Reference · From the Writing post below
ChatGPT Work → Codex: The Full Prompt Walkthrough
Every prompt from the 35-minute demo, in order — the video, and the exact text behind each step.
← Read the full reflection35 min · screen recording, 2026-07-31
Scenes
14 scenes, in order
Every Prompt, Scene by Scene
0 · Plan premium merch store (opening prompt)
I wanna create a merch store, I wanna create my own brand and some t-shirts. I wanna have a premium brand, so probably selling around like 70 pounds or euros for a t-shirt. I'd like to open a store in London. What are the questions that I should ask myself to find a manufacturer that can create the t-shirt, where to open the store, and what kind of t-shirts I should actually create?
1 · Research premium T-shirt competitors
Can you use the Google Chrome plugin and extension to actually look at the competition for the project that I would want to work on? So the project is getting some premium t-shirts, selling them in London. I manufacture them myself. So can you give me an idea of like different price point, different brands, different designs that are actually selling both online and in London? The first selling point should actually be online.
Make sure to create a PPTX for this task Transcript: This is an amazing overview. Can you give me some more premium brands? And can you compare them and put screenshots of all the products that they're selling, the price point that they have, and what they have on their website? And then summarize all of that into a presentation so I can easily skim through that content and share it with my colleagues.
Screens 19–23 are the PPTX results (17 slides) from this same request — no further typed prompts, just the deck being generated and reviewed slide by slide.
2 · Create VB logo
So I'd love to create the logo for the brand that I'm working on. It's a logo that's going to be on t-shirts, it should be a premium brand, should be almost like hipstery and very minimal, with like a nice font where the focus should be actually just what's written. The two letters that I want on the logo should be VB. And I want that logo to have three lines. So at the top I want VB, middle I want VB, and at the bottom I want VB. The top and the bottom can be cropped in half for the height, but the middle one should be full. And they must be like super packed, we shouldn't have any interline between the three different lines, basically, and they should almost be on each others. Use the colors attached for the VB logo which should be VB in white and background in blue. Use image generation capabilities for this
Reference brand colors were attached as an image — the text prompt alone won't reproduce this without also supplying that reference.
3 · Design 10 t-shirt ideas
Can you come up with 10 different ideas of t-shirts for the brand that's attached and the logo that's attached? We want like hipster kind of style, selling t-shirts for 70 euros, and it should feel very premium. Give me just the ideas so far of the 10 t-shirts we should create.
Can you just go ahead and create visuals for all of those. [T-Shirt Product Images]
"[T-Shirt Product Images]" is a linked skill selected from a suggestion chip, not typed text. Screen 12 shows the skill starting ("Working for 22s") — no further typed prompt in this thread.
4 · [shirts] Commerce concept variations
Can you create the 4 main variations for commerce set to [T-Shirt Product Images] for 1-2 ?
This is a different task thread from Scene 3 despite the similar subject — the tab title changes to "[shirts] Brainstorm shirt ideas." Screen 13 shows this thread's own completed 10-shirt capsule (Commerce concepts) that preceded this prompt; the original request that generated screen 13's capsule wasn't visible on screen. Screen 15 (on-model photography) is the result, no new prompt.
5 · Find London shop locations
Can you use the in-app browser, open Google Maps, and give me the best place in London to open a small shop, maybe for a limited time frame in London? It should be a bit hipster, a bit premium, and we want you to have a look and explain like what different neighborhood we could open this shop in, and maybe some specific street.
6 · Schedule dinner via Calendar
Can you find some slots available in my Google Calendar for a dinner tomorrow with vb@openai.com, can you please send him invite for 2 hours to go through my project
7 · Slack spec from colleague
Yo @vb Here's the pitch: An online store selling AI-designed graphic T-shirts. Customers can browse collections, customize their order, purchase securely online, and receive order confirmations. The site should have a modern, hipster, premium look and be easy to extend with new designs and products. What we need: - Landing page with hero banner - Product catalogue - Product page with size & colour selection - Shopping cart - Stripe checkout - Order confirmation page - Want a link to access / test it See some examples product attached (edited)
This is a human-to-human Slack message, not a prompt to an AI. It's included because it becomes the de facto spec Codex is given in Scene 8 — four reference product images were attached alongside it.
8 · Build website from spec
Hey Codex, here's a spec that I was provided with. Can you go and create a website based on the spec provided by my colleague Bob?
Sent with the Slack thread (Scene 7) attached as a screenshot/link — the prompt text alone doesn't carry the spec.
9 · Implement website (Codex)
Based on the spec in the message, implement this website and use imagagen to create similar designs as needed
"imagagen" is transcribed exactly as shown on screen (likely shorthand/typo for the image-generation skill). Screen 32 shows the same thread ending with the "open this in the in-app browser" request — see Scene 10.
10 · Open in in-app browser
Hey Codex, can you open this with, within the in-app browser so that we can view this?
11 · Add Stripe checkout
Hey Codex, in the app, can you go and use my Stripe credentials in the .env file and set up Stripe checkout experience for the store as well?
Depends on a pre-existing .env with Stripe test keys already in the project — not shown being created on screen. Screen 39 (checkout preview) has no new typed prompt — the caption there is spoken narration, not chat input.
12 · Launch site publicly
Launch a Site publicly
Reads as a clicked suggestion/button label rather than a freely typed sentence. Codex then asked for explicit human confirmation before making the storefront public. Screens 41–44 are the resulting live public site — no further prompts.
13 · Rewrite to Python + VM handoff
Hey Codex, we've got this merge store, it's written in TypeScript. I want you to rewrite this in Python and create a new worktree for solving this problem, and hand off this task over to the VM that I have.
The recording ends at Codex's "Step 1/4" handoff plan — the actual Python rewrite output was never shown, so this prompt's real-world result is unverified. Screen 47 is the closing recap slide, not part of this task thread.