cloud / systems
When Codex reached its limit
I build berndkuhlen.de with AI. But my ChatGPT Plus subscription does not give me unlimited Codex sessions: when the coding allowance ran out, I could either wait for a reset or buy additional credits. I still had small website changes to make, so I tried a different workflow.
Connect the existing repository
My site already lives in a private GitHub repository and runs on AWS S3 and CloudFront. First I made sure my MacBook project was committed and pushed to GitHub. In ChatGPT I opened Settings → Plugins → GitHub, authorized access and selected only the repository I wanted to work on. This is permissioned repository access, not a live sync of my MacBook files.
ChatGPT → branch → pull request
I asked ChatGPT to inspect the repository, locate the relevant files and suggest a narrowly scoped change. In the GitHub-enabled environment available to me, ChatGPT could create a branch, commit changes and open a pull request. I reviewed the diff and GitHub Actions checks before merging. We actually used this flow for security fixes and a dated treadmill note in nine languages.
Check locally; publish deliberately
For a local preview I fetch the PR branch, switch to it and run python3 -m http.server 8000. After merging, git switch main and git pull --ff-only origin main synchronize my MacBook. A GitHub merge does not deploy the AWS website. Deployment is a separate, cost-reviewed step; CloudFront invalidations remain prohibited, so updated content appears after its normal cache TTL.
The catch
This did not magically unlock Codex or create unlimited free agent work. ChatGPT, plugins and other agent features have their own availability and usage limits, and GitHub write actions are not supported in every ChatGPT experience. For me, however, ordinary chat plus the available GitHub operations was enough to keep making small, reviewed changes without purchasing extra Codex credits.
Note: This account documents my workflow on 5 November 2026. Codex usage documentation · GitHub connection documentation
Next step: GitHub Actions deployment with AWS OIDC (in preparation)
I have now prepared PR #21: a temporary AWS OIDC role restricted to my GitHub repository and main branch, plus a manually triggered GitHub Actions workflow. Its planned release path checks the repository, selects only approved public files, estimates costs, verifies the monthly AWS budget and writes to S3 without CloudFront invalidations. The offline CI tests passed. As of 5 November 2026, the PR is still open: the AWS role has not been created, no S3 release has run, and deployments on merge are not enabled. Before activation, the $30 monthly safety stop must also cover the new role. Automatic deploys will be a separately reviewed second phase.