Codex Voice

Codex Voice is a native macOS menu-bar companion for hands-free conversation with local Codex tasks. It captures and recognizes speech on the Mac, sends only the finalized text through Codex's documented app-server protocol, speaks the completed response with an Apple system voice, and automatically listens again.

Conversation flow

1. Launch Codex Voice and choose a task from the menu-bar task picker.
2. Click Start Voice Session or press Right Option.
3. Speak naturally. Trailing silence ends the utterance.
4. Codex works in the selected persisted task.
5. After explicit turn completion, Codex Voice speaks the result and resumes listening.

Playback is currently half-duplex. Press Right Option while Codex is speaking to stop playback. During an active Codex turn, Right Option opens a steering utterance. Command and file approvals always require a visible click.

Privacy boundary

• Apple recognition is forced to on-device mode.
• Audio and partial transcripts are memory-only.
• Codex receives finalized text, never microphone audio.
• Codex Voice delegates authentication to the installed Codex binary and does not read credentials, browser sessions, cookies, or tokens.

Requirements

• macOS 26 or later.
• Codex Desktop installed in /Applications/ChatGPT.app, or a supported codex executable on the local path.
• Microphone and Accessibility permission. Accessibility is used only for the global Right Option hotkey, not UI automation.

Build and run

./test.sh
./script/build_and_run.sh --verify

The Codex desktop Run action is configured in .codex/environments/environment.toml and invokes the same run script.

Install

./install.sh

The installer builds and verifies an ad-hoc signed bundle, refuses to replace an unrecognized application, moves a previous owned build to Trash, installs /Applications/Codex Voice.app, and launches it.

Troubleshooting

• No tasks: open Codex Desktop once, then choose Refresh Tasks.
• No listening: use Grant or Refresh Permissions and relaunch after macOS records the grant.
• Hotkey unavailable: grant Accessibility and press the permission button again so the event tap is re-created.
• No spoken result: confirm an English Apple system voice is installed. The complete response remains in Codex Desktop even if synthesis fails.