codex - 💡(How to fix) Fix VS Code extension on Windows: clicking Codex file links triggers vscode://codex/open-in-targets but extension says “open-in-target not supported in extension” [3 comments, 2 participants]

Summary

On Windows, clicking file references in the Codex VS Code chat does not open the file in VS Code.

Instead, the Codex extension appears to route the click through vscode://codex/open-in-targets, but the extension logs:

open-in-target not supported in extension

This makes file references in Codex chat effectively non-openable.

Environment

• OS: Windows
• VS Code: 1.115.0
• Codex extension: openai.chatgpt 26.5409.20454
• Launch style:
  • Code.exe --extensions-dir "C:\VSCode\extensions\Default" --user-data-dir "C:\VSCode\settings\Default1"

Steps to Reproduce

1. Open VS Code with the user-data-dir/extensions-dir above.
2. Open the Codex extension / Codex sidebar.
3. In a Codex conversation, click a local file reference rendered by Codex.
4. Example reference that was tested:
   • [Api.ts](/c:/Java/NetBeans-projects/VNAB/e-ABS-develop/VnabEabsWebVue/src/main/webapp/vue/src/Api.ts:117)

Actual Result

• The file is not opened in VS Code.
• In previous setups / versions, these references used to open locally.
• In my current setup, the extension log shows:

Error fetching errorMessage="open-in-target not supported in extension"

and

url=vscode://codex/open-in-targets

Expected Result

Clicking a Codex file reference should open the referenced local file in the editor at the target line.

Relevant Logs

From:

C:\VSCode\settings\Default1\logs\20260413T114743\window1\exthost\openai.chatgpt\Codex.log

Relevant lines:

• ... Error fetching errorMessage="open-in-target not supported in extension" ... url=vscode://codex/open-in-targets
• This occurred multiple times after clicking file links in the Codex chat UI.

Also observed in the same log:

• local-environments is not supported in the extension
• separate 403/plugin sync warnings, but those seem unrelated

Notes

• I checked whether this was caused by my project or path format, but the log suggests the click is reaching the Codex extension and failing there.
• I also checked whether this might be a recent VS Code security change, but I could not find an official VS Code release note indicating that vscode:// extension URI handling for this case was intentionally restricted.
• There is a related Windows extension issue here:
  • #7487 (openai-codex:/... fails to resolve)
• There is also community discussion reporting similar behavior:
  • Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/codex/comments/1rn42co/is_it_just_me_or_codex_on_vscode_is_not_able_to/
  • Cursor forum: https://forum.cursor.com/t/cursor-3-0-on-windows-codex-file-links-open-external-browser-instead-of-ide-with-open-in-target-not-supported-in-extension/156563

Workarounds

Current workaround is manual:

• copy the path:line
• open with Ctrl+P
• jump to the line manually