Codex CLI: start tasks by voice with F8 and send side ideas to their own worktree

#What changed

OpenAI Developers posted a short walkthrough for people who live in the terminal: start a Codex CLI task by talking instead of typing, keep agents across several projects in one view, and explore a different direction in a separate worktree so it never touches your main checkout. None of this is a new switch. These features have been on by default since Codex CLI 0.156.0 (released Sep 22, 2026), and the video is a how-to for using them together.

#Who is affected

Anyone running Codex CLI 0.156.0 or later, on any plan. Worktree sessions need a Git repository. Voice needs a microphone, and the Linux and Windows builds now bundle the audio runtime, so there is nothing extra to install.

#What to do now

• Check your version with codex --version and update if you are below 0.156.0.
• Start codex and press F8 to begin or end a voice conversation. Use /voice settings to pick the voice for future conversations. The F8 shortcut is configurable.
• Open the agent command center to see your sessions in one place. You can filter tasks by status, see token and usage estimates per task, and open new sessions from there. Use /agent to switch which agent thread is active.
• When you want to try a second approach without risking the first, create a worktree session from the command center. Each worktree gets its own copy of the repo files while sharing Git history, so two sessions stop editing the same files. Codex keeps managed worktrees under $CODEX_HOME/worktrees on a detached HEAD, which keeps your branch list clean.
• Watch disk space. Every worktree carries its own files, dependencies, and build caches.

#What is not confirmed

• How the CLI cleans up worktrees you abandon. The Codex app docs say the desktop app keeps your 15 most recent managed worktrees and deletes one when you archive its chat, saving a snapshot first. The docs don't say whether the CLI follows the same limit, and a developer asked exactly this under the OpenAI post without an answer yet. Until that is documented, check $CODEX_HOME/worktrees now and then.
• We have not independently tested voice quality or latency.