Codex CLI 0.167.2: incremental Vertex AI tool updates become default, 0.170 preview line reaches alpha.3

Codex's stable channel picked up a patch with an actual body late on November 11: rust-v0.167.2 shipped at 2026-11-11T22:44:46Z, and its New Features section holds exactly one entry - Codex now sends tool updates incrementally by default on Google Cloud Vertex AI, with an official opt-out flag alongside. On the preview side, two lines kept moving: the 0.170 line reached alpha.3 within two days, and npm's alpha dist-tag moved to 0.170.0-alpha.3 with it. Facts in this article were checked on the batch day against GitHub releases (authenticated gh api), the npm registry, the PyPI JSON API, and the official Codex changelog at learn.chatgpt.com, with a byte-level diff of the bundled models.json.

1. Three-channel timeline

Compare the previous stable patch, rust-v0.167.1 (released 2026-11-10T21:32:01Z with no change entries in its release notes - checked by this site on 2026-11-12): 0.167.2 brings back a New Features section with a body, and the three-channel sync has tightened to minutes.

2. New Features: incremental tool updates on Vertex AI become default

The release notes text, quoted verbatim:

Codex now sends tool updates incrementally by default on Google Cloud Vertex AI. To opt out, set incremental_tools_legacy_gcp = false under [features] in config.toml. (#60617, #60848)

Three points can be pointed to in the original: the behavior being changed is how tool updates are sent, scoped to Google Cloud Vertex AI; a default flips - incremental sending becomes the default; and the opt-out flag is named incremental_tools_legacy_gcp, set under the [features] section of config.toml:

[features]
incremental_tools_legacy_gcp = false

The two preceding PRs match the release notes' framing: #60617 Support incremental tool declarations on GCP (merged 2026-11-10T16:13:51Z) landed "support" first, and #60848 Enable incremental tool declarations by default for GCP (merged 2026-11-11T19:18:46Z) flipped it to "default". Beyond the titles and merge times, this article did not extract the PR diffs - the concrete mechanics of incremental sending (effects on latency, streamed output, or tool-call pacing) are not written in the release notes or the changelog, and this article does not infer them. One wording note: the PR titles say incremental tool declarations while the release notes say tool updates - both are quoted as written and not merged into one term.

3. The bundled model catalog is unchanged

codex-rs/models-manager/models.json is byte-identical between rust-v0.167.2 and rust-v0.167.1 (same md5, measured by this site on 2026-11-13). The catalog remains as checked on 2026-11-12: gpt-6-astra, gpt-6.1-sol, gpt-6.1-terra, gpt-6-sol, gpt-6-luna, and the three GPT-5.6 tiers are listed; gpt-6-cyber still has no standalone entry; the gpt-daybreak-blue-latest and gpt-daybreak-red-latest aliases remain hidden.

4. Preview lines: 0.170 reaches alpha.3

npm's alpha dist-tag now points at 0.170.0-alpha.3 (checked 2026-11-13); latest is 0.167.2. alpha.2 and alpha.3 are about 18 hours apart (01:30:28Z to 19:32:20Z). On PyPI, latest is 0.167.2; whether the 0.169 and 0.170 preview versions are published to PyPI was not checked per-version in this batch - the PyPI JSON API's latest is the only PyPI-side datapoint for this batch.

5. Where the official Codex changelog stands

learn.chatgpt.com/docs/changelog (fetched 200 in this batch) carries a Codex CLI 0.167.2 entry dated 2026-11-11 whose body matches the GitHub release notes (the same New Features entry plus the two PR numbers). The line's CLI entries after 11-06's 0.167.0 are 11-10's 0.167.1 (no body, only a Full Changelog link) and this one, with the 2026-11-10 ChatGPT for iOS 1.2026.307 entry in between. None of the 0.168, 0.169, or 0.170 preview lines has a changelog entry (checked against the page in this batch) - preview versions not entering the changelog is this page's standing pattern.

6. Common mistakes and troubleshooting

• Treating the alpha dist-tag as the stable channel: the alpha channel now installs the 0.170.0-alpha.3 preview; pin production to latest (0.167.2).
• Assuming the model catalog changed: the 0.167.2 catalog is byte-identical to 0.167.1; the Codex-side delivery form for Daybreak models such as gpt-6-cyber is unchanged (consistent with the 2026-11-12 check).
• Misspelling the flag: the opt-out is incremental_tools_legacy_gcp (release notes wording), set under the [features] section; this article did not exercise the flag against the binary - official wording is the authority.
• Misreading the PyPI channel gap: the historical gap where 0.164-0.166 never reached PyPI (latest jumped straight to 0.167.0) was closed on 11-06; this batch's 0.167.2 synced across three channels within minutes (5 minutes 18 seconds and 12 minutes 30 seconds).

Next steps

• Background on the 0.167-to-0.168 jump and the channel gap: Codex Preview Line Jumps from 0.167 to 0.168: Four Releases, No Stable Close (2026).
• Where the Vertex AI provider came from: Codex CLI 0.164–0.165, Explained: GPT-6.1 Terra in the Catalog, a Vertex AI Provider, /presets, memory v2.
• Every OpenAI release node on one timeline: OpenAI Models Release Notes (2026, Living Document).