Training course · OpenAI Codex · Rust

OpenAI Codex for Rust Developers

Delegate development work with OpenAI Codex: CLI and cloud agent, AGENTS.md, sandboxing, approvals and team PR workflows.

Duration
2 days (14 hrs)
Format
Online or on-site
Language
German or English
Participants
open dates or exclusive for your team
Certificate
Certificate of attendance

Overview

“OpenAI Codex for Rust Developers” is designed for roles such as Rust developers working on systems and back-end projects, C and C++ developers moving to Rust or porting modules and Embedded and IoT developers using Rust and shows step by step how to use OpenAI Codex productively, safely and transparently in Rust – from the fundamentals to advanced workflows.

OpenAI Codex is a coding agent that runs both locally, as a command-line tool and IDE extension, and as a cloud agent. Locally, Codex reads your repository, proposes changes and runs commands inside a sandboxed environment. In the cloud, it works on delegated tasks in parallel inside isolated containers and returns results as traceable diffs or pull requests. Over two days you will learn how to combine both modes effectively and how to scope tasks so that the agent can complete them reliably and with minimal back-and-forth.

Control and security sit at the heart of the course. With AGENTS.md you hand Codex project knowledge, build and test commands, and conventions. You configure approval modes and sandboxing so that the agent only does what you permit, and you set up cloud environments with suitable setup scripts. You will also integrate Codex into your pull request workflows, use automated code review, and define team rules on which tasks are delegated and how results are checked before they are merged into the main branch.

Rust is gaining ground wherever memory safety and performance have to go hand in hand: in systems software, embedded projects, network services, WebAssembly and security-critical components. The learning curve is steep – ownership, lifetimes, traits and async runtimes challenge even experienced developers. AI coding assistants and agents prove to be patient sparring partners here: they explain borrow checker errors, suggest suitable ownership structures, write tests and property-based tests, port C or C++ modules incrementally and work through Clippy lints. Because the compiler gives very precise feedback, agents can iterate all the way to compiling, safe code. This course teaches you to exploit that feedback loop and to scrutinise unsafe code with particular care.

The course is delivered live – either online in a virtual classroom or on-site in our training rooms in Munich, Salzburg, Berlin, Augsburg, Hanover, Bremen, Stuttgart and Kaiserslautern. We can also run it exclusively for your team.

Who is this course for?

  • Rust developers working on systems and back-end projects
  • C and C++ developers moving to Rust or porting modules
  • Embedded and IoT developers using Rust
  • Security and platform teams focused on memory safety

Typical challenges we address

  • Hard-to-understand borrow checker and lifetime errors
  • Complex trait hierarchies, generics and async code with Tokio
  • Laborious porting of existing C or C++ codebases across FFI boundaries
  • Handling unsafe blocks responsibly and justifying each one

What you will be able to do

  • You use Codex locally and in the cloud for the development tasks each mode suits best.
  • You write an AGENTS.md that guides the agent reliably through your project.
  • You configure approval modes and sandboxing to match your security requirements.
  • You delegate tasks to the cloud agent and review the results systematically.
  • Use AI agents as sparring partners for ownership, lifetimes, traits and async Rust.
  • Generate tests, ports and services and verify them with the compiler, Clippy and Miri.
  • Systematically assess generated unsafe and FFI code for memory safety.

Course outline

Day 1

Module 1 Codex at a glance: CLI, IDE and cloud
  • Comparing how Codex works locally and in the cloud
  • Installing the Codex CLI, signing in and starting it in a repository
  • Interactive sessions, non-interactive execution and model choice
  • Distinguishing tasks that suit a coding agent from those that do not
Module 2 Project knowledge with AGENTS.md
  • Building an AGENTS.md with build, test and lint commands
  • Stating conventions, architectural notes and prohibitions precisely
  • Using nested AGENTS.md files for monorepos and sub-projects
  • Checking effectiveness and refining instructions iteratively
Module 3 Sandboxing, approvals and security
  • Choosing approval modes deliberately, from read-only to largely autonomous
  • Understanding sandbox boundaries for file system and network access
  • Handling secrets, dependencies from the internet and prompt injection
  • Configuration files for team standards and safe defaults
Module 4 Delegating tasks to the cloud agent
  • Configuring cloud environments with setup scripts and dependencies
  • Writing tasks with a clear goal, context and acceptance criteria
  • Launching several tasks in parallel and comparing the results
  • Using logs and test output to understand the proposed solutions

Day 2

Module 5 PR workflows and code review in the team
  • Turning results into pull requests and requesting follow-up changes
  • Using automated Codex code review on GitHub
  • Embedding Codex in scripts and CI pipelines
  • Setting team rules for delegation, review duties and accountability
Module 6 Practice lab: Rust
  • Understanding and fixing compiler errors
  • Tests and property-based tests
  • Porting C and C++ modules
  • Async services with Tokio
  • Clippy and idiomatic code
  • Reviewing unsafe code
Module 7 Data protection, quality & transfer to daily work
  • Rust is often used in security-critical components for which the Cyber Resilience Act sets requirements on vulnerability handling and SBOMs. Check new crates for vulnerabilities and licences with cargo-audit or cargo-deny, and treat proprietary systems code as confidential when using cloud-hosted models.
  • Ground rules for safe AI use in your team
  • Checking results: facts, sources, tests and the four-eyes principle
  • Personal action plan for the next 30 days
  • Open questions, outlook and resources for further learning

Practical scenarios from your field

Understanding and fixing compiler errors

The assistant explains borrow checker and lifetime errors in plain language, deliberately proposes alternative ownership structures such as references, Rc or cloning, and iterates with cargo check until the build is clean.

Tests and property-based tests

The AI writes unit and integration tests, doc tests and property-based tests with proptest that check invariants over many generated inputs, uncovering edge cases in parsers or algorithms.

Porting C and C++ modules

Existing code is moved to Rust module by module, FFI bindings are created with bindgen or cbindgen and behaviour is safeguarded by shared tests run against the old and new implementations.

Async services with Tokio

Specifications become HTTP or gRPC services built with Axum or Tonic, including structured error types, graceful shutdown, tracing and sensible handling of cancellation and timeouts.

Clippy and idiomatic code

Clippy lints are worked through systematically, error handling standardised with thiserror or anyhow, and iterators, pattern matching and traits used idiomatically. Existing tests safeguard every change.

Reviewing unsafe code

The agent inventories unsafe blocks, documents their safety invariants, proposes safe alternatives and runs Miri to detect undefined behaviour. Each justification is recorded as a SAFETY comment in the code.

Possible hands-on projects

Fast log parser

A Rust CLI that streams large log files, detects patterns with regular expressions and outputs statistics – with benchmarks comparing it against a scripting-language version.

Axum microservice

A small REST service using Axum, SQLx, structured tracing and integration tests, planned and implemented end to end by an AI agent.

WebAssembly module

A compute-heavy function, such as image processing or validation, packaged as a WebAssembly module with wasm-bindgen and embedded in a simple web page.

Prerequisites

You have hands-on programming experience, are comfortable with Git and the command line, and know pull-request-based workflows. Basic Rust experience with Cargo, ownership and traits, plus experience in at least one other systems or back-end language.

Technical requirements

Your own laptop with a terminal, Git and a Node.js runtime; a ChatGPT plan with Codex access or an OpenAI API key, plus a GitHub account for the cloud exercises.

Data protection & compliance

Rust is often used in security-critical components for which the Cyber Resilience Act sets requirements on vulnerability handling and SBOMs. Check new crates for vulnerabilities and licences with cargo-audit or cargo-deny, and treat proprietary systems code as confidential when using cloud-hosted models.

Suggested dates

All dates are suggestions – your preferred date is always possible.

  • Wed, 25 November 2026 – Thu, 26 November 2026 Online Request
  • Wed, 9 December 2026 – Thu, 10 December 2026 Salzburg Request
  • Mon, 14 December 2026 – Tue, 15 December 2026 Online Request
  • Thu, 7 January 2027 – Fri, 8 January 2027 Online Request
  • Thu, 14 January 2027 – Fri, 15 January 2027 Bremen Request
  • Wed, 20 January 2027 – Thu, 21 January 2027 Online Request

Frequently asked questions

When should I use Codex locally and when in the cloud?

Locally you work interactively and close to the code, for example when debugging or making exploratory changes where you want to follow every step. The cloud agent suits well-defined tasks that can run independently, such as adding tests or fixing smaller bugs. You can start several of these in parallel and review each one as a pull request.

What belongs in a good AGENTS.md?

A good AGENTS.md explains how the project is built, tested and checked, which conventions apply and which areas must not be touched. It is concise, concrete and kept up to date. Notes on architecture and common pitfalls also help. During the course you write an AGENTS.md for a project of your own and test how it changes the agent’s behaviour.

How safe is it to let Codex run commands?

By default Codex works inside a sandbox with restricted file and network access and asks for approval before risky steps. You decide how much autonomy to grant through approval modes and configuration. In the course you learn to choose these settings deliberately and to limit risks such as prompt injection or running unfamiliar dependencies.

Can AI help me get started with Rust?

Very much so. AI assistants explain compiler errors patiently and in the context of your own code, show alternative approaches and explain why the borrow checker rejects a construct. The key is to understand the explanations rather than accept suggestions blindly, so the course relies on hands-on exercises in which you work out solutions together with the AI.

How reliable are AI ports from C++ to Rust?

They work well for clearly bounded modules when behaviour is protected by tests. The tricky parts are pointer arithmetic, shared mutable state or undefined behaviour in the original. On the course you learn to port incrementally, run differential tests against the old implementation and keep unsafe code to a deliberate minimum.

How much does “OpenAI Codex for Rust Developers” cost?

The course costs a flat €949 plus VAT per participant – whether online or on-site. This includes 2 training day(s) with a live trainer, course materials, a lab environment and a certificate of attendance.

Can I suggest my own date?

Yes. Our suggested dates are just a guide. In the request form you can always describe your preferred date or period in free text – we check availability and confirm within one working day.

Is the course online or on-site?

Both are possible: live online in a virtual classroom or on-site in Munich, Salzburg, Berlin, Augsburg, Hanover, Bremen, Stuttgart or Kaiserslautern. We can also run the course exclusively for your team.

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