explainx / blog
Codex’s desktop app gains Tamagotchi-style companions: slash /pet for built-in sprites, /hatch plus the curated hatch-pet skill for custom atlases—ambient UX, not a model upgrade.
May 6, 2026
Codex pets look whimsical; operationally they are a status surface for long agent runs. This guide goes settings-deep: Appearance & Pets, composer commands, hatch-pet packaging, art direction, and how to choose top built-in vs custom mascots without drowning in sprite tech debt.
May 30, 2026
On May 29, 2026, OpenAI launched computer use for Codex on Windows, letting AI control Visual Studio, Excel, and real workflows while you steer from your phone. With self-managing threads, parallel worktrees, and usage stats tracking, OpenAI is closing the Windows gap and escalating competition with Anthropic's Claude Cowork--which faces major security vulnerabilities.
Jun 27, 2026
A 19-year-old CTO shipped LoginWithChatGPT — a web OAuth wrapper around Codex CLI device codes so indie apps can run prompts on the user's ChatGPT subscription instead of the developer's API key. Here is what it does, whether it violates OpenAI terms, and how it compares to OpenClaw and usemysub.com.
OpenAI’s Codex is already a command center for agentic coding—parallel threads, skills, and long-running automation. In May 2026, the product’s public developer channels added a deliberately playful layer: animated pets you summon from the composer, with a /hatch path into custom sprites wired through OpenAI’s skills system.
This post separates what shipped (commands, skills, intent) from social hype (memes, rival product reactions). It is not a review of model quality.
| Topic | Takeaway |
|---|---|
| Commands | /pet — wake or surface the pet UI; /hatch — customization path per @OpenAIDevs announcement thread. |
| Custom assets | Curated hatch-pet skill — explainx.ai profile · GitHub source — sprite atlases, packaging, QA helpers. |
| Why bother? | Ambient status and emotional affordance—similar to dynamic-island-style cues—so you notice when Codex is idle, thinking, or blocked without tab-hopping. |
| Official backdrop | Introducing the Codex app — multi-agent desktop framing; Codex changelog — verify versioned details. |
| Ecosystem | Not every coding agent vendor chases parity (Theo — t3.gg publicly ruled it out for T3 Code); that is a product-positioning choice, not a technical judgment. |
Agent UIs struggle with slow feedback loops. A diff can take minutes; a multi-step plan may stall on permissions. A small, persistent character that reacts to state beats yet another toast if it answers: Is something running? Did the last turn fail? Should I check the thread?
Sam Altman’s public thread frames the feature as more useful than it sounds—a fair hypothesis for anyone who ships status surfaces for operators. Treat that as product intuition, not measured UX research.
The @OpenAIDevs account posted Pets. Now in Codex with /pet, followed by guidance to customize with /hatch. That pairing matters: built-ins first, creator path second.
For binding version notes (exact build numbers, platform coverage, rollback policy), default to:
Social summaries (including third-party recaps) can drift from production behavior within hours.
Custom pets are not “secret OpenGL hooks”—they ride the same skills mechanism explainx.ai readers already encounter with agent skills.
The hatch-pet skill in openai/skills documents workflows to create, validate, and package Codex-style animated sprite sheets (grid atlases, transparency rules, previews). Practically:
pet.json (and related assets) consistent with Codex expectations—don’t hand-edit unless you enjoy debugging loaders.If you are evaluating supply-chain risk, apply the same discipline as any other skill: read the SKILL.md, pin revisions, and audit network calls from image-generation helper skills.
OpenAI’s Codex app story now spans macOS and Windows per the Introducing post’s updates. Pet fidelity (animations, dock overlays, GPU paths) may still differ by OS—verify on your machine before filming a demo.
Anthropic’s Claude Code shipped its own terminal companion meme (/buddy) around the same era of agent-tool whimsy. OpenAI’s take is desktop-native sprites plus a skills-backed hatch. The lesson for teams is broader than either mascot: developer tools compete on personality and latency—pets are one answer, not the only one.
/pet, hatch-pet deep divehatch-pet fits the patternskills/.curated/hatch-petThird-party hands-on: 9to5Mac — Codex pets / Tidbits (May 1, 2026).
Pets, slash commands, and skill paths change with each Codex release. Treat this article as May 2, 2026 context and re-check the changelog before you train teammates or document internal runbooks.