Nevertheless, OpenAI Persists With New Always-On Agent

OpenAI is developing a persistent, always-on version of its coding agent Codex, according to code spotted by Wired in OpenAI's GitHub repository. The new 'Persistent mode' would let the agent work continuously until a user puts it to sleep, with a 'reasoning effort' option to control computing power and a 'Proactivity' feature that creates follow-up tasks without prompting. This move follows competitors like Microsoft and Meta introducing similar always-on agents, though users have complained that Codex currently shuts off on its own before finishing tasks.

Would you trust an AI agent to do work on your behalf while you get some rest? OpenAI is apparently betting that you will, because the company is reportedly working on a persistent, always-on version of its coding agent Codex. Wired first spotted https://www.wired.com/story/openai-is-developing-a-persistent-ai-agent the move to add the 24/7 bot operation in OpenAI’s GitHub for Codex https://github.com/openai/codex/pull/40799 , where code for the so-called “Persistent mode” first started showing up in the command-line version of the company’s coding agent. Per Wired, features that crop up in the command-line tool tend to make their way to other features over time, suggesting that this new mode could land in the desktop version of Codex in the near future. Gizmodo reached out to OpenAI regarding the apparent discovery of Persistent mode but did not hear back by the time of publication. If it goes live in the form that it currently exists, it appears that Codex’s always-on feature will work until a user actively puts it to sleep. It’ll present users with a “reasoning effort” option, where a person can select the level of computing power they’ll allow the AI model to use while contemplating and completing the task—likely as a way to avoid burning an unspeakable number of tokens overnight. Additional code seems to show a feature called “Proactivity,” which would make the AI agent create follow-up tasks for itself without requiring a person’s prompting. That would keep the agent working even after the initial prompt is completed, though how useful that feature is is heavily dependent on just how good the agent is at predicting what should come next. Regardless, Persistent Mode and anything that comes with it would represent a significant jump for Codex to move to this endless operation model, considering users complain that it shuts off on its own at times https://www.reddit.com/r/codex/comments/1sr8j8b/codex keeps stopping every 30 to 45 seconds and/ —often before actually finishing its tasks. It’d also be a necessary one, as OpenAI is starting to fall behind on this trend. Ever since OpenClaw got everyone worked up https://www.getopenclaw.ai/how-to/run-openclaw-24-7 about the possibility of the always-on assistant, it’s become the feature the big players have been chasing despite some obvious issues like, say, the agent deleting a person’s entire inbox overnight https://www.pcmag.com/news/meta-security-researchers-openclaw-ai-agent-accidentally-deleted-her-emails . Microsoft announced https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/blog/2026/06/02/introducing-microsoft-scout-your-always-on-personal-agent/ its own always-on agent earlier this year, and Meta is reportedly working on its own option called Hatch https://www.businessinsider.com/meta-hatch-personal-ai-agent-capabilities-employees-memo-2026-8 . Seems we’re headed toward the age of the sleepless agent. Not sure if that will make anyone rest easy.