ADtention for Codex

Sponsor text in the Codex terminal, served only after real Codex prompts.

ADtention for Claude Code gets a true status line because Claude exposes one. Codex does not currently expose a custom statusline slot, so this client uses the next best supported surface: the Codex app or CLI terminal.

It shows:

⊕ $0.42  Alchemy: APIs for every chain -> learn-more

The terminal title/tab stays updated while you work, and the readable sponsor line appears above the prompt when that prompt is visible. No popups. No forced tmux. No special terminal.

Codex CLI itself is a full-screen terminal UI, so it hides the normal shell prompt while it runs. In that mode the live ADtention surface is the terminal/window title. In the Codex app terminal, ADtention can also print the prompt line because the shell prompt is visible there.

Open the current sponsor with:

learn-more

Or open an explicit sponsor URL:

learn-more https://example.com/sponsor

adtention-open still works as a compatibility alias.

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"Wait. An ad plugin reading my code?"

Good instinct. The client is built so your code does not need to leave your machine.

When you submit a prompt, a Codex hook classifies your work locally into one of six broad buckets:

web3 · web · devops · data · systems · general

The server receives that bucket, an anonymous install ID, and a nonce. It does not receive your source code.

Leaves your machine	Never leaves your machine
One bucket word, such as web	Your code or file contents
Anonymous publisher/install ID	Your prompts or Codex replies
Impression nonce	File names, paths, or repo names

The visible terminal path makes no network calls. It only reads cache files. The network path runs in the background from Codex hooks.

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Install

macOS/Linux:

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/adtention-ai/codex/main/install.sh | bash

Windows PowerShell:

irm https://raw.githubusercontent.com/adtention-ai/codex/main/install.ps1 | iex

Local development:

./install.sh

Referral install:

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/adtention-ai/codex/main/install.sh | bash -s -- --ref YOURCODE

Windows referral install:

$env:ADTENTION_REF = "YOURCODE"; irm https://raw.githubusercontent.com/adtention-ai/codex/main/install.ps1 | iex

The installer does all of this:

• copies the client to a stable location under ~/.codex/adtention-codex
• uses the released prebuilt Rust binary for your OS and CPU
• builds with Rust/Cargo only if the released binary is unavailable
• installs the Codex plugin from the local marketplace
• installs shell terminal integration

The referral code is one-shot. It is saved locally and sent only with the first anonymous /v1/register call, then removed. If a user already has an identity.json, installing with a new referral code does not reattribute that existing install.

Codex may still ask you to review and trust plugin hooks with /hooks. That is a Codex safety step, not an ADtention prompt.

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What You Get

• Codex app terminal display using Codex app environment detection.
• Scoped Codex CLI display through a lightweight codex shell wrapper.
• Persistent terminal title/tab text while Codex is active.
• Readable sponsor line above the prompt when the shell prompt is visible.
• Learn more command: learn-more opens the cached sponsor URL.
• Update command: adtention-update checks whether a newer release exists.
• No terminal lock-in: works through shell integration, not tmux/zellij.
• No unrelated terminal noise: random terminals stay quiet by default.
• Fast prompt path: shell builtins read one tiny cache file.
• Prompt-gated serving: sponsor text changes only after real Codex input.
• Startup update check: a throttled background check runs on Codex startup.
• One install command for plugin and shell integration.

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How It Works Under the Hood

Two parts are deliberately separate:

• Terminal renderer: updates the title/tab and prompt line from local cache. It writes last_render_seen and never calls the network.
• Codex prompt hook: classifies the prompt locally, checks the render heartbeat, calls /v1/serve, and updates the cache.
• Startup setup hook: initializes cache files and runs update --quiet in the background. This only checks GitHub release metadata and does not serve ads.

The shell integration is quiet unless one of these is true:

• the terminal is inside the Codex app (CODEX_SHELL=1 or Codex bundle env)
• the user is running the wrapped codex command
• the user manually enables display with adtention-codex-on

Inside the Codex app, the prompt line marks an ad as rendered when the terminal prompt is actually drawn. The repeating title daemon is only started for the wrapped external codex command or explicit manual enable, so a hidden Codex app terminal does not keep renewing the render heartbeat forever.

There is no macOS Accessibility permission, Windows scheduled task, Linux systemd helper, tmux requirement, or foreground-window watcher.

Disable startup update checks with:

export ADTENTION_DISABLE_UPDATE_CHECK=1

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Runtime State

All components use the same account cache by default:

~/.claude/adtention/   # when Claude ADtention is already installed
~/.adtention/          # for Codex-only installs

Older Codex-only installs under ~/.codex/adtention/ are migrated on install without overwriting an existing shared identity.

Override it with:

export ADTENTION_CACHE=/some/other/cache

The installed client lives at:

~/.codex/adtention-codex/

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Developer Commands

Build the Rust client:

plugins/adtention-codex/scripts/build-client.sh

Build release artifacts:

./build.sh
cd plugins/adtention-codex/bin && shasum -a 256 -c SHA256SUMS

Tagged releases attach the same platform binaries and SHA256SUMS. The release workflow only runs for v* tags, and the tag must match the plugin version.

Run diagnostics:

plugins/adtention-codex/scripts/diagnose.sh

Open a sponsor URL directly:

plugins/adtention-codex/bin/adtention-codex learn-more https://example.com/sponsor

Check for an update:

adtention-update

Run tests:

cd plugins/adtention-codex/client
cargo test

cd ../../..
bash plugins/adtention-codex/tests/shell_integration_test.sh
bash plugins/adtention-codex/tests/setup_shell_test.sh
bash plugins/adtention-codex/tests/install_test.sh
bash plugins/adtention-codex/tests/refresh_shell_test.sh

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Uninstall

Shell integration can be removed with:

plugins/adtention-codex/scripts/uninstall-shell-integration.sh

Full uninstall support for plugin removal is planned next. For now, remove the Codex plugin from the Codex plugin browser or CLI.