Codex tutorial: start with your first engineering task

Start small

For a first Codex task, choose something easy to verify:

• Add SEO metadata to an existing page.
• Fix a specific error message.
• Add tests for a pure function.
• Update a short project document.

Small tasks make it easier to judge whether the agent understood the repo.

Ask Codex to read before editing

Use a prompt like:

Read the project structure and README first. Do not edit code yet. Tell me how this project starts, how tests run, and where the relevant modules are.

Then move from understanding to implementation.

Give clear boundaries

Include the desired result, related files, things not to touch and the verification command. After Codex edits files, inspect the diff and run the checks yourself or ask Codex to run them.

Common commands include:

pnpm typecheck
pnpm test
pnpm build

Passing tests do not mean the change is deployed. Keep local changes, commits, pushes and production releases as separate steps.