Approving Codex CLI Diffs with Your Feet

Pedal Three is a three-pedal USB foot switch: each pedal is independently programmable to send a key, a modifier combination, a text string, or a mouse click, and it needs no battery or pairing because it runs off the USB bus. For Codex CLI, the natural mapping is accept, reject, and push-to-talk, the two decisions you make constantly while reviewing what it proposes, plus a way to start dictating without touching the keyboard.

What do the three pedals map to for Codex CLI?

Whatever your accept and reject actions are, on two of them, with the third free for a text string, a modifier, or a push-to-talk key if you're pairing this with a dictation device. Because Pedal Three sends real keystrokes rather than talking to any application directly, it works with Codex CLI's terminal the same way it works with an editor or a browser: you program a pedal to send the key you'd otherwise press, and Codex CLI never knows your hand didn't do it.

Why move accept and reject to your feet at all?

Because you repeat those two actions constantly while reviewing agent output, and both normally cost you a hand off the home row. Your feet, meanwhile, are doing nothing during a code review. Count how many times a day you approve or reject something Codex CLI proposes, and estimate the fraction of a second each hand-to-mouse-or-key movement costs you; multiplied out over a day that's real time, though how much it's worth to you is a number only you can supply.

Does it need a driver?

Not to work. It enumerates as a standard keyboard, so any operating system accepts it the moment you plug it in. A driver only enters the picture when you want to change what the pedals send, and that configuration utility is Windows-first. The pedals themselves run fine on macOS and Linux with whatever mapping was last programmed into them; the easiest path if you're Mac-based is to borrow a PC once to set the mapping and then use the pedal anywhere.

What does this cost you that a macropad wouldn't?

More than you'd expect for three plastic pedals on a steel base: foot switches like this carry a much higher United States duty than a macropad, because of how the product is classified. That's baked into the price, not a hidden markup, and it's worth knowing before you compare this to a similarly sized keypad and wonder why the pedal costs more.

Who doesn't need this?

If your Codex CLI sessions are mostly short and infrequent, a few prompts here and there rather than long runs you're reviewing all day, the time this saves per approval won't add up to much, and a cheap pair of Slam Buttons or just using the keyboard will cost less for the same two actions. Pedals earn their price when accept and reject are something you do hundreds of times in a session, not a handful. For other ways to build the same review loop, see the Codex CLI tag.