Start with the shape

The Hatchery publishes creator-made animated pets for Codex with stable pet pages, public manifests, and an install path that MCP and CLI clients can share.

OpenAI also provides local pet generation through the Codex App and the curated hatch-pet skill. The Hatchery sits beside that flow as the marketplace for vetted, installable pets with creator attribution.

Use the App for the visible pet, and use the terminal or IDE for install work. Both read the same Codex home and MCP configuration.

OpenAI documents Codex pets in the Codex App settings page, including the floating overlay, local Codex home refresh, and the hatch-pet skill. Keep those surfaces in mind when reading the rest of these docs.