Markdown file links to local project files break when the path contains spaces

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

Version 26.325.31654 (1272)

What subscription do you have?

Pro

What platform is your computer?

Darwin 25.3.0 arm64 arm

What issue are you seeing?

In the Codex desktop app, markdown links to local files do not work correctly when the file path contains spaces.

There are two failure modes:

• If the spaces are URL-encoded as %20, the markdown renders as a link, but clicking it does not open the file.
• If the spaces are left unencoded, the markdown does not render as a clickable link at all, and the raw markdown syntax is shown instead.

This makes file references unreliable for projects stored in directories with spaces in their names.

Examples tested:

Rendered as a link, but not actually clickable/openable:
[AGENTS.md](/Users/michael/Documents/Projects/Project Name/Hotfix/AGENTS.md)

Not rendered as a clickable link; raw markdown is shown:
[AGENTS.md](/Users/michael/Documents/Projects/Project%20Name/Hotfix/AGENTS.md)

What steps can reproduce the bug?

Open the Codex desktop app in a workspace whose absolute path contains spaces.
Example:
/Users/michael/Documents/Projects/Project Name/Hotfix
Ask Codex to reference a local file using a markdown link with a path containing spaces.

Test both variants:

Unencoded spaces:
[AGENTS.md](/Users/michael/Documents/Projects/Project Name/Hotfix/AGENTS.md)

URL-encoded spaces:
[AGENTS.md](/Users/michael/Documents/Projects/Project%20Name/Hotfix/AGENTS.md)

Observe the result:

• Unencoded version: markdown is displayed as plain text, not as a link.
• Encoded version: link styling appears, but clicking does not open the file.

What is the expected behavior?

Markdown links to local files should render and open correctly even when the absolute file path contains spaces.

At minimum, one of these should work reliably:

• literal spaces in the markdown destination
• URL-encoded spaces in the markdown destination

Expected result:

• the file reference renders as a clickable link
• clicking it opens or resolves the file in the app as intended

Additional information

This seems specifically related to spaces in file paths, not markdown links in general.

The same pattern worked differently depending on encoding:

• %20 produced something that looked like a link but was not functional
• literal spaces prevented markdown parsing entirely

This may affect any project stored in directories like:

/Users/.../My Project/...

which makes file references in Codex responses unreliable for a common macOS path pattern.