Codex Record & Replay: Turn a Demonstrated Mac Workflow Into a Reusable Skill, Now in the EU, UK, and Switzerland

OpenAI added Record & Replay to the Codex app in version 26.616 on June 18, 2026. It is a macOS feature that turns a workflow you demonstrate into a reusable skill: you perform a task once while Codex records, Codex drafts a skill from what it saw, and you ask for that skill in a later chat instead of describing the steps again. It builds on Computer Use, which must be installed and enabled first.

Two things changed after this page first published. On July 31, 2026, OpenAI extended Record & Replay to the European Union, the United Kingdom, and Switzerland, ending the launch-day exclusion. And OpenAI now documents the recording and replay steps on a dedicated page, so the mechanism is no longer a guess. Both are covered below.

Key Takeaways

• What it is: a macOS feature, shipped in Codex app 26.616 on June 18, 2026, that turns a demonstrated workflow into a reusable skill (changelog).
• Regional availability, as of September 2026: available in the EU, the UK, and Switzerland since July 31, 2026. The launch-day exclusion of the European Economic Area, the UK, and Switzerland has ended.
• Requirement: Computer Use must be available and enabled. You or your administrator turn it on under Plugins > Computer Use.
• Admin switch: in a managed setup, computer_use = false under [features] in requirements.toml disables Computer Use and Record & Replay together.
• How you record: Plugins, the + menu, Record a skill, approve the permission prompt, perform the task, stop from the menu bar or overlay.
• What you get: a skill that states when to use the workflow, what inputs it needs, the steps, and how to verify the result. You can edit and refine it.
• Where it runs: in the ChatGPT desktop app, with Codex selected or with ChatGPT set to Work. Codex joined the ChatGPT desktop app on July 9, 2026 (version 26.707).

Availability Timeline

What Record & Replay Does

Record & Replay lets you demonstrate a workflow on your Mac and turn it into a skill you can run again. OpenAI's documentation says to use it "when the workflow is repetitive, depends on your preferences, or is easier to show than to describe in a prompt," and gives filing an expense, booking a parking space, creating a correctly configured issue, publishing a video, and downloading a recurring report as examples (Record & Replay docs).

The resulting skill is not tied to Computer Use alone. The documentation says the packaged skill can be used "with Computer Use, browser actions, connected plugins, or a combination of them." OpenAI's launch post on X described the output as "an inspectable, editable skill" and said "You control when recording starts and stops" (OpenAIDevs on X).

How to Record a Skill

OpenAI's documentation lists seven steps (Record & Replay docs):

1. In the ChatGPT desktop app, select Codex, or select ChatGPT and turn on Work in the switcher. Open Plugins.
2. Open the + menu.
3. Select Record a skill.
4. Review the suggested prompt, add any context that helps, and submit it.
5. When the chat asks for permission to record your actions, approve it once you are ready to demonstrate.
6. Perform the workflow on your Mac.
7. Stop recording from the menu bar or the overlay, or tell the chat you are done.

While recording, Codex "observes the actions and window content needed to learn the workflow," and recording continues until you stop it. After you stop, Codex inspects the capture and drafts a skill that "explains when to use the workflow, what inputs it needs, what steps to follow, and how to verify the result." You can ask for refinements before you use it.

Pick a workflow you already know how to complete. The documentation's tips: keep the demonstration short and complete, state the goal and the inputs that will vary before you start, use realistic inputs but no secrets, refine the skill afterwards to call out hidden preferences such as naming conventions or field defaults, and stop recording when the task is done rather than continuing into cleanup.

How Replay Works

Start a new Codex or ChatGPT chat and ask it to use the generated skill, giving it the values that differ this time, such as the file to upload, the issue to create, or the date range for the report. The documentation says the product "uses the skill as reusable context for the task" and completes it "with the tools available in the current environment, including Computer Use, browser actions, and installed plugins."

What You Need

• macOS. The documentation lists Record & Replay as available on macOS. Computer Use itself has run on Windows since May 29, 2026, but the Record & Replay page does not list Windows.
• Computer Use, installed and enabled. Open Plugins > Computer Use, select Install plugin if prompted, select Enable if it appears, and turn on the Computer Use server and skill toggles (Computer Use docs). On macOS, grant Screen Recording and Accessibility permissions when asked.
• An administrator who has not switched it off. If your organization manages Codex with requirements.toml, the documentation says "the [features].computer_use requirement controls Record & Replay too. Setting computer_use = false makes both features unavailable." That is the first thing to check if you do not see Record & Replay.

Record & Replay vs Building a Plugin

Record & Replay produces one skill from one demonstration. OpenAI's documentation says that if you want to distribute a stable package across a team, bundle several skills, include connectors, add MCP servers, or manage install metadata, you should package the workflow as its own plugin instead (Build plugins).

Why This Matters

Codex's desktop automation has been building toward this. Computer Use gave Codex the ability to drive Mac apps, locked computer use let those tasks keep running after the screen locks, and Record & Replay adds the authoring step: instead of writing instructions for every GUI task, you demonstrate it once and keep it as a skill.

The most valuable Computer Use work is the "stuff your CLI can't do" category: reproducing GUI-only issues, running multi-step flows across desktop apps, operator-style tasks that span several windows. Those are the tasks that are tedious to describe and easy to show.

Corrections and Updates

• 2026-09-23: This page said the launch-day exclusion of the European Economic Area, the UK, and Switzerland "matches the regional restriction OpenAI already applies to Codex Computer Use on macOS." That was wrong when published: OpenAI's June 16, 2026 changelog entry, two days before Record & Replay shipped, says Computer Use "is available on macOS and Windows in these regions." The page also said Record & Replay was unavailable in those regions; OpenAI extended it to the EU, the UK, and Switzerland on July 31, 2026, and the page now says so.

Sources

• ChatGPT & Codex changelog, entries dated 2026-05-29, 2026-06-16, 2026-06-18, 2026-07-09, and 2026-07-31 (read 2026-09-23)
• Record & Replay documentation (read 2026-09-23)
• Computer Use documentation (read 2026-09-23)
• OpenAIDevs on X, June 18, 2026 (read 2026-09-23)