codex - 💡(How to fix) Fix Windows app: Browser Use is packaged and feature-flagged but not exposed in UI or plugin marketplace [1 comments, 2 participants]

Summary

In the Codex Windows desktop app, Browser Use appears to be packaged with the app and feature flags appear enabled, but the feature is not exposed in Settings, Plugins, autocomplete, shortcuts, or local URL handling.

Environment

• OS: Windows
• Codex Windows app package after update: OpenAI.Codex_26.422.2339.0_x64__2p2nqsd0c76g0
• App install location: %ProgramFiles%\WindowsApps\OpenAI.Codex_26.422.2339.0_x64__2p2nqsd0c76g0
• Auth mode observed in logs: ChatGPT
• Model in use: gpt-5.5

Symptoms

• No Browser Use section appears in Settings.
• No Browser Use plugin appears in Plugins.
• @browser-use and @Browser do not autocomplete.
• Ctrl+Shift+B does nothing.
• Typing/clicking http://localhost:3000, http://localhost:8000, or http://localhost does not open an in-app browser.

Diagnostics

The installed app package contains the Browser Use plugin:

%ProgramFiles%\WindowsApps\OpenAI.Codex_26.422.2339.0_x64__2p2nqsd0c76g0\app\resources\plugins\openai-bundled\plugins\browser-use

The packaged marketplace includes both browser-use and latex-tectonic:

{
  "name": "openai-bundled",
  "plugins": [
    { "name": "browser-use" },
    { "name": "latex-tectonic" }
  ]
}

But the rebuilt user bundled marketplace cache only contains latex-tectonic:

%USERPROFILE%\.codex\.tmp\bundled-marketplaces\openai-bundled

Cached marketplace observed:

{
  "name": "openai-bundled",
  "plugins": [
    { "name": "latex-tectonic" }
  ]
}

The Codex logs for the running session show feature flags including both InAppBrowser and BrowserUse:

features=[..., Plugins, InAppBrowser, BrowserUse, ...]

Things tried

1. Updated Codex through the Microsoft Store.
2. Fully quit Codex.
3. Deleted %USERPROFILE%\.codex\.tmp\bundled-marketplaces\openai-bundled.
4. Restarted Codex.
5. Confirmed the cache rebuilt, but it still omitted browser-use.
6. Tried an experimental config.toml override pointing [marketplaces.openai-bundled].source directly to the packaged marketplace. On restart/update, Codex reset it back to the filtered cache path.

Expected behavior

If BrowserUse and InAppBrowser are enabled and the packaged marketplace includes browser-use, the Windows app should expose Browser Use in Settings/Plugins and allow @browser-use or the documented in-app browser shortcut/URL behavior.

Actual behavior

Browser Use is packaged and appears feature-flagged, but is filtered out of the user marketplace cache and unavailable in the UI.

Notes

This looks like a Windows app marketplace-cache/filtering, rollout-gating, or UI exposure bug rather than a missing package or stale install.