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Lessons From Building With AI
The Agentic ToolbenchChapter 19 of 73April 10, 2026

Codex Has Our Relationship Backwards

Codex has our relationship backwards. It keeps telling me to do things!

Latest example: it asked me to update environment variables for a Netlify project.

Codex asking me to set Netlify environment variables

I told Codex to “Use the CLI tools and stop asking me to do work you can do on your own.”

My end goal is to enable Codex (or Claude Code) to operate with enough agency to actually finish the job, not to ask me to do grunt work for it.

This writing reflects my personal perspectives on product management, AI, and content discovery. It does not represent the official position of my employer or any affiliated organization.