OpenAI today announced the launch of a new feature called Chronicle as an optional “research preview” feature of its Codex app for macOS, designed to streamline developer workflows by automatically capturing recent screen context. Unlike traditional interactions that require developers to repeatedly explain the background of the current project, Chronicle "builds a memory" based on the user's recent actions on the screen, allowing Codex to automatically obtain and use this information in subsequent conversations.
From a positioning point of view, Chronicle is quite similar to Microsoft’s previously controversial Windows 11 “Recall” function, which regularly intercepts user operations on the computer and allows users to perform search queries afterwards. However, Recall is aimed at a wider range of general PC users, while Chronicle is explicitly aimed at developers and professional users, with the goal of giving Codex a better understanding of the user's daily workflow and problem context through on-screen activity.
According to OpenAI’s description in the official documentation, Chronicle is actually an enhanced extension of the existing Codex “memory” capabilities. With Chronicle, Codex not only recognizes what's currently on the screen, but also fills in the missing context of the user's recent work, and gradually learns the tools and work styles the user commonly uses. For example, when a user encounters an error message on the screen, there is no need to manually copy and paste it. Codex can directly infer the relevant content based on the screen memory recorded by Chronicle, thereby making a response that is more relevant to the current situation.
To enable Chronicle on macOS, users need to first turn on the "Memories" feature in the Codex app settings, then turn on Chronicle under the "Personalization" option, and grant the app access to screen recording and accessibility features of the macOS system. The OpenAI developer team also recently released a preview video through social platform
However, OpenAI also admitted in the description that Chronicle is not completely without costs and risks. Because this feature relies on sandboxed agents running locally to analyze captured screen images and generate memories, it may consume the user account's rate limit quickly. In addition, the content displayed on the screen has the potential risk of being used for prompt injection attacks, and the memory generated by Chronicle is stored on the local device in the form of unencrypted Markdown files. Although screen images captured while Chronicle is running are automatically deleted after 6 hours, OpenAI reminds users that these images may contain sensitive information and the risk should be carefully assessed.
Currently, the Chronicle feature is only available to ChatGPT Pro subscribers using macOS and has not yet been launched in the EU, UK and Switzerland. OpenAI has expanded Codex many times before, including adding a wider range of "memory", plug-in and "computer usage" capabilities, and the introduction of Chronicle this time further strengthens its exploration of local workflow understanding and continuous context support.