Add persistent user preference recall across Codex CLI conversations
Agreed that a lot of this is covered once you map the Codex surfaces correctly. The docs make the split clearer than the mental model people often start with:
AGENTS.mdfor durable instructions, globally or per repo- skills for reusable workflows that should trigger on a task
- MCP for external memory/tools/context
- memories for lightweight carried-forward context, where enabled
- snippets/custom saved prompts for repeated phrasing or commands
The nuance I’d still preserve is that these solve slightly different problems. A skill is great when there’s a recognisable workflow. AGENTS.md is better for baseline behaviour: review tone, verbosity, repo conventions, preferred commands, etc. MCP or a “second brain” setup is better when the agent needs to retrieve external context rather than carry it in the prompt.
So I think the practical answer is not “one memory layer,” but using the right scope: global Codex instructions for how I work, repo AGENTS.md for how this codebase works, skills for repeatable workflows, and MCP/memory for recall. This gets pretty close to the precedence model people are asking for, without needing an umbrella project that mixes personal defaults with repo context.
Discussion in the ATmosphere