Connect ChatGPT

Six steps. ~4 minutes. Your existing ChatGPT Plus / Pro / Team subscription becomes the engine that powers your Aria workspace — no developer API key, no double-billing.

Step 1 of 6

Confirm: you pay OpenAI for ChatGPT?

This path uses your $20 / $200 / $25-per-seat ChatGPT subscription. If you only have a developer API key (sk-...), close this and use the API key path instead.

Step 2 of 6

Detect the Codex CLI on your machine

Codex is OpenAI's official local CLI. It carries your ChatGPT auth and is what Aria talks to. Open your terminal and run:

which codex

Waiting for you to run the command and tell us what you saw…

Why: Aria can't reach into your terminal to check itself. We give you the command, you tell us what you saw.

Step 3 of 6

Install Codex (skip if already installed)

First, a quick prerequisite check. Codex needs Node.js 20+ — run this:

node --version

Prints v20 or higher → you're good, skip to the install below. Says command not found or a lower number → install Node first:

Then install Codex:

npm install -g @openai/codex

Why -g: makes codex available anywhere in your terminal.

Hit a permission error or “command not found”?

macOS “EACCES / npm can't write to the global folder” — that's macOS blocking a global npm -g write. Use Homebrew instead, which sidesteps it:

brew install codex

No Homebrew? Get it at brew.sh. Avoid sudo npm -g — it tangles permissions further.

“codex: command not found” right after installing — your terminal hasn't picked up the new PATH yet. Close the terminal window completely and open a fresh one, then run which codex to confirm. PATH only refreshes in new sessions.

Step 4 of 6

Sign in to OpenAI

Run this. It opens your browser; sign in with the same email you use for ChatGPT. The OAuth token is saved to ~/.codex/auth.json (chmod 600 — only your user can read it).

Why: this is OpenAI's own sign-in flow. Aria never sees your password or OAuth token — they live on your machine only. Aria just sees a session-id when calls route through.

Step 5 of 6

Register this machine with Aria

One click — we mint a runner token bound to your account. The token gives this machine permission to receive Aria's call envelopes and execute them through your local codex.

Two short lines so nothing wraps or mangles on paste — run line 1, then line 2 in the same terminal. It downloads the runner script, saves your token to ~/.aria/aria-runner.token (chmod 600), and installs an aria-runner wrapper into /usr/local/bin or ~/.local/bin.

Step 6 of 6

Start aria-runner and verify it comes online

After the install in Step 5 completes, run this:

aria-runner

Tip: run inside tmux or screen so it survives a closed terminal: tmux new -d -s aria-runner 'aria-runner'