NewCodexer — A friendly OpenAI Codex CLI onboarding tour

Install in two steps

Read the full README first — every Codex CLI plugin deserves that, this one included. The short version:

1. From your shell:

codex plugin marketplace add joshbotz/NewCodexer

2. Launch Codex, type /plugins, find new-codexer, install:

codex
/plugins

Then in your Codex session, type any of:

"I'm new to Codex CLI, walk me through it"
"I'm a helpdesk guy trying to break into security — help me get started with Codex"
"I work in compliance and my boss told me to look at the Codex CLI. Is this for me?"

The tour asks two calibrating questions, gives you the safety story, and walks you through one real thing chosen for your role. By the end you'll have a file you made and a starter-prompts cheat sheet saved to your Documents folder.

What you'll learn — in plain English

Sessions — your conversation; what's remembered and what gets summarized.
Tools — the verbs Codex uses on your machine (read, write, run, search).
Approvals + sandbox modes — the approve-before-acting system, plus read-only / workspace-write / danger-full-access.
Slash commands — /help, /approvals, /plugins, /model.
Skills — packaged know-how that activates automatically (like this tour).
MCP servers — external systems Codex can plug into. Each is its own trust decision.
AGENTS.md — a file that teaches Codex about your project's conventions.

You'll learn the names while you use them, not as a lecture upfront.

What you do NOT need first

Things people think they need before starting — they don't:

The terminal / command line in depth (just need to launch codex)
Git or GitHub
Python or any programming language
Docker
Regular expressions
"AI prompt engineering"

Pick those up later, when a real task forces you into them. Day one: type, read, and review proposed commands before approving.

A note on safety

Codex CLI runs with your user's permissions when you approve a command — capped by the active sandbox. Read the proposed command before you say yes. For your first session, launch with codex --sandbox read-only — Codex can look and propose but can't change anything until you flip it back.

If you're on a work laptop, check with IT/security before installing. The README walks through the work-laptop check, the cost honesty, and the install path step-by-step.