Codex /goal favors time-boxed runs

This is a practical operator trick: constrain the session by time, not by an arbitrary prompt checkpoint. That makes sense for agentic coding, where the useful unit is “work until the deadline” rather than “work until the next pause.”

• –Time-boxing reduces the friction of repeated continue prompts and keeps momentum on larger tasks
• –A deadline aligned to a human review window is often better than token- or step-based stopping criteria
• –The failure mode is scope creep: without a crisp definition of done, the agent can spend the whole window polishing the wrong thing
• –This fits the newer Codex /goal workflow and OpenAI’s broader push toward scheduled, recurring automations
• –It’s a good reminder that prompt design for coding agents is really workflow design, not just wording