Codex macOS desktop app hangs on launch (Dock icon bounces indefinitely, no window created)

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

Latest production macOS desktop build (fresh install). Unable to retrieve exact version number because the app never opens.

What subscription do you have?

ChatGPT Plus

What issue are you seeing?

The Codex macOS desktop application fails to launch. After starting the app, the Dock icon bounces indefinitely, but no application window is ever created.

The app does not crash and shows no error dialog. It appears to deadlock after startup but before the first UI window is created.

Launching the app from the terminal shows that the binary starts successfully but execution stalls immediately after logging “Launching app”.

Terminal Output:
Launching app {
buildFlavor: 'prod',
nodeEnv: undefined,
enableSparkle: true,
allowDevtools: false,
allowInspectElement: false,
allowDebugMenu: false,
platform: 'darwin',
packaged: true
}
No further logs are emitted and the app remains stuck indefinitely.

What steps can reproduce the bug?

1. Install the Codex macOS desktop app using the official installer
2. Launch Codex from /Applications or Spotlight
3. Observe the Dock icon bouncing indefinitely
4. No application window is created
5. App must be force-quit

Reproduces 100% of the time.

The issue persists after:

• Force-killing all Codex processes
• Full removal of all Codex-related state:

~/Library/Application Support/Codex
~/Library/Caches/Codex
~/Library/Logs/Codex
~/Library/Preferences/com.openai.codex.plist
~/Library/Saved Application State/com.openai.codex.savedState

• System reboot
• Reinstalling the app from scratch
• Launching with Electron flags:

--disable-gpu
--disable-gpu-compositing
--disable-software-rasterizer
--no-sandbox

• Launching under Rosetta (x86_64)

None of these result in a window being created.

What is the expected behavior?

Codex should open its main application window and allow normal interaction with the desktop UI.

Additional information

The Codex CLI works correctly on the same machine, confirming that authentication, backend connectivity, and installation are functional.

Example:
/Applications/Codex.app/Contents/Resources/codex --help works as expected.

This suggests the issue is isolated to the Electron desktop wrapper, likely occurring after bootstrap but before BrowserWindow creation.

Impact:

• Codex desktop app is completely unusable
• No user-side workaround exists
• CLI and editor integrations are the only viable alternatives

Severity: Critical (app cannot launch)