OpenAI’s big Codex update is a direct shot at Anthropic’s Claude Code

Codex can control apps on your desktop like Tic Tac Toe. | Image: OpenAI

OpenAI is beefing up its agentic coding and development system Codex with a suite of updates that let it use your computer, generate images, and remember from past experiences.

Codex will now be able to operate desktop apps on your computer, OpenAI says in a blog post announcing the update. It can work in the background, meaning it won't interfere with your own work in other apps, and multiple agents can work in parallel. For developers, OpenAI says "this is helpful for testing and iterating on frontend changes, testing apps, or working in apps that don't expose an API."

The feature will start rolling out to Codex desktop app users signe …

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