# How to turn off Codex terminal animations — Kogen

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# How to turn off Codex terminal animations

Almir Sarajčić · 11 September 2026

Codex’s terminal interface enables animations by default. To disable the welcome animation, shimmer effects, and animated spinners, add this to `~/.codex/config.toml`:

```
[tui]
animations = false
```

Then start a new Codex terminal session normally:

```
codex
```

You can also try the setting without changing your configuration:

```
codex -c 'tui.animations=false'
```

That command overrides the same setting in your global configuration for that run. Codex has a separate `tui.whimsy` setting for decorative effects such as the Astra composer stars. If you have disabled both settings globally and want to compare the complete default visual treatment, override both:

```
codex -c 'tui.animations=true' -c 'tui.whimsy=true'
```

## The difference

With terminal animations enabled:

![Codex terminal opening with animations](https://kogen.dev/notes/codex-terminal-animations-enabled.gif)

With terminal animations disabled:

![Codex terminal after opening without animations](https://kogen.dev/notes/codex-terminal-animations-disabled.png)

## Does it start faster?

I initially thought disabling the animations also made Codex start faster. In a small warmed-up comparison, the median startup times were effectively identical: 561.3 milliseconds with animations and 561.2 milliseconds without them.

The setting makes Codex feel calmer and more immediate. In this small test, it did not make startup meaningfully faster.

[OpenAI’s Codex configuration reference](https://learn.chatgpt.com/docs/config-file/config-reference) and [advanced configuration guide](https://learn.chatgpt.com/docs/config-file/config-advanced)

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