Codex Mobile Released and It's Insane

Riley’s big claim: this is basically remote control for your whole computer

Riley opens hot: Codex is now inside the ChatGPT mobile app, and because Codex can control his laptop, ChatGPT on his phone can now effectively control his whole computer. He frames it as OpenAI’s answer to Claude Code and says it’s his favorite way to run agents locally.

Getting Codex Mobile connected without getting stuck

The setup is straightforward but very specific: update Codex, update the ChatGPT iOS app, restart Codex, and make sure phone and computer are on the same Wi‑Fi. Once connected, the Codex chats on desktop and mobile should mirror each other “in perfect sync,” which is the signal that everything is working.

What actually works in the app: voice, notifications, and plugins

Inside the mobile app, Riley likes voice mode most — he gives a spoken prompt asking the agent to research the Codex update, search the web and social media, and compile everything into a document. He points out the nice mobile touches too: spinny indicators while agents work, blue when they finish, and useful notifications for jobs that can take 10 to 30 minutes.

The weird limitation: plugins show up, skills don’t

Typing @ brings up plugins like documents, spreadsheets, presentations, browser, Chrome, and even computer use, and those work on mobile. But typing / doesn’t expose skills, which Riley calls out as a current gap — although if you know a skill exists on desktop, you can still ask for it in plain English and Codex will use it anyway.

Full-access mode and the local app problem

Riley recommends switching Codex from default permissions to full access if you’re comfortable with it, because he wants it to “just go crazy” and fully control the machine. The bigger issue is that vibe-coded apps run on localhost, so if Codex builds a landing page on your laptop, that localhost link won’t open on your phone.

‘YOLO mode’: the 30-second fix that makes mobile vibe coding real

His solution is a custom skill he calls YOLO mode: every app change gets auto-deployed to production, usually via the Vercel plugin, and the public link is sent back immediately. He sets it up by enabling Vercel in desktop plugins and then telling Codex to create a skill that deploys every change because he’s likely coding from his phone.

From pizza pages to a Trello-style app with Supabase

He first demos a simple landing page, then asks Codex to make it dark mode and improve the font — same link, updated result. Then he goes bigger: “create a full notes app on YOLO mode, mobile optimized… use Supabase for DB and make it look like Trello,” and the result includes authentication, database-backed lists, and a working mobile experience he can log into from the phone.

The fun part: turning your Downloads folder into a party photo app

To close, Riley shifts from coding to playful computer-use automation: from a party, he could ask Codex to grab the 50 most recent images or videos from Downloads, build a little site, caption its favorite five, and deploy it. Watching the screenshots update as the agent rummages through his files is part of the appeal, and the final result is a shareable live link he can instantly send around.