A Pelican on a Bicycle in Blender in 3 Prompts: Simon Willison's Setup for Letting a Coding Agent Use the Blender App on a Mac
- Level Intermediate
- Setup1–3 hrs (estimated)
- Evidence Strong evidence
- CostNot stated in source
- No-codeNo
What they did
Simon Willison shows how easy it is to let a coding agent use Blender on macOS: install the Blender app and tell the agent where it is. With GPT-6 Astra in Codex, three prompts produced three .blend scenes of a pelican riding a bicycle (2m39s, 3m51s and 5m59s). He then had Codex write a reusable Blender skill from what it learned. He says it was covered by his Codex subscription and would have cost $4.24 at API prices.
How it went
TIL by Simon Willison (Sept 5, 2026): Blender + Codex on macOS; three prompts at 2m39s, 3m51s and 5m59s; skill created from what it learned; his blog says $4.24 at API prices
Worth knowing
- TIL by Simon Willison (Sept 5, 2026): Blender + Codex on macOS; three prompts at 2m39s, 3m51s and 5m59s; skill created from what it learned; his blog says $4.24 at API prices.
Prompt
Cleaned version rewritten from the source — not a direct quote.
Use the Blender app installed at [/Applications/Blender.app] in background mode to build and render [scene]. Save the .blend file and the Python script you used. When it works, write a short reusable skill file explaining how you ran Blender here, so next time you can skip the setup.
Recommended
Try it in Grok Bot
- Copy the prompt (button below).
- Open Grok Bot chat and paste it. Replace any [bracketed] placeholders.
- Connect the listed tools (as needed) as connectors when Grok Bot asks.
- If the task repeats, ask: "Make this a daily routine."
Alternatives: the same prompt works in Codex, Claude, ChatGPT Agent, OpenClaw.
Set it up
Stack: Codex
- Read the original source for full context.
- Connect the tools your agent needs.
- Paste the prompt and replace [bracketed] placeholders.
- Run once manually and check the output before scheduling it.
Generic suggested steps, not from the source.
Evidence
TIL by Simon Willison (Sept 5, 2026): Blender + Codex on macOS; three prompts at 2m39s, 3m51s and 5m59s; skill created from what it learned; his blog says $4.24 at API prices
Source: Web · 2026-09-05 · Verified by us: not yet · Report broken or outdated