Learn how to set up your Codex workspace and start working with threads and projects.

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When you open Codex, you’ll see a few core elements: a sidebar menu, projects, settings, and a chat window. You don’t need to understand everything right away, but we’ll cover the basics here.

Sidebar menu

The sidebar is where you navigate between threads, projects, and tools. Most of your work will begin by creating a new thread. When you’re using Codex, think of a “thread” the same way you would think of a “chat” in ChatGPT. You can have a thread which stands on its own, or a thread which is nested within a project.

Select New thread to begin. You can select an existing project to associate it with, create a new project, or leave it as a standalone conversation.

Search to find previous tasks and projects.

Pluginshelp Codex do more specific work. We will discuss these in more depth in Plugins & skills. They are useful when you want Codex to follow a repeatable process or connect to another tool.

Projects

Projects are how you organize your work and where you group tasks together. In Codex, a project is linked to a folder on your computer where you are conducting that set of tasks. When working locally, Codex will only make changes to files within that folder. When you need to work with a different group of files, create a new Project. Project folders don’t necessarily need to have any files within them to begin; they can simply be the designated folder where any new files you create will live.

Settings

Settings let you control things like permissions, personalization, and whether Codex can keep working while your computer sleeps. There are a few important settings for beginners to look at, which we discuss in the Settings section.

Chat window

A thread in Codex works a lot like a conversation in ChatGPT. You can talk back and forth in plain language. You do not need a perfect prompt or technical instructions. Tell Codex what you want, what files it should use, and what “done” should look like.