Codex/Getting Started

Getting Started

Install

macOS

Download Codex-0.2.0.dmg from the releases page. Open it, drag Codex to Applications. The app is notarized — Gatekeeper will pass it clean.

iOS

Currently distributed via Ad-hoc or TestFlight. Contact the team for access.

First launch

When you open Codex for the first time, you'll see the Welcome screen with five options:

  1. Open existing vault — point Codex at a folder of markdown files (great for Obsidian users)
  2. Create local vault — start fresh
  3. Clone remote vault — clone a Git repo as your vault (recommended: clone this demo vault)
  4. Import markdown folder — copy files from another location
  5. Seed demo publication — scaffold an Astro site for publishing

Clone this demo vault

The fastest way to get started:

  1. Click Clone remote vault
  2. Enter: git@github.com:styrene-lab/codex-demo-vault.git
  3. Branch: main
  4. Codex clones the repo, indexes everything, and opens the vault

You'll see this documentation, ready to explore and edit.

Vault structure

A Codex vault is just a folder:

my-vault/
  .codex/
    config.toml        # vault settings
    templates/         # note templates
  .codex-local/        # SQLite index (auto-generated, gitignored)
  notes.md
  guides/
    some-guide.md
  daily/
    2026-04-20.md

The .codex/ directory holds configuration. Everything else is your content.

Frontmatter

Codex uses TOML frontmatter (enclosed in +++):

+++
title = "My Note"
tags = ["project", "idea"]
+++

Your content here.

YAML frontmatter (---) is also read, but Codex writes TOML.

What's next