Overview
OpenAI has released a new macOS app for their Codex coding agent, adding first-class support for Skills and Automations for scheduled tasks. The app provides a desktop interface that transforms AI coding from chat-based interactions to persistent project management.
Key Facts
- Built with Electron and Node.js - developers get native desktop experience instead of web-only access
- First-class support for Skills - reusable coding capabilities can be packaged and shared across projects
- Automations feature for scheduled tasks - AI can now work autonomously on coding tasks without human intervention
- Tracks automation state in SQLite database - persistent workflow history and debugging capabilities
- Codex usage doubled since GPT-5.2-Codex launch in December - mainstream adoption is accelerating rapidly
- Over 1 million developers used Codex in past month - AI coding has reached mass market scale
- Current automations only run when laptop is on - cloud-based automations coming soon will enable 24/7 AI development
Why It Matters
This represents a fundamental shift from AI as a coding assistant to AI as an autonomous development teammate that can manage projects, run scheduled tasks, and work independently while developers are offline.