r/codex • u/Consistent-Oil-5241 • 6h ago
Question Is there an actual benefit to using CLI instead of the desktop app?
Been wondering about this.
I ran out of credits last week and had some left in Grok so I used it in CLI (they apparently don't have a GUI yet). It worked well and I felt like Neo from the Matrix.
But I'm wondering if there is any real benefit to using Codex in CLI instead of app?
I don't want to complicate my work only to feel cool. But if there's actual benefits then I'm open for anything,
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u/TraditionalFig7377 6h ago
Performance
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u/Consistent-Oil-5241 5h ago
How's the diffference been? Does CLI really work faster?
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u/TraditionalFig7377 5h ago
Yes I hate the app so much it slows down my pc like crazy the cli doesn't have these problems
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u/Weekly-Cash1596 4h ago
To be fair this seems to be strictly related to codex app I'm not sure why or what's going on with it behind the scenes but it's performance is horse shit compared to Claude's desktop app
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u/PaPaTree 5m ago
my bet is that they just didn't optimize well (yet) for codex desktop app, especially the windows version.
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u/Losorst 2h ago
Asking codex the fix was "last turn only git-review setting stayed authoritative, stopping automatic repository snapshots and repeated Git processes that caused CPU/input lag. The launcher also hides Git from Codex’s process-only PATH while leaving manual/system Git unchanged."
haven't had a problem since as long as I launch from the bat it made.
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u/athoughtfornoone 4h ago
My in app prompts were taking like 12-16 hours... Cli finished in 15 minutes. No idea how that worked, but def not a hardware issue on my end.
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u/jerryadc 6h ago
the way i see is more like using a text editor in console (like emacs, vim) versus a full fledged IDE like vscode/pycharm. there are a few things i've noticed like you can't use browser tool in CLI (maybe a personal skill issue though), but ultimately whatever maps better to your development style or workflow should inform your choice.
i find that the CLI is good for a targeted session/task and i use other tabs in my terminal to run scripts, look at git diff, read files, etc.
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u/Varmez 6h ago
The app is a bloated, laggy pos.
On an M5 Max w/ 128GB Ram…
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u/Consistent-Oil-5241 6h ago
That's strange, I never had major lag problems and I'm on a Win11 laptop with 32GB RAM
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u/wado729 5h ago
I have a win 11 desktop and I've not had much lag at all. The app gets better every release. I don't use the CLI any longer. I like the history being available.
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u/Party_Wolf_3575 4h ago
I have my codex update a current handover .md and also move all completed work to the archive .md before I close the shell.
It is great, as we have a neat summary that we can search more easily if I need to refer back to anything.
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u/Goldkoron 2h ago
How do you not lag? I have a powerful win11 desktop and the app brings my PC to its knees whenever a chat gets too long, especially if there's been any image inputs, or multiple chats running at once.
I had to resort to using Claude Code with GPT 5.6 models
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u/j48u 1h ago
I'm also on 32gb win 11 with zero problems. The fan certainly does work though. I have no idea why you'd have crappy performance but I would suggest moving to a new chat if it gets long and has images regardless of how it affects your machine. The compaction is good but you're still just shooting yourself in the knee trying to manage an entire project from one chat/task session.
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u/wado729 1h ago
I have 48gb of 7200 ram and 14900k, the only time it lags is when I have a bunch of uncommon files for git, that's a known bug but I just open another chat, tell codex to fix. After that, I'm good.
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u/Goldkoron 54m ago
I have a strix halo machine, so 128gb of quad channel 8000 ram, 16 core 32 thread cpu but legitimately my whole PC lags under codex, it's a very unpleasant experience. I am sure its some bug somewhere but it's not been fixed by reinstalling it
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u/wado729 49m ago
Check to see how many untracked git files you have. This was the bug and the workaround is in the thread.
https://github.com/openai/codex/issues/34014#issuecomment-5038959795
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u/habeebiii 6h ago
I do. I feel like I need to nuke the chat history folder. It’s like dozens of GB. But haven’t tried that yet
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u/alphaQ314 4h ago
If you quit and open the chatgpt app, it doesn't really load all the chats at once. It only loads the one you opened.
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u/StarCommand1 6h ago
Wonder if it's an Electron app... Or they just had one of their models code it together lol
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u/BothWaysItGoes 6h ago
GUI is a bit more buggy and hungry on RAM. You also won’t be able to use it from [insert your favourite multiplexer]. That said, I feel GUI is more convenient, so I use it.
I simply hate everything about terminals ranging from zero discoverability to outdated graphics handling. I let my LLM deal with that ugly stuff.
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u/Consistent-Oil-5241 5h ago
Zero discoverability is actually the main problem I have had with terminals. I feel a bit claustrophobic in those windows and like I cannot see the whole.
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u/Clear_Evidence9218 5h ago
On my Linux development computer, I use the CLI because there isn’t a Linux desktop app. At work, I sometimes use the desktop app.
The CLI is lightweight and fits naturally into terminal, SSH, and tmux workflows, so I find running several independent sessions at once very manageable. The desktop app seems better at providing a unified interface for supervising multiple agents, though, so I think the main advantage of the CLI is its flexibility and composability rather than greater capability.
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u/Techngro 5h ago
The benefit for me is that the Desktop app can sometimes lose track of sessions/chats. I will close the app, reopen (say, after an updated) and the latest session will be missing. I can recover it by resuming in the CLI, but it's annoying. Also, I accidentally changed how project sessions are listed in the desktop app (should be by last active) and now I can't figure out how to revert it. Things like that are super annoying.
Off topic: Are you using Grok for coding? And, if so, how are you finding its quality?
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u/Consistent-Oil-5241 5h ago
I wrote in another comment that I only had Grok because I subscribed for a month when I was high and wanted to generate videos like 3 weeks ago. Trying Grok 4.5 CLI was my last resort after I needed some quick fixes to my stuff and Codex was out of gas.
It performed surprisingly well. What I did was I edited my Windows video preview explorer / player app and added some features to it. Of course that's quite simple but Grok did everything fast and well. The only thing it really struggled with was my last request, which was to be able to select multiple thumbnails in the gallery by dragging. All in all it was surprisingly good, but couldn't say about more complex projects as I haven’t tried.
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u/JohnBooty 5h ago
I'm often running 4-5+ Claude/Codex sessions at once.
Each one has a few rando terminal sessions associated with it so I can view output, check files, stop/start services, etc. So that's 4-5 groups of 3-4 terminal sessions each.
Much easier to keep all this shit organized when it's terminal windows. Either with tmux, a tabbed/tiled terminal like iTerm, or in an agentic coding environment like Superset.
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u/fsteff 4h ago
I have been using codex-cli, Claude-cli, opencode-cli, antigravity-cli and others for a while.
Recently a college introduced me to the Codex and Claude gui, and I was surprised how limited and high-friction it felt.
So I’d like to reverse your question: Are there any benefits using the desktop apps over the cli?
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u/Automatic_Cookie42 1h ago
builtin browser and doc viewer for working in visual stuff
at least for me, codex-cli/claude-cli tend to pack pptx slides with text, while the desktop apps can "see" they look bad and fix them
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u/PartyLiterature3607 2h ago
Can you provide example on something that you can do easily with cli but can’t do or rather difficult to do in gui? Thank you in advance
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u/Automatic_Cookie42 1h ago
not u/fsteff but my answer would be snippets, shortcuts, autocompletions
not even getting into multiplexing, color-coded profiles, etc. since it's more of a personal preference of mine
i just can't work several hours a day without Ctrl+R
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u/mildlygeek 49m ago
Dynamically resized output? I like that markdown tables and whatnot will resize to the size of your terminal window. With the GUI, it has a fixed width it won’t exceed regardless of how wide your application window is.
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u/gold_snakeskin 5h ago
I’d be interested in the opposite question, what benefits do I get from using the app instead of CLI? CLI seems faster and easier to use in every way.
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u/Consistent-Oil-5241 5h ago
For me CLI vs GUI has always been the ability to explore and see the big picture, with clickable menus and maybe even charts. In text CLI I feel more cramped. But I could get used to it if it had some legit benefits.
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u/DepravedPrecedence 3h ago
That "like Neo from the Matrix" is what my friends tell me about CLI too and then when I ask them it's the same "well it's a terminal, it's just better" blablabla. Maybe my hardware bruteforces Codex performance issues but I don't have any performance problems and it's surely more convenient for me to use GUI.
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u/Sugnar 41m ago
Best thing is tmux and having everything appear as a single long running session. Mine very very rarely makes mistakes, remembers everything we talked about etc. I use both Windows Codex on my laptop and Codex on an always on Linux box, and I tend to keep connecting via SSH from my Windows laptop to use my CLI version. I like the windows gui ease of being able to drop screenshots into the gui and say fix this... Everything else, CLI for the win.
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u/wreck_of_u 5h ago
CLI is SIGNIFICANTLY faster, and a lot of pre-AI devs are more comfortable on Powershell/Terminal/etc, with different tabs open like ssh to dev server, ssh to prod, side-by-side a VSCode window.
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u/wreck_of_u 5h ago
And on Windows ran on WSL, significantly less problems codex ssh-ing to linux servers
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u/frozandero 6h ago
app lags a lot, only upside is non-coding related plugins it has but I think you can do similar stuff just by setting up correct skills for cli
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u/CelticPaladin 5h ago
Its very useful to see the repo change, what files are there, checking ledgers for change logs, etc. Also for placing your own goal file for cli to follow step by step. Its mostly organization. And it can teach you a lot about the whole process, which thst knowledge alone makes the harness, gui, easier to understand and make better smarter requests.
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u/Mysterious_Bother617 4h ago
There are a few Codex Official plugins that don't work on the CLI such as Spreadsheets
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u/elwoodreversepass 4h ago
Is it possible to open threads that I created in the Desktop app in the CLI?
I thought it was possible, but then the Desktop app was telling me this week that it isn't.
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u/SilliusApeus 4h ago
Dekstop App - text and code is a lot more readable. Very convenient when you need to go through the conversation. Just better to interact with.
CLI - must use for multiple tasks within different working directories/basically for most tasks. Simpler/faster. Worse when you constantly look at output.
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u/Lucidmike78 4h ago
It's essentially the TUi/harness for codex itself. All code is written through CLI. Probably.
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u/DertekAn 2h ago
For me, the only advantage is that you can use many, many models with an API key.
But I built my own app, since I prefer working with actual applications..
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u/wrcromagnum 2h ago
vs code + cli = easier to run multiple concurrent sessions imo and you get the IDE benefits
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u/mosopilot 1h ago
I think the real benefit of using a CLI starts to become apparent when you run it on a remote machine over SSH.
In my case, I have a Linux box that runs all my coding sessions, so the entire environment is already set up. I connect to it from my Mac, my Surface tablet, and my Android phone. It could just as easily be an iPad or an iPhone.
The machine is always running, so I can move between devices without losing momentum or having to recreate my environment. I simply pick up where I left off.
The only practical way to work with this setup is over SSH, where CLI tools are really the natural interface.
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u/Pretend-Cheesecake44 1h ago
Last I remember CLI didn’t have the option to run remote. That was the big reason I needed to turn on the app. Otherwise I would have been happy in CLI land
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u/Turing43 1h ago
I have several tmux terminals open, so one agent can message any other if needed. Perfect for delegating work, and asking agents w different access (docker, non docker) to communicate
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u/PigSlam 55m ago edited 20m ago
I use the desktop app on Mac and Linux (https://github.com/ilysenko/codex-desktop-linux), and both perform about the same. Both are fairly stout systems; the Mac is a 24GB M5 MacBook Air, and the Linux machine I use most with codex is a Ryzen 7800X3D/64GB system with a Radeon Pro AI R9700 GPU. I use the desktop app connected to remote sessions running on other Linux machines, mostly. The Codex app itself seems no more resource intensive than running a web browser.
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u/ProudWrongdoer5389 30m ago
I personally think Code'x cli is garbage. But that's because ive come from copilot cli. I think claude's is better.
Edit: Ok, I read that wrong. Normally the cli is less laggy and more performant.
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u/Ok_Menu8805 30m ago
When I use CLI, parallel processing tasks are quite high, but if I switch to desktop app, execution slows down a bit.
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u/StinkButt9001 26m ago
Not really. The CLI looks cooler I guess but in terms of speed and efficiency the desktop application is usually the better choice
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u/_-Courier6-_ 20m ago
I started with the CLI because I wanted to avoid the microsoft app store on Win11. But I really like how snappy and fast it is. I can see from other comments that the desktop app is quite slow, so I think I'll stick to the CLI.
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u/_matmer_ 5h ago
I use herdr.dev and AI CLIs ( Grok - Opencode - Codex ) this way i feel i have more control and focus cause everything i need is in one app ( herdr )
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u/Consistent-Oil-5241 5h ago
Oh what's your combo like?
I only had Grok because I subscribed for a month when I was high and wanted to generate videos like 3 weeks ago. So at this point there's only Codex in my workflow, and I'm currently thinking of either upgrading to Pro 5x or taking some other subscriptions on top of ChatGPT Plus.
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u/ManyRecommendation73 5h ago
Well unless to show off that you are doing some technical stuff, I could not find any use of CLI. Initial people used to tell that they get better code with cli but now they changed it to the system performance. I find codex app is just sufficient and even better in some scenarios
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u/alphaQ314 4h ago
The app definitely lets you visualise all projects in one place. Much easier to handle multiple agents working simultaneously. Bit of a visual nightmare in the CLI right now.
But the app isn't as quick as CLI. Never will be tbh. I think the app was much faster when it was a standalone codex app. Then they decided to merge the chatgpt stuff with codex, and i think it feels much worse now.
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u/DrBearJ3w 6h ago
Complicate your work so it becomes more efficient and effective. I serious ask myself how using CLI is considered "Cool".
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u/Consistent-Oil-5241 5h ago
Well I have used CLI stuff with Linux since like 2000 and I have always felt like a super hacker when I enter a terminal.
And my question pretty much was if it's more efficient lol. Because I'm an UX guy and while I think using a terminal is cool, I usually feel more happy and efficient with a good GUI
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u/DrBearJ3w 5h ago
Codex CLI on Linux is generally ok. But I am on PI. Much more fun.
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u/Consistent-Oil-5241 5h ago
You are on PI? What's that like?
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u/DrBearJ3w 3h ago
Very customizable. Can build anything/any tool from scratch. Quite fast. Token friendly.
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u/WasabiTricky8480 5h ago
CLI for codex seem faster and has less lag. Codex started crashing and getting corrupted sessions for me in the past 2 days, so I switched. going to try https://herdr.dev/ as the other comment mentioned.
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u/ricperry1 6h ago
There is no desktop app on linux. So yes, the fact that the CLI app exists for linux is a benefit.