Connect OpenAI Codex to your Vibesies container

Codex Desktop app — direct SSH to your container

OpenAI added SSH remote connections to the Codex desktop app as an alpha feature in 2026. You enable it in your local config, add your Vibesies container to ~/.ssh/config, and the app spawns a Codex server inside your container over SSH. Same UI as a local session, but everything runs on your container.

1. Download Codex Desktop

• macOS (Apple Silicon or Intel) & Windows: developers.openai.com/codex/app
• Linux: no desktop app yet — use Option 2 (VS Code) or Option 3 (terminal).

2. Sign in

Open the app and sign in with your ChatGPT Plus / Pro / Business / Edu / Enterprise account. Programmatic Codex usage is included.

3. Run the one-shot setup command on your laptop

This single paste does everything: enables Codex Desktop's alpha SSH feature and adds your Vibesies container to ~/.ssh/config. Safe to run more than once.

Mac / Linux Terminal:

mkdir -p ~/.codex ~/.ssh && touch ~/.codex/config.toml ~/.ssh/config && \
{ grep -q "^remote_connections" ~/.codex/config.toml || printf '\n[features]\nremote_connections = true\n' >> ~/.codex/config.toml; } && \
{ grep -q "^Host vibesies$" ~/.ssh/config || printf '\nHost vibesies\n    HostName your-name.vibesies.com\n    User vibe\n    Port 22XX\n    IdentityFile ~/.ssh/id_ed25519\n    ServerAliveInterval 60\n' >> ~/.ssh/config; } && \
echo "✓ Vibesies setup complete. Restart Codex Desktop, then Settings → Connections."

Windows PowerShell:

New-Item -ItemType Directory -Force "$HOME\.codex","$HOME\.ssh" | Out-Null
$cfg = "$HOME\.codex\config.toml"; if (!(Test-Path $cfg)) { New-Item -ItemType File $cfg | Out-Null }
if (!(Select-String -Path $cfg -Pattern "^remote_connections" -Quiet)) { Add-Content $cfg "`n[features]`nremote_connections = true" }
$ssh = "$HOME\.ssh\config"; if (!(Test-Path $ssh)) { New-Item -ItemType File $ssh | Out-Null }
if (!(Select-String -Path $ssh -Pattern "^Host vibesies$" -Quiet)) {
  Add-Content $ssh "`nHost vibesies`n    HostName your-name.vibesies.com`n    User vibe`n    Port 22XX`n    IdentityFile ~/.ssh/id_ed25519`n    ServerAliveInterval 60"
}
Write-Host "✓ Vibesies setup complete. Restart Codex Desktop, then Settings → Connections."

The Codex alpha flag lives on your laptop's config (not our server) — that's what tells your Codex Desktop app to expose the SSH menu. The SSH entry lives in your standard ~/.ssh/config.

4. Restart Codex Desktop and connect

1. Fully quit and reopen Codex Desktop.
2. Open Settings → Connections.
3. You should now see vibesies in the list. Enable it, then pick /workspace as the project folder.

5. Vibe

Type what you want. Codex edits files in /workspace on your container. Your site at your-domain.vibesies.com reflects changes immediately.

Plain SSH + the codex CLI

Pure terminal. No editor, no extension, no desktop app.

ssh -p 22XX vibe@your-name.vibesies.com

codex login --device-auth
# (the --device-auth flag is required — plain `codex login` won't work)

codex
# the agent starts in the current directory

The MOTD on first SSH login walks through this. cat /workspace/HELLO.md for the full orientation.

Common problems

[features]
remote_connections = true