ChatGPT/Codex desktop app bundles full LibreOffice copy
Original: The ChatGPT/Codex app bundles a full copy of LibreOffice
Why This Matters
Bundling full open-source runtimes locally signals a shift toward richer, offline-capable AI desktop app functionality.
Simon Willison discovered that the OpenAI Codex desktop app (now rebranded as ChatGPT) stores 1.7GB of runtime data in ~/.cache/, including full Python, Node.js, Poppler, git, and LibreOffice installations bundled within the app.
Developer Simon Willison found, while scanning his disk with OmniDiskSweeper, that the OpenAI Codex desktop app — since rebranded as simply ChatGPT — maintains a 1.7GB cache folder at ~/.cache/codex-runtimes/codex-primary-runtime. Inside are complete installations of Python, Node.js, and native binaries for Poppler (a PDF rendering library), git, and LibreOffice, the open-source office suite that forked from OpenOffice.org in 2010. A subfolder at plugins/openai-primary-runtime/plugins/documents contains 'skills' — configuration files that instruct Codex on how to locate and invoke these bundled binaries. The discovery suggests OpenAI has built document-handling and code-execution capabilities directly into the app by shipping these runtimes locally, rather than relying on cloud-side processing or user-installed software.