How can I get Codex to manage Claude? Do I need an API integration?

Having one agent supervise another sounds like something for programmers, with API integration. In practice, you can set it up with both apps open side by side, as long as you manage the context and security.

With both apps open, you can ask Codex to keep an eye on Claude: check what it produced, navigate, answer a question, open another session, or unblock something that stalled overnight.

What makes this work is the context you provide: the goal and the decisions you would make in Claude's place.

Note: to interact with the screen, Codex needs permission to control the computer (mouse, keyboard, and windows). Grant that permission only on a machine and account with no sensitive data open, and supervise the first few sessions.

You can also coordinate the two through the command line, but the desktop apps get the job done without adding another system to maintain.

How it works without an API

An API (a direct connection between programs through code) isn’t needed here. Codex uses computer control: it sees the screen, moves the mouse, types, and switches windows, as a person would.

That lets it read Claude’s response, type the next instruction, approve a step, or open a new session when the previous one gets stuck.

Context is what makes the difference

Codex can make good decisions only if it knows what you want. Before leaving it on its own, write down the goal, what counts as done, and how it should handle the most likely questions.

Example: if Claude asks you to choose between two options, pick the simpler one; if it asks to delete files, stop and let me know. The clearer these rules are, the less the supervisor has to improvise.

Security comes first

Computer control is a powerful permission. The agent can click anything that’s open: email, banking, company folders. So use a separate computer or user account, with no sensitive data open and no passwords saved in the browser.

For the first few runs, watch the screen and stop it at the first sign of unusual behavior.

When to switch to the terminal

If coordinating the agents becomes part of your daily routine, the CLI (command-line interface, where programs receive instructions as text) may be worth using. It’s more predictable than clicking around the screen, but you’ll need to build and maintain scripts. To get started, the desktop apps are enough.

1. Prepare a separate user account or computer, with no sensitive data open.
2. Write the goal, completion criteria, and decision rules in a file.
3. Open both apps and give the file to each of them.
4. Give Codex computer control permission only in that account.
5. Monitor the first runs and adjust the rules wherever it hesitated.
6. Ask Codex to record what it did so you can review it later.

• Giving it computer control on your main computer: one wrong click can affect real data.
• Just saying “take care of Claude”: without criteria, the supervisor is guessing.
• Leaving it unsupervised the first time: problems are most likely to show up at the beginning.

• No API: one agent looks at the other's screen.
• Explain the goal and your decision criteria.
• Computer control is a powerful permission: use it carefully.

• Projectuse-both-claude-codexSix workflows for using Claude and Codex together: one plans, the other reviews.
• CourseComputer Use com o GPT-6 AstraHow AI operates programs through the screen when there’s no API.
• Projectagente-claude-codexMake your setup model-independent: CLAUDE.md becomes AGENTS.md.

Some of these materials are in Portuguese.