Codex/Q/What does "New remote project" do in the ChatGPT desktop app, and does it need a host I already have running?
What does "New remote project" do in the Codex desktop app, and does it need a host I already have running?
- Answer/Official from Remote connections
- Short answer: Yes. "New remote project" connects the ChatGPT desktop app to a project folder on an existing SSH-reachable machine — a devbox, an EC2 instance, a home server, anything you already have SSH access to. Codex does not provision or spin up a host for you; it only auto-discovers hosts already defined in your local
~/.ssh/config. - The remote host must already have the
codex CLI installed and on PATH for the login shell the SSH connection uses, since the app starts a remote Codex app server over SSH using that shell. - Setup order: add a concrete
Host alias to ~/.ssh/config (pattern-only entries are ignored), confirm ssh <alias> works from the machine running the desktop app, then in Settings > Connections add/enable that SSH host and pick a remote project folder. - This is distinct from the mobile Remote feature, which pairs a phone with an already-running desktop app host (Mac/Windows) via QR code; SSH remote projects are a separate way to point the desktop app itself at a folder on another machine's filesystem and shell.
- Security note from the docs: keep the remote host under normal SSH hygiene (trusted keys, least-privilege accounts, no unauthenticated public listeners), and don't expose the remote Codex app-server transport directly on a shared or public network — use a VPN or mesh network instead if you need off-network access.