OpenAI says GPT-6 Astra designed a talking Codex “pet.” Manufacturing took several rounds

A push-to-talk button and a small display give Justin Lin a way to check on his coding agents without opening his laptop. The OpenAI researcher calls the prototype a “Codex pet.” Its enclosure, circuit board and firmware came from GPT-6 Astra, OpenAI said Nov. 3, in an experiment that took a first-time board builder from plans to assembled hardware.

Two team members worked with Astra  modelon the side project for less than a week, and a contract manufacturer built a small batch of prototypes in under a month. OpenAI says the team generated the designs without direct human edits with some rounds of review and iteration to prepare them for manufacturing. “Obviously, took a few rounds with the factory, but this is what came back,” Lin said in a video about the project.

A desk companion for coding agents

Lin said he built the device to show Astra’s computer-use skills alongside “some of the new physical engineering capabilities.” The inspiration came in part from the growing trend of using voice to speak to agents while having some UI friction of its own. “I really, really don’t like having to like open my laptop and like whisper my sweet nothings into Codex,” he said. He wanted “a Codex pet” that lives on a small display, with a push-to-talk button.

Lin said it was his first time taking a board from bare to assembled, which he called “super daunting.” “I told Chat what I wanted, gave it some plans, and it designed the board,” he said.

The experiment sits within a broader hardware push that includes a design collaboration with former Apple design chief Jony Ive and his firm LoveFrom. For this prototype, OpenAI credits Astra with the design work and cites keyboard maker Work Louder, games and toys as visual references.

From design files to assembled hardware

According to OpenAI, Astra defined the functional requirements, designed the case and the internal structures that hold the components, selected the electrical components, and placed and connected them on a printed circuit board sized to fit the enclosure. It also designed the user interface and generated the firmware and software integrations that connect the device to Codex. OpenAI labels the images “TamaGPT device experiments” and describes the result as a “test device.”

A separate September test by circuit-board manufacturer NextPCB illustrates how specialist software can contribute to that work. Hubert Hu, its head of technology, gave Astra a board with components already placed. Astra produced a routing result in about 12 minutes by passing the design to Freerouting, an open-source autorouter, then importing it back into KiCad, the electronics design software. Restricted to KiCad’s interface, it drew three short trace segments in an hour before Hu stopped the run. “Freerouting performed the core routing computation. Astra orchestrated the workflow,” NextPCB wrote.