❯ OpenAI confirms it is testing a persistent Codex mode, with no near-term launch plans

confirmed on the recordAn OpenAI spokesperson confirmed the company is testing a persistent mode for its coding agent Codex, letting the agent work proactively across sessions and generate its own follow-up tasks until a user puts it to sleep. The spokesperson said the feature remains in testing, with no near-term plans to launch and no broad availability.

how it differsExisting modes stop after minutes or hours even when a task is unfinished. Wired found the code in Codex’s command-line repository in August, where it states that once the mode is selected the agent will “continue working until put to sleep,” drawing on prior interactions to decide what comes next. It is not enabled in any shipped build. That CLI has historically been the testbed, and most features there eventually reached the desktop and web clients.

who should plan aheadEnterprise security teams need rules in place first: an agent that runs continuously and assigns itself work needs permission boundaries and audit logs designed for a resident service, not a one-off session. An agent that never clocks off also invalidates per-session cost models, so budgeting has to be rebuilt.

▪ SIGNALGoing from “run a task” to “always on” changes both the billing unit and the permission model for agents.