OpenAI officially released Chronicle for its Codex desktop application on macOS today, April 20, 2026. The new feature, launched as an opt-in research preview, enables the artificial intelligence assistant to build a continuous understanding of a user’s workflow by periodically capturing and analyzing screen content. This release marks a significant step in OpenAI’s effort to transform Codex—which now utilizes the GPT-5.4 model architecture—from a specialized coding tool into a general-purpose ambient AI workspace capable of maintaining context across disparate applications.
Chronicle functions by running background agents that take intermittent screenshots of the user's display. These captures are sent to OpenAI’s servers for processing via optical character recognition and visual analysis to generate text-based summaries. These summaries, referred to as memories, are then transmitted back to the user’s machine and stored locally as unencrypted Markdown files in a dedicated directory. When a user initiates a query, Codex retrieves these local files to populate its context window, allowing the AI to understand references to specific errors, open documents, or recent activities without requiring the user to provide manual explanations or copy-pasted data.
OpenAI President Greg Brockman described the feature as magical, noting that it gives Codex the ability to see and maintain a recent memory of the user's visual environment. The company emphasized that Chronicle is designed to reduce the friction of onboarding the AI to a new task. For example, if a developer is viewing a failed GitHub Actions run in a browser, Codex can automatically detect the error and suggest fixes within the code editor based on that visual context. This builds upon the computer use capabilities introduced on April 16, which allow Codex to operate Mac applications with its own cursor.
Privacy and security remain central to the implementation of Chronicle. OpenAI stated that while screenshots are processed on its servers, they are not stored permanently and are not used to train foundational models. On the local device, raw screen captures are automatically deleted after six hours. Users can manage the feature through the Codex menu bar icon, which provides options to pause or resume capture during sensitive tasks or meetings. However, the company cautioned that the feature increases the risk of prompt injection attacks, as malicious instructions hidden on a website could potentially be read and executed by the AI agent.
The feature is currently restricted to ChatGPT Pro subscribers, a tier priced at 100 dollars per month, and requires an Apple Silicon Mac running macOS 14 or later. Notably, Chronicle is not available to users in the European Union, the United Kingdom, or Switzerland. Industry observers note that these geographic restrictions likely reflect the feature's current incompatibility with the data minimization requirements of the General Data Protection Regulation. OpenAI has not yet provided a timeline for a Windows release or broader international availability.