codex - 💡(How to fix) Fix Codex App overwrites bundled plugin config/cache and removes Computer Use/Browser plugins

What version of the Codex App are you using (From “About Codex” dialog)?

Codex App 26.527.60818 Bundle version: 3437 Bundle identifier: com.openai.codex

What subscription do you have?

Plus

What platform is your computer?

Darwin 25.5.0 arm64 arm

What issue are you seeing?

Codex App is repeatedly removing the bundled Computer Use, Browser, and Chrome plugins from the active config/cache.

Computer Use disappeared from the available tools. I inspected ~/.codex/config.toml and found that computer-use@openai-bundled had previously appeared under disabled tools, and later the plugin enable stanzas were missing entirely.

The bundled plugins do exist inside the app bundle:

• /Applications/Codex.app/Contents/Resources/plugins/openai-bundled/plugins/browser
• /Applications/Codex.app/Contents/Resources/plugins/openai-bundled/plugins/chrome
• /Applications/Codex.app/Contents/Resources/plugins/openai-bundled/plugins/computer-use
• /Applications/Codex.app/Contents/Resources/plugins/openai-bundled/plugins/latex

The app bundle marketplace JSON lists all four plugins: browser, chrome, computer-use, and latex.

However, the active generated marketplace/cache is being rewritten to LaTeX-only:

• ~/.codex/.tmp/bundled-marketplaces/openai-bundled/.agents/plugins/marketplace.json lists only latex
• ~/.codex/plugins/cache/openai-bundled contains only latex
• ~/.codex/config.toml loses these stanzas:

[plugins."browser@openai-bundled"]
enabled = true

[plugins."chrome@openai-bundled"]
enabled = true

[plugins."computer-use@openai-bundled"]
enabled = true

I manually restored the marketplace/cache/config from the bundled app plugin source, and the state was correct briefly. Then the running Codex App modified the files again at the same timestamp and reverted them back to LaTeX-only.

Observed timestamp of overwrite: 2026-06-02 10:02:15 +0700 ~/.codex/config.toml 2026-06-02 10:02:15 +0700 ~/.codex/plugins/cache/openai-bundled 2026-06-02 10:02:15 +0700 ~/.codex/.tmp/bundled-marketplaces/openai-bundled

This appears to be an app-side overwrite/sync policy issue, and not a missing plugin file issue.

What steps can reproduce the bug?

1. Start with Codex App installed at /Applications/Codex.app.

2. Confirm bundled plugins exist in the app bundle:

find /Applications/Codex.app/Contents/Resources/plugins/openai-bundled/plugins -maxdepth 1 -type d -print

Expected entries include: browser chrome computer-use latex

1. Confirm active generated bundled marketplace/cache only contains LaTeX:

find ~/.codex/.tmp/bundled-marketplaces/openai-bundled -maxdepth 5 \( -name marketplace.json -o -name plugin.json -o -name SKILL.md -o -name .mcp.json \) -print | sort

find ~/.codex/plugins/cache/openai-bundled -maxdepth 5 \( -name plugin.json -o -name SKILL.md -o -name .mcp.json \) -print | sort

1. Manually restore the bundled plugin source to a stable local marketplace and cache.

2. Add the following to ~/.codex/config.toml:

[plugins."browser@openai-bundled"]
enabled = true

[plugins."chrome@openai-bundled"]
enabled = true

[plugins."computer-use@openai-bundled"]
enabled = true

1. Verify the config/cache contains Computer Use.
2. Continue using/restart Codex App.
3. Observe that Codex App rewrites:

~/.codex/config.toml
~/.codex/plugins/cache/openai-bundled
~/.codex/.tmp/bundled-marketplaces/openai-bundled

back to a LaTeX-only bundled plugin state.

What is the expected behavior?

Codex App should preserve and load the bundled browser, chrome, and computer-use plugins when they are present in the app bundle and enabled in ~/.codex/config.toml.

The generated bundled marketplace/cache should not be rewritten to LaTeX-only when the app bundle marketplace contains all four bundled plugins.

Computer Use and Browser tools should appear in the live tool registry after restart.

Additional information

The app bundle itself appears valid:

CFBundleDisplayName: Codex CFBundleIdentifier: com.openai.codex CFBundleShortVersionString: 26.527.60818 CFBundleVersion: 3437

The source marketplace copy remains intact and contains all bundled plugins, while the active generated marketplace/cache is repeatedly rewritten to LaTeX-only. This suggests the problem is in Codex App plugin sync/registration logic rather than file absence.

The issue started after I asked ChatGPT/Codex to add a new skill. Computer Use had been available before that.