codex - 💡(How to fix) Fix Codex Causes Frontend Dev Server Startup to Hang and Memory Usage to Exceed 50GB on Mac

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

26.519.41501 (3044)

What subscription do you have?

1. Open a frontend project in Codex. 2. Do not enable or use any Codex skill. 3. Run the frontend project locally, for example with npm run dev. 4. Observe that the dev server startup becomes extremely slow or hangs. 5. Check system memory usage in Activity Monitor. 6. Memory usage increases rapidly and can exceed 50 GB. 7. The Mac eventually freezes or becomes unresponsive.

What platform is your computer?

No response

What issue are you seeing?

When using Codex with my frontend project, the dev server startup becomes extremely slow or completely hangs, even when no Codex skill is used.

The issue happens when I run the frontend dev server, for example with npm run dev. Memory usage increases rapidly and can exceed 50 GB, eventually causing my Mac to freeze or become unresponsive.

This does not seem to be limited to a specific skill. It can also happen without using any skill, so the issue may be related to Codex scanning, indexing, watching, or processing the project files.

The project contains typical frontend directories such as node_modules, .next, dist, or build cache folders. It looks like Codex may be consuming excessive memory when handling the project workspace.

What steps can reproduce the bug?

1. Open a frontend project in Codex.
2. Do not enable or use any Codex skill.
3. Run the frontend project locally, for example with npm run dev.
4. Observe that the dev server startup becomes extremely slow or hangs.
5. Check system memory usage in Activity Monitor.
6. Memory usage increases rapidly and can exceed 50 GB.
7. The Mac eventually freezes or becomes unresponsive.

What is the expected behavior?

No response

Additional information

No response