Codex Micro
openai.com217 points by davidbarker 4 hours ago
217 points by davidbarker 4 hours ago
If you’re puzzled as to why this exists, imagine that, out of the goodness of your heart, you donate $230 to OpenAI to support their mission of rear ending the singularity, and receive Codex Micro memorabilia as a token of appreciation.
If you want an $18 DIY / open hardware version of this using an LED cube off amazon & WLED, here you go: https://github.com/pirate/led-cube-agent-monitor
Wouldn't surprise me if the real purpose of this is to get a physical object on your desk that makes you constantly think about Codex -- either babysitting your currently-running agents when it's lit up and running, or subconsciously bullying / shaming you into using Codex if you're not right at this very moment.
An electronic Siren's Song if you will.
>An electronic Siren's Song if you will.
Notifications on your smartphone that's always on you are way better for that purpose, than on a device that's tied to your desk.
Add Gacha mechanics for +100% extra damage.
Agree, but there's also the psychological impact of having spent over 200 smackers on this thing and then letting it go unused lol
That's the key, a physical object is much more easily made part of a devs identity.
Projecting a hacker image has become very fashion based. e.g., some devs love their clickity-clackity keyboards with LEDs, others have those all-blacks ones with nothing on the keys.
If anyone is looking at this thinking it looks pretty and wants to check out Work Louder's keyboards, let me save you the time. Their keyboards must be made by designers who do not type much because they are both not pleasant to type on and not very high-quality.
The Nomad [E] might be one of the worst keyboards I've ever purchased, and I owned one of the original butterfly switch MacBooks.
I was interested in their knob1, and, if you go to their website today it still says pre-order with shipping in August 2025 (stuck in the past), at this point I accepted it's vaporware [1]
I'm guessing they didn't run "knob" past anyone from the UK.
Edit: as much as it pains me, this is hacker news, so, knob means cock in the UK.
It also, and I would say more commonly, means a round thing that can be turned. I've never heard of anyone avoiding the term.
Their website is blocked by my ISP as being unsafe.
Many ISPs block .cc domains. Especially when .co.cc was a free domain name thing and tons of malware would use it.
What's wrong with it? I believe you but I'm just curious... since on paper it just uses Gateron low profile switches which seems reasonable.
For the Nomad: The caps slightly rotate. If you look at them from the side profile, they are also all varying heights. I found enough variance in the physical layout of keys that I was constantly making mistakes and pressing multiple keys simultaneously. It has this gimmicky magnetic riser on the back which the magnets fell out of. The display is just a gimmick but has a fun Tamagotchi-type thing that analyzes WPM, so that's cool at least.
The company itself had crazy production delays on both the Nomad and the Knob1, and seem to depend on hypebeast marketing. For $400 you would expect a very premium product and it's easy to argue that they missed the mark pretty hard.
Oh I also placed a pre-order and they refused to cancel after many delays. Unfortunately after that point it was too late for a chargeback.
*just found a random review if you want to see other opinions. The comments discuss some of the weird company shenanigans: https://old.reddit.com/r/MechanicalKeyboards/comments/1ngka3...
Thanks. I like low profile mechanical keyboards in theory but I guess I'll just stick to the Keychrons and Lofrees.
Never heard of work louder, but it sounds like an idea I used to joke with coworkers about, around making a clickly keyboard with an amplifier and speaker to passive-aggressively demonstrate how annoying the clicky keyboards are in a high density office environment.
At this point these companies are going to release merch to fund themselves
My first question is this — what does this do that a $50 Streamdeck cannot?
Great question - nothing. I was a little surprised to see it doesn't even have a microphone or speaker - that means regardless of whatever compute is available (esp32 is pretty common in the $30 price class for smart assistants) this can never be a standalone device.
Donate 200 bucks to a struggling startup.
yeah, they are barely hanging on. they only raised $144 billion over 14 rounds. who knows if they will ever get any more. we should all chip in for a t-shirt.
:P
$230 for a macropad with an exposed PCB and no washers under the Allen screws.
I'm not sure what the joystick is for, and neither are they apparently: the only example they give is something that could just be a keybind.
RE: the joystick. They should have gone with the Playdate's crank instead, CrankGPT style.
Anyway, I think it's all a fun marketing thing. A desk toy for folks with disposable income. I imagine they'll sell out, given the limited release and then they'll be on eBay.
Overfunded startups will slap their stickers on them and give them away in exchange for a sales call.
This is not really intended as a product you will use today.
This is an intentionally provocative statement on the future of work, where your keyboard is not supplemented by, but rather replaced by a dozen or so buttons for prompting (via voice), reviewing, approving or rejecting.
Codex Micro is a workstation controller for the knowledge worker in sama's 2030 fever dream. I'm not even entirely sure I disagree.
You can do that now with a Stream Deck + XL. https://www.elgato.com/us/en/p/stream-deck-plus-xl
Or for those looking for a challenge, switches + ESP32 or Arduino + a 3d printer can take you a long way.
It's not clear why this physical object is a better solution to the problem than, say, a window on your screen. Feels like more of a hobby project than something that provides $230 of value.
I know a lot of people who really like things like the Stream Deck. This seems similar to that kind of a concept. I'd probably take the Stream Deck over this though, its a good bit cheaper and each button has a little screen on it. Having some physical knobs is an interesting twist on it though.
This is pretty hilarious. Guess people forgot how to use PCs and can only prompt now.
Someday my kid is going to ask me why we need 79 keys on a keyboard if we only use "accept" and "accept all".
Stop giving me ideas to repurpose my AKAI Fire with a simple Pi extension!!
Is it April 1st already?
We need to bring back the 'turbo' button.[1]
This is a rebranded/reskinned WORK LOUDER Creator Micro 2 btw (https://worklouder.cc/creator-micro-2). Great device if you're into expensive tech toys (a la Teenage Engineering), but if you were waiting for a big OpenAI hardware reveal sorry to disappoint.
IMHO this is a much better solution.
https://marketplace.elgato.com/product/claude-code-usage-ea7...
I actually have this as a problem with Codex / Claude where I don't know if I have to make a decision .
I own an elgato Stream Deck (somewhere in a drawer), I love the concept of keys being a display but the keys are VERY mushy. Still a better deal and a way more versatile device than that Codex Micro pad.
Now that I think about it, I think I'd enjoy using streamdeck more if it was just a USB touchscreen thing maybe with some vibration for tactile feel with the same UI.
Yuk. Windows only and closed source. Pass.
Elgato has official drivers for MacOS
There are also 3rd party drivers for Linux.
Or you could get a bluetooth number pad for $20.
I'm using such pad as a second gamepad when I need one :) It is actually not too bad, if combined with a multikey mouse
They could've at least made something custom, and claim it was designed with help from GPT 5.6
The price for that HW basically implies it either has sizeable margins or is made with artisan methods.
ooh Micro 2 is a lot cheaper, but doesn't seem to have individually addressable RGB keys unless I'm mistaken?
Update: did some research, found this thing for $39 https://epomaker.com/products/epomaker-ek21
It's got 20 keys, hot-swappable, and individually addressable RGB.
And for an FOSS printable one, https://github.com/Dwin17/bento
Apple must be happy that they let Jony Ive go. What a letdown.
(assuming this meh partnership rebranding had his participation)
Work Louder is a different company, the LoveFrom hardware is still unknown at this point.
I'm curious who the target audience is. As a developer I already spend all day at my keyboard, so I'm not yet convinced dedicated hardware is faster than a desktop app. I'd love to hear from people who've actually used it.
As someone with a few unused Teenage Engineering things. The real answer is probably rich tech people who love having things that make people say "I'm not sure who the target audience is".
I set up an old Stream Deck to do the same thing. I stopped using it after a few days. This design looks great though, status lights are a nice touch. YouTube vibe coders will love it, traditional devs will keep MacGyvering their own toys.
i'm guessing the primary market for these will be free gifts to enterprise customers at sales meetings.
People with too much money to burn and not enough brains to use it on something better
Its completely pointless yet I still want it. IDK, its the status lights that look fun.
The keyboard community maybe? I think these little macro pads are neat, but I don't have a real use for them either.
I see it as another iteration of the wave that had everyone controlling agents directly from a chat app like slack. It isn't actually a more effective way to reach flow state, exchange information faster, and move your development projects forward to greater success, its simply a novel, oddly satisfying input mechanism, at least for the first day.
Which is no different than when the iphone first came out, the basic concept of touch screens was endlessly novel as an input and output device. That novelty did a lot more heavy lifting than what we can now see in hindsight was appropriate, because now many of us won't be able to control the temperature in our cars after the touch screen fails.
I think its the same underlying mechanism that explains why I, a person who has never recorded or mixed audio in a studio, and a person who can know for certain that purchasing a 24 channel mixing console isn't going to faclilitate my career change or even hobby development. But part of me is still viscerally certain that my life would be fuller if I purchased a 24 channel mixing console.
I don't need a legitimate reason to own a tool, or a problem I would fix with it, to fantasize about using that tool.
I think people who want to project a 'cracked' (god I hate that word) agentic engineer vibe. But my experience with basically everyone in my immediate vicinity, is that people have no respect or awe for the 'tell the robot to do the thing' workflow.
And you would need to spend your day at your keyboard for this to be useful anyway. It's just an input device.
After a few minutes on the site, I have no clue what this is for. A keyboard that interacts with Codex? That’s just a software feature, why am I paying $230 for hotkeys?
Special purpose keyboards can make sense (see e.g. music editing keyboards with sliders and volume knobs), but I'm with you that in this case the website totally fails at making a case for it.
My though process:
1. These abstract product visuals are not helping me understand what this software is
2. Wait, it's all about these renders, it's some kind of a joke
3. I don't understand, this can't be real, I need to check comments
just like the general mechanical keyboard community... over expensive hardware, sometimes not even shipping with friendly layers for rookies (like VIAL framework for configuring QMK) and oh! QUESTIONABLE ERGONOMIC DESIGNS like ortholinear arrangements for plank keyboards with 40% of the keys, the absurd goes on [0]
[0] i sell cheap handwired dactyl keyboards in Brazil
They asked ChatGPT for the ideal crossover product and now the dog is wagging.
For the first hour of learning about this, I thought it was an elaborate joke.
My first reaction is WTF. My second reaction isn't here yet.
My second reaction is: ah is this what the stolen IP from apple fuss was all about?
My first reaction isn't here yet
A quarter RGB keyboard for the price of half a MacBook Neo? Yeah this will sell like hot cakes...
It isn't meant to sell like hot cakes. Work Louder is the keyboard equivalent of Teenage Engineering. They make expensive toys for silicon valley engineers.
It’s $230 vs. $699? That’s almost exactly a third, not half.
At release, the Neo was $499 for education.
That's the number I had in mind, but correct, apparently this is only for education and it's also 100 USD more now.
Not that long (10 hours) ago this was considered a joke: https://www.reddit.com/r/vibecoding/comments/1uwzr82/got_my_...
I want very hard to agree with you but then I remember elgato has built a very successful business from a 8/12/16/... Macro keyboard for streamers so what do I know.
I'd debate that the custom LCD buttons made the difference... I've got a few macro keypads for some specific use cases, I ended up with a elgato for a -very- niche radio related use case and love it
I am surprised they released this. Who is the audience for this? You can DIY this yourself surely.
The people who cannot DIY? There are a surprisingly large number of people who "code" in codex while being completely unable to write a single line of code themselves. Not that I approve, I think this will end in disaster (security or otherwise) and llm shines as a force multiplier not as a replacement, but I've long learned what's correct is not always what's selling.
By that same logic I think OpenAI should get into the burger business for those who cannot cook.
Haven’t you heard? Anyone can DIy anything now they just have to ask ChatGPT for help.
I thought it was a new model.
Why isn't there a video of it?
I checked the date but no.
I KVM between a bunch of boxes and I have a Doio KB16 for Claude and I love it. I get the reasoning for the product. Price is..... interesting.
https://doioshop.com/products/doio-16-keys-programmable-mult...
Thanks for the link, it seems a lot more capable and interesting, to a much better price.
Codex micro - is it a tiny coding agent? Or a small coding model? No it is hardware, that has nothing to do with coding.
I think they should have called it "codex luna" - because it's small!
Thanks, thought I was the only one expecting a tiny, coding focused model from the title. Codex really is the least consistent brand in tech.
8th openai product named codex btw
Given that their initial product was called ChatGPT I’m not sure that anyone should expect them to be able to name anything remotely sensibly.
I thought this was an aprils fools joke. Then i realized it’s July..
How long before someone shows a hobby project with a robotic arm and computer vision controlling one of these?
I am only half-joking.
Windows and Mac only (no Linux).
While I love a good piece of hardware with real buttons, I struggle to justify the money on this. If it supported Linux and was a bit cheaper I might splerge just to have a toy, but I'm definitely not switching to windows or mac just for this.
You could probably easily get Codex (CLI) to vibe code Linux support tbh. It's probably just a regular USB HID device. The main problem is that right now it only works with the GUI Codex App which doesn't have official Linux support.
on one hand...this looks cool/teenage engineering-esque. on the other...engineers have been infantilized forever now but this is a new level. it feels like my career has been dwindled down to ... what? a few colors and like 5 buttons? reminds me of something out of idiocracy a bit. just need a button that orders a nice juicy hamburger for me during my lunch break.
but jokes aside, I suppose you can look at this being sort of like a numpad in addition to your main keyboard so I see the point of this gimmicky thing
They've been issuing these new tablets to the new people at work, productivity has gone through the roof. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0D2ZD6J2W
Wait. This is only a keyboard?! For how much?!
If you think that's expensive, don't fall down the mechanical keyboard rabbit hole. There's no upper limit on how much they can be
Oh for sure. It’s like Monster cables or audiophile stuff or other luxury goods. It’s entirely irrational. Though some people badly need it to be framed as perfectly rational.
Mech keyboards are closer to audiophile stuff than monster cables and luxury goods. The prices are generally commanded by low production volumes with high production quality. At least that's how the hobby used to be, I know its grown a lot and its much easier to find mass produced mechanical keyboards.
Check out Norbauer for the upper echolon of mechanical keyboard engineering. https://www.norbauer.co/pages/the-seneca
OK, these folks have way too much money. This is like peak-Google vibes.
I don't understand the many Teenage Engineering references in this thread, this design has no soul.
Teenage Engineering makes a lot of products that are basically just a grid of buttons and knobs. It's an obvious comparison to make, even if you disagree on the style/soul etc. Like the OP-1 is also a rectangle of buttons, and even the style of the keycap itself can draw some comparisons (it is a rounded square with a circle in it and an abstract symbol on it): https://teenage.engineering/products/op-1
I was just thinking of making something like this! But more as a novelty than something I realistically expect to use.
I don't understand. What's costing 230$ here???
First question; if theres a knob to adjust thinking level, and I can switch between agents, what if I turn down the knob for one agent and switch to another? Do I just insta-lobotomize it?
This is partially an on-ramp for young people. No experience? Not sure where to start? Buy this gadget! Hook it up to your machine then take lessons on how to use it. All in the OpenAI ecosystem, of course.
Best outcome for OpenAI is that this becomes a status symbol / cool shiny thing that "leet" devs have.
For someone with a lot of experience already, this looks semi-retarded. For a newbie / newcomer it looks like someone finally thought of them.
I like it because it looks sleak, and the colors are neat.
However, it really puts in perspective that a large part of my job has just become clicking a few buttons.
This is just a Macropad, right? All of the smarts are on the PC side. So why is it so expensive?
Because (A) it has an OpenAI logo on it and (B) they made $13B and lost $21B last year?
Looks cool. I’m looking for a macro pad with a little LCD that’s Mac and Linux compatible.
This looks like it has LEDs but not a screen.
Any experience with https://www.eezbotfun.com/ or recommendations for something similar?
Looks fun, but I don't quite understand this product:
- Do the buttons map to configurable skills / prompts?
- Is it meant to be used remotely with some independence (like codex remote), or is it a peripheral like a trackpad?Is this a joke? Instantly thought of this: https://www.reddit.com/r/claude/comments/1s7m8ld/this_is_the...
Things you do if you definitely are focused on the a Trillion USD industry and SuperDuperUltraMega AGI is 100% possible and what you are fully committed to. Next they’ll spend Millions on a podcast that fails to get 50k hits on YouTube or a design firm whose biggest claim to fame is creating a Ferrari whose interior looks like a Magic Mouse. Say what you want about Anthropic, their Aquihires and interpretability investments at least make sense for an LLM lab.
We're rapidly approaching the Jetsons one button workplace territory.
Seems like they're just throwing spaghetti at the wall.
Finally, a profitable product for OpenAI.
Pretty sure I could just vibe code this with my old Elgato Stream Deck. As a bonus, it wouldn't become eminently useless if I swap to any other model provider.
Looks like a novelty item made with the purpose of testing their hardware production capabilities before producing a real product.
Also, translated pages transform newlines into \n.
Damn, OpenAI really jumped the shark
Is it April already?
So this is why Apple is suing OpenAI and Johnny I’ve? A stream deck with LEDs?
Or just order any macropad
what happened to the Jonny Ive and them purchasing his agency?
6.5 billions paid, nothing so far, this was such a sus transaction, sounded like the way to get money out of OpenAI.
"OpenAI will launch a portable, screen-free smart speaker as its first consumer hardware product, Bloomberg News has reported, days after Apple sued the AI start-up and two former employees of the iPhone maker for trade-secret theft." [1]
[1] https://techcentral.co.za/jony-ives-first-openai-device-an-a...
I like the teenage engineering style, but is that the hardware that they were stealing Apple secrets for?
We march ever closer to the cntl c v keyboard!
Post a picture of one of these with the “X” key conspicuously removed and you’d probably get a repost from Sam
Where's the Stream Deck emulation layer?
This was not worth getting sued by Apple
Is it compatible with Apple cloth though?
Lol this is trippy, although not sure how much use I really would get outta this thing
$230 for essentially a fancy numpad that's only useful for one tool? Welcome to the AI revolution
AGI is almost here, but first, one more thing... a keyboard controller!
Is this the reason OpenAI decided to steal Apple hardware secrets?
Regardless, device looks nice
Would think they would be doing it for their own hardware device for chatgpt not for developers.
> Is this the reason OpenAI decided to steal Apple hardware secrets?
Of course not.
Presentation is not clear to me. How is it superior to using my keyboard?
They made a streamdeck?!?
This is more expensive than a streamdeck. The streamdeck has LCD keys you can customize dynamically.
This device should have been a blog post about how you can make this device with an Arduino/Pico and a 3D printer and Codex.
Ordered. Not sure will beat my streamdeck modules, but YOLO
You know you can take that old phone out of the drawer, let an AI code a webpage for you which runs on the phone, you attach it to the side of the keyboard (maybe by gluing some magnets), and you have a cheap Stream Deck you control and can wire however you want.
Why don't these companies don't just do that, offer "assistant control pages"?
they would prefer that you never words type manually again
Literally just keymaps
This is the lamest possible implementation, exactly what I would expect from openAI. Nothing about it is interesting or unique or really leverages the power of LLMs to make a new experience.
wow, great partnership for Work Louder but man, I have a micropad from work louder, it's basically just a weird layout for a macropad.
This feels like a missed opportunity for an OpenAI Nintendo Power Glove collab. Smh.
Is this the moat?
Wow, they are going to sell dozens of these!
One step closer to desks with a monitor and a single big red pushbutton to nudge the token spend forward.
I'd personally like one that says "slop me up", or maybe plays an airhorn sample or whatever...
So it's like a more limited Streamdeck.
If this is a sign of what’s to come from OAI, it’s going to be worse than Meta devices.
It's just a keyboard.
Nothing to see here.
Why not a Stream Deck? I own 3 stream decks, and they are incredibly useful. Not only for coding, but windows controlling, shortcuts for anything. And the best part is that there are small screens you can customize.
Seems a bit silly (especially given how easy LLM's make building such an accessory)
I had to check the calendar as I thought it’s April fool. What’s the point of this? Isn’t that like the meme of stackoverflow keyboard?
I want to make my frontend look clean and pretty like this too.
The developers who build OpenAI's UI seem really skilled.
i guess they were stealing pricing logic from apple
Is this the Jony Ive device?
It looks very sus like an Apple product.
It looks nothing like an Apple product and no, it's not part of the io/Ive partnership.
I ordered one because I lack impulse control.
This is the kind of stuff that happens when there’s too much money
i guess this is cool if you are going to expense it as a business but $250 is insane. I'm going to wait for the temu version with the usual hidden mic and phone-home feature
1. looks nice, want.
2. lol, why is this $230
"Hey Codex, help me design the most useless hardware you can think of"
> Flick the joystick to launch common Codex workflows like reviewing a PR, debugging an error, or refactoring code.
Uh… what?
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Finally! Definitive, tangible, tactile proof that we're near the top of the bubble. /s
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Where have I seen this before
https://www.reddit.com/r/ClaudeCode/comments/1ue5inx/i_built...