Meet Codex: start with one small task
Learn how Codex fits into your work, then choose a task whose result you can check.
Choose your first practice task and write one acceptance criterion.
On this page
01What will you make?
This guide follows one concrete exercise: a personal introduction webpage. You provide the content and judge the result. Codex turns your request into files and revises them in response to feedback. The desktop app supports work organized around projects and local files, with outputs you can inspect in your workspace.
Start with one page, a few paragraphs, and clear checks. Complex features can wait.
02Three useful terms
- Project
- Work organized around a shared goal, such as a personal website.
- Working directory
- The folder used by the current task. This is where you should look for generated files.
- Task
- A piece of work with a clear goal, such as creating a homepage or fixing a mobile heading. These are teaching terms; interface labels may vary by version.
03Your first exercise
A personal introduction page needs only a nickname, a short bio, interests, and a sample project. You can inspect the result in a browser without connecting external accounts.
Write: “I want a personal introduction page with a bio, interests, and a project. At a phone-sized width, it must have no horizontal scrolling.”
Next, prepare the app and account. If Codex already works for you, skip to lesson three to choose a workspace.
Before you move on
Checklist progress stays in this browser. It is not uploaded or synchronized across devices.
References
Product descriptions refer to the official pages below. Exercises, prompts, and checklists were written for this handbook. Source verification date: 2026-10-02.