Codex Desktop

Electron + React desktop client for Codex CLI. Lets you pick model/sandbox/working dir, attach images with previews, and view raw CLI logs.

Features

• Sends prompts via codex exec --json (one process per message).
• Model dropdown, sandbox policy dropdown, working-dir picker (remembers recent dirs).
• Image attachments with data-URL previews and remove buttons.
• CLI log panel (stdout/stderr) to debug what Codex returns.
• Dev port cleaner (5173/5175) before start.

Requirements

• Node.js 18+ (20+ recommended), npm.
• Codex CLI installed (npm i -g @openai/codex or official installer).
• Codex API key or codex login.
• Windows path example: C:\Users\<you>\AppData\Roaming\npm\node_modules\@openai\codex\vendor\x86_64-pc-windows-msvc\codex\codex.exe

Quick start (dev)

cd codex-desktop
npm install
$env:CODEX_CLI_PATH="C:\Users\<you>\AppData\Roaming\npm\node_modules\@openai\codex\vendor\x86_64-pc-windows-msvc\codex\codex.exe"
# optional if not logged in:
# $env:CODEX_API_KEY="sk-..."
npm run dev

• App opens via Electron, renderer on http://localhost:5175.
• Use header controls to pick model, sandbox, working dir (Browse).
• “Show log” toggles raw CLI output view.

Build (desktop)

npm run dist

• Uses electron-builder; installers go to dist/.
• index.html includes a CSP meta for dev (allows localhost:5175, inline). For prod you can harden CSP (remove localhost/unsafe-inline) if you inline styles/scripts or add nonces.

Environment variables

• CODEX_CLI_PATH (recommended on Windows): full path to codex binary.
• CODEX_API_KEY if you don’t use codex login.

Known limitations

• Each message starts a fresh codex exec; conversation history is not preserved. For long context, either add a PTY-based chat (requires node-pty build) or prepend history to the prompt.
• CSP is dev-friendly; harden for production.
• No saved conversation history or profiles yet.

GitHub push (manual)

git init
git add .
git commit -m "Initial Codex Desktop"
git branch -M main
git remote add origin https://github.com/<user>/codex-desktop.git
git push -u origin main

Screenshot

• Place your image at docs/screenshot.png (README references it). The provided example from your run can be saved there.