codex - 💡(How to fix) Fix Codex Desktop in-app browser connector fails to attach on Windows sandbox startup

Summary

In Codex Desktop on Windows, the in-app browser connector failed to attach to an already-open Codex browser session. After the connector failed, browser automation fell back to a separate browser context instead of controlling the in-app browser.

Impact

This makes collaborative browser tasks unreliable when the user is already signed in inside the Codex in-app browser. It can also confuse the workflow by opening or controlling a different browser context than the one the user is viewing.

Environment

• Product: Codex Desktop
• Platform: Windows
• Browser target: Codex in-app browser
• Runtime path pattern: bundled browser plugin using browser-client.mjs
• Automation bootstrap attempted through the Node REPL MCP runtime

Steps to Reproduce

1. Open a website in the Codex in-app browser.
2. Ask Codex to continue a task using that in-app browser session.
3. Codex attempts to initialize the bundled browser runtime and select the in-app browser.

Actual Behavior

The Node REPL kernel exits unexpectedly during browser runtime startup. One observed diagnostic was:

node_repl kernel exited unexpectedly
node_repl diagnostics: {"kernel_status":"running","kernel_stderr_tail":"windows sandbox failed: spawn setup refresh","reason":"stdout_eof","stream_error":null}

An earlier attempt in the same workflow also failed with a native startup assertion:

node_repl kernel exited unexpectedly
Assertion failed: ncrypto::CSPRNG(nullptr, 0)

After this, automation used a separate browser context rather than attaching to the visible in-app browser session.

Expected Behavior

Codex should attach to the existing in-app browser session. If startup fails, it should surface a clear error and avoid silently opening or controlling a different browser context.

Privacy Note

This report intentionally excludes account names, URLs, project names, secrets, and other personal or project-specific details.