OpenAI compressed what would normally be a quarter of product news into a single day. On July 9, the standalone Codex desktop app — which passed a million downloads in its first week back in February — was merged into the ChatGPT desktop app on macOS and Windows. The same day, the GPT-5.6 family went generally available, and Codex CLI v0.144.0 shipped alongside it.
What changed in the desktop merge
Per the official changelog, the merged app carries over your projects and settings and adds four things the standalone app didn’t have:
- Inline Markdown and code editing with annotations, directly in the conversation
- GitHub pull-request review in a sidebar, so
@codex reviewoutput lands where you’re already working - Multi-repository projects — one Codex session spanning several checkouts
- Faster computer use, powered by GPT-5.6
If you were running the standalone Codex app, the update path is the ChatGPT desktop app; your local configuration survives the move.
GPT-5.6: three models, three prices
GPT-5.6 arrives as a family: Sol (flagship), Terra (balanced), and Luna (fast and cheap). The models reference now lists gpt-5.6-sol as the Codex default, with gpt-5.2 and gpt-5.3-codex marked deprecated when signed in with a ChatGPT account (gpt-5.3-codex remains available through the API).
API pricing per million tokens, as published at GA:
| Model | Input | Output |
|---|---|---|
| GPT-5.6 Sol | $5.00 | $30.00 |
| GPT-5.6 Terra | $2.50 | $15.00 |
| GPT-5.6 Luna | $1.00 | $6.00 |
GA followed a limited preview that OpenAI ran with roughly twenty vetted organizations in coordination with the US government — an unusual rollout shape that multiple outlets covered in late June.
The CLI kept shipping too
Codex CLI v0.144.0 landed the same day with usage-limit reset credit details, a new “writes” app-approval mode, MCP interactive authentication without the experimental opt-in, and runtime app-server authentication. The day before, v0.143.0 turned remote plugins on by default.
Why it matters
The desktop merge is the clearest signal yet of a pattern we’re watching closely: Codex surfaces keep folding into ChatGPT branding. The developer docs already redirect from developers.openai.com to learn.chatgpt.com. None of this changes what the tool does today — but if you link to Codex resources, keep an eye on where those URLs resolve. We’ll keep this story updated as the merged app rolls out.