{"slug": "show-hn-codex-plays-nethack", "title": "Show HN: Codex Plays NetHack", "summary": "A developer created Terminai, a transparent terminal wrapper that lets AI models like Codex or Claude control a terminal session with user approval, and demonstrated it by having Codex play NetHack in auto-approve mode with the goal of ascending. The tool provides full terminal context to the AI and requires user confirmation for inputs by default, though the demo used auto-approve. Past sessions showed Codex attempting to win by ascending but instead escaping or leaving the dungeon without playing.", "body_md": "LIVE\nStreaming for\n1 watching\n\nI wrote [Terminai](https://github.com/emosenkis/terminai), a fully transparent terminal wrapper, to put codex or claude in the backseat while I remain the driver, staying completely invisible until summoned with `Ctrl-Space`\n\n. They have access to terminal context, content, and history, and can send input which, by default, requires user approval before being sent to the terminal.\n\nHere it is in auto-approve mode letting Codex control a game of [NetHack](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NetHack).\n\nPrompt:\n\n```\n/goal Win the game by [ascending](https://nethackwiki.com/wiki/Ascension) in normal mode\n```\n\nPast sessions:\n\n-\n[https://asciinema.org/a/92TaJIyC2OYLvb9Y](https://asciinema.org/a/92TaJIyC2OYLvb9Y)(`/goal Win the game in normal mode`\n\n- it ‘escaped’ without really playing) -\n[https://asciinema.org/a/PXROudliU5yGhECA](https://asciinema.org/a/PXROudliU5yGhECA)(`/goal Win the game by ascending in normal mode`\n\n- it ‘ascended’ by leaving the dungeon without playing)", "url": "https://wpnews.pro/news/show-hn-codex-plays-nethack", "canonical_source": "https://asciinema.org/s/HS1tpO6cjFsaSzS7", "published_at": "2026-07-27 06:29:49+00:00", "updated_at": "2026-07-27 06:52:22.110785+00:00", "lang": "en", "topics": ["ai-tools", "developer-tools", "artificial-intelligence"], "entities": ["Terminai", "Codex", "Claude", "NetHack"], "alternates": {"html": "https://wpnews.pro/news/show-hn-codex-plays-nethack", "markdown": "https://wpnews.pro/news/show-hn-codex-plays-nethack.md", "text": "https://wpnews.pro/news/show-hn-codex-plays-nethack.txt", "jsonld": "https://wpnews.pro/news/show-hn-codex-plays-nethack.jsonld"}}