# Codex CLI v0.142: Multi-Agent Delegation Is Here > Source: > Published: 2026-06-24 23:17:14+00:00 OpenAI shipped Codex CLI v0.142.0 on June 22 with four changes that shift Codex from power-user territory into something teams can actually govern. Multi-agent delegation modes, a token budget system, reorganized plugin discovery, and a new indexed web-search mode aren’t incremental — they close the gaps that held enterprise adoption back. If you run Codex in any team or pipeline context, v0.142 changes your options. Here’s what to know. ## Multi-Agent Delegation: Finally a Control Layer The biggest change is also the most overdue. Before v0.142, Codex’s multi-agent behavior in app-server contexts was opaque — you couldn’t specify whether the agent should never self-spawn sub-agents, only spawn when asked, or decide autonomously. That ambiguity was a hard blocker for teams in regulated environments or anyone who needed predictable, auditable execution. v0.142 introduces three delegation modes, configurable at thread level or per-turn: **disabled**— No delegation. All work stays in the primary agent thread. Use for security-sensitive tasks, compliance contexts, or when you need a clean audit trail.**explicit-request-only**— Delegation fires only when you explicitly request it. The agent won’t self-initiate sub-agent spawning. This is the right starting point for teams migrating from single-agent workflows.**proactive**— The agent decides autonomously when to spin up sub-agents. Maximum throughput on complex tasks, but requires trusting the agent’s judgment on when parallelism helps. The two-level granularity — thread-level defaults plus per-turn overrides — is what makes this production-viable. You can lock a thread to `explicit-request-only` as a baseline and allow `proactive` delegation for specific high-parallelism turns without reconfiguring the whole session. Set it in `config.toml` : ``` [delegation] mode = "explicit-request-only" # or "disabled" | "proactive" ``` The full delegation reference lives in the [Codex subagents documentation](https://developers.openai.com/codex/subagents). ## Token Budgets: Hard Ceilings on Agent Spend If you’ve followed the AI agent cost incidents — there have been enough to constitute a genre — you’ll understand why this matters. Configurable rollout token budgets let you set a hard ceiling per agent run: the CLI tracks consumption across agent threads, sends warning reminders as you approach the limit, and aborts cleanly when the budget is exhausted. Clean means mid-execution truncation is avoided; the agent stops at a turn boundary rather than choking halfway through a file write. The multiplier parameter (default 1.0) lets you weight how sampled tokens count against the budget — higher if you want a conservative accounting that burns the budget faster, lower if the task type is token-efficient and the default is too aggressive. This pairs with the updated `/usage` command, which now lets you view and redeem earned reset credits from the referral banking program. Full pricing and quota mechanics are on the [Codex pricing page](https://developers.openai.com/codex/pricing). ## Indexed Web Search: Live Queries, Controlled Page Access Codex’s web search previously offered two modes: cached (index-only, no live fetch) or live (arbitrary page access). The problem with live mode isn’t just bandwidth — it’s prompt injection. A fetched page can contain hidden instructions that cause the agent to execute unintended actions, and in a fully autonomous session you may not notice until damage is done. Indexed mode threads the needle: live search queries are permitted, but direct page access is restricted to server-approved URLs. You get up-to-date search results without exposing the agent to arbitrary web content. For enterprise deployments, combine it with `allowed_domains` in `requirements.toml` to restrict access to the domains your codebase actually needs: ``` [web_search] mode = "indexed" allowed_domains = ["docs.python.org", "github.com", "docs.openai.com"] ``` The security considerations behind each web search mode are covered in [Codex’s agent approvals and security guide](https://developers.openai.com/codex/agent-approvals-security). ## Plugin Discovery Gets Organized The `/plugins` command now splits 90-plus integrations into three sections: OpenAI Curated (quality-vetted marketplace plugins), Workspace (your org’s deployed plugins), and Shared with me (teammate-shared). Eligible turns can also auto-recommend relevant plugins inline. Whether this matters depends on how deep your team is in the plugin ecosystem — for teams running Codex across CI/CD, databases, and multiple communication channels simultaneously, the new organization removes real friction. For teams using two or three integrations, it’s a minor quality-of-life improvement. ## What to Configure First Update to v0.142 and start with delegation config. If you’re running in a team context without explicit delegation settings, `explicit-request-only` is the right default — it matches the behavior most teams assumed they had, now made explicit and enforced. Set a token budget based on your typical task sizes. Switch web search to indexed mode and whitelist the domains you actually need. The reliability fixes — Linux TUI rendering after Ctrl+Z resume, MCP session persistence across disconnects, cross-OS sandbox behavior — ship automatically and require no configuration. Full release notes are on the [Codex changelog](https://developers.openai.com/codex/changelog).