›_ Codex Issues
Codex Issues / #21247

Codex dependencies show as not installed and reinstall fails from Settings on Windows

Open 💬 4 comments Opened May 5, 2026 by gmgdonofrio
💡 Likely answer: A maintainer (github-actions[bot], contributor) responded on this thread — see the highlighted reply below.

What version of Codex is running?

Unknown from UI; observed on May 5, 2026 in the Codex desktop app on Windows.

Which model were you using?

Codex desktop app.

What platform is your computer?

Windows

What happened?

In Codex desktop, under Settings > Configuration, the workspace dependency section shows:

  • Versione corrente: Non installata
  • Codex dependencies toggle enabled

When trying to recover from tool/runtime problems through the dependencies UI, the app shows these messages:

  • Potrebbe essere necessario correggere le dipendenze di Codex. Invia /feedback se il problema persiste
  • Impossibile reinstallare le dipendenze di Codex

So the app recognizes a dependency problem, but reinstall from the Settings screen fails and leaves the dependency state as not installed.

Steps to reproduce

  1. Open Codex desktop on Windows.
  2. Go to Settings > Configuration.
  3. Look at the workspace dependencies section.
  4. Observe that current version is shown as Non installata.
  5. Attempt the recovery/reinstall flow for Codex dependencies.
  6. Observe the failure toast: Impossibile reinstallare le dipendenze di Codex.

Expected behavior

If Codex dependencies are missing, the app should reinstall them successfully from Settings, or provide a clear actionable error explaining why installation failed.

Actual behavior

Dependencies remain in a not installed state and the reinstall action fails.

Additional context

This was visible directly in the Settings UI, under the workspace dependency section, while troubleshooting tool/runtime problems.

The UI also suggested sending feedback if the problem persisted. A previously uploaded feedback/thread ID associated with this troubleshooting session is:

019df9f1-7d90-7950-8e06-b329535708db

The issue seems specifically about Codex-managed dependencies in the app, not about the project repository dependencies.

View original on GitHub ↗

4 Comments

github-actions[bot] contributor · 3 months ago

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

  • #21116
  • #19811
  • #19570

Powered by Codex Action

visaiha1807-alt · 3 months ago

I am seeing a very similar issue on Windows.

Environment:

  • Codex Desktop for Windows
  • Codex App version: 26.506.2212.0
  • Codex CLI: codex-cli 0.129.0-alpha.15
  • Installed Codex Desktop on May 8, 2026

In my case, the Workspace Dependencies “Diagnose” and “Reinstall” buttons are disabled / not clickable, so I cannot start the recovery flow from Settings.

Codex reports:

No bundled workspace runtime dependencies are configured yet.

The Desktop logs repeatedly show:

unsupported feature enablement workspace_dependencies

The related request is:

experimentalFeature/enablement/set

The error message says the currently supported features are:

apps, memories, plugins, remote_control, tool_search, tool_suggest, tool_call_mcp_elicitation

but workspace_dependencies is not included.

This looks related to the same Codex-managed workspace dependencies problem, but in my case the recovery buttons are disabled before reinstall can even be attempted.

Related to #21247, but in my case the Diagnose/Reinstall buttons are disabled before the reinstall flow can even start.

eliotcougar · 3 months ago

I've managed to fix this issue by entering proper npm proxy setting. Our org requires all traffic to go through a proxy, and apparently npm didn't use the system-wide settings.

npm config set proxy=https://ip:port

cballard1111 · 3 months ago

Same issue, but recovery buttons were clickable

I hit what looks like the same issue on Windows, but my recovery buttons were clickable.

Environment

  • Windows 11 x64
  • Codex Desktop installed from Microsoft Store
  • ChatGPT Plus
  • Codex CLI was working
  • Local MCP worked through Codex CLI
  • Codex Desktop Workspace Dependencies stayed stuck at "Not installed"

Symptoms

  • Settings > Configuration > Workspace Dependencies showed "Not installed"
  • Diagnose/Reinstall were visible and clickable
  • Reinstall would briefly show "Preparing your workspace", then return to "Not installed"
  • Codex Desktop could not expose local tools/MCP even though CLI worked

Relevant logs

unsupported feature enablement workspace_dependencies
currently supported features are apps, memories, plugins, remote_control, tool_search, tool_suggest, tool_call_mcp_elicitation

I also saw runtime extraction failures:

primary_runtime_install_failed
Failed to extract primary runtime archive
Can't create ... C:\Users\<user>\.cache\codex-runtimes\...\codex-primary-runtime\dependencies\node\node_modules\docx: Invalid argument
Can't create ... node_modules\playwright: Invalid argument
Can't create ... node_modules\sharp: Invalid argument

Workaround that fixed it for me

  1. Added apps = true under [features] in C:\Users\<user>\.codex\config.toml.

Example:

[features]
memories = true
hooks = true
apps = true

  1. Closed Codex completely.
  2. Ran Codex Desktop once as Administrator.
  3. Went to Settings > Configuration and reinstalled Workspace Dependencies.
  4. The install succeeded and showed a runtime version instead of "Not installed".
  5. Closed Codex.
  6. Reopened Codex normally without Administrator.
  7. Workspace Dependencies still showed installed under normal permissions.

After recovery, mine showed:

Current version: 26.506.11943

This was not an npm proxy issue in my case.

Not sure whether both apps = true and the one-time Administrator launch are required, but that exact combo fixed it for me.