codex - 💡(How to fix) Fix Computer Use native pipe unavailable on Windows despite codex-computer-use pipe existing

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

26.602.3474.0 (observed app path: C:\Program Files\WindowsApps\OpenAI.Codex_26.602.3474.0_x64__2p2nqsd0c76g0\app\Codex.exe)

What subscription do you have?

Unknown / not specified

What platform is your computer?

Windows

What issue are you seeing?

Computer Use cannot reliably list or control open Windows windows in the Codex desktop app on Windows. The failure appears related to Codex session/runtime wiring for the Computer Use native pipe.

The user approved the Codex prompt:

Set up Agent sandbox to continue / Protect your files and control network access

Computer Use still repeatedly failed to run sky.list_windows(). After reverting/ignoring that setup and restarting Codex, the app again showed the setup banner, but Computer Use still failed. This created a loop where enabling sandbox setup, disabling/ignoring it, and restarting Codex did not restore Computer Use.

Main error:

Computer Use native pipe is unavailable: Error: failed to connect native pipe: The system cannot find the file specified. (os error 2)

Latest stack trace:

Error: Computer Use native pipe is unavailable: Error: failed to connect native pipe: The system cannot find the file specified. (os error 2)
    at NativePipeComputerUseTransport.create (C:\Users\duane\.codex\plugins\cache\openai-bundled\computer-use\26.602.30954\scripts\computer-use-client.mjs:59:13)
    at process.processTicksAndRejections (node:internal/process/task_queues:104:5)
    at async setupComputerUseRuntime (C:\Users\duane\.codex\plugins\cache\openai-bundled\computer-use\26.602.30954\scripts\computer-use-client.mjs:19:16)

What steps can reproduce the bug?

1. Load the Computer Use skill instructions.
2. Run the supported bootstrap:

const { setupComputerUseRuntime } = await import(
  "C:/Users/duane/.codex/plugins/cache/openai-bundled/computer-use/26.602.30954/scripts/computer-use-client.mjs"
);
globalThis.sky = await setupComputerUseRuntime({ globals: globalThis });
await sky.list_windows();

1. Observe the native pipe connection failure.
2. Reset the JS runtime and retry.
3. Restart the Codex desktop app and retry the same bootstrap.
4. Confirm the Computer Use plugin files exist, including scripts/computer-use-client.mjs.
5. Check Windows named pipes.

Important observation: after restarting Codex and retrying, Windows showed a live-looking Computer Use named pipe such as:

codex-computer-use-c3bfbf4e-ab76-4b7b-8a6c-c5360d305cc5

Earlier, another session also showed:

codex-computer-use-3f04fac9-21c7-437c-9de6-c37a50f8fdf4

So a codex-computer-use-* pipe appears to exist, but the Computer Use client still fails to connect.

What is the expected behavior?

Computer Use should successfully run:

await sky.list_windows();

and return the list of currently open Windows windows.

Additional information

Environment observed:

• OS: Windows
• Date of latest retry: June 5, 2026
• Codex app path observed: C:\Program Files\WindowsApps\OpenAI.Codex_26.602.3474.0_x64__2p2nqsd0c76g0\app\Codex.exe
• Computer Use plugin path: C:\Users\duane\.codex\plugins\cache\openai-bundled\computer-use\26.602.30954
• Required client file exists: scripts\computer-use-client.mjs

Runtime metadata observed earlier:

{
  "hasNativePipe": false,
  "hasCreateConnection": "undefined",
  "skyPipeDirectory": null,
  "sandbox": "none"
}

The runtime object was also locked:

{
  "envExtensible": false,
  "nodeReplDescriptor": {
    "writable": false,
    "configurable": false
  }
}

At one point, Computer Use briefly worked enough to list Chrome windows, including New Issue - Google Chrome, but when attempting to inspect the GitHub issue page, Computer Use stopped with:

Computer Use has been stopped for this turn because it could not determine the current browser URL on Windows with enough confidence to enforce policy.

Suspected cause: the Computer Use helper/pipe may be running, but the Codex session/runtime is not receiving or using the correct native pipe metadata, such as nodeRepl.nativePipe or SKY_CUA_NATIVE_PIPE_DIRECTORY, or it receives an unusable/stale native pipe path.

Please also clarify whether the "Set up Agent sandbox..." state is required for Computer Use, incompatible with Computer Use, or unrelated, since both enabling and disabling/ignoring it have led to repeated Computer Use failures in this user's sessions.

Latest update, June 5, 2026:

After the original failures, Computer Use later started working without any obvious user-side fix. In the same Codex session, it successfully ran sky.list_windows() and returned open windows including:

• New Issue - Google Chrome
• Chat | (no title) | Personal | [email protected] | Microsoft Teams
• Google Chrome

Computer Use was then able to control Chrome enough to fill out this GitHub issue form.

However, shortly afterward it became unstable again: sky.list_windows() still succeeded and returned the Chrome windows, but attempting to activate the GitHub issue window failed repeatedly with:

Error: failed to activate captured window

A later retry then activated the same window again. This suggests the bug is intermittent/session-state dependent rather than a simple missing install or permanently broken setup. The native pipe/helper may sometimes be available enough to list windows, but not reliably usable for activation/control, or the session may lose and regain valid native-pipe/window-control state after initially working.