OpenAI Codex Update Adds Computer Use, Memory, and 90 New Plugins

More than 3 million developers now have a substantially more capable coding companion. OpenAI shipped a sweeping update to its Codex desktop app on Wednesday, adding computer use, an in-app browser, image generation, memory, and over 90 plugins — pushing the tool well beyond its original code-writing remit.

The headline feature is background computer use. Codex can now see, click, and type on a developer's Mac using its own cursor, with multiple agents running in parallel without disrupting the user's own work. The capability is useful for iterating on frontend changes, testing applications, or operating tools that lack an API.

What the update includes

The additions span five broad areas:

• Computer use on macOS, with parallel agent sessions
• An in-app browser for commenting directly on web pages and iterating on frontend designs
• Image generation via gpt-image-1.5 for mockups, product concepts, and game assets
• Persistent memory that retains preferences, corrections, and gathered context across sessions
• More than 90 new plugins covering Atlassian Rovo (JIRA), CircleCI, CodeRabbit, GitLab Issues, Microsoft Suite, Neon by Databricks, Remotion, Render, and others

Codex also gained deeper support for the software development lifecycle. Developers can now address GitHub Copilot-style review comments, run multiple terminal tabs, connect to remote devboxes over SSH in alpha, and preview PDFs, spreadsheets, and slides directly in the sidebar.

Automations that persist across days

The automation system now lets agents reuse existing conversation threads, preserving context built up over previous sessions. Codex can schedule future work for itself and wake up automatically to continue a long-running task — potentially spanning days or weeks, the company said.

Teams are already using automations to land open pull requests, follow up on tasks, and monitor conversations across Slack, Gmail, and Notion.

A new proactive-suggestions feature draws on project context, connected plugins, and memory to propose a prioritised list of actions when a developer starts their day. OpenAI described the feature as helping users pick up where they left off — surfacing open Google Docs comments, pulling relevant Slack threads, and cross-referencing the codebase.

The update is rolling out now to Codex desktop app users signed in with ChatGPT. Personalisation features, including memory and context-aware suggestions, will reach Enterprise, Edu, and EU and UK users later. Computer use is initially macOS-only.

Codex launched roughly a year ago as a code-generation tool. This release repositions it as a broader developer workspace — one that competes more directly with agentic IDEs like Cursor and Windsurf rather than simple autocomplete assistants.