I've spent the last three months using both tools daily—Codex CLI for my side projects and infrastructure work, and Copilot 2026 for my day job building React dashboards. Here's what I've learned, including the moments each tool made me want to throw my laptop out the window.
The Quick Overview
Codex CLI (OpenAI, 2025) lives entirely in your terminal. It's an agentic coding tool that can autonomously create files, run tests, push t