Description of Business	9 Months Ended
Sep. 30, 2014
Organization, Consolidation and Presentation of Financial Statements [Abstract]
Description of Business	Description of Business In these notes to the condensed consolidated financial statements, the “Company,” "we," "us,'" and "our" refers to Codexis, Inc. and its subsidiaries on a consolidated basis. Codexis, Inc. was incorporated in the State of Delaware in January 2002. We develop biocatalysts for the pharmaceutical and fine chemicals markets. Our proven technologies enable scale-up and implementation of biocatalytic solutions to meet customer needs for rapid, cost-effective and sustainable process development, from research to manufacturing. Biocatalysts are enzymes or microbes that initiate and/or accelerate chemical reactions. Manufacturers have historically used naturally occurring biocatalysts to produce many goods used in everyday life. However, inherent limitations in naturally occurring biocatalysts have restricted their commercial use. Our proprietary technology platform is able to overcome many of these limitations, allowing us to evolve and optimize biocatalysts to perform specific and desired chemical reactions at commercial scale. We have commercialized our technology and products in the pharmaceuticals market, which is our primary business focus. Our pharmaceutical customers, which include several of the largest global pharmaceutical companies, use our technology, products and services in their manufacturing processes and process development, including in the production of some of the world's best-selling and fastest growing drugs. We have recently begun to use our technology to develop biocatalysts for use in the fine chemicals market. The fine chemicals market is similar to our pharmaceutical business and consists of several large market verticals, including: food, animal feed, polymers, flavors, fragrances, and agricultural chemicals. We create our products by applying our CodeEvolver^® directed evolution technology platform, which introduces genetic mutations into microorganisms, giving rise to changes in the enzymes that they produce. Once we identify potentially beneficial mutations, we test combinations of these mutations until we have created variant enzymes that exhibit marketable performance characteristics superior to competitive products. This process allows us to make continuous, efficient improvements to the performance of our enzymes. We are also pursuing opportunities to provide licenses to certain pharmaceutical customers to use our CodeEvolver^® platform for their internal development purposes.

Description of Business

In these notes to the condensed consolidated financial statements, the “Company,” "we," "us,'" and "our" refers to Codexis, Inc. and its subsidiaries on a consolidated basis.

Codexis, Inc. was incorporated in the State of Delaware in January 2002. We develop biocatalysts for the pharmaceutical and fine chemicals markets. Our proven technologies enable scale-up and implementation of biocatalytic solutions to meet customer needs for rapid, cost-effective and sustainable process development, from research to manufacturing.

Biocatalysts are enzymes or microbes that initiate and/or accelerate chemical reactions. Manufacturers have historically used naturally occurring biocatalysts to produce many goods used in everyday life. However, inherent limitations in naturally occurring biocatalysts have restricted their commercial use. Our proprietary technology platform is able to overcome many of these limitations, allowing us to evolve and optimize biocatalysts to perform specific and desired chemical reactions at commercial scale.

We have commercialized our technology and products in the pharmaceuticals market, which is our primary business focus. Our pharmaceutical customers, which include several of the largest global pharmaceutical companies, use our technology, products and services in their manufacturing processes and process development, including in the production of some of the world's best-selling and fastest growing drugs.

We have recently begun to use our technology to develop biocatalysts for use in the fine chemicals market. The fine chemicals market is similar to our pharmaceutical business and consists of several large market verticals, including: food, animal feed, polymers, flavors, fragrances, and agricultural chemicals.

We create our products by applying our CodeEvolver^® directed evolution technology platform, which introduces genetic mutations into microorganisms, giving rise to changes in the enzymes that they produce. Once we identify potentially beneficial mutations, we test combinations of these mutations until we have created variant enzymes that exhibit marketable performance characteristics superior to competitive products. This process allows us to make continuous, efficient improvements to the performance of our enzymes. We are also pursuing opportunities to provide licenses to certain pharmaceutical customers to use our CodeEvolver^® platform for their internal development purposes.