Krux
April 25, 2026
OpenAI Teaches Codex to Ask Permission Before It Acts
Published: April 25, 2026 at 12:29 AM
Updated: April 25, 2026 at 12:29 AM
100-word summary
OpenAI's new Codex onboarding guide reveals the product works locally on your machine, not in the cloud. You point it at a folder, and it only touches files you've granted access to. The recommended first prompt: "Inspect this folder and tell me what you see. Then suggest one small task you can complete safely." That's OpenAI telling you to let the AI prove itself before handing over the keys. You can run multiple tasks at once and steer mid-execution if something goes sideways. The setup takes three steps: download the desktop app, link a folder, and start your first thread. No benchmarks published yet, just a bet that developers will...
What happened
OpenAI's new Codex onboarding guide reveals the product works locally on your machine, not in the cloud. You point it at a folder, and it only touches files you've granted access to. The recommended first prompt: "Inspect this folder and tell me what you see. Then suggest one small task you can complete safely." That's OpenAI telling you to let the AI prove itself before handing over the keys. You can run multiple tasks at once and steer mid-execution if something goes sideways. The setup takes three steps: download the desktop app, link a folder, and start your first thread.
Why it matters
No benchmarks published yet, just a bet that developers will trust an AI that shows its work first.