Codex CLI v0.161 and v0.162 changes, and GPT-6.1 Sol becoming the default model

Originally published at https://aicoding-guide.com.

Codex CLI v0.161.0 and v0.162.0 carry two changes that reach into your configuration: the default model was swapped and the way Daybreak is enabled changed.

Two things are worth checking because of them: whether you pin a model in config.toml, and whether you have added the cli_daybreak opt-in if you use Daybreak.

Setting keys below are only the ones confirmed against the official configuration reference as fetched on 2026-10-12; anything unconfirmed is marked as such.

Key point
What you will learn

• Where GPT-6.1 Sol became the default, and how to pin a model yourself
• That Daybreak now requires an explicit opt-in
• The approval and sandbox changes, and where the worktree tools stand

GPT-6.1 Sol is the new default model

The v0.161.0 release notes read "GPT-6.1 Sol is now the default model in the bundled and Amazon Bedrock catalogs." What is stated as default is the bundled catalog and the Amazon Bedrock catalog; other setups are not addressed.

The model row in the configuration reference now uses gpt-6.1-sol as its example:

Key	Type	Description
model	string	Model to use (e.g., gpt-6.1-sol)

To pin it instead of taking the default, put it at the top level of ~/.codex/config.toml:

model = "gpt-6.1-sol"

Check availability on your account first
The reference says to "Set model to one available to your signed-in account or workspace," and tells you to check GPT-6.1 Sol availability before using that example value. If your organization's workspace doesn't offer it, writing it into model won't make it work.

Amazon Bedrock also gained multi-agent V2 and Ultra reasoning support. For setting reasoning depth, see Change the reasoning effort in Codex.

Daybreak needs an explicit opt-in

This is the change most likely to break an existing setup. The release notes read: "Daybreak is opt-in through --enable cli_daybreak or features.cli_daybreak=true; daybreak=true alone is insufficient."

# v0.161.0 and later. daybreak = true on its own does nothing
[features]
cli_daybreak = true

By default the controls and indicators are hidden and /daybreak is unavailable — and automatic Cyber routing is omitted even for saved Daybreak threads. Saved preferences themselves remain intact, so adding cli_daybreak restores the previous state. codex exec --cyber-access-program was also added for choosing a Cyber access program per turn; that override stays available with cli_daybreak disabled.

features.cli_daybreak is not in the configuration reference
As of 2026-10-12 there is no cli_daybreak row in the official reference's features.* table. The key name appears only in the release notes. The rows that are listed include features.apps, features.hooks, features.memories, features.multi_agent and features.network_proxy.

For config.toml as a whole, see What you can configure in Codex's config.toml.

Approval and sandbox changes

Permissions got fixes in both releases.

• Approved escalation: approved filesystem escalation can now grant broader write access while preserving denied reads and network restrictions. Background tasks retain their originating turn's permissions
• Linux sandbox: startup with multiple denied files is fixed, and writable sandbox-construction executables are now rejected
• ripgrep config: ripgrep configuration no longer weakens deny-glob masks. Paths you were protecting with a deny rule may have been visible to search, so this is worth upgrading for if you exclude sensitive files in the sandbox
• Windows: elevated terminal sessions can start using an embedded server, and ordinary drive-letter file access is restored on Windows 10

For the approval policy and sandbox settings themselves, see Codex approval policy and sandbox settings.

Worktree tools, the TUI, and the rest

In v0.162.0, when the worktrees feature is enabled, there are tools for creating and listing managed Git worktrees from trusted local projects. The key that enables that feature could not be confirmed in the official configuration reference.

In the TUI: /copy navigates and copies transcript blocks, Ctrl+Insert copies a selection, mouse-wheel speed is tunable (the release notes name tui.mouse_scroll_speed, which likewise does not appear in the reference's tui.* table), and URLs are clickable in approval headers, questions, MCP prompts, warnings and banners, including across wrapped lines.

The rest, as it touches configuration and operations:

Version	Change
0.160.1	Preserves SYSTEMROOT, TEMP and TMP when launching remote stdio MCP servers
0.161.0	/mcp login <name> signs in to an MCP server from an active session
0.162.0	apply_patch preserves existing CRLF line endings without an opt-in; Windows releases ship a signed PowerShell installer
0.162.1	Fixes a TUI crash on multi-line asynchronous questions, and startup failures from feature-setting differences between a running background server and CLI defaults

For adding MCP servers, see Set up MCP servers in Codex; for the previous release, Codex CLI v0.160 changes.

Summary

• v0.161.0 makes GPT-6.1 Sol the default in the bundled and Amazon Bedrock catalogs; confirm separately that your account can use it
• To pin a model, set model = "gpt-6.1-sol" at the top level of config.toml
• Daybreak needs --enable cli_daybreak or features.cli_daybreak = true; daybreak = true alone does nothing
• ripgrep configuration no longer weakens deny-glob masks — worth upgrading for if the sandbox excludes sensitive files
• features.cli_daybreak, the worktrees feature flag and tui.mouse_scroll_speed are all absent from the official configuration reference's tables