OpenAI develops persistent AI agent feature for Codex that never stops working

OpenAI is building a version of Codex that doesn’t clock out. Code reviewed by Wired reveals the company is developing a persistent agent feature that enables its AI coding tool to continue working proactively until it is “put to sleep,” a quiet but meaningful leap from chatbot-style coding help to something closer to an always-on software engineer. Instead of responding to prompts and waiting for the next one, Codex would autonomously schedule future work, wake itself up, and continue grinding on long-term projects spanning days or weeks without human intervention. From assistant to autonomous agent One of the key mechanisms making this possible is what OpenAI calls “thread automations.” Think of them as alarm clocks for an AI agent. They preserve context for ongoing tasks while enabling background checks or follow-ups, so the agent doesn’t lose its train of thought between sessions. There’s also a “/goal” mode that lets users define specific milestones. Once a goal is set, Codex works persistently toward achieving it across extended timelines without losing progress. Internal tests reportedly showed agents could run for approximately 25 hours on complex tasks, generating extensiv...