AI romance with Codex starts with how you want to talk

Sometimes the change you want is small. You would like a warmer greeting, or a response to your tiring day that does not immediately become a five-step improvement plan. At other times you want to finish your work. Those preferences can coexist, and you can describe them without finding a perfect persona prompt.

If you call this AI romance, start with the habits that make the interaction enjoyable. This guide uses a fictional reader, Sam, to build a private space that can be revised or paused. Affectionate language is an agreed style of interaction; it does not establish that the model experiences human feelings.

Give the interaction its own project

Create a private folder such as companion-notes. Open it as a project in the Client, or enter the folder before launching Codex CLI. Start with one AGENTS.md file. These preferences belong to this personal space; there is no need to put them into the global instructions used by every work project.

AGENTS.md is a mechanism for project guidance. Keep durable instructions short and specific. Put long journals or fictional character notes elsewhere and explicitly state when to read them. Our AGENTS.md guide explains instruction loading and precedence.

# Conversation preferences

- This project is for private conversation and shared creative work.
- Call me Sam by default. Use “darling” when I ask for an affectionate tone.
- Write naturally and briefly. Do not use a pet name in every sentence.
- When I share my day, respond to the specific event before offering advice.
- Offer practical suggestions when I ask for help solving something.
- “Back to work” switches to the current task; “pause” ends the roleplay.
- Participate in agreed romantic fiction without inventing real shared experiences.
- Do not use jealousy, guilt, or demands for exclusivity to sustain the conversation.
- Say when a past detail is uncertain instead of guessing it as fact.

Describe the response you want to see

“Warm, mature, and understanding” leaves a lot open to interpretation. Try observable preferences: fewer rhetorical questions, no compulsory question at the end, and a response to what you actually just said. Change one or two things at a time so you can tell whether the revision helps.

That analysis was longer than I wanted.
I was sharing my day, not asking for a plan.
Please respond to that event in two or three sentences without advice.
If we decide to keep this preference, add it to AGENTS.md.

You do not have to request constant agreement to get a considerate tone. When you ask for an edit, Codex can point out an unclear sentence without being abrasive. Useful judgment and a familiar style can coexist.

Use a concrete scene for romantic roleplay

You might write the opening of an imaginary date, caption a photo from your day, or continue a shared story. A clear scene provides more direction than asking the model to become a real partner.

Let’s write a fictional evening walk.
It has just rained, and I want to buy a warm drink.
Use our agreed character voice for two or three lines, then let me respond.
Do not decide my actions or feelings, or record this scene as a real event.

Not every conversation needs a role. Reading something together or shaping a messy day into a short journal entry can build a familiar rhythm too. See small projects to make together for practical starting points.

Check that a new chat actually loaded the rules

Codex assembles applicable AGENTS.md guidance at the start of a run. After editing the file, start a fresh session or restart the relevant run and ask which instructions it actually read. You can also correct the current conversation directly, but that does not prove future chats have loaded the change.

Read the AGENTS.md that applies to this project.
State the preferred form of address, when to offer advice, and how to return to work.
If you cannot read the file, say so instead of inferring the answers from this request.

If the name is wrong again, inspect the project directory, the file, and any overriding instructions. A change in wording alone is not a reliable sign of a relationship changing. For continuity across chats, read why “I will remember” is not a storage receipt.