### Feedback ID `no-active-thread-019fe147-5a70-71f0-bb2f-d86bff0082d7` ## Summary OpenAI's current public documentation now clearly defines the **new ChatGPT desktop app** as one application containing distinct user-facing experiences: - **ChatGPT → Chat** — normal/familiar ChatGPT conversations - **ChatGPT → Work** — longer, multi-step agentic work and finished deliverables - **Codex** — a separate top-level view for software development and technical workflows However, OpenAI's public Gi

[Unified Desktop/GitHub] Align ChatGPT Desktop vs Codex taxonomy across tracker, templates, labels, docs, and support

Open 💬 0 comments Opened Aug 8, 2026 by omarpinarecords

Feedback ID

no-active-thread-019fe147-5a70-71f0-bb2f-d86bff0082d7

Summary

OpenAI's current public documentation now clearly defines the new ChatGPT desktop app as one application containing distinct user-facing experiences:

ChatGPT → Chat — normal/familiar ChatGPT conversations
ChatGPT → Work — longer, multi-step agentic work and finished deliverables
Codex — a separate top-level view for software development and technical workflows

However, OpenAI's public GitHub/support infrastructure has not been migrated to that same taxonomy. The official tracker is still openai/codex; its desktop issue form is still named “Codex App Bug”; the form still asks for the “Codex App” version; and the app label still describes issues as “Issues related to the Codex desktop app” even when the report explicitly concerns ordinary ChatGPT → Chat and explicitly says it is not Codex.

This creates a concrete contradiction between OpenAI's current product definition and its public issue-tracking/support taxonomy.

Current official product definition

OpenAI's current Help Center now says that updating the former Codex app turns it into the new ChatGPT desktop app with Chat, Work, and Codex:

https://help.openai.com/en/articles/20001276-moving-to-the-new-chatgpt-desktop-app

That page distinguishes the experiences as:

Chat: questions, search, and conversations
Work: research, analysis, documents, spreadsheets, presentations, reports, Sites, and other multi-step work
Codex: software development with local files, repositories, terminals, and developer tools

It also says that on desktop the user selects ChatGPT or Codex from the top-left menu; within ChatGPT, the user selects Chat or Work. Codex remains a separate view with separate history.

OpenAI's current ChatGPT Work and Codex Help article makes the same distinction:

https://help.openai.com/en/articles/20001275-chatgpt-work-and-codex

And the current ChatGPT release notes describe the product as the new ChatGPT desktop app, with a global selector between ChatGPT and Codex and a Chat/Work selector inside ChatGPT:

https://help.openai.com/en/articles/6825453-chatgpt-release-notes

So the user-facing taxonomy is now reasonably clear in current Help documentation.

The official GitHub tracker has not migrated to that taxonomy

1. The public repository is still `openai/codex`

Normal ChatGPT desktop issues are currently being filed in:

https://github.com/openai/codex

That can be reasonable if the unified application shares the same engineering repository, but the repository does not clearly explain that it is also the public tracker for normal ChatGPT Chat and ChatGPT Work issues in the new ChatGPT desktop app.

The repository README still introduces itself primarily as Codex CLI and refers desktop users to a Codex App page:

https://github.com/openai/codex/blob/main/README.md

There is no prominent taxonomy notice explaining:

This repository also tracks issues for the new ChatGPT desktop app, including ChatGPT → Chat, ChatGPT → Work, and Codex. Please identify the affected surface explicitly.

2. There is still no ChatGPT Desktop / Unified Desktop issue template

The repository currently exposes issue templates including:

1-codex-app.yml
extension
CLI
generic bug report
feature request
docs issue

There is no dedicated ChatGPT Desktop or Unified Desktop issue form with a mode/surface selector.

3. The desktop issue form is formally named “Codex App Bug”

The current official template begins:

name: 🖥️ Codex App Bug
description: Report an issue with the Codex App

and asks:

What version of the Codex App are you using (From “About Codex” dialog)?

Source:

https://github.com/openai/codex/blob/main/.github/ISSUE_TEMPLATE/1-codex-app.yml

That language no longer matches OpenAI's own current Help documentation, which calls the installed product the new ChatGPT desktop app and defines Codex as one separate view inside it.

4. The `app` label still means “Codex desktop app”

The tracker automatically applies an app label whose description is:

Issues related to the Codex desktop app

This creates incorrect classification for ordinary ChatGPT bugs.

For example, #37580 explicitly says:

Current unified ChatGPT desktop app
Chat tab / ordinary ChatGPT conversations
Not Work mode
Not Codex mode

Yet the issue is labeled app, which formally classifies it as an issue related to the Codex desktop app:

https://github.com/openai/codex/issues/37580

The taxonomy issue itself, #37581, is also labeled app with the same Codex-only label meaning even though its subject is the distinction between ChatGPT Chat, ChatGPT Work, and Codex.

5. Other users already describe the product as ChatGPT while the template still calls it Codex

This is not limited to my reports.

For example, #37561 describes reproduction in the “ChatGPT Windows App version 26.803.41515”, while the same issue form asks for the Codex App version and applies an app label defined as the Codex desktop app:

https://github.com/openai/codex/issues/37561

Other current reports use phrases such as:

ChatGPT Windows App
unified ChatGPT/Codex desktop app
ChatGPT/Codex Desktop
/Applications/ChatGPT.app

The reporting infrastructure itself does not provide a canonical way to distinguish those product surfaces.

6. I could not find a separate official public ChatGPT Desktop tracker

A search of public repositories under the OpenAI GitHub organization did not surface a separate official repository dedicated to the current ChatGPT desktop application.

If openai/codex is intentionally the canonical public tracker for the entire unified desktop app, that should be stated explicitly and reflected in the repository name/README, issue forms, labels, and triage taxonomy.

This ambiguity also affects ChatGPT's own product classification

While discussing this exact taxonomy problem and explicitly distinguishing ChatGPT Chat, ChatGPT Work, and Codex, ChatGPT itself repeatedly described the investigation as checking Codex issues/branding because the public tracker is openai/codex.

The repository name is technically correct as a URL, but using that repository should not cause an issue affecting normal ChatGPT Chat to be conceptually classified as a Codex problem.

This demonstrates that the ambiguity propagates beyond user-facing labels into:

product reasoning
source selection
support language
bug classification
issue routing
automated labels

Why this matters

This is not just branding.

When Codex simultaneously means a top-level developer product/view, an underlying runtime, a historical desktop-app identity, a repository name, and a catch-all issue category, it becomes difficult to determine what a report actually concerns.

That can cause:

normal ChatGPT Chat bugs to be triaged as Codex bugs;
ChatGPT Work tasks to be confused with Codex tasks because capabilities overlap;
documentation and support answers to use the wrong product scope;
issue forms to collect incomplete or misleading environment information;
project bugs to conflate ChatGPT Projects with local/Codex projects;
users to believe that Work and Codex are interchangeable when the UI and product semantics differ;
OpenAI's own assistant/support systems to inherit the same ambiguity.

Requested canonical taxonomy

Please align the public product/support infrastructure with the taxonomy already documented in the current Help Center.

A desktop bug report should identify independent dimensions such as:

Application: ChatGPT Desktop
Top-level selector: ChatGPT / Codex
ChatGPT mode: Chat / Work
Conversation type: normal ChatGPT chat / Work task / Codex task
Project type: ChatGPT Project / local project / none
Execution environment: desktop / web / cloud / local / remote
Runtime: Codex runtime only when technically relevant

Requested GitHub changes

Repository / README

If openai/codex remains the canonical tracker for the unified desktop app, add a prominent explanation that it accepts reports for:

ChatGPT → Chat
ChatGPT → Work
Codex

and explain why the repository name remains codex.

Issue forms

Replace or supplement “Codex App Bug” with a “ChatGPT Desktop / Unified Desktop Bug” form.

Add explicit selectors for:

affected top-level product: ChatGPT / Codex;
if ChatGPT: Chat / Work;
project type: ChatGPT Project / local project / none;
desktop OS/client version;
local/cloud/remote execution where relevant.

Labels

Use separate labels such as:

desktop-app
chat
work
codex
chatgpt-project
local-project

The generic app label should not formally mean only “Codex desktop app” if it is also applied to normal ChatGPT Chat bugs.

Help / Learn / Release Notes

The newer Help documentation now explains the distinction well, but it should also explain where each class of bug should be reported and why normal ChatGPT desktop bugs may currently route to openai/codex.

If there is a different canonical tracker for ChatGPT Desktop, the Help/Learn documentation and in-app feedback confirmation should link to it directly instead.

Feedback / diagnostics / support

Diagnostics and /feedback should capture and preserve the actual user-facing surface:

Application: ChatGPT Desktop
Top-level: ChatGPT
Mode: Chat

rather than collapsing the report into a generic Codex-app category merely because Codex infrastructure is present underneath.

Self-demonstrating examples

#37580 — explicitly normal ChatGPT Chat, explicitly not Codex, but labeled as a Codex desktop-app issue.
#37561 — reporter calls it the ChatGPT Windows App while the issue form still asks for the Codex App version.
#37581 — an issue requesting the ChatGPT/Work/Codex taxonomy itself is automatically placed under the same Codex-oriented app taxonomy.

These examples make the mismatch visible without needing any inference about internal implementation.

Related issues checked

Several open issues cover individual parts of the same transition:

#33751 — merger onboarding/migration and naming confusion
#37034 — inconsistent branding, including ChatGPT surfaces still referring to the app as Codex
#33079 — persistent conversation-level Work/Codex identification
#35367 — clearer separation of ChatGPT/Work/Codex projects and conversations

This issue is broader and more specific at the same time: it asks OpenAI to make the public support, GitHub, documentation, diagnostics, and product taxonomy agree with the current official definition of the new ChatGPT desktop app.

Expected outcome

A user reporting an ordinary ChatGPT conversation problem should never have to clarify repeatedly that they are not talking about Codex simply because the unified app shares Codex infrastructure or because the only public GitHub tracker is named openai/codex.

The new ChatGPT desktop app can share code and infrastructure across Chat, Work, and Codex. The public taxonomy should still identify the actual user-facing product surface precisely.

Additional information

In-app feedback was submitted before filing this report.

Feedback ID for correlation: