Overview
OpenAI Codex is OpenAI's coding agent. Its core is Codex CLI, an open-source agent written in Rust that runs locally on your computer and works inside your repository from the terminal. The same agent is also available as an extension for VS Code, Cursor and Windsurf, as a desktop app (launched with codex app), and as Codex Web, the cloud-based agent at chatgpt.com/codex that runs tasks in parallel.
The CLI installs with a one-line script on macOS, Linux and Windows, or through npm and Homebrew; the standalone installers download from OpenAI's release host and fall back to GitHub Releases, where per-platform binaries are also published for manual installs. On first run you sign in with a ChatGPT account (Plus, Pro, Business, Edu or Enterprise plans include Codex), or configure an API key with some additional setup.
The repository is licensed under Apache-2.0 and includes contributing and build documentation plus an open-source fund. Codex in the cloud and in ChatGPT is a commercial service, which is why the catalogue lists the product as open-core: the client is open source, the hosted agent and the models behind it are not.
What it does
- Codex CLI: an open-source (Apache-2.0) coding agent in Rust that runs locally and edits your repository from the terminal
- IDE extension for VS Code, Cursor and Windsurf, and a desktop app started with codex app
- Codex Web: OpenAI's cloud-based agent that runs coding tasks in parallel from chatgpt.com/codex
- One-line installers for macOS/Linux and Windows, plus npm and Homebrew packages and per-platform binaries on GitHub Releases
- Sign in with a ChatGPT plan (Plus, Pro, Business, Edu, Enterprise) or use an API key
- Plugins: install, list and remove plugins from remote marketplaces from the command line
Getting started
Install the CLI, run codex, and sign in with your ChatGPT account. Everything below is from the project README.
Install on macOS or Linux
The install script downloads the right binary for your platform. npm (npm install -g @openai/codex) and Homebrew (brew install --cask codex) are alternatives.
curl -fsSL https://chatgpt.com/codex/install.sh | shInstall on Windows
Run the PowerShell installer.
powershell -ExecutionPolicy ByPass -c "irm https://chatgpt.com/codex/install.ps1 | iex"Start it and sign in
Run codex in a project directory and choose Sign in with ChatGPT; OpenAI recommends this over an API key so Codex runs as part of your plan.
codexOpen the desktop app instead
The same agent as a desktop application.
codex appCommands and code are distilled from the project's own documentation — always check the official repo for the latest.
When to use it
- Run an AI coding agent locally on your own machine with an open-source client you can read and build yourself
- Use the same agent inside VS Code, Cursor or Windsurf, or as a desktop app
- Hand off longer tasks to Codex Web to run in parallel in the cloud
- Extend the CLI with plugins from remote marketplaces
Version history
Every verified update to OpenAI Codex that AI/TLDR tracked, newest first — each links to our coverage and the official changeset.
- 2026-09-09v0.154.0
GPT-6 Astra is added to the model picker and to Amazon Bedrock catalogs. Experimental worktree support (`--worktree` or `/worktree`) gives a new or forked session its own isolated checkout, and Windows sessions can share one background Codex server.
- 2026-09-03v0.153.0
Adds a plugin command line that lists, installs and removes plugins from remote marketplaces; Vim mode gains undo and redo, and TUI sessions reconnect after an app-server drop without losing the draft.
OpenAI Codex in the news
- 2026-09-09NOTABLECodex CLI 0.154.0 — GPT-6 Astra in the picker and git worktree sessions
- 2026-09-03NOTABLECodex CLI 0.153.0 — install plugins straight from remote marketplaces
- 2026-09-01NOTABLECodex CLI 0.152.0 — the planning tool is now off by default
- 2026-08-20MAJORCodex CLI 0.149.0 — a dashboard for every running agent task
- 2026-07-15MAJORCodex Micro — OpenAI's first hardware is a $230 macro pad for Codex
- 2026-06-25MAJORCodex Remote GA — control desktop Codex from ChatGPT mobile
- 2026-06-22MAJOROpenAI Codex — SSD-burning SQLite log bug patched after 640 TB/year reports
- 2026-06-18MAJOROpenAI Codex Record & Replay — demonstrate a macOS workflow, get a reusable skill
From the AI/TLDR release feed — every item is source-verified when it ships.
How OpenAI Codex compares
OpenAI Codex alongside other open-source autonomous coding agents tools AI/TLDR tracks, ranked by GitHub stars.
| Tool | Stars | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| opencode | ★ 208k | OpenCode is an open source AI coding agent that runs in your terminal, with built-in build and plan agents and an optional desktop app. |
| Claude Code | ★ 146k | Anthropic's agentic coding tool for the terminal, IDE and GitHub: it understands your codebase, executes routine tasks, explains code and handles git workflows from natural-language commands. |
| OpenAI Codex | ★ 125k | OpenAI's coding agent: an open-source CLI that runs locally, plus IDE, desktop-app and cloud (Codex Web) surfaces |
| Gemini CLI | ★ 107k | An open-source command-line AI agent from Google that connects your terminal to Gemini models for reading code, editing files, running shell commands, and searching the web. |
| Pi | ★ 107k | Minimal terminal coding agent harness with four built-in tools, extended through TypeScript extensions, skills and prompt templates instead of forks. |
| autoresearch | ★ 96.2k | Karpathy's minimal harness that hands a coding agent a single-GPU LLM training script and lets it run fixed five-minute experiments, keeping or discarding each change on its own. |
| OpenHands | ★ 88.4k | An open-source AI software-development agent that plans tasks, edits files, runs commands, and tests code, usable from a terminal CLI, a local web GUI, or a Python SDK. |
| Orca | ★ 71.4k | Open-source desktop workspace that runs Claude Code, Codex, OpenCode and other CLI coding agents in parallel, each in its own git worktree, with a mobile companion app. |