OpenAI Group PBC today released a macOS client for its Codex programming assistant.
The launch comes about two months after Claude Code, a competing service from Anthropic PBC, topped $1 billion in annualized recurring revenue. That number reportedly grew by at least $100 million in December. Claude Code’s rapid adoption may have prompted OpenAI to direct more resources to enhancing Codex.
The company’s new macOS app is built around a minimalist chat box similar in design to ChatGPT. When the user enters a prompt, the interface displays the code snippets that Codex generates one by one as they’re created. A sidebar next to the chat box displays shortcuts such as links to project files.
The app is powered by GPT-5.2-Codex, OpenAI’s newest programming-focused large language model. It can process prompts with up to 400,000 tokens, which corresponds to about 100,000 lines of code, and understands over 50 programming languages. Users can also upload multimodal input such as interface sketches.
OpenAI disclosed today that Codex usage has doubled since GPT-5.2-Codex rolled out in mid-December. According to the company, more than 1 million developers accessed the LLM in the past month.
The Codex app’s sidebar provides access to so-called skills. Those are user-created extensions that customize the tool’s output. For example, a developer could create a skill that configures Codex to generate an explanatory visualization whenever it suggests a code change.
The process of creating a skill involves putting together a folder with prompts, scripts and various other files. Those other files might include a company’s software security best practices or code documentation style guide. When a skill is active, Codex uses the data in the folder to personalize its prompt responses.
The macOS app also provides access to a feature called Automations. It enables Codex to perform tasks at specific user-defined time intervals. If a software team frequently receives feature requests from customers, it could use Automations to generate a daily summary of new requests.
The Codex app is also capable of automating more advanced tasks. In an internal test, OpenAI researchers used a single prompt to create an entire video game. The company says that the code generation process involved more than 7 million tokens.
The Codex app is available to all ChatGPT users on launch. In the longer term, however, accessing the client will require a ChatGPT Plus, Pro, Business, Enterprise or Edu subscription. OpenAI will enable users to boost their accounts’ default usage limits by purchasing credits.
The company plans to bring the Codex app to Windows at an unspecified future date. Additionally, OpenAI plans to speed up the tool and make it better at complex coding tasks that require the creation of multiple agents. Another upcoming upgrade will enable Codex’s Automations feature to run when users don’t have the app open.
Image: OpenAI
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