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(Someone deleted a comment about why you'd want a mobile Codex app. This is the answer I wrote.) Once you've used these coding agents a lot, you develop a pre

(Someone deleted a comment about why you'd want a mobile Codex app. This is the answer I wrote.) Once you've used these coding agents a lot, you develop a pretty intuitive feel for how they work, what they're capable of, what they're good at, and where their weaknesses are. Hopefully, you're already pretty familiar with the code base you're working on. Combining the two, this means you can get quite far essentially "vibe coding" (i.e. not looking at the actual code) on a new branch. So if you have some idea or some issue you want to fix on the go, you just iterate with the agent for a bit (presumably no more than a couple hours) until the agent outputs an implementation. Here, I do claim there is some "skill" (which is a function of your codebase familiarity, general SWE ability, and facility with AI agents), and if you're good, this implementation will be halfway decent a high percentage of the time. Then when you're back at your desktop, you can review the changes carefully/do some proper testing/debugging etc. But you've saved a good chunk of time- an initial draft is already waiting for you.

nextaccountic 5mo ago
But what if the code is on my laptop? Alongside the tools needed to work with it Case in point, I have a Rust project with a target/ directory with about 10GB. Compile times from scratch takes about 10 minutes. (I do not love this) With this mobile app I need to upload the code to the cloud, right? Or does OpenAI expects me to compile huge projects on my phone?
- pickleRick243 5mo ago
  No, the phone connects to your local device. This isn't "codex web" on mobile. Basically you work through your desktop on your phone. So to be clear, there are security risks (you can wipe your entire desktop from your phone).
  - andy12_ 5mo ago
    Not if you use Linux; app not available yet.
    - andai 5mo ago
      The announcement doesn't make this very clear, but I think this talks to the Codex CLI, not the Codex App? (Or possibly both)
      - andy12_ 5mo ago
        For now it appears that it talks only to the Codex App. Some users in this thread are saying that apparently the Codex CLI will support it on the next official release.
        lfauve 5mo ago
        Codex App can connect to codex-cli via ssh. So you can use Codex App on a Mac with your projects/compilation etc. on Linux
    - odiroot 5mo ago
      You can run Codex Desktop on Linux. It's on AUR already. Granted, just a repacked ASAR from Windows version but still does work quite well. Haven't tested connection to mobile yet but the integration with cloud environments already works.
- LoganDark 5mo ago
  The processes you're controlling are on your computer, similarly to Claude remote control.
- skybrian 5mo ago
  I tried Codex web. It kinda sucks and OpenAI doesn't seem to be promoting it? Look elsewhere if you want a Linux VM in the cloud. (I quite like exe.dev and they do have good mobile support.)
  - az226 5mo ago
    It's beyond terrible. Like they're routing to gpt4o mini with low effort behind the scenes. Just let us pick the model and the effort.
- cortesoft 5mo ago
  Not sure about how it works with Codex now, but with Claude you can just start a terminal session of claude code with your code checked out locally on your computer, and then enable remote control which lets you control that session from your phone. So basically, it is like you are typing on your terminal on your computer from your phone.
  - dascrazy_96 5mo ago
    basically yeah. the codex/claude desktop apps work the same way
- ks6g10 5mo ago
  I just use tailscale and remote desktop.
LoganDark 5mo ago
I've been vibe-refactoring a fork of get-shit-done (a skill collection for coding agents) for about the past week. I've had to revisit the same ideas multiple times because the agent doesn't always get it right at first, but it's still so much faster than I could have been at the same work + it's already mostly working (I've been dogfooding it for a day or two now). And I have gotten by just bringing up issues I notice from the LLM's implementation comments, rather than actually inspecting the code even once so far. (The refactor's been to support Jujutsu VCS.)
deleted 5mo ago
[deleted]
bugbuddy 5mo ago
> i.e. not looking at the actual code You must be kidding me.
- magicalhippo 5mo ago
  What OP said works quite well for a lot of tasks, and if you've set up base instructions on coding style they (Codex, Claude) generate code accordingly. A key point is that after the "vibe" session you should also have a lot of tests written. So they can easily refactoring the code afterwards if there are major aspects you don't like when you get back to your desktop.
- scrollaway 5mo ago
  I find funny the trend of software engineers being shocked at the idea that someone would issue a set of instructions to a coder and not look at the code, or only glance at it. How do you think the world has worked for the past thirty years? AI has just caught up with human skill is all.
- andai 5mo ago
  > There's a new kind of coding I call "vibe coding", where you fully give in to the vibes, embrace exponentials, and forget that the code even exists. https://x.com/karpathy/status/1886192184808149383 https://x.com/karpathy/status/1886192184808149383 Forgetting code exists is by definition not suitable for serious work. However, OP said in the following paragraph, that this would be a first draft, and that the code would actually be reviewed and tested properly before being integrated. At which point it is by definition no longer vibe coding, because you do care about the code! It's just an AI assisted workflow, but now we call all of those vibe coding for some reason. (Naming things is hard!) If vibe coding means not caring about the code, then a literal translation of the term would be "not caring about coding" coding.
  - paulcole 5mo ago
    > Forgetting code exists is by definition not suitable for serious work This is just like everyone who says, “An iPad is not suitable for serious work.” By which they (and you) generally mean, “What I do is serious work. What you do is unserious work.” I think I do serious work – I mean they pay me for it? And I have only copy/pasted and just run whatever code’s been generated by AI for the past 12 months or so. Whenever I can I just let the AI run it itself. Sad to learn that I’ve been so unserious all this time. > Naming things is hard! Indeed.
weird-eye-issue 5mo ago
For major new features on my SaaS this is exactly what I do on my phone/laptop sometimes over days or weeks. I never look at the code until I get a feeling that it's far enough along and then I will hop into the actual code and start manually making changes or using CC locally to make the changes iteratively over weeks until it's ready for release. In the early stages of a major new feature/product it can be counterproductive to closely monitor the AI. Of course like you said in your comment this requires very very strong knowledge of the code base and a lot of experience with using the agents in the first place. But once you can do this sort of workflow it's very powerful because you can do this in parallel with other work (just an hour or two per day over a week or two on your phone can get you to a really good first draft even on a major new feature/product. And of course I'm not saying it's ready for production that can still take weeks but that's not really the point)
CSMastermind 5mo ago
I mean I'd love for them to take it further. If you put me on the phone with a talented software engineer I could supervise all sorts of changes. I wish I could do the same thing with my coding agent. Being able to be like, "hey remind me what's in that database table ... got it okay let's rename it to ..." I'm also completely fine if it gives me hold mustic while it's working. Would make my walks much more productive.
teodosin 5mo ago
I was doing exactly this for a while with Claude Code. Very helpful when I'm away from home but can't stop thinking about my project. The remote agent has access to all the docs and instructions in my repo and most of the time gives me a decent draft I just need to polish later. I unsubscribed from Claude after the performance regressions around the time of the Opus 4.7 update made it unusable. Been using Codex since then, and I've definitely missed being able to make these drafts. So I'm looking forward to trying this out.
kubb 5mo ago
So, the same thing we've all been doing already with Termius and Tailscale, just locked into ChatGPT?
- lxgr 5mo ago
  Yes, in the same sense as Dropbox offers essentially no functionality on top of a rsync script.
hmokiguess 5mo ago
I am not sure I understand the time savings you're describing here. Do you mean you saved the "time to write prompt into the text input box" because you got to do that sooner from your phone rather than write down your idea and do it when you got back to your computer? Wouldn't you be doing the exact same thing had you been sitting at your computer when you had the idea? Perhaps the person who wrote that had the mindset of "when I am away from my work, I want to be disconnected and present with the world around me, this updates now makes it so that I now have an excuse to carry work with me" Maybe they're in a toxic/abusive work relationship where taking breaks is already difficult and this might lead to justifying working from your phone as "expected" My question to you is: what is wrong with moving a little slower? Is time to prompt an optimization of a real bottleneck?
- orangebread 5mo ago
  You can use STT and include a workflow that automatically extracts the requirements (filters all the um's, ah's, pauses) and it becomes more like an interaction where you act as the Product Owner/Manager and Codex is your Architect/Dev. At least, that's how I code through my phone. But it does require some forethought in establishing your automated workflows. I'm at the point where my entire dev system has established templates for CI/CD so I can preview work in staging and production is still a manual step (obviously).
  - hmokiguess 5mo ago
    Sure, I too do that on the computer. Computers have microphones these days, and STT runs on my macOS as well. What was your point about in regards to my comment? I am not sure I understood you.
- ssalka 5mo ago
  Sometimes I get random inspiration for an idea while out on a walk or otherwise away from the computer. It's really nice to be able to throw a couple instructions out there, let your agent run with it, and see what it came up with later. Sometimes I do this 3-5 times before returning to my computer. IMO it's really nice to be able to start from X% done rather than 0% when I finally do sit down to review/iterate on the code.
overgard 5mo ago
When I hear about features like this, at a certain point it looks more like compulsion/addiction instead of a useful thing to do. Like, if I'm at some sort of activity or event maybe I should just be at that thing instead of trying to aim the slop cannon 24/7
albert_e 5mo ago
AI agents for devops and troubleshooting has been fairly powerful for me. I have Claude Code with access to Azure environment (via CLI) where app components are deployed and also to the code base repo. I paste an error message or explain the symptom. CC works through various configuration checks and network tests etc across the Azure resource list and also the application logic and surfaces the root cause of the error precisely. Easily 1-2 days of effort if I had done all those myself (this is an inherited code base) -- would have had to learn a few of those skills along the way or may not have thought about some of the checks if i were on my own -- all done in about 45 mins with basic human-in-the-loop guidance. Of course learning it the hard way would have meant deeper understanding and first-hand exprience for me. But there is no guarantee I wouldnt have given up mid way frustrated or other priorities prevented me from pursuing this in full.
osullip 5mo ago
I have been doing exactly this by bookmarking Codex and using 'Add to home screen' Process (all on my phone) * Create new repo on github * Tell Chatgpt the project and ask for a readme and agents file * Manual upload the files to github * Go to Codex and tell it to review the code and carry out steps in readme * Connect project to Vercel * If needed, create a DB * Ask ChatGPT for the schema and run the sql I have done this kind of work for years and now I can create things like this on the way back from a meeting. It's broken my business model by the way. Here is one of the apps, for mental health - pretty much all done on my phone. https://you-are-ok.vercel.app/ https://you-are-ok.vercel.app/ So having Codex in app removes one little barrier and I will take that.
- osullip 5mo ago
  Sorry, replying to own post but I have to add this. Actions were not working on the android app. Known issue for a long time https://community.openai.com/t/gpts-custom-api-calls-not-working-in-andoid-app/962138 https://community.openai.com/t/gpts-custom-api-calls-not-wor... I did the same solution described above - Bookmarked the custom GPT, added to home screen and would run it in browser. It seems to be working now. So I can start building out custom GPTs, share with my clients and not have a big training piece to onboard them. Edit: https://chatgpt.com/g/g-697edc35e2888191a331217cd0483a67-menu-suggestion-generator https://chatgpt.com/g/g-697edc35e2888191a331217cd0483a67-men... Take a pic of a menu and create a group meal/degustation for your budget.
gropo 5mo ago
I wrote tmux-browse on GitHub in order to use codex and Claude code in a browser pane. https://github.com/itsmygithubacct/tmux-browse https://github.com/itsmygithubacct/tmux-browse
- gropo 5mo ago
  Side effect: manage the same session on your cellphone as is running on your server

nextaccountic 5mo ago

But what if the code is on my laptop? Alongside the tools needed to work with it Case in point, I have a Rust project with a target/ directory with about 10GB. Compile times from scratch takes about 10 minutes. (I do not love this) With this mobile app I need to upload the code to the cloud, right? Or does OpenAI expects me to compile huge projects on my phone?

pickleRick243 5mo ago
No, the phone connects to your local device. This isn't "codex web" on mobile. Basically you work through your desktop on your phone. So to be clear, there are security risks (you can wipe your entire desktop from your phone).
- andy12_ 5mo ago
  Not if you use Linux; app not available yet.
  - andai 5mo ago
    The announcement doesn't make this very clear, but I think this talks to the Codex CLI, not the Codex App? (Or possibly both)
    - andy12_ 5mo ago
      For now it appears that it talks only to the Codex App. Some users in this thread are saying that apparently the Codex CLI will support it on the next official release.
      - lfauve 5mo ago
        Codex App can connect to codex-cli via ssh. So you can use Codex App on a Mac with your projects/compilation etc. on Linux
  - odiroot 5mo ago
    You can run Codex Desktop on Linux. It's on AUR already. Granted, just a repacked ASAR from Windows version but still does work quite well. Haven't tested connection to mobile yet but the integration with cloud environments already works.
LoganDark 5mo ago
The processes you're controlling are on your computer, similarly to Claude remote control.
skybrian 5mo ago
I tried Codex web. It kinda sucks and OpenAI doesn't seem to be promoting it? Look elsewhere if you want a Linux VM in the cloud. (I quite like exe.dev and they do have good mobile support.)
- az226 5mo ago
  It's beyond terrible. Like they're routing to gpt4o mini with low effort behind the scenes. Just let us pick the model and the effort.
cortesoft 5mo ago
Not sure about how it works with Codex now, but with Claude you can just start a terminal session of claude code with your code checked out locally on your computer, and then enable remote control which lets you control that session from your phone. So basically, it is like you are typing on your terminal on your computer from your phone.
- dascrazy_96 5mo ago
  basically yeah. the codex/claude desktop apps work the same way
ks6g10 5mo ago
I just use tailscale and remote desktop.

LoganDark 5mo ago

I've been vibe-refactoring a fork of get-shit-done (a skill collection for coding agents) for about the past week. I've had to revisit the same ideas multiple times because the agent doesn't always get it right at first, but it's still so much faster than I could have been at the same work + it's already mostly working (I've been dogfooding it for a day or two now). And I have gotten by just bringing up issues I notice from the LLM's implementation comments, rather than actually inspecting the code even once so far. (The refactor's been to support Jujutsu VCS.)

deleted 5mo ago

[deleted]

bugbuddy 5mo ago

> i.e. not looking at the actual code You must be kidding me.

magicalhippo 5mo ago
What OP said works quite well for a lot of tasks, and if you've set up base instructions on coding style they (Codex, Claude) generate code accordingly. A key point is that after the "vibe" session you should also have a lot of tests written. So they can easily refactoring the code afterwards if there are major aspects you don't like when you get back to your desktop.
scrollaway 5mo ago
I find funny the trend of software engineers being shocked at the idea that someone would issue a set of instructions to a coder and not look at the code, or only glance at it. How do you think the world has worked for the past thirty years? AI has just caught up with human skill is all.
andai 5mo ago
> There's a new kind of coding I call "vibe coding", where you fully give in to the vibes, embrace exponentials, and forget that the code even exists. https://x.com/karpathy/status/1886192184808149383 https://x.com/karpathy/status/1886192184808149383 Forgetting code exists is by definition not suitable for serious work. However, OP said in the following paragraph, that this would be a first draft, and that the code would actually be reviewed and tested properly before being integrated. At which point it is by definition no longer vibe coding, because you do care about the code! It's just an AI assisted workflow, but now we call all of those vibe coding for some reason. (Naming things is hard!) If vibe coding means not caring about the code, then a literal translation of the term would be "not caring about coding" coding.
- paulcole 5mo ago
  > Forgetting code exists is by definition not suitable for serious work This is just like everyone who says, “An iPad is not suitable for serious work.” By which they (and you) generally mean, “What I do is serious work. What you do is unserious work.” I think I do serious work – I mean they pay me for it? And I have only copy/pasted and just run whatever code’s been generated by AI for the past 12 months or so. Whenever I can I just let the AI run it itself. Sad to learn that I’ve been so unserious all this time. > Naming things is hard! Indeed.

weird-eye-issue 5mo ago

For major new features on my SaaS this is exactly what I do on my phone/laptop sometimes over days or weeks. I never look at the code until I get a feeling that it's far enough along and then I will hop into the actual code and start manually making changes or using CC locally to make the changes iteratively over weeks until it's ready for release. In the early stages of a major new feature/product it can be counterproductive to closely monitor the AI. Of course like you said in your comment this requires very very strong knowledge of the code base and a lot of experience with using the agents in the first place. But once you can do this sort of workflow it's very powerful because you can do this in parallel with other work (just an hour or two per day over a week or two on your phone can get you to a really good first draft even on a major new feature/product. And of course I'm not saying it's ready for production that can still take weeks but that's not really the point)

CSMastermind 5mo ago

I mean I'd love for them to take it further. If you put me on the phone with a talented software engineer I could supervise all sorts of changes. I wish I could do the same thing with my coding agent. Being able to be like, "hey remind me what's in that database table ... got it okay let's rename it to ..." I'm also completely fine if it gives me hold mustic while it's working. Would make my walks much more productive.

teodosin 5mo ago

I was doing exactly this for a while with Claude Code. Very helpful when I'm away from home but can't stop thinking about my project. The remote agent has access to all the docs and instructions in my repo and most of the time gives me a decent draft I just need to polish later. I unsubscribed from Claude after the performance regressions around the time of the Opus 4.7 update made it unusable. Been using Codex since then, and I've definitely missed being able to make these drafts. So I'm looking forward to trying this out.

kubb 5mo ago

So, the same thing we've all been doing already with Termius and Tailscale, just locked into ChatGPT?

lxgr 5mo ago
Yes, in the same sense as Dropbox offers essentially no functionality on top of a rsync script.

hmokiguess 5mo ago

I am not sure I understand the time savings you're describing here. Do you mean you saved the "time to write prompt into the text input box" because you got to do that sooner from your phone rather than write down your idea and do it when you got back to your computer? Wouldn't you be doing the exact same thing had you been sitting at your computer when you had the idea? Perhaps the person who wrote that had the mindset of "when I am away from my work, I want to be disconnected and present with the world around me, this updates now makes it so that I now have an excuse to carry work with me" Maybe they're in a toxic/abusive work relationship where taking breaks is already difficult and this might lead to justifying working from your phone as "expected" My question to you is: what is wrong with moving a little slower? Is time to prompt an optimization of a real bottleneck?

orangebread 5mo ago
You can use STT and include a workflow that automatically extracts the requirements (filters all the um's, ah's, pauses) and it becomes more like an interaction where you act as the Product Owner/Manager and Codex is your Architect/Dev. At least, that's how I code through my phone. But it does require some forethought in establishing your automated workflows. I'm at the point where my entire dev system has established templates for CI/CD so I can preview work in staging and production is still a manual step (obviously).
- hmokiguess 5mo ago
  Sure, I too do that on the computer. Computers have microphones these days, and STT runs on my macOS as well. What was your point about in regards to my comment? I am not sure I understood you.
ssalka 5mo ago
Sometimes I get random inspiration for an idea while out on a walk or otherwise away from the computer. It's really nice to be able to throw a couple instructions out there, let your agent run with it, and see what it came up with later. Sometimes I do this 3-5 times before returning to my computer. IMO it's really nice to be able to start from X% done rather than 0% when I finally do sit down to review/iterate on the code.

overgard 5mo ago

When I hear about features like this, at a certain point it looks more like compulsion/addiction instead of a useful thing to do. Like, if I'm at some sort of activity or event maybe I should just be at that thing instead of trying to aim the slop cannon 24/7

albert_e 5mo ago

AI agents for devops and troubleshooting has been fairly powerful for me. I have Claude Code with access to Azure environment (via CLI) where app components are deployed and also to the code base repo. I paste an error message or explain the symptom. CC works through various configuration checks and network tests etc across the Azure resource list and also the application logic and surfaces the root cause of the error precisely. Easily 1-2 days of effort if I had done all those myself (this is an inherited code base) -- would have had to learn a few of those skills along the way or may not have thought about some of the checks if i were on my own -- all done in about 45 mins with basic human-in-the-loop guidance. Of course learning it the hard way would have meant deeper understanding and first-hand exprience for me. But there is no guarantee I wouldnt have given up mid way frustrated or other priorities prevented me from pursuing this in full.

osullip 5mo ago

I have been doing exactly this by bookmarking Codex and using 'Add to home screen' Process (all on my phone) * Create new repo on github * Tell Chatgpt the project and ask for a readme and agents file * Manual upload the files to github * Go to Codex and tell it to review the code and carry out steps in readme * Connect project to Vercel * If needed, create a DB * Ask ChatGPT for the schema and run the sql I have done this kind of work for years and now I can create things like this on the way back from a meeting. It's broken my business model by the way. Here is one of the apps, for mental health - pretty much all done on my phone. https://you-are-ok.vercel.app/ https://you-are-ok.vercel.app/ So having Codex in app removes one little barrier and I will take that.

osullip 5mo ago
Sorry, replying to own post but I have to add this. Actions were not working on the android app. Known issue for a long time https://community.openai.com/t/gpts-custom-api-calls-not-working-in-andoid-app/962138 https://community.openai.com/t/gpts-custom-api-calls-not-wor... I did the same solution described above - Bookmarked the custom GPT, added to home screen and would run it in browser. It seems to be working now. So I can start building out custom GPTs, share with my clients and not have a big training piece to onboard them. Edit: https://chatgpt.com/g/g-697edc35e2888191a331217cd0483a67-menu-suggestion-generator https://chatgpt.com/g/g-697edc35e2888191a331217cd0483a67-men... Take a pic of a menu and create a group meal/degustation for your budget.

gropo 5mo ago

I wrote tmux-browse on GitHub in order to use codex and Claude code in a browser pane. https://github.com/itsmygithubacct/tmux-browse https://github.com/itsmygithubacct/tmux-browse

gropo 5mo ago
Side effect: manage the same session on your cellphone as is running on your server