codex - 💡(How to fix) Fix Windows Desktop: node_repl/in-app browser fails with `windows sandbox failed: spawn setup refresh` after reinstall

Summary

Codex Desktop on Windows cannot start node_repl, which also prevents the in-app browser automation from connecting. Every node_repl invocation exits immediately with:

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}

This persists after fully uninstalling Codex, rebooting Windows, reinstalling Codex, and resetting ~/.codex/config.toml.

Environment

• OS: Windows
• Codex Desktop package path/version observed: OpenAI.Codex_26.519.11010.0_x64__2p2nqsd0c76g0
• Browser plugin cache observed: openai-bundled/browser/26.519.81530
• node_repl.exe path observed: %LOCALAPPDATA%/OpenAI/Codex/bin/3c238e29bbc930ff/node_repl.exe
• codex.exe path observed: %LOCALAPPDATA%/OpenAI/Codex/bin/958d608b5e0546a5/codex.exe

Impact

• mcp__node_repl__.js fails even for a minimal script like:

nodeRepl.write(JSON.stringify({ ok: true }));

• Because the Browser skill depends on node_repl, the in-app browser cannot be inspected or controlled.
• Ordinary PowerShell/shell commands still work.

Reproduction / observed sequence

1. Open Codex Desktop on Windows.
2. Open the in-app browser to a simple page such as https://www.google.com/.
3. Invoke node_repl through the Codex tool layer with a minimal script.
4. The kernel exits immediately with:

windows sandbox failed: spawn setup refresh
reason: stdout_eof

Troubleshooting already attempted

• Restarted Windows.
• Fully quit Codex and reopened it.
• Uninstalled Codex, rebooted, reinstalled Codex.
• Renamed/reset ~/.codex/config.toml; Codex regenerated the config.
• Confirmed node_repl.exe --help runs successfully from PowerShell, so the binary itself is present and executable.
• Confirmed normal shell commands run successfully under Codex.
• Confirmed the regenerated config includes:

[windows]
sandbox = "elevated"

• Temporarily tested whether adding --disable-sandbox to [mcp_servers.node_repl].args in config.toml would help, but the actual node_repl.exe process command line did not include that argument, so the Desktop app appears not to pass that config value to the managed node_repl server. The change was reverted.

Additional diagnostic notes

• A shell tool call later surfaced another sandbox-related Windows error:

windows sandbox: CreateProcessWithLogonW failed: 5

• ~/.codex/.sandbox/sandbox.log shows ordinary sandbox setup calls completing successfully for PowerShell commands, so the failure seems specific to the node_repl startup path rather than all sandboxed commands.

Expected behavior

node_repl should start successfully, and the in-app browser should be accessible through the Browser skill.

Actual behavior

node_repl exits immediately with windows sandbox failed: spawn setup refresh, making in-app browser automation unavailable.