Briefly
OpenAI’s Codex replace provides pc management, browser, and picture era.
OpenAI integrates brokers throughout apps, instruments, and developer workflows.
New options place Codex in opposition to Claude Code and OpenClaw.
OpenAI introduced at present it has up to date its Codex desktop app with pc use, an in-app browser, picture era, and over 90 new plugins.
Nearly one 12 months after initially launching Codex, the corporate now says greater than 3 million builders use it each week. And now the thought, OpenAI says, is to allow them to use “Codex for (nearly) all the things.”
With background pc use, Codex can now see your display, transfer its personal cursor, and click on and kind inside any Mac utility. A number of brokers can run concurrently with out interrupting no matter you are doing on the aspect. OpenAI says it is most helpful for frontend iteration, app testing, and workflows that do not expose an API.
The in-app browser lets customers remark immediately on pages to offer the agent exact directions. OpenAI says it is aimed toward frontend and recreation growth at present, with plans to broaden full browser management over time. Picture era, powered by gpt-image-1.5, is now constructed into the identical workflow—no API key wanted, and with utilization coated by a ChatGPT account.
It additionally options 90+ new plugins, together with integrations with Atlassian Rovo, CircleCI, CodeRabbit, GitLab Points, the Microsoft Suite, and Neon by Databricks. They mix abilities, app integrations, and MCP servers to increase what Codex can entry and act on throughout a developer’s present toolset.
On the workflow aspect, the app now helps a number of terminal tabs, GitHub PR overview remark dealing with, SSH connections to distant devboxes (in alpha), and a abstract pane that tracks agent plans, sources, and artifacts. Information open immediately within the sidebar with wealthy previews for PDFs, spreadsheets, slides, and docs.
OpenAI says the aim is to achieve “a degree of high quality beforehand solely potential via intensive customized directions.”
There’s additionally a brand new proactive mode. Utilizing context from linked plugins, reminiscence, and lively initiatives, Codex can recommend the place to begin a piece day or resume a earlier activity—pulling open Google Docs feedback, related Slack threads, Notion pages, and codebase context right into a prioritized motion record.
The function set covers lots of the identical floor as OpenClaw, the open-source agent framework that went viral in early 2026. OpenClaw was constructed by Austrian developer Peter Steinberger to run persistent brokers domestically, linked to messaging apps, recordsdata, browsers, and shell instructions. It collected 60,000 GitHub stars in 72 hours and drew comparisons to a private AI working system.
Steinberger joined OpenAI in February to steer private agent growth after Sam Altman, Mark Zuckerberg, and Satya Nadella all reached out following OpenClaw’s rise. The challenge moved to an open-source basis with OpenAI as monetary sponsor.
Earlier than the OpenAI rent, Anthropic had despatched Steinberger a trademark criticism over the unique identify “Clawdbot”—a dispute that triggered two chaotic rebrands and, in keeping with observers, accelerated his transfer to OpenAI. OpenClaw had been operating totally on Anthropic’s Claude fashions on the time.
The extra direct mainstream, closed supply coding-tool rival to OpenAI’s Codex is Anthropic’s Claude Code, a terminal-based agentic coding assistant that reads whole codebases, edits recordsdata, runs assessments, and commits to GitHub. Anthropic additionally launched its personal pc use function for Claude in March, obtainable as a analysis preview for Professional and Max subscribers on macOS.
Codex packages these capabilities otherwise—pc management, looking, picture era, and coding in a single desktop app, tied to a ChatGPT account. OpenAI describes the route as an effort on “narrowing the hole between what folks can think about and what they will construct.”
The replace is rolling out at present to Codex desktop customers signed in with ChatGPT. Personalization options and pc use usually are not but obtainable within the EU or UK.
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