macOS desktop: bundled Computer Use fails when CODEX_HOME path contains @; settings stays unavailable even though direct MCP works

Open 💬 6 comments Opened Apr 19, 2026 by davidjpramsay

💡 Likely answer: A maintainer (github-actions[bot], contributor) responded on this thread — see the highlighted reply below.

Summary

On the macOS desktop app, if the home / CODEX_HOME path contains @ (example: /Users/<user>@<org>/.codex), bundled Computer Use stays unavailable.

The bundled marketplace appears to parse the local marketplace path as if it had a git @ref. If I route around that with a symlinked CODEX_HOME path that removes @, install then hits a second failure (Is a directory (os error 21)). A direct manual MCP entry makes backend Computer Use work, but Settings > Computer use still shows Computer Use plugin unavailable.

This looks related to #18258, but I did not find an existing issue for the @-in-local-path parser failure.

Environment

Codex app: 26.415.40636 (1799)
macOS: 26.4.1 (25E253)
Hardware: Apple Silicon / M1
Home / CODEX_HOME path contains @
Example path shape: /Users/<user>@<org>/.codex

Visible symptom

Settings > Computer use shows Computer Use plugin unavailable

What I found

With normal ~/.codex, the app logs:

bundled_plugins_marketplace_add_failed
--ref is only supported for git marketplace sources

and the failing marketplaceRoot is a local path containing @:

/Users/<user>@<org>/.codex/.tmp/bundled-marketplaces/openai-bundled

If I launch Codex with a symlinked CODEX_HOME path that removes @, that first failure goes away, but the app then logs:

bundled_plugins_marketplace_install_failed
failed to install plugin: failed to read marketplace file: Is a directory (os error 21)

Separate but related diagnostic reports show repeated SkyComputerUseClient crashes with:

SIGKILL (Code Signature Invalid)
Termination Reason: Namespace CODESIGNING, Code 4, Launch Constraint Violation

Relevant local evidence

Desktop app logs:

bundled_plugins_marketplace_add_failed ... --ref is only supported for git marketplace sources with marketplaceRoot=/Users/<user>@<org>/.codex/.tmp/bundled-marketplaces/openai-bundled
bundled_plugins_marketplace_install_failed ... failed to read marketplace file: Is a directory (os error 21) with marketplaceRoot=/tmp/codex-home/.tmp/bundled-marketplaces/openai-bundled

DiagnosticReports for SkyComputerUseClient:

SIGKILL (Code Signature Invalid)
Launch Constraint Violation

Repro steps

Use the macOS desktop app with a home directory path containing @
Open Codex and go to Settings > Computer use
Observe Computer Use plugin unavailable
Check desktop logs under ~/Library/Logs/com.openai.codex/...
Observe bundled_plugins_marketplace_add_failed with --ref is only supported for git marketplace sources

Optional additional repro:

Launch Codex with a symlinked CODEX_HOME path that removes @
Observe the failure changes to failed to read marketplace file: Is a directory (os error 21)

Local workaround that got backend Computer Use working

I added a direct MCP server entry in ~/.codex/config.toml:

[mcp_servers.computer-use]
command = "/Applications/Codex.app/Contents/Resources/plugins/openai-bundled/plugins/computer-use/Codex Computer Use.app/Contents/SharedSupport/SkyComputerUseClient.app/Contents/MacOS/SkyComputerUseClient"
args = ["mcp"]

I also used a symlink path without @:

/Users/Shared/codex-home -> /Users/<user>@<org>/.codex

and pointed the bundled marketplace source at the symlink-backed path instead of the original @ path.

With that setup, actual Computer Use MCP calls work in chat, but the Settings page still shows plugin unavailable.

Why this looks like an app bug

The local marketplace source is not a git URL, but the app behaves as if the @ in the path is a git @ref.
After routing around that, the installer appears to treat the marketplace directory as a file (Is a directory).
The backend can be made to work manually, so this does not look like only bad local config.

Related issues

#18258
#18523

View original on GitHub ↗

6 Comments

github-actions[bot] contributor · 4 months ago

Potential duplicates detected. Please review them and close your issue if it is a duplicate.

#18258
#18523

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davidjpramsay · 3 months ago

Can you confirm whether the macOS desktop app is expected to support home / CODEX_HOME paths containing @ in the directory name, and whether this issue is the right place to track that specific parser bug?

In my debugging, that path shape reliably produced --ref is only supported for git marketplace sources against a local bundled marketplace path, and changing only the path (via a symlink without @) changed the failure to a different error. So while there seem to be multiple separate Computer Use issues involved, the @ path parsing problem looked like a distinct bug rather than just a symptom.

I mainly want to confirm whether @ in the home / CODEX_HOME path is currently supported by the desktop app, or whether that is a known unsupported case / known bug.

IgorGanapolsky · 3 months ago

The @ in your CODEX_HOME path is almost certainly the cause — multiple parts of Codex's plugin marketplace logic shell out to commands that aren't quoting $CODEX_HOME, so a path with @ (or any URL-encoded character) gets parsed as user@host somewhere down the chain and the registration silently fails.

Two confirmations:

printenv | grep -i codex
ls -la "$CODEX_HOME"/plugins/cache/openai-bundled/computer-use/*/.mcp.json 2>&1

If the env shows CODEX_HOME=...@... and the .mcp.json is missing, the workaround is to move CODEX_HOME to a path without special characters and re-run codex plugin marketplace add /Applications/Codex.app/Contents/Resources/plugins/openai-bundled.

This belongs under the multiple-Codex-homes failure class — I documented six root causes for "Computer Use unavailable" including this CODEX_HOME variant: https://igorganapolsky.github.io/openclaw-mac-ai-workstation-setup/troubleshooting.html

Free script in the repo (scripts/self-diagnose.mjs) captures env + cache layout into a redacted bundle. $19 quick read confirms whether the @-in-path is the trigger or there's a second cause.

davidjpramsay · 3 months ago

Just checking whether this issue is still actively tracked, and whether anyone is already working on the macOS @ home / CODEX_HOME path case on the desktop app side.

On my machine, Computer Use still is not surfacing normally as available in the desktop app, currently:

Codex Desktop 26.513.31313
bundled runtime codex-cli 0.131.0-alpha.9

Happy to test a build or provide more logs if useful.

davidjpramsay · 3 months ago

Update: after Codex Desktop updated to 26.519.22136 with bundled runtime codex-cli 0.133.0-alpha.1, Settings still showed Computer Use plugins unavailable.

The local Desktop logs still showed bundled plugin reconcile failing with:

--ref is only supported for git marketplace sources

A non-destructive workaround using the bundled CLI fixed it for me:

/Applications/Codex.app/Contents/Resources/codex plugin marketplace add /Applications/Codex.app/Contents/Resources/plugins/openai-bundled
/Applications/Codex.app/Contents/Resources/codex plugin add computer-use@openai-bundled

After fully restarting Codex, Computer Use appeared normally. I verified basic functionality with computer-use.list_apps and computer-use.get_app_state("Finder"); the latter reported CUA App Version 799 and returned Finder state successfully.

So on this build the plugin/helper can work under my @ home path, but Desktop’s automatic bundled-plugin reconcile path still appears to be failing while manual install through the bundled CLI succeeds.

nikkundra · 24 days ago

Cross-linking a distinct parser sibling, not a duplicate: #36725 covers exact workspace paths whose literal *, ?, [ or ] are reclassified as glob syntax, breaking Computer Use/nested runtimes. This @ report shows a separate local-path parser losing literal identity by treating @ as a Git ref. Both support end-to-end regression coverage for legal punctuation across marketplace, permission-profile, and nested-runtime handoffs.