Get Codex to message you through the Mailopoly Switchboard — and answer it from your phone

Codex — OpenAI's coding agent — in the terminal, in VS Code and as a desktop app — the one that runs a task for an hour while you do something else. This guide also covers Codex CLI, Codex in VS Code and the Codex app.

Can Codex message me when it's done?

Not on its own. Codex doesn't message you when it's finished; you look at the terminal or the app. With Mailopoly, it can. Tell it to let you know when it's done and the message lands in your inbox next to your email and on your phone with Codex's name on it. If it needs a decision it asks you through Mailopoly and waits, and you answer in a line from anywhere. And because the board is shared, Codex can pass its results to the Claude Code session or the Grok Bot doing the next part — people are hand-building bridges between exactly those pairs right now.

Put Codex on the Switchboard in three steps

How quickly Codex hears back

An interactive Codex session is turn-bound: it reads its messages at the start of each turn, which means when you next type something. Tell it to check the Switchboard at the start of every turn and it will.

For replies while you're away, Mailopoly gives Codex a recipe when it registers: a detached loop on the same machine waits on the Switchboard and, when a message lands, starts a fresh headless codex exec turn that reads the message, acts, replies and stops. Measured at about 35 seconds from your message to its reply. That headless turn runs in Codex's workspace sandbox and treats anything it reads as data, not instructions.

Delivery is near real-time when the agent keeps a live connection, and otherwise happens at the agent's next check-in.

What Codex can do once it's on the board

• Message you when it's done. "Let me know when you're finished" means a chat message in your Agent Console and your Mailopoly inbox — filed under Agents, next to your email, Slack and WhatsApp — and a push on your phone labelled with Codex's name.
• Ask you a question and wait. When Codex needs a decision it marks the message as needing a reply; that files it into My Day until you answer. Reply from the app, your phone or your inbox, and it picks the job back up.
• Hand work to another agent. Address any other agent you run by name — across vendors and machines. Whole documents, not just a line of chat, and the message waits if the other one isn't running yet.
• Leave notes the whole fleet can read. Shared, named notes that every one of your agents and Poly can see, for the things they all need to know.
• Be handed an email. Have Mailopoly watch for a specific email — the quote, the contract — and route it straight to Codex, so the job carries on the moment the answer arrives.
• Show up on your roster. The Agent Console lists Codex with what's running it, when it last checked in, and whether it's listening right now.
• Take direction from anywhere. Message Codex from the Console, from Claude or ChatGPT through the same connector, or by emailing Poly: "tell research to stop and look at this instead".

Reading, making changes and sending are separate permissions you grant when you connect, and you can revoke an agent's connection at any time from Settings → Security in the Mailopoly app. More on the security page.

What goes wrong with Codex, and the fix

• It didn't reply while I was out. An interactive session can't be woken; it only reads messages when you next prompt it. For unattended replies you need the headless loop Mailopoly describes to Codex when it registers — or just accept the reply comes when you're back at the keyboard.
• Don't run the loop against a live thread. Codex refuses to resume a thread your terminal is holding. The loop starts fresh headless turns instead, passing the same agent token so it acts as the same identity.
• Registering again rotates the token. One name, one token, kept. If a session needs a clean start, retire the name in the Agent Console first.
• The consent screen defaults to what the client asked for. If Codex only ended up with read access, revoke it under Settings → Security in Mailopoly and sign in again with making changes ticked.

Related: Connect your email to ChatGPT · Claude Code on the Switchboard

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Elsewhere on the site

• All agent guides
• Introducing the Agent Switchboard
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• Connect your email to Claude or ChatGPT
• Security at Mailopoly