OpenAI Launches a Glowing Keypad for Vibe Coders

This Wednesday, OpenAI unveiled a compact keypad called Codex Micro to help developers manage AI coding agents from their desks. This keypad doesn’t replace your keyboard; instead, it sits alongside your current peripherals, offering quick Codex agent controls and displaying different statuses via RGB lights.

The Codex Micro has just 13 swappable mechanical keys, a reasoning dial that lets you adjust how deeply the agent dives into a task, and a small joystick that swaps between different agent workflows. It’s basically a screen menu option in physical format. You can assign keys for tasks such as accepting or rejecting code changes, switching workflows, or starting voice input with Codex. Different color lights also convey different messages: A green unit means you have an unread message, blue means Codex is “thinking,” and so on.

Designed by the keyboard company Work Louder, OpenAI‘s first piece of consumer hardware is supposedly limited-edition—limited indeed, because the $230 unit has already sold out. If you manage to get your hands on one, though, know that it works with both Windows and macOS and connects to OpenAI’s Codex and ChatGPT‑style environments.

Disclosure: Ziff Davis, ExtremeTech’s parent company, filed a lawsuit against OpenAI in April 2025, alleging it infringed Ziff Davis’s copyrights in training and operating its AI systems.