OpenAI's coding agent is open source and almost nobody remembers it

For months I've been hearing the same fairy tale: OpenAI is the villain who charges for everything and locks everything down, and salvation lies in the community's free tools. The "best open-source coding agents" lists put OpenCode, Aider and Cline on a pedestal; the videos tell you to run from anything commercial. The cast of heroes and villains comes pre-assigned.

Except there's one fact that doesn't fit. OpenAI's Codex CLI is open source, under the Apache-2.0 license, and rewritten in Rust. It's not some experiment abandoned in a drawer: it's a well-maintained, fairly solid product. The villain of the story has been shipping free software for a while now, and hasn't tried to change its nature. It's still open.

Turns out the one who charges for everything had an open-source product and almost nobody knew it. Isn't it odd that the YouTubers don't tell you this, and instead keep repeating that you should use OpenCode, because that one really is free? I say this not entirely without sarcasm: what am I missing in this slow learning of mine? Because when the facts don't fit the side, maybe the problem is the side.

Sources: Codex (official repository, Apache-2.0) · Pinggy · Simon Willison