OpenAI dropped a hefty update for its Codex developer environment yesterday — and it’s aimed squarely at Claude Code. The desktop app for Mac and Windows now has capabilities that go way beyond just writing code.
What Codex Can Do Now
The most exciting part: Codex can now work in the background on your machine. It opens apps, clicks, types — while you keep doing your own thing. Multiple agents run simultaneously without stepping on each other’s toes. It’s reminiscent of Anthropic’s computer-use feature, but baked right into the development environment.
There’s also a built-in browser for previewing frontend projects directly inside Codex. It’s limited to localhost for now, but OpenAI plans to expand to external web apps.
New as well: image generation via gpt-image-1.5. You can now create mockups, product concepts, and game assets directly in your workflow. And a memory feature learns how you work, automatically generating context for future sessions.
111 New Plugins
Perhaps the most impressive number: OpenAI introduced 111 new plugin integrations. CodeRabbit, GitLab Issues, CircleCI, Microsoft Suite — the agent can now work across your entire toolchain and trigger actions everywhere. There’s also a new pay-as-you-go pricing model for enterprise and business customers.
What This Means
OpenAI reports 3 million weekly developers on Codex. That’s a statement. What’s happening here is a direct race with Claude Code over who builds the better developer AI. Anthropic just made their move with Routines and the desktop redesign — OpenAI is countering with a broader feature set.
For us as users, this is great news. Competition drives both sides to build better products. I’m curious whether Anthropic will catch up on Claude Code soon — especially when it comes to background agents that can control other apps on your desktop.
Sources: