Setting Up NotchFit With OpenAI Codex CLI: Hooks, $notchfit-plan, and the Daily Flow

Most of what we have written about NotchFit so far has used Claude Code as the example, because that is where the idea started: your MacBook notch expands while the agent works, shows a guided exercise on the left and the agent's live progress on the right, and tells you when it is done or needs permission. But a large share of the people who email us run OpenAI's Codex CLI instead, or alongside Claude Code. This post is for them: how the Codex integration is wired, what you have to do once, what the daily flow looks like, and where the rough edges are.

What NotchFit does with Codex, specifically

NotchFit talks to Codex CLI through two things it installs for you: skills and hooks. The hooks are how the notch learns what Codex is doing. They fire when Codex starts work, finishes, or needs your permission for a tool, and they post that state to the NotchFit app over localhost on your own Mac. The skills are how Codex talks back: the main one is $notchfit-plan, which has Codex write your weekly workout plan.

From the notch's point of view, Codex and Claude Code look the same. A task starts, the panel opens with your next exercise and an updates feed; the agent finishes, and you get a notification; the agent needs permission, and you get a different one. If you keep both agents installed, both feed the same notch.

One-time setup

1. Install NotchFit. It is a $20 one-time purchase on Whop; you download the signed and notarized DMG from your Whop account, drag NotchFit to Applications and open it. It lives in the menu bar as a small figure icon with no Dock icon, and opens the Setup window the first time.
2. Click Install / update integrations. This single button adds the Claude Code plugin and the Codex skills and hooks. You do not have to edit any config files by hand, and you can run it again later to update.
3. Trust the hooks in Codex, once. Codex does not run hooks it has not been told to trust. Open Codex, run /hooks, and approve the NotchFit hooks. This is a one-time step; until you do it, the notch will not see Codex activity, which is the most common "it's not working" cause we hear about.
4. Test it without a real task. The Setup tab has "Try it" simulate buttons that fake a start, a finish and a permission request so you can see the notch react before you commit to a long run.

The hooks run asynchronously. That is the design decision that keeps the integration honest: Codex never waits for NotchFit, so a slow Mac or a closed NotchFit app cannot slow your agent down.

Let Codex write the plan

Run $notchfit-plan in Codex. It asks about your age, height, weight, fitness level, goal, equipment, days per week, minutes per day and injuries, then writes a weekly plan using only the 239 exercises NotchFit can animate (198 photo animations of real athletes plus roughly 40 illustrated moves). The plan is saved to ~/.notchfit/plan.json and the app picks it up instantly.

Two honest notes. First, this is a workout guide, not medical advice; if you have an injury, say so in the questionnaire and keep the plan conservative. Second, you do not have to involve the agent at all: the app ships with a starter plan and an offline quick-plan generator in its Plan tab, which is what we would suggest for the first week while you find out which movements you will actually do at a desk.

The daily flow with Codex

Give Codex a task that will take a while: a refactor, a test-suite run, a migration. The notch opens with a Start workout card on the left and a live feed of what Codex is doing on the right. Tap Start workout, then work through the set with the rep or time countdown ring and the Done, Skip and Pause controls. Every set begins only when you tap Start set, so the app never springs an exercise on you in the middle of reading a diff.

When Codex finishes, NotchFit notifies you. If that happens mid-set, the notification waits until the set ends, which sounds like a small detail until you have been interrupted at rep eight of ten a few times. Permission requests behave the same way. Optional spoken alerts use on-device macOS voices and can be muted from the notch.

If some days you want the status panel without the exercise, the Hide workout toggle turns the notch into a pure Codex and Claude Code status display. Streaks, a history heatmap and a little confetti on a finished set are there for the days you do want it.

Where it fits next to plain Codex notifications

You can get a "Codex is done" alert without NotchFit; our Codex CLI notifications guide and the post on approval dings cover sounds, desktop notifications and the configuration involved. NotchFit is the right tool when you also want the in-progress view in the notch and a reason to stand up during the wait. It is the wrong tool if you work mostly on an external monitor with the lid closed: the panel is built around the MacBook notch, and although Macs without a notch get a top-centre pill instead, the experience is designed for the built-in display.

Requirements and the fine print

• macOS 14 or later, Apple Silicon or Intel.
• Codex CLI (or Claude Code) if you want the progress feed and notifications; the workouts work without either.
• Local-first: everything runs on your Mac over localhost. No account, no telemetry, no microphone.
• $20 one-time, lifetime access, no subscription, no trial, no licence key.

Troubleshooting the Codex side

• The notch never opens when Codex starts. Nine times out of ten the hooks were installed but not trusted. Run /hooks in Codex and approve them, then start a new task.
• It worked for Claude Code but not Codex. The two integrations are installed by the same button but trusted separately; Claude Code picks up its plugin after a restart of the session, Codex needs the /hooks step.
• You updated NotchFit. Click Install / update integrations again so the skills and hooks match the app version.
• Anything else. The NotchFit user guide walks through install, connecting both agents, the plan, notch controls, the command-line tool, troubleshooting, updating and uninstalling.

Related reading

If you are new to the idea of exercising while an agent works, start with turning agent wait time into micro-workouts and the desk exercises for programmers list; everything in both applies unchanged when the agent in question is Codex.