What does codex-profiles isolate, and what remains shared?

[Ducksss]

codex-profiles selects local storage locations; it is not a credential manager.

Boundary	What is selected
Codex CLI profile	A separate CODEX_HOME containing Codex auth, config, sessions, plugins, caches, and logs
Named macOS ChatGPT window	The profile CODEX_HOME plus a separate Electron user-data directory for whole-window local state
Still shared	OS-user credentials such as SSH keys and GitHub CLI auth, browser cookies, project files, and server-side ChatGPT state

The default profile uses ~/.codex; any other name uses ~/.codex-<name>. Named app launches store Electron data under the selected home.

The tool does not read, copy, print, parse, upload, compare, or migrate tokens. It does not claim that a Codex CLI profile and a similarly named ChatGPT Desktop window use the same account; that equality is unverified.

Profile isolation covers Codex and named ChatGPT local state, not the operating system. Use separate OS users when credentials and files must be strictly separated.

See Security, Threat model, and How do I use separate work and personal Codex CLI profiles?.