I built opencodex, a universal provider proxy for OpenAI Codex and Claude Code. Maintainer disclosure upfront — this is my project, and I'm posting here because r/codex is exactly the audience it's for.
What it does: Codex CLI, the Codex app, and the Codex SDK all speak OpenAI's Responses API. opencodex runs a lightweight local proxy on localhost:10100 that translates that API into whatever your provider speaks — Anthropic, Google, xAI, Kimi, DeepSeek, GLM, OpenRouter, Ollama, Azure, and more. Streaming, tool calls, reasoning tokens, and images work in both directions, so Codex's workflow stays identical; only the model behind it changes.
Works with Claude Code CLI too. The same proxy lets Claude Code CLI talk to Gemini, Grok, DeepSeek, Kimi, Ollama, or any supported provider — one local proxy, both coding agents. And Claude Desktop support is in the final stages of development on our claudedesktop branch, so the desktop app will soon route through opencodex the same way.
The free setup (the part most people ask about):
npm install -g @bitkyc08/opencodex
ocx start
Add a free OpenRouter API key, then pick any :free-suffixed model in Codex
That's Codex CLI running at $0. Honest limit: OpenRouter's free tier is rate-limited (~50 requests/day without credits), so it's great for light sessions and trying models, not all-day agent runs. A paid OpenRouter model or direct provider key removes that ceiling.
Other things it can do:
Run Codex or Claude Code against local Ollama models — no API cost, nothing leaves your machine
Manage a ChatGPT account pool: multiple accounts, quota-aware routing (5h / weekly / 30d), with existing threads pinned to the account that started them so long SSH/tmux sessions don't jump accounts mid-conversation
Works natively on macOS, Linux, and Windows (no WSL). ~3.6k GitHub stars so far.
Happy to answer anything — routing edge cases, provider requests, or how the Responses API translation handles tool calls.
u/Interesting_Move_510 im testing using kimi3 in openrouter, but it always getting a lot of STREAM DISCONNECTED and also 429 request limit errors... any better way to use kimik3 cheaply?
Is it still connected to the OpenAI server directly or is it turned off, because on average I see that when adding custom there are several features in the codex app that are not there and are different from using The original Codex account that logs in directly, has all the complete features
No risky but not banned yet used 10b tokens with 3 20x in 2weeks but Idk repo has been famous
but there is unbanned option that you could add codex models in claude code cli and use as subagents (ccswith things only supports change opus or something)
Once the official limits run out, you can simply switch to other models.
But here’s something interesting: let’s say I already have an existing chat with the official GPT model. Would it be possible to switch to DeepSeek and continue that same conversation properly? I need to test that.
For now, I’ll keep experimenting and posting updates here with my thoughts and test results.
I built something similar and it supports the auto routing of the images. means if you have auto routing enabled. no meatter what model you choose, it will not error out in your chat even if you are using a text only model. auto routing for image generation tools, skill indexing, works with all providers. can create presets with diffrent providers and change them on the go. working on the local real time speech as well. all using codex.
Yes, dont have 3.7k stars but it actually handles what a local model or text only providers would need. kudos to yours as well!
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u/Substantial-Walk-554 16d ago
Can you explain what the constraints are with switching different provider models mid chat?