The ChatGPT/Codex app bundles a full copy of LibreOffice

https://simonwillison.net/2026/Sep/1/codex-libreoffice/

75•timpera•58m ago

Comments

pseudosavant•36m ago

Is that what it is using to render and manipulate MS Office documents? That'd explain the poor rendering of some of my files. Bundling all of LibreOffice seems like a pretty huge dependency.

nomel•32m ago

> Bundling all of LibreOffice seems like a pretty huge dependency

What's the alternative library you see?

verdverm•28m ago

Why not computer use or using the tools the user prefers instead? The primary office suites have APIs/CLIs now

tyre•3m ago

Computer use is slow and can take control of the application focus. I’ll be doing things while Claude runs in the background. Suddenly it decides to open the app and try to do something + screenshot it.

simongg•28m ago

Apache POI

MikeTheGreat•14m ago

pandoc

JLO64•29m ago

For a docker image of mine I was bundling the full version of LibreOffice as well but I managed to get some space savings by bundling just the no-gui version.

OutOfHere•14m ago

Just the headless version is bundled.

tiahura•9m ago

Yes. If you have word you can instruct to use word via com or AppleScript.

cpursley•35m ago

I still don’t understand why with all their cash these companies dont redo their apps in Rust or native. They are all so heavy and dog slow. There are already some very fast cross platform (wasm too!) libraries that can do what poppler does as well as parse and produce various office file formats. Because 2gb is crazy town, these things could be around 100mb, just throw some tokens at the problem.

sudo_cowsay•34m ago

Not that easy. Also, they have "priorities." Although their priorities are different than the users'.

cpursley•29m ago

Just throw some tokens at the problem. I’ve vibed up a Rust Crux hybrid app that runs well on macOS, iPad and wasm and does some pretty complex xml manipulation and other document work. Absolutely smokes electron and you get native UI.

Ref: https://redbadger.github.io/crux/

verdverm•26m ago

one does not just "throw tokens" at a problem, Ai is not that capable, and we are talking about MS Office file format, likely a NP hard problem

sigbottle•22m ago

I mean, aside from all the NP Hard sub problems (I might not be reading your satire though), the real hard problem is that a "product" is not just software, but an ecosystem and a promise of maintenance of the abstract user experience & quality of it.

simonw•34m ago

(This is more of a tweet than a blog post, it really wasn't written with Hacker News in mind.)

MattDamonSpace•30m ago

frankly how dare you

mrob•12m ago

How is simonw to blame for somebody else submitting it to HN?

embedding-shape•5m ago

True, I feel like the entire HN community is to blame for this, particularly pg and dang.

dvrp•32m ago

And wait till you find out about @oai/walnut

bcanzanella•32m ago

do tell!

djriley•9m ago

Walnut is the .NET and OpenXML backend. I think the point parent was trying to make it that it shouldn't be surprising Codex bundles runtimes for damn near everything.

alex-moon•27m ago

Someone may need to explain to me what is wrong with this sorry. Is it because it bloats the app with functionality that some users will never use? I feel like that is fairly usual for productivity/business apps generally.

simonw•21m ago

I don't see anything wrong with it, I just think it's interesting.

winstonp•13m ago

I think it's overbloating my computer

nialse•11m ago

It does, however, introduce a potentially enormous attack surface into ChatGPT, along with creative opportunities for less security conscious individuals and LLMs.

OutOfHere•14m ago

Actually, people do use and require the functionality, which is the point. The title as posted might be incorrect.

alex-moon•9m ago

Yes, that's what I mean - maybe that didn't come across cos I said "bloats". I work for a business that builds web apps for corporates - LibreOffice is bundled in most of the repos of ours that I've seen, a bit like Imagick is in the broader sector.

lgl•25m ago

Does that really mean that it's bundling those apps from the start or did it just download and install them at some point to do some local work on some prompt or job you ask it to?

I don't see it making much sense to bundle it. I'm sure a LOT of LLM prompts are related with docs, excels, powerpoints etc, etc but don't really see it worth it for it to be bundled on the codex app from the get go, because otherwise, why not also install dozens of other apps?

simonw•21m ago

I'm not sure. Someone who hasn't installed the ChatGPT (or Codex) apps yet could confirm this by installing the apps, seeing if that ~/.cache directory exists, then try running a prompt that needs Python or Node.js or LibreOffice and see if it downloads them when needed.

zatkin•10m ago

I've never installed the ChatGPT app on my Mac until today. I ran the app, signed in, and I see the same.

% ls ~/.cache/codex-runtimes/codex-primary-runtime/dependencies/native/libreoffice-headless

libreoffice manifest.json

embedding-shape•6m ago

On a Windows installation I see this:

    PS C:\Users\user> ls C:\Users\user\.cache\codex-runtimes\codex-primary-runtime\dependencies\native\
    Mode                 LastWriteTime         Length Name
    ----                 -------------         ------ ----
    d-----         8/27/2026  10:09 AM                git
    d-----         6/16/2026   9:18 PM                jxrlib
    d-----         8/26/2026   7:37 PM                libheif
    d-----         6/17/2026   5:32 AM                poppler
    d-----         8/27/2026  10:09 AM                powershell

So doesn't seem bundled with all installs at least.

quotemstr•24m ago

There's no security benefit to doing this versus demand-downloading hashed-locked components on need.

trentor•24m ago

I don't see the problem?

iAMkenough•21m ago

Who said it was a problem? This looks like an observation to me, not an accusation.

jrflo•22m ago

I've noticed that when I have codex read/modify word files the live reasoning snippets often allude to LibreOffice, so that makes sense. I think it was a quick and dirty way for them to interface with docx and xlsx files?

esperent•22m ago

I actually bundle it with my app too and the reason is reading files, especially old xls files. Since I'm bundling it I'm now using it for everything docs related but the specific reason is those old files. I couldn't find anything else that I could just drop it and feel confident it'll just read anything I give it.

vb-8448•9m ago

Curiously, I didn't find any reference in the Open source licences section of the codex app.

Is this a MPL 2.0 violation?

m3kw9•4m ago

probably uses it extensively to convert between LLM working on a doc and exporting it out to excel, word etc

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