DEV Community 2d ago

Claude Code Can't Draw - This Plugin Borrows Your Codex CLI Login

TL;DR

"Claude can't draw" is a budget problem, not a capability problem. codex-bridge (MIT) is a Claude Code plugin that routes image generation (gpt-image-2) and five GPT-5 subagents through the Codex CLI login you already have - billing against your ChatGPT plan instead of a second API key. I have not tested or run it; this is a source-reading review.

How it works

Two bash wrappers shell out to codex exec, Codex CLI's non-interactive mode, with your existing codex login (both scripts check codex login status first). Text tasks use a read-only sandbox and capture only the final answer via -o <tmpfile> (bin/codex-run:92-96). Image tasks use a workspace-write sandbox scoped to the output directory (bin/codex-imagegen:110), then verify the file landed.

Exit codes:

0 - ok
1 - precondition
2 - failure
124 - timeout

Why the split matters

Codex runs as a separate process, so its intermediate output never enters your Claude context - you pay Claude tokens only for the brief and the review. The trade-off: Codex is blind to your conversation history, so every brief must stand alone, which is why every subagent is instructed to verify before reporting.

The delegation rubric (skills/codex-delegate/SKILL.md) is the most reusable part:

Delegate: high-volume, low-judgment work (mechanical multi-file edits, bulk scaffolding, exhaustive sweeps, all image work, long self-contained subtasks)
Keep: low-volume, high-judgment work (architecture calls, ambiguous requirements, anything needing conversation history, edits under ~3 files)

Round-tripping a two-line fix costs more, not less.

Trust boundary

No API key: credentials live in ~/.codex from codex login, and every call forwards your task text to OpenAI's servers. If your team's data policy cannot accept a second vendor seeing prompts, that is a blocker, not a footnote.

Caveats from README and source

1-4 minutes per image
Image turns burn ChatGPT quota ~3-5× faster than text
The default path cannot emit native alpha (chroma-key strip, or CLI fallback plus API key)
macOS and Linux only
Custom sizes must satisfy longest edge ≤3840px, both edges multiples of 16, ratio ≤3:1, and 655,360-8,294,400 total pixels

Who should try it

You already pay for a ChatGPT plan, run Claude Code daily, and regularly produce images or mechanical bulk edits.

Skip it if you rarely need images, your work is small and interactive, or your data rules forbid OpenAI seeing prompts.