I converted an old game controller to control Codex for my everyday coding actions.
Video demo
GitHub repository
This project is open source:
One image
This is the full bridge flow in one view. If you want to jump straight to code, here it is: stadia-macos-controller.
Context
This started as a one-night hack with an old Google Stadia controller that was collecting dust. I asked Codex to build the bridge app in Swift. I have not written Swift before - I mainly wanted to work on a real project to get a feel for Swift. And also to see if such a project with hardware will be actually possible. It was only supposed to be a fun hack-and-forget thing. But it actually worked surprisingly well.
I have been using this only for two days. But yesterday, around 70% of yesterday's coding session was through the controller, which was way higher than I expected.
I had to break away from my keyboard habits a bit, but I really liked it. My hands felt nicer by the end of the day.
What I liked most is that I can natively trigger many Codex actions. Voice-first prompting, built-in dictation/transcription, and quick send actions all feel natural with the controller.
Wrapping up
I just wrapped writing this.
I might add a little more information on how I built this setup, and I definitely intend to keep working on it for other apps too.
I will keep this post updated as I improve it. More to come.