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Codex Issues / #21317

local HTML Browser Open button does nothing and local screenshot previews always stay stale on Windows

Open 💬 2 comments Opened May 6, 2026 by methoddss
💡 Likely answer: A maintainer (github-actions[bot], contributor) responded on this thread — see the highlighted reply below.

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

26.429.61741

What subscription do you have?

Pro

What platform is your computer?

Microsoft Windows NT 10.0.26100.0 x64

What issue are you seeing?

Environment:

  • Codex Desktop on Windows
  • Local workspace on a secondary drive
  • Local HTML and PNG files opened from disk

Issue 1:
When Codex renders a local HTML file as a preview card in chat, the card includes an Open button. Clicking the Open button does not do anything. The in-app browser does not open or navigate to the local file, and no visible error is shown.

Issue 2:
Local screenshot previews in chat can stay stale after the underlying file is overwritten.

What steps can reproduce the bug?

Issue 1:

  1. In a Windows Codex Desktop workspace, create a simple local HTML file, for example:

C:\Projects\example-site\preview.html

  1. Link it in a Codex response using a local file markdown link:

[preview.html](C:/Projects/example-site/preview.html)

  1. A preview card appears in chat with an Open button.
  2. Click Open.

Issue 2:

  1. Generate or save a screenshot, for example:

C:\Projects\example-site\preview.png

  1. Link or display it in Codex chat.
  2. Overwrite preview.png with a new screenshot.
  3. Link or display the same path again.

What is the expected behavior?

The chat image preview should show the updated screenshot.

This makes local frontend/design review confusing because users cannot reliably open generated HTML previews or trust that screenshot previews are showing the latest file contents.

Additional information

What actually happens instead is the chat preview will continue showing the older image.

View original on GitHub ↗

2 Comments

github-actions[bot] contributor · 3 months ago

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

  • #21016

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chongdae · 3 months ago

I can reproduce the stale local image preview behavior on macOS as well, so this does not appear to be Windows-only.

Environment:

  • Codex App: 26.519.81530
  • Bundle version: 3178
  • Bundle identifier: com.openai.codex
  • Platform: macOS 26.5, build 25F71
  • Architecture: arm64
  • App path: /Applications/Codex.app

Reproduction:

  1. In a local Codex workspace, generate or overwrite a PNG screenshot.
  2. Have Codex show it in chat using Markdown with an absolute local path, for example:

![preview](/Users/<user>/path/to/workspace/output/preview-latest.png)

  1. Overwrite the same PNG path with a new screenshot.
  2. Ask Codex to show the same Markdown image path again.

Expected:
The chat image preview should show the updated image contents.

Actual:
The chat continues to show the older image, apparently cached by local file path. Saving the same image under a new filename, for example with a timestamp suffix, makes the updated image appear immediately.

Impact:
This is confusing during iterative visual QA because stable filenames such as latest.png are natural for generated previews, but the chat preview can show stale content.

Workaround:
Use a unique filename for every screenshot shown in chat, while keeping stable filenames only for automation or repository output.