Codex Desktop macOS: Settings UI non-interactive (gear icon + controls unclickable)

Summary

The Codex Desktop app UI is partially non-interactive. The settings gear icon is not clickable, and controls inside the Settings panel don't respond to clicks. Settings can only be opened via the macOS top menu bar, and even then the toggles/buttons inside are dead.

The app does correctly read and apply ~/.codex/config.toml, so the backend/config path is healthy — this appears to be a UI layer / click-hitbox regression.

Environment

• App: Codex Desktop for macOS
• Version: 26.318.11754
• Build: 1100
• OS: macOS (Darwin 25.3.0)

Reproduction

1. Launch Codex Desktop on macOS.
2. Click the settings gear icon in the app UI → no response.
3. Open Settings from the macOS top app menu → panel opens.
4. Click any settings control/toggle → no response.

Expected Result

• Gear icon opens Settings.
• Settings controls are clickable and update app configuration.

What was already tried (none fixed it)

• Reinstalling the Codex app
• Resetting ~/.codex/.codex-global-state.json
• Resetting ~/Library/Application Support/Codex
• Resetting related preference/cache/HTTP storage state
• Logging out and back in
• Launching with --disable-gpu

Diagnostic detail

config.toml is still loaded and applied correctly, confirming the issue is UI-only:

model = "gpt-5.4"
model_reasoning_effort = "high"
approval_policy = "on-request"
sandbox_mode = "danger-full-access"

Relevant log files

Recent app logs (all from 2026-03-20):

• ~/Library/Logs/com.openai.codex/2026/03/20/codex-desktop-78dc650f-...-194748-0.log
• ~/Library/Logs/com.openai.codex/2026/03/20/codex-desktop-5ff31f23-...-200446-0.log
• ~/Library/Logs/com.openai.codex/2026/03/20/codex-desktop-0e201ae4-...-201127-0.log

App logs show normal config/read responses and successful renderer/app-server startup. No errors related to the click handling.

Files inspected

• ~/.codex/config.toml — readable/writable, loads successfully
• ~/.codex/auth.json — valid
• ~/Library/Application Support/Codex — reset, issue persisted
• ~/Library/Preferences/com.openai.codex.plist — inspected, normal

Workaround

Edit ~/.codex/config.toml directly — the app honors it even though the Settings UI is dead.