Codex Desktop: add API/CLI support for creating and registering projects
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.jsonunderelectron-saved-workspace-rootsandproject-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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