Codex is now part of ChatGPT: what changed and what still works

What happened on July 9

The update merged three products into one desktop shell: Chat (the conversational assistant, replacing the old ChatGPT desktop app, which lives on as "ChatGPT Classic"), Work (the autonomous task agent), and Codex (the repository-aware coding agent). The old Codex app updates itself into this shell in place: accept the update and the binary renames itself to ChatGPT while keeping the bundle id com.openai.codex. Projects, settings, and repository configuration migrate automatically, and you can set Codex as the default tab so the app still opens straight into coding.

What kept the Codex name

• The CLI. Still installed with npm install -g @openai/codex, still run as codex, and still shipping new commands (codex agents, codex queue, codex doctor). There is no announced retirement.
• Your configuration. ~/.codex/config.toml, AGENTS.md, and project-level .codex/ directories are read exactly as before. No migration needed.
• The IDE extension and Codex web. Both continue under the Codex name.
• The protocols. The app-server protocol and its transports are unchanged, so headless and CI setups see zero impact from the merger.

What moved besides the app is the paperwork: developer documentation now lives at learn.chatgpt.com. The brand direction is clear enough (Codex is a mode of ChatGPT now, not a separate product), but as of late August 2026 the agent itself is being actively developed under the Codex name.

The things the merger actually broke

• codex app . stopped working. Recent CLI versions look for Codex.app by filename, which no longer exists, so the CLI reports "Codex Desktop not found" and can even download a duplicate app into /Applications/Codex.app. Use open -a ChatGPT . instead, and delete the duplicate if one appeared.
• Launchpad and Spotlight. On some Macs the renamed app disappears from Launchpad or search until the index is rebuilt.
• Third-party tools that detect the app by filename. Anything looking for Codex.app needs to match the bundle id com.openai.codex or the new name instead.

Does Headroom still work with it?

Yes. Headroom routes Codex through a local proxy via ~/.codex/config.toml, which the ChatGPT app's Codex tab, the IDE extension, and the CLI all read, so the merger changed nothing about how routing works. The connector in the Headroom app is now labeled ChatGPT (previously Codex) to match what is on your machine. It compresses the noisy parts of each request by about 50% and tracks your 5-hour and weekly windows from live traffic.

Related reading: ChatGPT coding usage limits for how the windows work in the app, Codex usage limits for the full limit history, and how to reduce ChatGPT coding costs for the cost side.