alt Hacker Newsthere seems to be very big misunderstanding about what the "ultra" is, so let me explain it basing on the codex source code:
it's similar to Claude code ultracode.
there is no ultra effort level implemented on the backend. it's just alias in the codex to max effort setting and single line addition to prompt to use subagents proactively. that's all
as far as we know pro models work differently. for once those are backend implementations and they probably run multiple parallel reasonings for any chunk and use some judgement model to pick best version as persistent one. but that's what I believe is most popular guess, because this is openai secret sauce.
there is still no way to use pro models from codex, or at leat so far there is no trace of it anywhere.
Replies
sources for easy confirmation:
https://github.com/openai/codex/blob/98d28aab54ed86714901b66...
https://github.com/openai/codex/blob/98d28aab54ed86714901b66...
https://github.com/openai/codex/blob/98d28aab54ed86714901b66...
The nomenclature in this industry is all over the place.
That's strange. One can easily steer their session to use agents proactively.
> single line addition to prompt to use subagents proactively.
This misses an important detail. In Claude Code [1], ultracode suggests the agent create a JavaScript code to deterministically orchestrate sub agents. This is different from just having the main agent launch sub agents and (non-deterministically) manage them.
The resulting workflow is called “dynamic” because CC creates this orchestration script dynamically, “on the fly”.
[1] https://claude.com/blog/introducing-dynamic-workflows-in-cla...
Another useful thing about dynamic workflows is you can ask Claude to make them durable as skills (or slash command) that can be invoked later.
I believe inside Google they have a similar concept called “deterministic workflows”.
I find ultracode extremely useful. Of course you have to watch how your 5 hour and weekly session usage percentages are getting used. So I had Claude make a status-line with 3 progress bars: for context window, 5h session, 7d session:
https://pchalasani.github.io/claude-code-tools/tools/statusl...