Cowork Sandbox -> ClaudeCode & Codex Laughing at It

I tried using Cowork, Claude Code and Codex with the same 2nd-brain folder. The difference I kept running into was what each one let me do with the tools already on my Mac.

Intro

What do I want? Well, "I will tell you when I find out" applied a lot in this case. However, I started with a 2nd brain.

I wanted a place where I have all the status across all projects at work, and easy reporting for several things that, before using Claude Artifacts, I was generating as HTML and then PDFs and would send over by email or via Teams. So, weekly reporting in PDF form.

The Story

Approaching this 2nd brain idea felt really nice. Finally, one place of truth. A single folder where I can store everything but the actual code.

And so I started, a folder with a big dump of my files and an even bigger prompt that I spoke out loud using Wispr Flow. I told it who I am, what I work on, what projects I work on, how I structure things in Jira and Notion, etc. It was really impressive.

Then I created a Claude Artifact that started showing what I am working on and what my next steps are. Now I feel like I have the overview.

Jira is fine, but somehow I am bad at keeping the exact state and next steps in a way that my brain feels productive with... The custom dashboard, the pulse, is just perfect at that.

The Problems Array

I don't remember entirely why, but I soon moved to using the Claude Code tab instead of Cowork pointed at the same directory. The reasons include better ability to execute code and leverage my installed brew packages than what the Cowork sandbox permits, and to dispatch coding agents when I work inside the repo. The sandbox is just all too limited for that.

It might be that I am a "fat" developer who likes to leverage all the tools that I have rather than squeeze myself into the constraints of what that sandbox would let me do. And it does stem from me using Codex quite a lot with the same folder pointed there.

Something that stood out quite fast is that Codex runs, by default, in the same sandbox.

Except when GPT running inside the Codex instance realizes that the sandbox is playing the handcuffs, it would propose to execute the command outside it - the auto approval mode would then approve and the job would get done.

While I haven't supervised 100% of what gets run, I noticed that I am very satisfied with the way it works 99% of the time.

This is where Claude Cowork gets a minus point. It is all too limited and confusing. Why have Chat, why have Cowork (Chat + Folder = a baby called Cowork)?

I must hold myself back, though, because the new ChatGPT Desktop app after getting merged with Codex is a confusion ball in itself.

I began using the Claude Code tab in their desktop app much more since the sidebar is really helpful for multitasking (I like terminals but not having 5+ terminal tabs).