As a photographer, I’ve always followed one simple rule: the moment is what matters, not the camera. The best camera is the one you have on hand when inspiration strikes. You don’t wait to go home and grab your fancy gear. You shoot with whatever’s in your pocket.

Turns out the same philosophy applies to coding.

I used to get an idea, jot it down in my Notes app, maybe even sketch out some specs. Then later (way later, if I’m being honest), I’d sit down at my computer and start building. That’s if I even found time to do it. By then, the motivation’s gone, the initial spark that made the idea feel urgent and exciting has faded. Codex Web changed that for me.

Now when an idea hits, I can act on it right away. I don’t have to be at my desk with Cursor or Codex CLI open. I can spin up Codex web from my phone, describe what I want, and let it work on the project asynchronously, in the cloud. By the time I’m ready to review, the heavy lifting’s done and the PRs are ready to merge.

The Technical Setup (Codex Web, Github, and Netlify Previews)

Here’s how the workflow actually plays out. I use Codex CLI for bigger projects where I need full control and can work from my computer. But Codex Web is where I start building quick, spontaneous ideas.

codex web starting point

The magic piece is that my projects are hooked up to Netlify with automatic deploy previews. Every time I merge a PR to the main branch, Netlify spins up a preview URL.

codex web netlify preview

I can click through and see exactly what it built, test it in the browser, and decide what needs fixing. No local setup, no context switching. I Just review and iterate, straight from my phone. Below’s an example of a PR that Codex wrote for me. I really like how it summarized my request and what it actually did.

codex web github PR draft

It’s the same flow I use for other side projects when I’m on the go. Push to GitHub, Netlify spins up a preview, I check it on my phone while multitasking. If something’s broken, I ask Codex to fix it and wait for the next preview.

Vibe Engineering from Your Phone

I’m not writing production-ready code on a tiny screen (where’s the fun in that?). I’m acting on the idea before it evaporates (ADHD, baby!). Codex does the implementation work, and I focus on the parts that actually matter: guiding the direction, catching bugs, and making sure it does what I had in mind. It’s exactly what Simon Willison describes when he scraped a conference website and built an alternative schedule app entirely from his iPhone. He used Codex to handle the scraping and built the UI with Claude Artifacts while he chatted in a coffee shop, and deployed it all from his phone.

I think this is where things are heading (at least for product managers and idea builders). We won’t wait for the perfect workstation or setup. We’ll act on ideas the moment they hit, using whatever device is closest, and let AI handle the heavy lifting.

Stop treating every project like it needs a formal kickoff and a proper development environment. Sometimes you just need to capture the idea fast and refine it later. The camera you have on hand is the best camera. Same goes for your coding setup.