Use OpenAI Codex with abliteration.ai

Use OpenAI’s Codex CLI with abliteration.ai by registering a custom provider in ~/.codex/config.toml.

To use Codex with abliteration.ai, register a custom model provider in ~/.codex/config.toml pointing at https://api.abliteration.ai/v1 with wire_api = "responses". The Codex CLI then runs unchanged — same workflow, routed through abliteration.

Install

npm install -g @openai/codex

Configure

Codex reads its configuration from ~/.codex/config.toml (user-level). Create it if it doesn’t exist:

mkdir -p ~/.codex

Add the following to ~/.codex/config.toml:

[model_providers.abliteration]
name = "abliteration.ai"
base_url = "https://api.abliteration.ai/v1"
wire_api = "responses"
env_key = "ABLITERATION_API_KEY"

[profiles.abliteration]
model = "abliterated-model"
model_provider = "abliteration"
web_search = "live"

env_key tells Codex which environment variable holds your API key — it does not contain the key itself. Export it separately:

export ABLITERATION_API_KEY="ak_YOUR_API_KEY"

Codex only reads keys from environment variables. Setting the key inside config.toml will not work. Use a tool like direnv or your shell rc file if you want it persisted across terminals.

Run

codex --profile abliteration

To make abliteration the default so plain codex picks it up, add this line at the top of ~/.codex/config.toml:

profile = "abliteration"

Then:

codex

Per-project config

Codex also looks for .codex/config.toml inside trusted projects. Use this to override the model or profile for a single repo without touching the user-level config.

Config precedence

When the same setting is defined in multiple places, the order is:

1. CLI flags (highest)
2. Profile (--profile <name>)
3. Project config (.codex/config.toml)
4. User config (~/.codex/config.toml)

If Codex isn’t using your abliteration provider, check whether something higher in this chain is overriding it.

Web search

Web search is enabled with web_search = "live" in the profile (already shown above). You’ll need to turn on web search in the console too. See the web search overview for full details.

Troubleshooting

echo $ABLITERATION_API_KEY        # confirm the key is exported in this shell
cat ~/.codex/config.toml          # confirm the config is present and correct
codex --profile abliteration      # run with the profile explicitly

Notes

• Policy rules attached to your API key apply to every Codex turn.
• For headless / CI runs, use codex exec with --approval-mode auto.