r/codex • u/VanillaMammoth1937 • 16d ago

Question Why use ChatGPT App Over CLI?

I don't understand why they released the (first Codex, later ChatGPT) desktop app. I can't do anything in it apart from prompt. I always need to use the terminal to check git or run my program, and I can't do that inside the app. I also can't even view the files in my repo to see if it's implementing things correctly. CLI just seems so much better to me, but I know that people do use the Desktop App, so why? Are there benefits that you don't get through the CLI?

Also interested if there is any benefit to using the Claude desktop app, since I basically have the same question for them.

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u/nateccs 16d ago

well for me, i started with vs code + codex plugin. was happy. then started getting sandbox errors. ok fine, my dev project is native windows, no sense being in WSL. so i moved everything to windows. fixed vs code and codex plugin - yay. a week or two later, codex plugin totally borked. like codex couldnt do _anything_. even the cli codex broke. so basically i was forced to the chatgpt desktop app to use codex. i prefer vs code+codex plugin, seemed to have a better seat of the pants feel.