Watercolor: ChatGPT desktop app floating centrally with three mode icons Chat/Work/Codex, a terminal window with scrolling code behind, three geometric shapes representing GPT-5.6 Sol/Terra/Luna

Codex Cold Start: From Installation to Your First Command

This is a bonus article for the “AI Path L1→L2 Upgrade Guide.” If you haven’t set up Codex yet, this guide gets you from zero to running. On July 9, 2026, OpenAI made two announcements at once: GPT-5.6 went public, and Codex was merged into the ChatGPT desktop app. The new desktop app has three modes: Chat, Work, and Codex, all in one app. If you’ve already got the standalone Codex desktop app, it updates in place. Your projects and settings carry over. ...

2026-07-13 · 6 min · Alex Wang