Sidekick for

One command adds Sidekick to Codex CLI. It shares its settings with the ChatGPT desktop app: added in one, it's in both.

  1. Get the InDesign plugin

    From Adobe Exchange. 30 days to try, then $9.95 a month, cancel any time.

    Get it on Adobe Exchange

  2. Install Sidekick

    Open the downloaded file and follow the prompts. A Mac asks for your password, Windows for administrator permission.

    Another computer?

  3. Add Sidekick to Codex

    In a terminal:

    codex mcp add indesign-sidekick -- indesign-sidekick start

    Already added it in the ChatGPT app? Then skip this: codex mcp list shows it.

  4. Check it

    Start a new Codex session with a document open in InDesign and ask:

    Use Sidekick to tell me how many pages my InDesign document has.

    No answer from InDesign? Ask sidekick health and send us the reply.

Other ways

Not working?

Codex says Sidekick didn't start in time?
Codex gives a server about 30 seconds to start. On the npx route a company network that blocks the npm registry can take longer; see the next answer.
Sidekick's tools missing from the first answer?
Codex doesn't wait long for servers when a session starts. Ask again: Sidekick may still have been starting.
Slow start on a company network?
If your network blocks the npm registry, add --offline to the npx arguments (npx -y --offline indesign-sidekick start). Sidekick then stops picking up new versions until you remove it.
Your assistant can't find indesign-sidekick?
Restart the assistant after installing, so it sees the updated PATH. Still nothing? Use the full path: /usr/local/bin/indesign-sidekick on macOS, or on Windows run where indesign-sidekick and take the path ending in .cmd.
Using Sidekick in more than one assistant?
Install it once for the whole computer, then add it to each assistant, and only once per assistant: two entries in one assistant start two copies. See Using multiple AI assistants.