2026-01-26 Mon
- Codex/Cloud
- Person/codekiln/GitHub/beans
Two more versions based on the idea of a CLI/Tool rendered in the browser.
resolving npm install 403 error
- Both times, I wasn't able to get a preview in Codex Cloud; instead, I was getting a notification that the ChatGPT Codex Cloud agent was getting a 403 upon trying to run an npm install. I realized later that this was because I needed to go to Codex/Cloud/Environment settings for the repo and set
Agent internet access to On.
Settings for Codex Cloud Environments
- I must say that I kind of like how simple the settings are for Codex Cloud. It reminds me of Apple's aesthetic. It's simpler looking than GitHub's configuration for codespaces or CI environments.
- Under the hood, this is a docker container. You can even configure environment variables. There's also an ability to configure secrets and a Maintenance setup script.
notes on the workflow in codex cloud and GitHub/PRs
- After settling on v2.1 (which is the 2nd iteration, first version), I took a bunch of screenshots and used an iPad to annotate on them and provide design feedback. Then I asked it to generate two more versions, which offered me two tabs within the chat at left, Version 1 and Version 2. If I selected either, then the main "workspace" showed different code for each version.
- At this point, I got a bit Confus/ed by the Codex Cloud interface. I did notice that if I selected the newly generated v1 (what I'm going to call v2.1.1), then select the drop down arrow next to "View PR," then I could have it open a new PR.
- If you look at Refine bean layout, add recipes, and fix base paths v2.1.1 by codekiln · Pull Request #5 · codekiln/beans you can see a lot of the churn; I ended up providing feedback as github PR comments.
- I ended up getting it to work, though. I think I'm just a bit out of practice using this Cloud / Web form factor.
- When I tried to sign in, the oauth handshake didn't work, because it tried to redirect to localhost.
- I really wish VS Code had a browser inside the IDE; that might make this a lot easier.
- Ok, I figured this out. After clicking sign in, I needed to click on the little radio tower in the bottom of VSCode and find the port that was opened by Codex/CLI - 1455. Then I needed to make it public and manually copy the forwarded address. When I opened the page in another browser tab, I signed in, then it redirected me to
localhost:1455, and I replaced localhost with the address to the public github codespace. At that point I got a warning dialog that said "do you want to continue" about accessing a codespace's server which I've seen whenever I have done servers with GitHub/Codespace. Once I did that, I clicked through one more page saying "Signed in to Codex: You may now close this page," and the OAuth token was passed back into the codespace and I was able to get going. I had to go through the full auth twice one time (I actually did this once for each of two separate codespaces). I made the port private afterwards.
semi-forced abandonment of "leaf nodes" of development with Codex/Cloud
- After I made a single request in the cloud interface for what I'm calling 2.1.1, if I tab over to 2.1.2, then I see a warning "You are viewing a previous turn - Follow-ups are only available for the latest turn" with a button "View latest." When I click View latest, I'm taken to the end of the chat with 2.1.1. So it seems as though you have made a single chat entry on either tab, that's it, you've decided on your future. Very unintuitive UI, in my opinion. In my case, I didn't even have a chance to preview 2.1.2 until I created a codespace, installed Codex CLI, and directly instructed it to use the commit history from Refine bean layout, add recipes, and fix base paths v2.1.1 by codekiln · Pull Request #5 · codekiln/beans to update it to fix the errors, I wasn't able to see it.
coupling Codex/IDE/Extension with Codex/Cloud
- after I signed in to OpenAI with the same account, I was able to see the existing conversations and click in to them. I saw "You are viewing a Codex cloud task". It asked me
Apply changes and continue locally? with an [Apply]. I was uncertain what to do because I already had the changes locally AFAICT. - I'm into this "handoff" - it seems quite powerful!
- EOD: got the site up in a basic version: https://codekiln.github.io/beans/