Frequently Asked Question

What is the difference between ChatGPT and Codex?

They occupy genuinely different roles, and conflating them causes confusion about what security precautions apply.

ChatGPT is the conversational assistant, used through a browser or a desktop application. On Linux there is no official desktop client, so the browser is the normal route. It never touches your filesystem: everything it sees arrives by copy and paste, and everything it produces you paste back.

Codex is the coding agent. It is a command-line program written in Rust, developed in the open, and it does have access to your files and your shell. It follows the same agent loop as Claude Code: state a goal, and it reads, runs, and edits until the goal is met. It is also available inside ChatGPT and as an IDE extension, but the CLI is the version that matters on a Linux system.

The security considerations around sandboxing apply entirely to Codex and not at all to ChatGPT. Some tasks genuinely suit the browser: asking for an explanation of an unfamiliar iptables rule does not require handing over your filesystem.