codex - 💡(How to fix) Fix Per-project environment profiles with automatic Windows/WSL switching

What variant of Codex are you using?

App for Windows

What feature would you like to see?

Problem

Currently Codex on Windows uses a single global execution environment:

• Windows native
• WSL

Switching between them requires:

• opening Settings
• changing the environment
• restarting Codex

This creates major friction for developers working across mixed stacks and heterogeneous environments.

Additionally, Custom Instructions are currently global and cannot be scoped to a specific execution environment or project type.

This becomes problematic when workflows differ significantly between:

• Windows-native projects
• WSL/Linux projects
• Docker-first repositories
• Remote/SSH infrastructure environments
• GUI/browser automation projects

Proposed Solution

Introduce:

1. Per-project environment profiles
2. Automatic environment switching
3. Environment-scoped Custom Instructions
4. Concurrent multi-environment agent support
5. No restart requirement when switching environments

Example Workflow

Project A (Laravel / Docker / Linux)

Environment:

• WSL
• bash
• Docker-first workflow

Custom Instructions:

• Run backend commands inside containers
• Use Linux paths
• Prefer bash tooling
• Use Playwright from WSL

Project B (.NET / Electron / Windows)

Environment:

• Windows native
• PowerShell

Custom Instructions:

• Prefer Windows-native tooling
• Use Chrome integration
• Use Windows filesystem paths
• Avoid WSL unless explicitly requested

Codex should automatically activate the correct environment profile when opening the project.

Suggested Implementation

Environment Profiles

Settings → Environments

Each profile could contain:

• execution backend
• shell
• filesystem root
• browser automation settings
• Docker strategy
• tool preferences
• scoped Custom Instructions

Project Binding

Projects can bind to profiles using:

• AGENTS.md
• .codex/config
• workspace metadata
• repository settings

Example:

environment: wsl-laravel

or:

environment: windows-native

Additional Improvements

Concurrent Multi-Environment Sessions

Allow multiple Codex chats/agents to run simultaneously in different environments:

• Chat A → WSL
• Chat B → Windows native
• Chat C → remote SSH host

without requiring global switching or restart.

Environment Awareness APIs

Expose current environment metadata to the agent:

• shell
• OS
• containerization mode
• filesystem type
• Docker availability
• browser integration support

This would significantly improve autonomous behavior.

Why This Matters

Modern engineering workflows are heterogeneous.

Developers frequently combine:

• Linux containers
• Windows-native tooling
• Docker
• browser automation
• WSL
• remote infrastructure
• CI/CD environments

Codex is evolving into a long-running autonomous engineering platform, and environment-specific behavior is essential for reducing friction and enabling reliable autonomous workflows.

Without this functionality, users must constantly:

• rewrite prompts
• change settings
• restart Codex
• manually re-orient the agent
• duplicate instruction sets

This breaks flow and limits Codex's effectiveness as a persistent engineering assistant.

Additional information

No response