codex - 💡(How to fix) Fix Windows desktop upgrade leaves openai-bundled marketplace partial, causing Browser/Computer Use unavailable

Summary

After recent Codex Windows desktop app upgrades/restarts, Browser and Computer Use repeatedly become unavailable or appear unavailable in settings. Local diagnostics show that Codex can leave the active bundled marketplace directory in a partial/corrupt state:

C:\Users\dzr04\.codex\.tmp\bundled-marketplaces\openai-bundled

The active directory may contain only:

plugins\chrome\extension-host

and is missing:

C:\Users\dzr04\.codex\.tmp\bundled-marketplaces\openai-bundled\.agents\plugins\marketplace.json

When this happens, CLI reports:

No plugins found in marketplace openai-bundled

while the plugin cache still contains installed Browser / Chrome / Computer Use plugin roots.

Environment

• OS: Windows
• Codex desktop app observed before update: OpenAI.Codex_26.601.2237.0_x64__2p2nqsd0c76g0
• Codex desktop app after update: OpenAI.Codex_26.602.3474.0_x64__2p2nqsd0c76g0
• CLI observed before update: Codex Doctor v0.136.0-alpha.2
• CLI after update: Codex Doctor v0.137.0-alpha.4
• Bundled plugin runtime observed after update: 26.602.30954
• Codex home: C:\Users\dzr04\.codex

Impact

• Settings can show Browser or Computer Use unavailable after restart/update.
• codex plugin list --marketplace openai-bundled returns no plugins.
• Computer Use native pipe can fail at startup with missing helper paths.
• Browser IAB may still be internally available, but marketplace/plugin state exposed to settings/CLI is inconsistent.
• Manual repairs are not durable across updates/restarts.

Evidence

codex doctor --summary reports config/auth/runtime loaded with no hard failures, e.g.:

15 ok · 1 idle · 3 notes · 2 warn · 0 fail degraded

But:

codex plugin list --marketplace openai-bundled

returns:

No plugins found in marketplace openai-bundled

Observed active marketplace path:

C:\Users\dzr04\.codex\.tmp\bundled-marketplaces\openai-bundled

Observed contents:

plugins

Missing:

C:\Users\dzr04\.codex\.tmp\bundled-marketplaces\openai-bundled\.agents\plugins\marketplace.json

Observed plugin cache still contains installed roots such as:

• C:\Users\dzr04\.codex\plugins\cache\openai-bundled\browser\26.602.30954
• C:\Users\dzr04\.codex\plugins\cache\openai-bundled\chrome\latest
• C:\Users\dzr04\.codex\plugins\cache\openai-bundled\computer-use\26.602.30954

Relevant log messages observed include:

bundled_plugins_runtime_marketplace_written pluginCount=4 pluginNames=["browser","chrome","computer-use","latex"] targetMarketplaceRoot=C:\Users\dzr04\.codex\.tmp\bundled-marketplaces\openai-bundled

Earlier version also produced:

marketplace 'openai-bundled' is already added from a different source; remove it before adding this source

Recent version produced:

computer-use notify config ensure finished platform=win32 reason=missing-helper-path status=skipped
computer-use native pipe startup failed errorMessage="Windows Computer Use helper paths are unavailable"

There were also file-operation failures during bundled marketplace rebuild:

EPERM: operation not permitted, rename '...\openai-bundled.staging-...' -> '...\openai-bundled'

Earlier runs also showed EBUSY around Chrome/extension-host files.

Additional observation

The Browser IAB backend itself can still be reachable. Using the Browser plugin client through node_repl, agent.browsers.get("iab") succeeded and listed the current in-app browser tab. This suggests the Browser backend may be running, while marketplace/plugin state is corrupted or unsynchronized.

Reproduction pattern

1. Use Codex desktop app on Windows.
2. Enable/use Browser and Computer Use.
3. Let Codex desktop update, or restart Codex after update.
4. Open settings for Browser / Computer Use.
5. Browser or Computer Use may show unavailable.
6. codex plugin list --marketplace openai-bundled may report no plugins.
7. Inspect C:\Users\dzr04\.codex\.tmp\bundled-marketplaces\openai-bundled.
8. The directory may be partial and missing .agents\plugins\marketplace.json.

Suspected root cause

The Codex desktop app appears to rebuild the bundled openai-bundled marketplace under .codex\.tmp\bundled-marketplaces. On Windows, this rebuild can be interrupted or blocked by file locks from extension-host.exe / native messaging host processes, leaving a partial active marketplace. Subsequent plugin/state reads treat openai-bundled as empty or invalid.

There also appears to be a startup ordering issue where Computer Use native pipe initialization can happen before the rebuilt marketplace and installed helper paths are available, causing missing-helper-path.

Workarounds tried

• Cleaning malformed TOML project headers.
• Removing invalid project-level .codex/config.toml.
• Reinstalling browser@openai-bundled, chrome@openai-bundled, and computer-use@openai-bundled.
• Removing custom fixed marketplace overrides.
• Killing stale extension-host.exe.
• Testing CODEX_ELECTRON_ENABLE_WINDOWS_COMPUTER_USE=1.
• Verifying Browser IAB directly with Browser plugin client.

Some workarounds temporarily restore functionality, but the issue recurs after updates/restarts.

Non-fixes / pitfalls

These should not be required and were not durable:

• Long-term overriding [marketplaces.openai-bundled] to a custom fixed directory.
• Relying on openai-bundled-fixed as the primary marketplace.
• Setting SKY_CUA_SERVICE_PATH or notify to codex-computer-use.exe.

Requested fix

Please investigate Codex desktop bundled marketplace rebuild on Windows:

1. Ensure .tmp\bundled-marketplaces\openai-bundled is updated atomically and never left as the active marketplace if staging/rename fails.
2. Detect and recover from partial active marketplace directories missing .agents\plugins\marketplace.json.
3. Avoid deleting/uninstalling bundled plugin state based on a partial marketplace.
4. Delay or retry Computer Use native pipe initialization until computer-use@openai-bundled helper paths are available.
5. Handle native messaging extension-host.exe file locks during upgrade/rebuild.