toby-codex

toby-codex

Send a prompt to the Codex pane in cmux and collect the result as a markdown file.

This skill works with a Codex instance already running in a cmux pane (typically started by toby-team-starter). It sends the user's task as a prompt, asks Codex to write the result to a file, then watches for that file and presents the result.

Workflow

Step 1: Find the Codex pane

cmux tree --json

Parse the JSON to find a surface with title exactly "Codex" in the selected workspace. If not found, tell the user:

"Codex pane을 찾을 수 없습니다. toby-team-starter 스킬로 먼저 Codex pane을 시작하세요."

Save the Codex surface ref (e.g., surface:26).

Step 2: Prepare the result file path

TIMESTAMP=$(date +%Y%m%d-%H%M%S)
RESULT_DIR="$(pwd)/tobyteam"
RESULT_FILE="$RESULT_DIR/codex-result-${TIMESTAMP}.md"
mkdir -p "$RESULT_DIR"

Step 3: Compose and send the prompt

Build the prompt to send to Codex. The prompt wraps the user's task with instructions to write the result to the specific file path.

[USER'S TASK HERE]

When you are done, write your complete response (including any code, explanation, or analysis) to this file:
${RESULT_FILE}

Write the file using the Write tool or by running: cat > "${RESULT_FILE}" << 'RESULT_EOF'
[your response here]
RESULT_EOF

Send the prompt text via cmux send, then send an Enter key to submit. Codex's composer needs an explicit Enter press — cmux send inserts text but doesn't submit it.

cmux send --surface <codex_surface_ref> "<prompt>"
cmux send-key --surface <codex_surface_ref> enter

For prompts with special characters (quotes, backticks, $), escape them properly or use single quotes. For very long prompts, write to a temp file:

PROMPT_FILE=$(mktemp /tmp/codex-prompt-XXXXXX.txt)
# Write prompt content to PROMPT_FILE
cmux send --surface <codex_surface_ref> "$(cat "$PROMPT_FILE")"
cmux send-key --surface <codex_surface_ref> enter
rm "$PROMPT_FILE"

Step 4: Launch file watcher in background

Start a background process that polls for the result file. Use Bash with run_in_background: true:

# Poll every 3 seconds for up to 30 minutes (600 checks)
RESULT_FILE="<result_file_path>"
for i in $(seq 1 600); do
  if [ -f "$RESULT_FILE" ] && [ -s "$RESULT_FILE" ]; then
    echo "RESULT_READY: $RESULT_FILE"
    cat "$RESULT_FILE"
    exit 0
  fi
  sleep 3
done
echo "TIMEOUT: Codex did not write result within 30 minutes"
exit 1

Step 5: Notify the user and wait

Tell the user the prompt has been sent:

"Codex pane에 프롬프트를 전송했습니다. 결과 파일을 기다리고 있습니다: tobyteam/codex-result-{timestamp}.md"

The background process will notify when the file appears. When the task notification arrives, read the result file and present it to the user.

Step 6: Present the result

When the background watcher completes:

1. Read the result file
2. Present the content to the user with a header indicating the source:

   Codex Result (tobyteam/codex-result-{timestamp}.md)

3. If the watcher timed out, inform the user and suggest checking the Codex pane manually:

   "Codex가 30분 내에 결과를 작성하지 않았습니다. Codex pane을 직접 확인해 주세요."

Notes

• Send the prompt text with cmux send, then cmux send-key enter to submit. This two-step approach is necessary because cmux send inserts text into the composer but doesn't submit it.
• If the prompt contains quotes or special shell characters, escape them or use the temp file approach.
• The tobyteam/ directory is created automatically if it doesn't exist.
• Result files accumulate in tobyteam/ — the user can clean them up as needed.