February 4, 2026
Specs are the new selfies
The Codex app is cool, and it illustrates the shift left of IDEs and coding GUIs
New AI coding toy drops; devs split between 'specs future' and 'we're coding blindfolded'
TLDR: Codex showcases a trend: developers managing AI helpers and plans instead of reading code. The crowd is split between hype for “specs-first” workflows and fear of black-box chaos, technical debt, and a return to old-school planning—making this a pivotal moment in how software will be built next.
The Codex desktop app arrived with big energy: not a revolution, says its admirer, but a slick way to juggle multiple AI helpers at once while you supervise. The hot take behind it is spicier than the app: stop reading code, start managing the plan. In plain English, it’s a shift from staring at files to steering the blueprint—moving IDEs (coding programs) toward specs (clear requirements) and agent wrangling. The author even boasts, “I don’t read code anymore.” Cue comment-section fireworks.
Critics came in swinging. GalaxyNova worries we’re building a bonfire of future bugs: “so much technical debt we’ll have to throw away software.” Groxx calls it a throwback to waterfall (old-school “plan it all first”) and a dunk on agile: are we just outsourcing the messy part to robots? kace91 dreads a “black box” world—like shooting on auto and refusing to check the photo. Meanwhile, gtm1260 shrugs that the app feels less polished than Cursor, and letstango roasts the self-crown: “So humble. Who is he again?”
Between the memes—“coding blindfolded,” “specs or it didn’t ship”—and real anxiety, one thing is clear: if code becomes “just an output,” the real power moves upstream. Whether that’s genius or hubris is exactly why the community can’t look away. Want context? Start with what an IDE is and why specs matter
Key Points
- •The article evaluates the Codex desktop app as useful but not transformational, framing it within a broader industry trend.
- •The author’s workflow pairs Claude Code in the terminal with the Codex app to parallelize work via Git worktrees.
- •Codex (and similar tools like Conductor) simplifies creating isolated worktrees for changes, fixes, or investigations that can be merged later.
- •A continuum of IDE evolution is outlined: traditional code-centric IDEs, AI-assisted tools, agentic IDEs, multi-agent orchestration, and spec-first systems.
- •The article asserts the industry is moving toward spec-driven development, treating code as an implementation detail of well-defined requirements and architecture.