Every’s interviews with Codex builders describe its move to local terminals and editors after the initial cloud agent failed to find product-market fit. External users had to recreate authentication and dependencies in the cloud and could not easily redirect work in progress, while OpenAI’s standardized internal environment concealed that friction. The subsequent joint evolution of models and product design illustrates the value of fitting tools to the environments where people already work. A separately reviewed OpenAI report said Codex exceeded five million weekly active users following the desktop launch; that figure covers Codex overall and should not be interpreted as desktop-only usage.