GoKawiilI was already using coding agents a lot before Codex. Mostly, though, I used them through interfaces built for coding work: making diffs, changing repos, and shipping code.
Around November, I started pushing them into knowledge work too. I made presentations in Slidev, used agents more like note-takers with voice input, and kept looking for other artifacts a coding agent could help me produce: an index.html , a PDF, a spreadsheet, a slide deck.
The latest Codex app upgrades are the first thing I've used that make that broader mode feel native. Codex is still excellent for coding, but the more interesting shift is that it gives my work somewhere to live.
What changed my behavior was learning to give work an operating loop: a durable thread, shared memory, tools that can act on my computer, ways to steer and resume the task, and a surface where I can review the artifact itself.
Durable threads¶
The first thing that changed my behavior was compaction.
Compaction Compaction Compressing a long-running thread so it can keep going without carrying every old message in full.
I now keep a pinned thread for every important workstream I care about:
These are not short chats. They are megathreads that I have been compacting for months. They accumulate history, preferences, and old decisions that I do not want to recreate every time I come back.
Pinned thread shortcuts You can jump directly to pinned threads with Command-1 through Command-9 .
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