Sixteen Keys for Your Codex CLI Review Loop
The KM16 is a 16-key aluminium macropad with three rotary knobs, remapped entirely through VIA in a web browser, no firmware to flash, no compiler involved. Sixteen keys is enough to cover most of a Codex CLI review session with room left over: accept, reject, run tests, switch model, move between panes, and still have keys spare for whatever else comes up.
What do you actually put on sixteen keys?
More than the review loop alone needs, which is the point. The core of it, accept, reject, re-run, next diff, takes maybe four or five keys. The rest is room for pane navigation, switching between a couple of active Codex CLI sessions if you run more than one, or shortcuts you'd otherwise reach across the keyboard for. If you run more than one Codex CLI session at once, a layer switch on one of the knobs or keys is also a clean way to jump between them without hunting through terminal tabs. The KM16 Macropad's three rotary encoders, one large, two small, are suited to anything continuous rather than binary: scrolling a long diff, adjusting volume, or scrubbing through logs.
How do you remap it for a terminal agent specifically?
Through VIA, in a browser, by clicking the key you want to change and telling it what to send. Because it's VIA-compatible there's no firmware flashing and nothing to compile; you're editing a mapping, not reprogramming a device. VIA also supports layers, so a held key can switch the whole pad to a second set of assignments, one layer while you're in Codex CLI's terminal, a different layer for an editor or a browser, without buying a second pad.
What ships on it by default?
A stock layout built for design work, not code review. Plan on spending about twenty minutes in VIA before the pad actually matches what you do with Codex CLI; that setup time is real and worth budgeting for rather than assuming the out-of-box mapping will already fit.
Is this overkill for just accept and reject?
If accept and reject really are the only two things you'd map, yes, this is a sixteen-key aluminium block with three knobs solving a two-button problem, and Slam Buttons or a couple of foot pedals would do that job for less and with zero remapping software. The KM16 earns its price when you actually use ten or more of its keys, spread across more of your workflow than one agent's review loop. If you're not there yet, start smaller and come back to this once you know what you're missing.
What about the weight and the lighting?
The block is CNC-machined aluminium and noticeably heavy for its footprint, which is deliberate: it doesn't skid across the desk when you hit a key hard. The RGB underglow and badge lighting don't do anything functional; they're there because a macropad you look at all day might as well look good. For a smaller alternative to this one, see the EM Mini Pad guide, and for the rest of this lineup, the Codex CLI tag.