Codex
OpenAI's coding agent, run from a terminal rather than an editor
A coding agent from OpenAI that lives in a terminal. You describe the change in plain English, and it reads the codebase, edits files, runs commands and reports what it did. People reach for it on stubborn bugs, or point it at a pull request and let it argue with whatever wrote the code.
People on record
Sorted by strength of stance
Does it: documented as part of their own routine. Recommends: explicitly advises other people to do it. Discusses: covered it substantively without clear personal adoption; this can include criticism or disagreement.
- Federico ViticciDoes it
Apple writer · founder of MacStories
Built the Apple Frames command line tool with Codex and Claude Code, and says plainly that he is not a programmer by trade. He puts it at about a year of making small personal tools with coding agents before one of them felt worth releasing.
Source: MacStories: Introducing Apple Frames 4 - Naval RavikantDoes it
Angel investor · AngelList and the Naval podcast
He started on Claude Code and brought in Codex for the thornier bugs and the deeper problems. It sits in his review loop too: push a branch and Codex fires automatically on the pull request alongside the other agents. That roundtable helps less than it sounds like it should, he says, because the models mostly agree.
Source: nav.al: A Return to Code
Aimed at the same thing
Other entries filed under productivity or focus.
- App$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.On record from 5 of 62 tracked people: 5 do it
- App$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.
Readwise
Syncs your highlights and resurfaces them a few at a time
On record from 4 of 62 tracked people: 3 do it, 1 recommends it - App$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.
Website and app blocker
Software that makes distracting sites genuinely unavailable on a schedule
On record from 4 of 62 tracked people: 2 do it, 2 recommend it - App$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.On record from 2 of 62 tracked people: 2 do it
- App$$$Mid: Roughly $50 to $500, or up to $50/month.
DEVONthink
DEVONtechnologies
Document and information manager for Mac and iOS with local, indexed databases
On record from 2 of 62 tracked people: 2 do it - App$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.On record from 2 of 62 tracked people: 2 do it
App entry · notes paraphrased from cited sources, quoted excerpts copied from the transcript they link to. Not medical advice. Not affiliated with, endorsed by, or reviewed by anyone listed. How this works.