OpenAI announced a major upgrade to its Codex coding assistant, signaling the next step toward the company’s long‑term super‑app ambition. The update, revealed at a press briefing by Codex head Thibault Sottiaux, expands the platform’s capabilities beyond pure code generation to include direct interaction with desktop applications, a built‑in web browser, and integrated image creation tools.

Developers can now instruct Codex to launch or manipulate specific programs on their PC, a feature the company says differentiates it from rivals like Claude Cowork. OpenAI claims its "secret sauce" lets an AI agent run an app without hogging system resources, enabling both the user and the assistant to work side by side. The update also ships with 111 new plugins that combine skill sets, app integrations, and model‑context protocol servers, giving Codex richer ways to gather context and leverage the tools developers rely on daily.

Among the most visible additions is a built‑in browser equipped with a commenting system. Users can ask Codex to tweak elements of a webpage or web app, such as adjusting graph margins to prevent axis clipping. Coupled with the new image‑generation model gpt‑image‑1.5, Codex can produce product concepts, mockups, frontend designs, and even simple game assets. Screenshots can be fed back to the model, allowing it to verify that its output aligns with the user’s request.

OpenAI also previewed two memory features. The first lets Codex recall context from earlier tasks, promising faster and higher‑quality responses over time. The second enables proactive suggestions, like prompting a user to reply to a coworker’s comment on a Google Doc at the start of the day. The company says these memory functions will grow more sophisticated as the platform evolves.

The rollout targets desktop app users who are signed into their ChatGPT accounts. macOS users receive access first, with plans to extend availability to the EU and UK shortly. European users will also have to wait for the memory features, which are currently limited to the United States. While the full super‑app that unifies ChatGPT, Codex and a web browser remains in development, the latest Codex release provides developers a hands‑on preview of the integrated, multi‑modal AI experience OpenAI envisions.

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