Yes (user-configurable)	Yes (internal EventHandle/Hook)	[~]	on_start, on_end, on_request, on_response, on_toolcall_start, on_toolcall_end. Built-in: CompactionHandler, DoomLoopDetector, TitleGenerationHandler. crates/forge_domain/src/hook.rs. Not user-configurable yet.

Agent & Subagent Features

Feature	Codex CLI	ForgeCode	Status	Notes
Subagents	Yes	Yes (task tool)	[x]	task tool with agent_id + session_id for resume.
Workflows	Yes	No	[ ]
Custom subagent definitions	Yes	Yes (.forge/agents/)	[x]

Memory & Context

Feature	Codex CLI	ForgeCode	Status	Notes
AGENTS.md	Yes	Yes	[x]
Auto memory	Yes	Yes (TitleGenerationHandler)	[x]	Auto-generates conversation title. crates/forge_app/src/hooks/title_generation.rs
Memories (persistent)	Yes	No	[ ]
Chronicle (memory history)	Yes	No	[ ]
Context compaction	Yes	Yes (conversation compact <id>)	[x]	Compact + Compactor engine, CompactionStrategy (Evict/Retain/Min/Max), CompactionHandler hook. crates/forge_domain/src/compact/
Checkpointing (file rewind)	No	Yes (fs_undo tool + forge_snaps)	[x]	FSUndo in ToolCatalog, SnapshotService. ForgeCode advantage

Tools & Integrations

Feature	Codex CLI	ForgeCode	Status	Notes
MCP support	Yes	Yes	[x]	McpServerConfig::{Stdio, Http} transports. crates/forge_domain/src/mcp.rs
MCP server mode	Yes (codex mcp-server)	Yes	[x]	crates/forge_infra/src/mcp_server.rs
MCP OAuth	No	Yes (mcp login/mcp logout)	[x]	OAuth device/code/PKCE, refresh, custom headers. ForgeCode advantage
Shell/command execution	Yes	Yes	[x]
File read/write	Yes	Yes	[x]
Apply patch tool	Yes (codex apply)	Yes (Patch, MultiPatch, Undo tools)	[x]	Patch, MultiPatch, Undo in ToolCatalog. crates/forge_domain/src/tools/catalog.rs
Code review	Yes (codex review)	Yes (via subagents)	[x]
Web fetch	No	Yes (Fetch tool)	[x]	NetFetch with robots.txt respect, markdown conversion. ForgeCode advantage
Computer use	Yes	No	[ ]
Browser automation	Yes (in-app browser)	No	[ ]
Chrome extension	Yes	No	[ ]
GitHub integration	Yes	No	[ ]
Slack integration	Yes	No	[ ]
Linear integration	Yes	No	[ ]
Custom tools	Yes	Yes (16 tools in ToolCatalog)	[x]	Read, Write, FsSearch, SemSearch, Remove, Patch, MultiPatch, Undo, Shell, Fetch, Followup, PlanCreate, SkillFetch, TodoWrite, TodoRead, Task.
Skills	Yes	Yes	[x]	Skills in .forge/skills/, skill_fetch tool.
Plugins	Yes	Yes (skills + shell plugin)	[~]
Sites (web knowledge)	Yes	No	[ ]
Tool search (dynamic)	Yes	No	[ ]

Platform & Interfaces

Feature	Codex CLI	ForgeCode	Status	Notes
VS Code extension	Yes	Yes (forge vscode install-extension)	[x]
IDE extension (general)	Yes	No	[ ]
Desktop app	Yes (Codex App)	No	[ ]
Web interface	Yes (Codex Cloud)	No	[ ]
Appshots (snapshots)	Yes	No	[ ]
Worktrees (in-app)	Yes	Yes (--sandbox)	[x]

SDK & Automation

Feature	Codex CLI	ForgeCode	Status	Notes
Codex SDK	Yes	No	[ ]
App server mode	Yes (codex app-server)	No	[ ]
Non-interactive mode (CI)	Yes	Yes (forge -p + forge data)	[x]
GitHub Action	Yes	No	[ ]
Remote control	Yes (codex remote-control)	No	[ ]
Cloud tasks	Yes (codex cloud)	No	[ ]

Provider & Model Support

Feature	Codex CLI	ForgeCode	Status	Notes
OpenAI models	Yes	Yes	[x]
Local/offline models	Yes (--oss, LM Studio, Ollama)	Yes (43 providers)	[x]	ollama, lm_studio, llama_cpp, vllm, jan_ai in provider list. crates/forge_repo/src/provider/provider.json
Amazon Bedrock	Yes	Yes	[x]
Multi-provider routing	No (OpenAI-primary)	Yes (43 providers)	[x]	ForgeCode advantage
Custom provider endpoints	Yes (--local-provider)	Yes	[x]
Model configuration	Yes	Yes	[x]
Auth methods	Yes	Yes (6 methods)	[x]	ApiKey, OAuthDevice, OAuthCode, GoogleAdc, AwsProfile, CodexDevice. crates/forge_domain/src/auth/auth_method.rs

Enterprise & Admin

Feature	Codex CLI	ForgeCode	Status	Notes
Enterprise admin setup	Yes	No	[ ]
Governance	Yes	No	[ ]
Managed configuration	Yes	No	[ ]
Access tokens	Yes	No	[ ]
Agent approvals & security	Yes	No	[ ]
Remote connections	Yes	No	[ ]
Windows support	Yes	Partial	[~]
Cost tracking	No	Yes (forge info, conversation stats)	[x]	Usage struct with cost field. ForgeCode advantage

Configuration

Feature	Codex CLI	ForgeCode	Status	Notes
Config file	Yes (codex.yaml)	Yes	[x]
Advanced config	Yes	Yes (forge config {set, get, list, path, migrate})	[x]
Environment variables	Yes	Yes	[x]
Rules system	Yes	Yes (AGENTS.md + Policy)	[x]
Speed optimization	Yes	No	[ ]

Prompting & Customization

Feature	Codex CLI	ForgeCode	Status	Notes
Prompting guide	Yes	Yes (AGENTS.md)	[x]
Customization options	Yes	Yes	[x]
Slash commands	Yes	Yes	[x]
Plan tool	No	Yes (PlanCreate)	[x]	ForgeCode advantage
Doom-loop detection	No	Yes (DoomLoopDetector)	[x]	Detects [A,A,A,A] and [A,B,C][A,B,C][A,B,C] patterns. ForgeCode advantage
Interactive fuzzy picker	No	Yes (forge select)	[x]	forge select {model, agent, provider, reasoning-effort, command, conversation, file}. ForgeCode advantage
Shell plugin	No	Yes (full ZSH plugin)	[x]	shell-plugin/ with theme, plugin, keyboard, dispatcher, actions, context, completion, highlight, config, helpers, bindings. ForgeCode advantage
Theme customization	No	Yes (forge.theme.zsh)	[x]	ForgeCode advantage
Structured data pipeline	No	Yes (forge data)	[x]	JSONL schema-constrained batches. ForgeCode advantage
AI commit messages	No	Yes (forge commit)	[x]	ForgeCode advantage
NL to shell	No	Yes (forge suggest)	[x]	ForgeCode advantage
Semantic code search	No	Yes (workspace query)	[x]	Embedding-based workspace search. ForgeCode advantage
Diagnostics	No	Yes (forge doctor, forge zsh doctor, forge logs)	[x]	ForgeCode advantage

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Summary

ForgeCode already has: ~45 features
ForgeCode is missing: ~20 features
Partial implementation: ~3 features

Top Priority Missing Features (by impact)

1. Web search tool (--search) - High value for real-time information
2. Codex SDK - Critical for automation
3. App server mode (headless) - Important for CI/CD automation
4. GitHub Action - Important for CI/CD workflows
5. Workflows (orchestrated multi-step) - High value for complex tasks
6. Desktop app - Important for UX
7. Web interface (Cloud) - Important for accessibility
8. Memories / Chronicle - Important for persistent learning
9. In-app browser - Important for web workflows
10. Chrome extension - Important for browsing workflows

ForgeCode Unique Advantages (not in Codex CLI)

• 43 provider support (vs Codex OpenAI-primary)
• Multi-model routing across providers
• MCP server mode + MCP OAuth (login/logout)
• Semantic code search (workspace indexing via embeddings)
• Doom-loop detection (automatic stuck-pattern breaker)
• Interactive fuzzy picker (forge select)
• Full shell plugin (ZSH theme, plugin, keyboard bindings, dispatcher, actions)
• Plan tool (PlanCreate)
• forge data (JSONL schema-constrained data processing pipeline)
• forge commit (AI-generated commit messages)
• forge suggest (NL to shell command)
• Web fetch (built-in Fetch tool with robots.txt respect)
• Checkpointing (fs_undo + forge_snaps)
• Cost tracking (Usage + conversation stats)
• Config migration (forge config migrate)
• Diagnostics (forge doctor, forge zsh doctor, forge logs)
• Theme customization (forge.theme.zsh)

Cross-references

• Related: Epic Epic: Feature Comparison - Claude Code vs ForgeCode #3500 (Claude Code comparison)
• Related: Epic Epic: Feature Comparison - OpenCode vs ForgeCode #3502 (OpenCode comparison)
• Related: Epic Epic: Feature Comparison - Cursor CLI vs ForgeCode #3503 (Cursor CLI comparison)
• Related: Issue [Feature]: Support ACP (Agent Client Protocol) #2968 (ACP support request)

Co-Authored-By: ForgeCode noreply@forgecode.dev