Summary
Nate Herk shows how to build automations with OpenAI’s Codex (GPT-6 Astra) that run independently of your Codex subscription, so scheduled tasks don’t eat into your weekly usage limit. Instead of hosting scheduled tasks inside Codex chat threads, he demonstrates converting them into standalone code that gets pushed to GitHub and executed by trigger.dev, a workflow-hosting platform.
The video covers three automation types: scheduled automations (like a 6 a.m. morning briefing that checks Google Calendar and preps the day), webhook-triggered automations, and Codex SDK automations. Herk walks through a live example, having Codex plan out a morning-routine automation, write the TypeScript code, create a GitHub repository, and connect it to a new trigger.dev project — including troubleshooting a GitHub connection issue live, with Codex using its browser-control feature to fix the integration itself.
Aimed at viewers with no coding background, the tutorial emphasizes that Codex can both design and implement these automations end-to-end, from planning through deployment, while keeping the resulting workflows running externally and continuously rather than tied to an active chat session. It’s a practical guide for anyone looking to scale personal or business automations built with AI coding agents without hitting subscription limits.
📺 Source: Nate Herk | AI Automation · Published September 16, 2026
🏷️ Format: Hands On Build
