Use Codex as a running research notebook
They treated Codex as a persistent place to gather background knowledge for a department and reuse it across later questions.
- What they did
- They used the Codex app less like a coding helper and more like a living research workspace. To keep that context stable, they leaned on an AGENTS.md file for ongoing style and instruction settings, then moved between coding tasks, desktop actions, and detailed question answering in the same app.
- How it went
- They said Codex gave better answers than ChatGPT’s Research mode and worked well for quick web lookups plus long-running research. The main complaint was that the product still felt unfinished and sparse.
- Tips
- Use it when you want one place to accumulate context over time, not just a one-off answer. Keep an eye on quota limits, since Codex shares usage with ChatGPT and the web tools, apart from Codex Spark.
Try it yourself with Codex
You are my ongoing research partner for [department or topic]. Start by reading the material in [folder path] and build a structured knowledge base in [format] that tracks important people, workflows, data points, and open questions. Keep updating that base as we continue, and tell me how you organized it so you can resume later. When I ask about [topic], answer from the saved notes and cite sources. Before you do anything that would change, remove, submit, or send my files or data, stop and ask for my approval first.
Fill in the [brackets]. Agents can make mistakes, so review anything before it is sent, paid or deleted.
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