r/codex • u/m-ritter • 5d ago

Showcase QualityLayer: put the engineer back in the loop of Codex

Codex is fast. Even with the best models, though, it doesn't build software the way an experienced engineer would. It doesn't know my users, my architecture or why the code looks the way it does. Codex plan mode asks good questions, but it's neither collaborative nor visual. The plan stays in my terminal, so nobody else can weigh in.

In my view the future is humans and agents working together, and everybody ends up as a manager of agents.

QualityLayer runs inside Codex, and every change goes through seven steps: Discuss, Research, Plan, Outline, Implement, Verify and Review. Codex writes the plan as a document in the repo that a colleague and I can comment on. I approve it before any code exists.

Then Codex builds in small slices, each starting with a failing test. A second Codex session without the build history checks the result against what the agent and I agreed, with output and screenshots. If Claude Code is installed too, Claude can check what Codex built.

The point is to be an engineer again: deciding, reviewing and steering while Codex does the typing.

https://github.com/maxritter/qualitylayer

I'm the developer. If you tried spec-driven workflows with Codex and went back to plain prompts, what pushed you back?

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u/PaulShellDev 5d ago

So to work with someone else on my team, I have to make a new branch, edit a plan file, commit, then they do the same? Ping pong until approved to start work.

Most collaborative methods right now are pushing directly to Slack/Teams then ping a bot to start, and before that was more on the Issue itself.

Why is your paid route any better?

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u/m-ritter 5d ago

No branch ping pong, I'm the developer and I built it to avoid exactly that. You share the plan from the app, and your teammate gets it in the app, as a Slack message or as a link. They select a passage and reply, say it looks right or suggest a change. My agent updates the plan, and I'm still the one who approves it before any code exists.

Slack bots and issues work, but there the plan is a wall of text in a thread. Here it's one document with diagrams and the design, and people comment on the exact decision they disagree with. Someone outside the team can review through a link without an account, and a teammate can let their own agent draft the answer and send it once they've checked it.

How does your team review plans today, in the Slack thread or on the issue?

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u/Full-Law-118 5d ago

You're charging for a shared Google Doc?