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Codex Issues / #20706

pet/avatar overlay feature gate blocked

Open 💬 3 comments Opened May 1, 2026 by grava-claw

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

Codex desktop 26.429.30905

What subscription do you have?

ChatGPT Plus

What platform is your computer?

macOS

What issue are you seeing?

Issue: /pet appears in autocomplete, but no pet appears. Pets section is enabled in Settings > Appearance/Personalization.

Log: NSWindow does not support nonactivating panel styleMask 0x80

The /pet slash command appears in autocomplete (“Wake or tuck away the desktop pet”), but selecting it does not show the pet.

It looks like the pet/avatar overlay feature gate and UI are inconsistent, or the overlay window fails to create.

Codex says You can also mention that the bundled feature gate appears to be 2679188970, but keep that as “observed while inspecting the app bundle,” not the main claim

What steps can reproduce the bug?

/pet command does not make the pet appear, and clicking on the thinking prompt that comes up also does not make the pet appear.

What is the expected behavior?

the slash command /pet should make the pet appear, shouldn't it?

Additional information

restarting the app, and logging out/in again and that did not help. I also tried toggling the pet wake/put away status and hitting the refresh button in appearance/pets.

Looks cute! hope it will work soon.

View original on GitHub ↗

3 Comments

carmelyne · 3 months ago

I may be seeing the same overlay/window issue, but with a slightly different symptom.

I filed in-app feedback here:

Feedback ID:
019de4eb-644f-7ff3-a198-0f3fe1ae9e62

In my case, /pet opens the overlay and the pet can be dragged, but only a tiny sliver is visible.

Built-in pets and custom pets both reproduce the issue. The “Greet pet” bubble/tray is clipped too, so this does not appear to be a spritesheet/custom asset issue.

Codex Version:
26.429.30905 (2345)

macOS:
26.4.1 (25E253)

Mac:
Apple M1, Metal 4

Display setup:

  • Built-in Retina LCD: 2560 x 1600 Retina, Main Display, Mirror Off
  • External display: 1680 x 1050 @ 75Hz, Mirror Off, Rotation Supported

Observed:

  • /pet opens the overlay, but only a tiny sliver is visible.
  • The pet can be dragged.
  • The “Greet pet” bubble/tray is also clipped.
  • Built-in/default pets reproduce the same clipping.
  • Custom pet PNG/WebP does not affect the issue.
  • Saved state bounds look normal:
  • electron-avatar-overlay-bounds.width = 356
  • electron-avatar-overlay-bounds.height = 320

Expected:
The pet overlay window should render at its full 356 x 320 bounds, including mascot and activity bubble.

Likely area:
Transparent always-on-top Electron avatar overlay window rendering/clipping on macOS with multi-display setup.

jazzyalex · 3 months ago

Additional data point: this is not specific to one built-in pet or one custom asset.

I installed a known Petdex custom pet using:

npx petdex install boba

It installed into:

~/.codex/pets/boba/
  pet.json
  spritesheet.webp

Codex Desktop recognizes the custom pet and it can be selected in Settings > Appearance > Pets. However, the pet still renders cut/clipped in the overlay, the same way the built-in mascots do.

So the current behavior appears to be:

  • Built-in mascots render cut/clipped.
  • Custom pets render cut/clipped.
  • The pet selection/install path works.
  • The failure is likely in the Desktop pet/avatar overlay sizing, clipping, or window rendering path rather than in individual pet assets.
jacobcreo · 3 months ago

I’m seeing what looks like the same pet/avatar feature area failing on the same Codex Desktop version, but with one extra clue that may help narrow it down.

Related issue I filed: https://github.com/openai/codex/issues/21065

My setup:

  • Codex Desktop 26.429.30905 / CFBundleVersion 2345
  • macOS on Apple Silicon
  • uname -mpr: 25.3.0 arm64 arm
  • ChatGPT Pro

In my case, /pet does appear to open the avatar overlay window. I can see a second small Codex window, and the activity/status tray renders inside it. So for me it does not look like the overlay window is completely failing to open.

The missing part is specifically the mascot/pet sprite:

  • The status/activity tray appears.
  • The selected pet/mascot is not visible anywhere.
  • Restarting Codex did not fix it.
  • Loading /pet again does not make the mascot appear.
  • A screenshot crop of the expected mascot region contains only overlay/status UI, no sprite.

One possible packaging/rendering clue from local inspection:

  • The app bundle contains webview/assets/codex-avatar-D82knaKt.css.
  • That file defines .codex-avatar-root with what look like the required sprite rules, including width: 7.04rem, aspect-ratio: 192/208, and background-size: 800% 900%.
  • In my installed bundle, webview/index.html links several CSS files but does not appear to link codex-avatar-D82knaKt.css.
  • avatar-overlay-page-Dj9Zinq_.js imports codex-avatar-BpKnWN_W.js, but that JS chunk does not appear to import the avatar CSS.

So this may be two related failure modes:

  1. /pet/feature gate/overlay activation not showing anything for some users.
  2. Overlay opens, but avatar CSS is not loaded, so the pet element may render with no effective sprite sizing/background and becomes invisible.

Hope this helps narrow it down. The feature looks great, would love to see it working.