codex - 💡(How to fix) Fix Codex Browser Use rejects allowed localhost URL with “user has requested that URL should not be used”

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

26.513.31313 Observed in logs as platform=win32 release=26.513.31313

What subscription do you have?

ChatGPT Pro

What platform is your computer?

Windows 11 Pro, Microsoft Windows NT 10.0.26200.0 x64

What issue are you seeing?

After a Codex update and config changes, Browser Use / in-app browser automation rejects navigation to explicitly allowed URLs, including http://localhost:5173, with:

Browser Use rejected this action due to browser security policy. Reason: The user has requested that http://localhost:5173 should not be used.

This happens even though:

http://localhost:5173 is reachable from the machine. Codex Browser settings show nothing blocked. The URL was re-added as allowed. C:\Users\Steve.codex\browser\config.toml contains http://localhost:5173 and http://127.0.0.1:5173 in [origins].allowed. [origins].denied = [].

What steps can reproduce the bug?

1. Use Codex Desktop on Windows.
2. Set config to custom/workspace-write with network enabled: sandbox_mode = "workspace-write" approval_policy = "on-request"

[sandbox_workspace_write] network_access = true

[windows] sandbox = "elevated" 3. In the UI, choose Custom (config.toml) permissions. 4. Run a local dev server on http://localhost:5173. 5. Confirm from shell that it works, e.g. Invoke-WebRequest http://localhost:5173 returns HTTP 200. 6. In Browser/Computer Use settings, ensure localhost:5173 is allowed and not blocked. 7. Ask Codex to open or inspect http://localhost:5173 using the in-app browser / Browser Use. 8. Browser Use rejects the navigation with the security policy message above.

What is the expected behavior?

Browser Use should navigate to http://localhost:5173 after the user has allowed it, especially when it is present in the Browser allowed origins config and not present in denied origins.

Additional information

Local config file: [origins] allowed = [ "...", "https://localhost", "https://127.0.0.1", "http://127.0.0.1:5173", "http://localhost:5173" ] denied = []

• The local app itself is reachable: Invoke-WebRequest http://localhost:5173 returns HTTP 200.
• A public test site, https://example.com, also produced the same style of rejection earlier.
• The exact rejection string appears to come from Browser Use origin approval logic, after an access_browser_origin approval request returns something other than accept.
• There may be stale persisted permission state involved. Local state showed several adjacent Browser/sidebar route conversations with networkAccess: false, while the active chat thread had networkAccess: true.
• Important distinction: a popup asking to allow node_repl to run tool js is only tool-execution approval; it does not appear to be the Browser Use origin approval for localhost.