OpenAI adds Codex mobile access and new customization tools
OpenAI has made its Codex coding assistant available on iOS and Android through ChatGPT. The company also added Hooks, Remote SSH, programmatic access tokens and HIPAA support for the standalone client and embedded versions.
OpenAI has brought its Codex programming assistant to mobile devices, making the service available through the ChatGPT apps for iOS and Android. The company said the update can speed up some software development tasks and reduce inference costs by letting developers guide Codex without returning to a desktop computer.
Codex is powered by GPT-5.5, according to OpenAI, and is designed to handle programming jobs that can run for hours. Those tasks sometimes need human input along the way. For example, if Codex finds two ways to rewrite legacy code, it may ask which approach to use, and it also needs permission before making higher-stakes project changes.
⚡ New to this?
This matters because coding assistants are no longer limited to the desktop. Codex is OpenAI’s tool for helping write and edit software, and mobile access means developers can approve, redirect, or stop its work while they are away from their main machine.
The new Hooks and Remote SSH features also show that these tools are moving deeper into team workflows. SSH, or Secure Shell, is an encrypted way to connect to remote servers, while HIPAA is a U.S. health data privacy law that affects how software is used in medical settings.
🦞 OpenClaw angle
If you build automation around coding agents, plan for mobile approval loops instead of desktop-only supervision. Use scripts similar to OpenAI’s Hooks model to block prompts with secrets, enforce project-specific rules, and log agent activity for audits.
If your agents work against cloud dev environments, make encrypted remote access a default requirement and separate credentials by tool. Also, treat programmatic access tokens as scoped, revocable credentials, and make sure your workflows can pause or redirect an agent when a human reviewer needs to step in from a phone.
Until now, if a developer started a long-running task and then walked away from a desktop, Codex had no way to get that guidance. OpenAI said that could leave work stalled for hours. With mobile access, developers can now answer those prompts or interrupt a task from a phone instead of waiting to get back to their computer.
OpenAI said that also helps avoid unnecessary token usage when Codex goes down the wrong path. Tokens are the chunks of data an AI model processes, and more token use generally means higher cost. In OpenAI’s framing, fewer wasted completions can lower ChatGPT bills for software teams.
The mobile release is arriving alongside two new Codex features: Hooks and Remote SSH. Hooks lets customers customize the assistant with scripts, including scripts that process prompts and Codex responses. OpenAI gave examples such as blocking prompts that contain sensitive company information or logging messages for compliance purposes.
The company said Hooks can also be used to tailor Codex output for individual projects. That matters for teams that want the assistant to follow different rules depending on the codebase or workflow.
Remote SSH is meant for teams that work in cloud-based development environments. SSH, or Secure Shell, is an encrypted connection method used to reach remote systems. OpenAI said Remote SSH lets Codex connect to those environments over an encrypted network link.
OpenAI also added two smaller changes. Software teams can now generate programmatic access tokens, which are credentials that allow third-party developer tools to use Codex. The company also added HIPAA compliance support to the standalone Codex client and to the versions of Codex that developers can embed in their own coding tools.
The update comes about eight months after Anthropic made Claude Code available on mobile devices, giving OpenAI a similar option for Codex users who work away from their desks.
