Terminal paths and project roots

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What you will be able to do

Distinguish window, shell and input

The terminal is the window hosting text interaction; shells such as PowerShell, Bash and zsh interpret commands. Starting codex enters another conversational interface inside that window. A single window can therefore contain different input contexts. A PS prompt with a path usually indicates PowerShell; the Codex composer sends requests to the agent. Do not paste shell commands, /plan and natural-language prompts as one undifferentiated block.

An absolute path starts from a drive or filesystem root, such as C:\Work\demo or /home/reader/demo. A relative path is interpreted from the current directory. A dot means this directory and two dots mean its parent. Changing a terminal's directory does not move files or change another open terminal. Check location in each new window rather than relying on the previous window's state.

Prepare nested folders and a text file

Use a file manager to create a new codex-terminal-lab folder somewhere convenient, then a child named lesson one, including the space. If the name already exists, choose a new name and use the actual path in subsequent commands. In lesson one, save note.txt as UTF-8 plain text with the single line below. Creating it graphically first helps you connect terminal output with a known file.

Terminal practice: this is lesson one.

The folder should have the structure below. Avoid note.txt.txt in Windows and RTF in macOS; preserve case on Linux. A space in a folder name is valid and useful for practising quotation. Code blocks contain the commands or content to use; do not prepend prompt markers such as PS C:\> or $.

codex-terminal-lab/
  lesson one/
    note.txt

Windows: complete PowerShell procedure

Open PowerShell from Start, or use Open in Terminal from codex-terminal-lab in File Explorer. If Terminal opens Command Prompt, select PowerShell; Get-Location is not a cmd.exe command. Run the following read-only commands to inspect location and immediate children. If lesson one is missing, check the actual path in Explorer before trying to read the file.

Get-Location
Get-ChildItem -Name

If you need to navigate manually, copy the full codex-terminal-lab path from Explorer and replace the example inside the quotes below. YOUR_NAME is a placeholder, not a usable path; Documents may live in OneDrive or on another drive. LiteralPath treats the path literally, avoiding wildcard interpretation of brackets. Successful navigation usually prints nothing, so inspect location again.

Set-Location -LiteralPath 'C:\Users\YOUR_NAME\Documents\codex-terminal-lab'
Get-Location
Get-ChildItem -Name

Once you are at the actual practice root, enter the child folder containing a space, read the file, then return to the parent. These commands do not change files. Expect the full English sentence, followed by a location back at codex-terminal-lab. Do not judge the whole sequence solely by its last line; stop and inspect any intermediate error.

Set-Location -LiteralPath '.\lesson one'
Get-Content -LiteralPath '.\note.txt'
Set-Location -LiteralPath '..'
Get-Location

macOS and Linux: complete terminal procedure

On macOS, open Terminal from Spotlight; on Linux, use the application menu or your file manager's terminal action. macOS commonly uses zsh and Linux commonly Bash; this section uses basic commands understood by both. Run pwd and ls -a first: the former reports location, the latter includes hidden entries. Do not assume a macOS /Users path exists under Linux /home.

pwd
ls -a

To navigate manually, type cd, a space, then the actual absolute folder path inside quotes; the line below is a replacement example. Dragging a folder into the terminal may also work, but inspect how spaces were escaped before adding extra quotes. If you write the home directory as $HOME, double quotes allow expansion; this lesson uses an explicit full path to avoid mixing in another syntax.

cd '/absolute/path/to/codex-terminal-lab'
pwd
ls -a

After locating lesson one, run the next sequence. Expect the same sentence and a return to the original root. If a step fails, correct it before continuing line by line. The basic procedure is the same on macOS and Linux, but case sensitivity can depend on the filesystem. Match names exactly rather than relying on permissive matching.

cd 'lesson one'
cat note.txt
cd ..
pwd

Check an error before starting Codex

At the practice root, try a nonexistent missing-folder: use Set-Location -LiteralPath '.\missing-folder' in PowerShell or cd 'missing-folder' on macOS/Linux. Expect a missing-path error and an unchanged location. Error wording varies by language and version. This demonstrates that a failed navigation does not create a folder, and why editing commands should not follow an unchecked cd failure.

Read from the wrong location, then fix the relative path

First confirm that you are at the codex-terminal-lab root and that note.txt exists only inside lesson one. Use the block for your platform: the first line should report that note.txt is missing, while the second supplies the correct subfolder and should read Terminal practice: this is lesson one. The failed read does not move you into lesson one. Do not create another note.txt at the root to hide the error. These commands only read data and should leave the original file unchanged.

Get-Content -LiteralPath '.\note.txt'
Get-Content -LiteralPath '.\lesson one\note.txt'

cat note.txt
cat 'lesson one/note.txt'

If CLI is installed, run codex at the verified practice root and send the read-only request below. Otherwise continue to CLI setup; do not change permissions just for this lesson. The agent should find lesson one/note.txt, read the sentence and report location. If the path differs, check whether the interface created a working copy before concluding the wrong folder was selected.

Read lesson one/note.txt and report the current working directory.
Do not modify any files. If the file is missing, report the actual error.

Troubleshooting, finishing and practice

For an unknown command, check the shell: Get-Content is not a Bash command. For a path split into arguments, check spaces and straight quotes rather than typographic quotes copied from a word processor. For access denied, verify that this is your own practice folder before considering administrator access. If an editor sees a file but the terminal does not, save it and check extension, directory and whether WSL is using another home.

No source file was changed, so close the terminal or leave the folder when finished. Ctrl+C commonly interrupts a running program, but interruption does not restore data already written. Independently create lesson two/note.txt with a different sentence and read both files from the root. You pass when you can distinguish paths from files, handle spaces and identify the location after failure. Diagram steps 1, 2 and 3 mean locate, read and verify.

PowerShell path semantics were checked against Microsoft Set-Location documentation, and Codex startup against official CLI documentation, on 2026-09-14. Windows commands are also checked in an isolated exercise folder. The macOS/Linux sections describe common shell operations and are not presented as device screenshots. Continue with Markdown and AGENTS.md.

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Three numbered stages: identify the starting point, perform the exercise, and verify the result. Original illustration, not a product screenshot.

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