Frequently asked questions

No. Codex Dream Skin and this gallery are community projects, not affiliated with OpenAI. The engine is open source (MIT License) by Fei-Away, and it explicitly never touches your API key, Base URL, or model provider settings.

The engine launches the official Codex app with a Chrome DevTools Protocol port bound strictly to 127.0.0.1 (localhost) — it is never exposed to the network. It validates the app signature before starting, injects only CSS and decorative DOM into expected renderer targets, and never modifies the .app bundle, app.asar, or code signature. One caveat: a loopback CDP port is unauthenticated, so avoid running untrusted local software while the theme is active, and use Restore when you are done.

No. Nothing inside the official install directory (macOS .app or WindowsApps) is changed. The theme engine lives in its own folder (~/.codex/codex-dream-skin-studio on macOS, %LOCALAPPDATA%\CodexDreamSkin on Windows) and injects styling at runtime only.

Yes. On macOS, run “Restore Codex Dream Skin.command”. On Windows, run restore-dream-skin.ps1 with -RestoreBaseTheme -PromptRestart. This restores the official appearance without modifying the official app; add -Uninstall on Windows only if you also want to remove the Dream Skin shortcuts.

Official updates install normally since the app bundle is untouched. After an update, just start Dream Skin again; if OpenAI changes the UI structure, grab the latest engine from GitHub — the project tracks upstream changes.

No. One continuous wallpaper sits beneath the real sidebar and content surface. Suggestion cards, project picker, composer, plugins, scheduled tasks, and Pull Requests remain native, clickable controls.

Yes. Use a UI-free 2560 × 1440 image when possible. Import it with Customize on macOS or from the Windows system tray; the engine analyzes composition locally and never uploads the pixels. Prepared images must be ≤ 16 MB, ≤ 16384px per side, and ≤ 50 MP.

Yes. Current upstream main seeds two tested presets on both macOS and Windows—Gothic Void Crusade and Arina Hashimoto. Gothic is the fresh-install default on macOS; Arina remains the default active theme on Windows. Your custom themes stay separate.

Yes. The engine is MIT-licensed open source. This gallery is free too. If you enjoy it, star the repo — that is the best way to support the author.

Character and people artwork in previews is illustrative only, as stated by the upstream project. For personal desktops that is generally fine; clear the rights before any commercial redistribution of artwork.