GitHub - openai/codex: Lightweight coding agent that runs in your terminal
Key Points
- 1OpenAI Codex is a lightweight, local coding agent designed for developers, installable via npm, Homebrew, or direct binaries for various platforms.
- 2Users can access Codex functionality by signing into their ChatGPT plan (Plus, Pro, Team, Edu, Enterprise) or through an API key, with the ChatGPT plan being the recommended method.
- 3In addition to its command-line interface, Codex offers integrations for popular IDEs like VS Code and Cursor, complementing a cloud-based version known as Codex Web.
The document describes Codex, an open-source, lightweight coding agent developed by OpenAI designed to run locally on a user's computer within the terminal environment or integrated into popular Integrated Development Environments (IDEs) like VS Code, Cursor, and Windsurf. A cloud-based variant, "Codex Web," is also referenced, accessible via chatgpt.com/codex.
The project is structured around a Command Line Interface (CLI) component, codex-cli, and appears to leverage Rust for its core implementation (codex-rs), indicating a focus on performance and native execution. An accompanying TypeScript SDK (sdk/typescript) suggests extensibility and potentially web-based or JavaScript-driven integrations. The inclusion of shell-tool-mcp points to direct shell interaction capabilities, while third_party/wezterm implies integration with terminal emulators.
The core methodology involves providing a local client-side agent that connects to OpenAI's backend services for its computational intelligence. Users are encouraged to authenticate with their ChatGPT account, leveraging existing Plus, Pro, Team, Edu, or Enterprise plans for access. Alternatively, an API key authentication method is available, requiring additional setup. This architecture implies that the complex language model processing and code generation capabilities reside in OpenAI's cloud infrastructure, while Codex acts as an intelligent local interface or orchestrator.
Installation is facilitated through common package managers such as npm (npm install -g @openai/codex) and Homebrew (brew install --cask codex). Additionally, pre-compiled binaries are available for direct download from GitHub Releases, supporting various platforms and architectures including macOS (Apple Silicon/arm64, x86_64) and Linux (x86_64, arm64), packaged as .tar.gz archives.
The project is licensed under the Apache-2.0 License, indicating an open and permissive approach to its usage and modification. With a substantial community engagement reflected by 55.6k stars and 7.2k forks, Codex positions itself as a significant tool for developers seeking AI-powered coding assistance directly within their local development workflows.