Chill, Codex.

Make Codex stop making your Mac sound like it is preparing for takeoff.

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Why this exists

I like Codex, but I also noticed something odd: during long-running sessions, my Mac would sometimes start sounding like it was preparing for takeoff.

At first I blamed everything else: memory pressure, WindowServer, display scaling, other Electron apps, background tools. After a few days of poking around, one workaround turned out to make a real difference for my setup: launching Codex with Chromium's reduced-motion flag.

So this project is intentionally tiny. It does not patch Codex, replace Codex, or pretend to be a performance fix. It just creates a small launcher that starts Codex in a calmer mode.

Chill Codex is a tiny macOS installer script that creates a Chill Codex.app launcher. It starts the official Codex app with a reduced-motion Chromium flag, so long-running Codex sessions can cause less UI motion, less rendering pressure, and a calmer Mac.

It does not modify the official Codex app, replace binaries, disable updates, or change system settings. It only creates a wrapper app that launches Codex with:

open -na /Applications/Codex.app --args --force-prefers-reduced-motion

What It Does

What it does	What it does not do
Creates a small launcher app	Does not patch Codex
Passes one Chromium flag	Does not replace binaries
Installs to ~/Applications by default	Does not require sudo
Copies the Codex app icon when available	Does not disable Codex updates

Quick Install

sh -c "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/cpiz/chill-codex/main/install.sh)"

After installation:

1. Quit Codex if it is already running.
2. Open ~/Applications/Chill Codex.app.
3. Keep Chill Codex.app in the Dock if you want it to be your default launcher.

Verify It Worked

After launching Codex through Chill Codex.app, run:

ps axww -o command | grep 'Codex.app/Contents/MacOS/Codex'

You should see the Codex main process with:

/Applications/Codex.app/Contents/MacOS/Codex --force-prefers-reduced-motion

Safer Install

If you do not like running a remote script directly, download it, inspect it, then run it:

curl -fsSLO https://raw.githubusercontent.com/cpiz/chill-codex/main/install.sh
less install.sh
sh install.sh

Uninstall

The simplest option is to delete:

~/Applications/Chill Codex.app

You can also run the uninstall script:

sh -c "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/cpiz/chill-codex/main/uninstall.sh)"

The uninstall script only removes an app bundle that contains the chill-codex.generated marker, so it refuses to delete an unrelated app with the same name.

Custom Paths

By default, the installer looks for:

/Applications/Codex.app

and installs the launcher to:

~/Applications/Chill Codex.app

You can override these values with options:

sh install.sh \
  --codex-app "/Applications/Codex.app" \
  --install-dir "$HOME/Applications" \
  --app-name "Chill Codex"

or with environment variables:

CODEX_APP_PATH="/Applications/Codex.app" \
CHILL_CODEX_INSTALL_DIR="$HOME/Applications" \
CHILL_CODEX_APP_NAME="Chill Codex" \
sh install.sh

How It Works

Codex model inference runs remotely, but the desktop app still runs local Electron/Chromium UI, local services, tool calls, and window rendering. During long-running sessions, frequent animation, refreshing, and compositing can add pressure to macOS GPU and WindowServer.

Chromium/Electron supports the --force-prefers-reduced-motion flag. The launcher generated by Chill Codex starts Codex with this flag, pushing the UI toward reduced-motion behavior.

This project does not guarantee that your fans will never spin. It targets one specific workaround: reducing extra local load caused by Codex UI motion and rendering during long tasks.

Known Limitation

Chill Codex only controls the launch command it starts. If Codex updates itself and relaunches from inside the official app, the relaunched process may not keep --force-prefers-reduced-motion.

If this happens, quit Codex completely and open ~/Applications/Chill Codex.app again. You can verify the flag with the command in Verify It Worked.

Development

Social preview assets live in assets/. Use assets/social-preview.png as the GitHub repository social preview image.

Run the test:

sh test/install-test.sh

Check script syntax:

sh -n install.sh
sh -n uninstall.sh
sh -n test/install-test.sh

Compatibility

• System: macOS
• Default Codex path: /Applications/Codex.app
• Default install location: ~/Applications/Chill Codex.app

Disclaimer

Chill Codex is not an official OpenAI project. It does not modify, patch, crack, or redistribute the Codex app. If a future Codex release changes Chromium/Electron startup flag behavior, this workaround may need to be adjusted.

License

MIT