hob vs the Codex app
The Codex app is OpenAI's desktop app for its Codex agent, now a mode of the ChatGPT desktop app. It has worktrees, a review pane, an integrated terminal, a browser preview, scheduled tasks, and skills.
hob runs the same Codex CLI on your ChatGPT account, next to Claude Code, OpenCode, and Grok Build. The workspace, history, and automations stay the same whichever agent you choose.
At a glance
| Topic | hob | the Codex app |
|---|---|---|
| Agents | Codex, Claude Code, OpenCode, and Grok Build. | Codex. |
| Platforms | macOS, Windows, and Linux (x64); headless on your own server. | macOS and Windows. Linux is in preview. |
| Accounts | Your own subscriptions and API keys for each provider. | A ChatGPT plan, or an OpenAI API key billed per token. |
| Agents working together | Agents open panes and previews, start a delegate, message another agent pane, and file issues. A Claude Code agent can review a Codex agent's change. | Subagents within Codex. |
| Record of the work | Commits and issues link to the turn that produced them. The whole workspace saves continuously. Search past conversations from History, and agents search the same history themselves. | Chats grouped by project, with archive and resume. |
| Automation | Automations combine commands and agent steps, with a record of each run. Schedules run while the hob Host is running, including headless on a server. | Scheduled tasks; local tasks need the computer on and the app running. |
| Price | Pro $50/mo, Pro+ $75/mo with remote access and headless, billed annually. First month free. | Included in ChatGPT plans; Free and Go are limited to one model in the desktop app. |
Why pay for hob?
Most tools in this category are free, or come with a model subscription. Here is what a hob subscription buys.
Always use the best. No tooling changes.
Agent tools change every month. A new model takes the lead, a harness ships a feature, a new practice spreads. hob brings the best of the whole agent stack into one app, so each improvement reaches you where you already work.
hob builds the workspace once, for all your agents. Agents fork, queue, and schedule the same way in Claude Code, Codex, and OpenCode. Your agents open live previews, point you at the element they changed, take your markup on an image, PDF, or web page, and ask each other for reviews. Every commit made through hob links to the conversation behind it, recorded on your machine, not in your repository. One setting gives every agent the same personality.
Every harness wants to keep you inside its own ecosystem. hob keeps each one optional. Use whichever agent is best this month, and keep your workspace, history, and automations exactly as they are.
You never leave hob
Code, web pages, PDFs, images, documents, and spreadsheets (beta) open in hob beside the work. Mark up any of them for an agent. Agents annotate them for you just as easily.
Agents that know hob
Every agent starts with hob's instructions. From its first turn, it opens panes, previews, and diffs, points you at a detail, and coordinates with other agents.
The subscriptions you already pay for
hob runs Claude Code, Codex, OpenCode, and Grok Build on your own accounts. You pay hob for the workspace, never for tokens.
No reason to sell you tokens
hob does not resell inference, so it earns nothing when you spend more. Every change we ship aims to make your work faster and easier.
Change models, keep the workspace
Switch model or account from the pane. For another provider, or a local model through OpenCode, open a new agent beside it; it can read the recorded task. Your workspace, history, and automations stay the same.
Your data stays yours
Conversations and history live in a local database on your machine. hob's servers never hold your code or your sessions.
Support from the people who build it
You work with the hob team directly. You are a name to us, not an issue number, and your feedback reaches the people who decide what ships next.
Fitted to your team
For teams, we help adapt hob to how you work, from onboarding to the workflows and automations your projects need.
Orchestration or collaboration
Most tools in this category orchestrate agents. They start sessions, isolate them, and show you their state. hob does that too. Its larger aim is collaboration: people and agents operate the same workspace.
In hob, an agent opens the preview, diff, or file beside its conversation. It reads and operates a live web page while you watch, annotates an image or PDF at the detail you need to judge, and asks you a question in place. It starts a second agent for a bounded task, such as a review, messages another agent pane, and files the issue it found. When it commits through hob, the commit links to the turn that produced it, so the reasoning is one click away months later.
It works in the other direction too. Mark up an image, PDF, web page, or spreadsheet to show an agent exactly what you mean, and send the markup with your request.
You choose how involved you are. Stay hands-on and review every step. Or go hands-off: give a task to a team of agents, let them divide and review the work, and run the repeatable parts as a scheduled automation. hob keeps the record either way.
A workspace that is not part of a chat app
Since July 2026, Codex lives inside the ChatGPT desktop app, next to Chat and Work. hob is a workspace for engineering with agents: issues, terminals, worktrees, previews, diffs, commits, and automations, with conversations as one part of that record.
hob does not sell inference, so it treats every agent the same. Use Codex where it is strongest and Claude Code where it is strongest, in one workspace.
Linux and servers
The Codex app for Linux is in preview. hob runs on Linux x64. It also runs headless on a VM, so your agents keep working after you close your laptop, and you continue from a browser or your phone.
Choose hob if
- You use Claude Code, OpenCode, or Grok Build as well as Codex.
- You want agents from different providers to review each other's work.
- You want a stable Linux build today, or a headless server you control.
- You want commits and issues linked to the conversations that produced them.
Questions
- Can I use my ChatGPT subscription for Codex in hob?
- Yes. hob runs the Codex CLI with your own ChatGPT account or API key. Your usage goes directly to OpenAI.
- Does hob read my Codex configuration?
- Yes. hob runs the official Codex CLI, so your Codex configuration applies. hob adds its own workspace guidance at launch and does not edit your repository files.
- Can Codex and Claude Code work on the same task in hob?
- Yes. For example, a Claude Code agent can implement a change and ask a Codex agent to review it. Give each agent a clear role, and use a worktree workspace when both need to change files at the same time.
Try hob with the agents you already use. Your first month is free.