Codex always asks you to confirm commands, mostly because of the conservative approval policy and sandbox mode. It's not a failure, it's preventing local commands from overstepping their authority, networking, writing to directories, or performing dangerous operations. To reduce interruptions, reduce the friction of low-risk commands instead of directly opening full permissions.
Understand why it asks first
The Codex CLI has an approval and sandbox mechanism: approval determines when it asks you, and the sandbox determines where it can read and write and whether it can access the network. It may ask for confirmation whenever the command wants to escape the sandbox, write to a directory that is not allowed, network it, or perform a potentially destructive action.
If you let it modify files, install dependencies, and run builds in read-only or restricted mode, it is normal to check frequently.
How to reduce confirmations
A more stable way to develop a project is to use the workspace write mode, which allows Codex to modify files in the current repository, but continue to acknowledge paths, dangerous commands, and network operations outside the repository.
Don't come up and use the completely sandbox-free mode, especially if you're still letting it explore the project. AI doesn't know which directories on your computer are private, or if a script will empty the data.
Low-risk orders can be relaxed
'git status', 'git diff', reading files, and running unit tests can generally be relaxed; rm -rf, database migration, production release, write to home directory, modify global configuration, and leave manual confirmation.
If you find that it asks the same test every time, you can adjust the strategy or break down the task so that it reads the code, gives the plan, and then performs the validation in a centralized manner.
The most stable conclusion
Codex approvals are not about getting fewer and better, but about smoothing out low-risk actions and leaving high-risk actions to you. This improves efficiency and prevents AI agents from running commands locally.
