codex - 💡(How to fix) Fix Codex Desktop macOS: Computer Use approval denied via MCP elicitation for every app even after reinstall, reboot, and granting Screen Recording + Accessibility [3 comments, 3 participants]

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

Codex Desktop app 26.417.41555

What subscription do you have?

Pro

What platform is your computer?

macOS on Apple Silicon

What issue are you seeing?

Computer Use cannot control any app.

list_apps works and returns installed/running apps, but every actual app-control request fails with:

Computer Use approval denied via MCP elicitation for app '...'

This happens for:

• Google Chrome
• Safari
• Finder

Codex itself returns a different expected message (not allowed ... for safety reasons), so that appears unrelated.

What steps can reproduce the bug?

1. Open Codex Desktop on macOS.
2. Ensure the Computer Use plugin is enabled.
3. Attempt a Computer Use action such as get_app_state for Finder or Google Chrome.
4. The request fails immediately with:
   • Computer Use approval denied via MCP elicitation for app 'com.apple.finder'
   • or
   • Computer Use approval denied via MCP elicitation for app 'com.google.Chrome'

What is the expected behavior?

Codex Desktop should surface and complete the per-app approval flow, then allow Computer Use to capture app state and control the approved app.

Additional information

The backend creates the approval request, but the approval never completes successfully in the desktop app.

Additional information

I verified the following:

• list_apps works, so the plugin/MCP server is running.
• The problem is not Chrome-specific:
  • Finder fails the same way.
  • Safari fails the same way.
• I fully quit Codex, reinstalled Codex Desktop, rebooted the Mac, and retried.
• I manually added and enabled both of these in macOS privacy settings:
  • Codex
  • Codex Computer Use
• They are enabled in:
  • Privacy & Security > Accessibility
  • Privacy & Security > Screen & System Audio Recording

I also inspected local behavior and found:

• The backend still emits the approval request, for example:
  • Allow Codex to use Google Chrome?
• Earlier logs on this same Mac showed successful approval handling in older sessions:
  • mcpServer/elicitation/request response={"action":"accept","content":{},"_meta":null}
• In current failing sessions, the desktop notifications service starts, but there is no successful approval completion path for the request.

This makes it look like a Codex Desktop approval / elicitation bug rather than a macOS permission issue or a browser-specific issue.

Relevant symptoms

• Computer Use helper present: com.openai.sky.CUAService
• Accessibility granted
• Screen Recording granted
• Approval request still fails at the Codex Desktop elicitation layer

Notes

This is reproducible after:

• reinstall
• reboot
• fresh thread
• testing multiple apps
• confirming both required macOS permissions are enabled