Codex Desktop: add API/CLI support for creating and registering projects

Open 💬 2 comments Opened May 31, 2026 by Sereja3578

Feature request

Please add supported API/CLI functionality for creating and managing Codex Desktop projects from automation and from Codex itself.

Use case

I want Codex to be able to organize many conversations into projects based on natural-language instructions, for example:

  • "Create projects from this list of names."
  • "Create Codex projects for each folder under ~/Documents/Codex/Projects."
  • "Analyze my existing chats and move/organize them into projects by topic."

Today Codex can create folders and can see existing saved project IDs, but it cannot register new project/workspace roots unless they were added through the Desktop UI.

What I tried

  • Created project folders under ~/Documents/Codex/Projects
  • Added custom macOS folder icons
  • Tried adding paths manually to .codex-global-state.json under electron-saved-workspace-roots and project-order
  • Codex Desktop later rewrote the state back to the UI-registered project list
  • Tried codex app "/path/to/project"
  • Tried creating a thread with the app tool using an unregistered folder as projectId

The tool rejected the unregistered path:

Unknown projectId: /Users/me/Documents/Codex/Projects/Gadgets
Saved projectIds:
/Users/me/Documents/Codex/Projects/TestProject

Requested behavior

Please expose supported project/workspace management operations, such as:

codex project add "/path/to/project"
codex project remove "/path/to/project"
codex project list

or:

codex app "/path/to/project" --save-project

or equivalent app-server methods:

{ "method": "workspaceRoot.add", "params": { "path": "/path/to/project" } }
{ "method": "workspaceRoot.list" }
{ "method": "workspaceRoot.remove", "params": { "path": "/path/to/project" } }

It would also be useful if Codex agents could call an official tool to:

  • create a project from a name
  • register an existing folder as a project
  • create projects from a list
  • create projects from folders
  • organize existing chats into projects by meaning/topic

Why this matters

Projects are core to keeping Codex useful over time. If a user has many workflows, manually creating and opening every project through the UI is slow and hard to automate. A supported API would enable:

  • import workflows from ChatGPT project lists
  • bulk project setup
  • Finder Shortcuts / Automator Quick Actions
  • cleanup and organization assistants
  • future chat migration / classification workflows

Environment

  • Codex Desktop on macOS
  • Codex app version: 26.527.31326
  • Codex CLI version: 2.93.0 GitHub CLI installed separately for reporting

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