Codex Micro

If you’re puzzled as to why this exists, imagine that, out of the goodness of your heart, you donate $230 to OpenAI to support their mission of rear ending the singularity, and receive Codex Micro memorabilia as a token of appreciation.

Wouldn't surprise me if the real purpose of this is to get a physical object on your desk that makes you constantly think about Codex -- either babysitting your currently-running agents when it's lit up and running, or subconsciously bullying / shaming you into using Codex if you're not right at this very moment.

An electronic Siren's Song if you will.

If anyone is looking at this thinking it looks pretty and wants to check out Work Louder's keyboards, let me save you the time. Their keyboards must be made by designers who do not type much because they are both not pleasant to type on and not very high-quality.

The Nomad [E] might be one of the worst keyboards I've ever purchased, and I owned one of the original butterfly switch MacBooks.

At this point these companies are going to release merch to fund themselves

OK, these folks have way too much money. This is like peak-Google vibes.

$230 for a macropad with an exposed PCB and no washers under the Allen screws.

I'm not sure what the joystick is for, and neither are they apparently: the only example they give is something that could just be a keybind.

This is pretty hilarious. Guess people forgot how to use PCs and can only prompt now.

My first question is this — what does this do that a $50 Streamdeck cannot?

It's not clear why this physical object is a better solution to the problem than, say, a window on your screen. Feels like more of a hobby project than something that provides $230 of value.

After a few minutes on the site, I have no clue what this is for. A keyboard that interacts with Codex? That’s just a software feature, why am I paying $230 for hotkeys?

We need to bring back the 'turbo' button.[1]

[1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turbo_button#Purpose

This is a rebranded/reskinned WORK LOUDER Creator Micro 2 btw (https://worklouder.cc/creator-micro-2). Great device if you're into expensive tech toys (a la Teenage Engineering), but if you were waiting for a big OpenAI hardware reveal sorry to disappoint.

I'm curious who the target audience is. As a developer I already spend all day at my keyboard, so I'm not yet convinced dedicated hardware is faster than a desktop app. I'd love to hear from people who've actually used it.

I don't understand. What's costing 230$ here???

My first reaction is WTF. My second reaction isn't here yet.

A quarter RGB keyboard for the price of half a MacBook Neo? Yeah this will sell like hot cakes...

Codex micro - is it a tiny coding agent? Or a small coding model? No it is hardware, that has nothing to do with coding.

I think they should have called it "codex luna" - because it's small!

Not that long (10 hours) ago this was considered a joke: https://www.reddit.com/r/vibecoding/comments/1uwzr82/got_my_...

I am surprised they released this. Who is the audience for this? You can DIY this yourself surely.

Why isn't there a video of it?

I was just thinking of making something like this! But more as a novelty than something I realistically expect to use.

Windows and Mac only (no Linux).

While I love a good piece of hardware with real buttons, I struggle to justify the money on this. If it supported Linux and was a bit cheaper I might splerge just to have a toy, but I'm definitely not switching to windows or mac just for this.

So when are we gonna get this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LXzJR7K0wK0 ?

8th openai product named codex btw

I checked the date but no.

Wait. This is only a keyboard?! For how much?!

on one hand...this looks cool/teenage engineering-esque. on the other...engineers have been infantilized forever now but this is a new level. it feels like my career has been dwindled down to ... what? a few colors and like 5 buttons? reminds me of something out of idiocracy a bit. just need a button that orders a nice juicy hamburger for me during my lunch break.

but jokes aside, I suppose you can look at this being sort of like a numpad in addition to your main keyboard so I see the point of this gimmicky thing

I don't understand the many Teenage Engineering references in this thread, this design has no soul.

First question; if theres a knob to adjust thinking level, and I can switch between agents, what if I turn down the knob for one agent and switch to another? Do I just insta-lobotomize it?

This feels like a missed opportunity for an OpenAI Nintendo Power Glove collab. Smh.

Is this a joke? Instantly thought of this: https://www.reddit.com/r/claude/comments/1s7m8ld/this_is_the...

Things you do if you definitely are focused on the a Trillion USD industry and SuperDuperUltraMega AGI is 100% possible and what you are fully committed to. Next they’ll spend Millions on a podcast that fails to get 50k hits on YouTube or a design firm whose biggest claim to fame is creating a Ferrari whose interior looks like a Magic Mouse. Say what you want about Anthropic, their Aquihires and interpretability investments at least make sense for an LLM lab.

This is just a Macropad, right? All of the smarts are on the PC side. So why is it so expensive?

I thought this was an aprils fools joke. Then i realized it’s July..

I like it because it looks sleak, and the colors are neat.

However, it really puts in perspective that a large part of my job has just become clicking a few buttons.

I KVM between a bunch of boxes and I have a Doio KB16 for Claude and I love it. I get the reasoning for the product. Price is..... interesting.

https://doioshop.com/products/doio-16-keys-programmable-mult...

Or just order any macropad

Seems like they're just throwing spaghetti at the wall.

Damn, OpenAI really jumped the shark

Looks cool. I’m looking for a macro pad with a little LCD that’s Mac and Linux compatible.

This looks like it has LEDs but not a screen.

Any experience with https://www.eezbotfun.com/ or recommendations for something similar?

Finally, a profitable product for OpenAI.

Looks fun, but I don't quite understand this product:

  - Do the buttons map to configurable skills / prompts?
  - Is it meant to be used remotely with some independence (like codex remote), or is it a peripheral like a trackpad?

Is it April already?

You know you can take that old phone out of the drawer, let an AI code a webpage for you which runs on the phone, you attach it to the side of the keyboard (maybe by gluing some magnets), and you have a cheap Stream Deck you control and can wire however you want.

Why don't these companies don't just do that, offer "assistant control pages"?

We're rapidly approaching the Jetsons one button workplace territory.

Pretty sure I could just vibe code this with my old Elgato Stream Deck. As a bonus, it wouldn't become eminently useless if I swap to any other model provider.

what happened to the Jonny Ive and them purchasing his agency?

6.5 billions paid, nothing so far, this was such a sus transaction, sounded like the way to get money out of OpenAI.

This was not worth getting sued by Apple

Looks like a novelty item made with the purpose of testing their hardware production capabilities before producing a real product.

Also, translated pages transform newlines into \n.

OK, these folks have way too much money. This is like peak-Google vibes.

At this point these companies are going to release merch to fund themselves

tokens are getting expensive these days

An electronic Siren's Song if you will.

>An electronic Siren's Song if you will.

Notifications on your smartphone are way better for that. Add Gacha mechanics for 100% extra damage.

The Nomad [E] might be one of the worst keyboards I've ever purchased, and I owned one of the original butterfly switch MacBooks.

I was interested in their knob1, and, if you go to their website today it still says pre-order with shipping in August 2025 (stuck in the past), at this point I accepted it's vaporware [1]

[1] https://worklouder.cc/knob1

What's wrong with it? I believe you but I'm just curious... since on paper it just uses Gateron low profile switches which seems reasonable.

Never heard of work louder, but it sounds like an idea I used to joke with coworkers about, around making a clickly keyboard with an amplifier and speaker to passive-aggressively demonstrate how annoying the clicky keyboards are in a high density office environment.

I don't understand. What's costing 230$ here???

Why isn't there a video of it?

I was just thinking of making something like this! But more as a novelty than something I realistically expect to use.

So when are we gonna get this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LXzJR7K0wK0 ?

I checked the date but no.

This feels like a missed opportunity for an OpenAI Nintendo Power Glove collab. Smh.

Is this a joke? Instantly thought of this: https://www.reddit.com/r/claude/comments/1s7m8ld/this_is_the...

I like it because it looks sleak, and the colors are neat.

However, it really puts in perspective that a large part of my job has just become clicking a few buttons.

Or just order any macropad

Seems like they're just throwing spaghetti at the wall.

Damn, OpenAI really jumped the shark

Looks cool. I’m looking for a macro pad with a little LCD that’s Mac and Linux compatible.

This looks like it has LEDs but not a screen.

Any experience with https://www.eezbotfun.com/ or recommendations for something similar?

Finally, a profitable product for OpenAI.

Looks fun, but I don't quite understand this product:

  - Do the buttons map to configurable skills / prompts?
  - Is it meant to be used remotely with some independence (like codex remote), or is it a peripheral like a trackpad?

Is it April already?

Why don't these companies don't just do that, offer "assistant control pages"?

We're rapidly approaching the Jetsons one button workplace territory.

Pretty sure I could just vibe code this with my old Elgato Stream Deck. As a bonus, it wouldn't become eminently useless if I swap to any other model provider.

This was not worth getting sued by Apple

Looks like a novelty item made with the purpose of testing their hardware production capabilities before producing a real product.

Also, translated pages transform newlines into \n.

tokens are getting expensive these days

$230 for a macropad with an exposed PCB and no washers under the Allen screws.

I'm not sure what the joystick is for, and neither are they apparently: the only example they give is something that could just be a keybind.

RE: the joystick. They should have gone with the Playdate's crank instead, CrankGPT style.

Anyway, I think it's all a fun marketing thing. A desk toy for folks with disposable income. I imagine they'll sell out, given the limited release and then they'll be on eBay.

This is pretty hilarious. Guess people forgot how to use PCs and can only prompt now.

Someday my kid is going to ask me why we need 79 keys on a keyboard if we only use "accept" and "accept all".

My first question is this — what does this do that a $50 Streamdeck cannot?

Donate 200 bucks to a struggling startup.

It's not clear why this physical object is a better solution to the problem than, say, a window on your screen. Feels like more of a hobby project than something that provides $230 of value.

I know a lot of people who really like things like the Stream Deck. This seems similar to that kind of a concept. I'd probably take the Stream Deck over this though, its a good bit cheaper and each button has a little screen on it. Having some physical knobs is an interesting twist on it though.

https://www.elgato.com/us/en/p/stream-deck

After a few minutes on the site, I have no clue what this is for. A keyboard that interacts with Codex? That’s just a software feature, why am I paying $230 for hotkeys?

Special purpose keyboards can make sense (see e.g. music editing keyboards with sliders and volume knobs), but I'm with you that in this case the website totally fails at making a case for it.

My though process:

1. These abstract product visuals are not helping me understand what this software is

2. Wait, it's all about these renders, it's some kind of a joke

3. I don't understand, this can't be real, I need to check comments

just like the general mechanical keyboard community... over expensive hardware, sometimes not even shipping with friendly layers for rookies (like VIAL framework for configuring QMK) and oh! QUESTIONABLE ERGONOMIC DESIGNS like ortholinear arrangements for plank keyboards with 40% of the keys, the absurd goes on [0]

[0] i sell cheap handwired dactyl keyboards in Brazil

For the first hour of learning about this, I thought it was an elaborate joke.

They asked ChatGPT for the ideal crossover product and now the dog is wagging.

It's an overpriced macropad.

We need to bring back the 'turbo' button.[1]

[1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turbo_button#Purpose

And literal physical keys to lock computers with!

IMHO this is a much better solution.

https://marketplace.elgato.com/product/claude-code-usage-ea7...

I actually have this as a problem with Codex / Claude where I don't know if I have to make a decision .

At least it's much more expensive

Or you could get a bluetooth number pad for $20.

They could've at least made something custom, and claim it was designed with help from GPT 5.6

The price for that HW basically implies it either has sizeable margins or is made with artisan methods.

ooh Micro 2 is a lot cheaper, but doesn't seem to have individually addressable RGB keys unless I'm mistaken?

$56 premium for the OpenAI skin. :)

im reading its not well engineered.

Apple must be happy that they let Jony Ive go. What a letdown.

(assuming this meh partnership rebranding had his participation)

As someone with a few unused Teenage Engineering things. The real answer is probably rich tech people who love having things that make people say "I'm not sure who the target audience is".

I set up an old Stream Deck to do the same thing. I stopped using it after a few days. This design looks great though, status lights are a nice touch. YouTube vibe coders will love it, traditional devs will keep MacGyvering their own toys.

People with too much money to burn and not enough brains to use it on something better

Its completely pointless yet I still want it. IDK, its the status lights that look fun.

i'm guessing the primary market for these will be free gifts to enterprise customers at sales meetings.

The keyboard community maybe? I think these little macro pads are neat, but I don't have a real use for them either.

I see it as another iteration of the wave that had everyone controlling agents directly from a chat app like slack. It isn't actually a more effective way to reach flow state, exchange information faster, and move your development projects forward to greater success, its simply a novel, oddly satisfying input mechanism, at least for the first day.

Which is no different than when the iphone first came out, the basic concept of touch screens was endlessly novel as an input and output device. That novelty did a lot more heavy lifting than what we can now see in hindsight was appropriate, because now many of us won't be able to control the temperature in our cars after the touch screen fails.

I think its the same underlying mechanism that explains why I, a person who has never recorded or mixed audio in a studio, and a person who can know for certain that purchasing a 24 channel mixing console isn't going to faclilitate my career change or even hobby development. But part of me is still viscerally certain that my life would be fuller if I purchased a 24 channel mixing console.

I don't need a legitimate reason to own a tool, or a problem I would fix with it, to fantasize about using that tool.

My first reaction is WTF. My second reaction isn't here yet.

My second reaction is: ah is this what the stolen IP from apple fuss was all about?

My first reaction isn't here yet

A quarter RGB keyboard for the price of half a MacBook Neo? Yeah this will sell like hot cakes...

It isn't meant to sell like hot cakes. Work Louder is the keyboard equivalent of Teenage Engineering. They make expensive toys for silicon valley engineers.

It’s $230 vs. $699? That’s almost exactly a third, not half.

Codex micro - is it a tiny coding agent? Or a small coding model? No it is hardware, that has nothing to do with coding.

I think they should have called it "codex luna" - because it's small!

Thanks, thought I was the only one expecting a tiny, coding focused model from the title. Codex really is the least consistent brand in tech.

Not that long (10 hours) ago this was considered a joke: https://www.reddit.com/r/vibecoding/comments/1uwzr82/got_my_...

I want very hard to agree with you but then I remember elgato has built a very successful business from a 8/12/16/... Macro keyboard for streamers so what do I know.

"It is my pleasure to present you the Codex Box Signature Edition."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6KbRA2RjhgQ

I am surprised they released this. Who is the audience for this? You can DIY this yourself surely.

The people who cannot DIY? There are a surprisingly large number of people who "code" in codex while being completely unable to write a single line of code themselves. Not that I approve, I think this will end in disaster (security or otherwise) and llm shines as a force multiplier not as a replacement, but I've long learned what's correct is not always what's selling.

Windows and Mac only (no Linux).

You could probably easily get Codex (CLI) to vibe code Linux support tbh. It's probably just a regular USB HID device. The main problem is that right now it only works with the GUI Codex App which doesn't have official Linux support.

8th openai product named codex btw

Given that their initial product was called ChatGPT I’m not sure that anyone should expect them to be able to name anything remotely sensibly.

Wait. This is only a keyboard?! For how much?!

If you think that's expensive, don't fall down the mechanical keyboard rabbit hole. There's no upper limit on how much they can be

but jokes aside, I suppose you can look at this being sort of like a numpad in addition to your main keyboard so I see the point of this gimmicky thing

With that lens your career before this device was a few colors and 104 keys?

Programming is basically now playing with some keystrokes and joysticks :p

They've been issuing these new tablets to the new people at work, productivity has gone through the roof. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0D2ZD6J2W

I don't understand the many Teenage Engineering references in this thread, this design has no soul.

Teenage Engineering makes a lot of products that are basically just a grid of buttons and knobs. It's an obvious comparison to make, even if you disagree on the style/soul etc. Like the OP-1 is also a rectangle of buttons, and even the style of the keycap itself can draw some comparisons (it is a rounded square with a circle in it and an abstract symbol on it): https://teenage.engineering/products/op-1

First question; if theres a knob to adjust thinking level, and I can switch between agents, what if I turn down the knob for one agent and switch to another? Do I just insta-lobotomize it?

This is just a Macropad, right? All of the smarts are on the PC side. So why is it so expensive?

Because (A) it has an OpenAI logo on it and (B) they made $13B and lost $21B last year?

I thought this was an aprils fools joke. Then i realized it’s July..

How long before someone shows a hobby project with a robotic arm and computer vision controlling one of these?

I am only half-joking.