Computer Use does not appear in Settings despite plugin and helper existing

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• #20211

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A couple of angles worth checking on a setup that visually looks complete but still won't surface Computer Use in Settings:

1. The dual helper-app install is the most common culprit when every other check passes. You have the helper at both:

• ~/.codex/computer-use/Codex Computer Use.app
• ~/Applications/Codex Computer Use.app

The Settings UI discovers helpers via LaunchServices, while the runtime discovers them via the ~/.codex/plugins/cache/.../mcp.json entry. If both helper copies share a bundle ID but have different codesign Team IDs (or one is a stale leftover from a prior install), lsregister ends up pinning the "wrong" copy and the UI just hides the row instead of erroring. Worth running:

codesign -dv --verbose=2 "$HOME/.codex/computer-use/Codex Computer Use.app" 2>&1 | grep -E "Identifier|TeamIdentifier"
codesign -dv --verbose=2 "$HOME/Applications/Codex Computer Use.app" 2>&1 | grep -E "Identifier|TeamIdentifier"

/System/Library/Frameworks/CoreServices.framework/Versions/A/Frameworks/LaunchServices.framework/Versions/A/Support/lsregister \
  -dump | grep -A1 -i "computer use" | head -40

If the two TeamIdentifiers differ, or lsregister shows two registrations, that's the gap — remove the older copy and run lsregister -kill -r -domain local -domain user before relaunching Codex.

2. codex-cli 0.129.0-alpha.15 is a prerelease. Alpha builds can introduce a flag/schema shift on the discovery path that backs the Settings UI while leaving the runtime's codex mcp list path unchanged — that's exactly the pattern that produces "everything looks installed but Settings is empty." Quickest control test: install the closest stable CLI without touching your config or cache, launch once, and check if Settings populates. If it does, the gap is in alpha-15's Settings discovery rather than anything you set up wrong; if it doesn't, skip this and focus on #1.

3. The Settings tab is process-cached. Even on a fully correct setup, a Settings tab opened during a previous launch won't repopulate without a full Codex.app quit/relaunch and a codex mcp list from the same user shell that owns the plugin cache. Worth a clean cycle before going deeper.

---

I run a Mac AI-agent setup service and just published a longer walkthrough covering six classes of "Computer Use looks installed but isn't" failures (the dual-helper / LaunchServices pinning case above is adjacent to class 1): https://igorganapolsky.github.io/openclaw-mac-ai-workstation-setup/troubleshooting.html. If the lsregister + codesign output don't reveal the gap, sending the redacted log via the $19 quick read on that page is the cheapest async path to a specific answer.

Thanks for the detailed suggestions. I worked through each of the items you outlined.

Current state:

• Removed ~/Applications/Codex Computer Use.app entirely.
• Only two copies of the helper remain on disk:
• ~/.codex/computer-use/Codex Computer Use.app (version 780)
• /Applications/Codex.app/Contents/Resources/plugins/openai-bundled/plugins/computer-use/Codex Computer Use.app (version 770)
• Both share the same bundle identifier (com.openai.sky.CUAService) and the same TeamIdentifier.
• Ran lsregister -r -domain local -domain user and then lsregister -f ~/.codex/computer-use/Codex Computer Use.app.
• Fully quit and relaunched Codex.
• Upgraded codex-cli from alpha to 0.130.0 (stable) to eliminate the prerelease factor.
• Verified that .mcp.json in the plugin points to SkyComputerUseClient and that codesign verification passes.

Result:
codex mcp list still only shows xcodebuildmcp, and the Computer Use row still does not appear in Settings.

Based on these results, it doesn't look like a stale LaunchServices registration or alpha CLI issue anymore. Could this be a rollout/availability gating or perhaps a discovery bug in Codex.app itself?

Thanks again for your help.

Thorough writeup — that rules out the LaunchServices/codesign theory and the alpha-CLI schema theory cleanly. Three more angles worth checking before treating it as a server-side gate:

1. Re-hydrate the cache against the stable CLI specifically. The v780 cache entry under ~/.codex/computer-use/ was hydrated by the 0.129.0-alpha.15 CLI. The 0.130.0 stable CLI may keep that cache file but refuse to register it because the cache format / version stamp embedded inside .codex-plugin/plugin.json was emitted by an alpha schema. Worth forcing a clean re-hydration:

# Confirm what's there:
ls -la ~/.codex/plugins/cache/openai-bundled/computer-use/*/
cat ~/.codex/plugins/cache/openai-bundled/computer-use/*/.codex-plugin/plugin.json 2>/dev/null | head -20

# Force re-hydration with the stable CLI:
rm -rf ~/.codex/plugins/cache/openai-bundled/computer-use
codex plugin marketplace add /Applications/Codex.app/Contents/Resources/plugins/openai-bundled
codex mcp list

If the cache file's version/schemaVersion field doesn't match what 0.130.0 expects, a re-hydration is the only path that fixes it — lsregister and codesign won't surface the mismatch.

2. Account-level entitlement. Codex Computer Use is gated by ChatGPT account tier on some accounts, independent of the local install. The Settings UI hides the row when the account entitlement check fails, even though the bundle is locally complete. Worth confirming with:

cat ~/.codex/auth.json 2>/dev/null | python3 -m json.tool | grep -iE "entitle|feature|computer_use|tier" | head -10
# Also check the rollout config:
cat ~/.codex/config.json 2>/dev/null | python3 -m json.tool | grep -iE "computer_use|feature_flag|experimental" | head -10

If your account doesn't have computer_use in entitlements, no amount of local fixing will surface it.

3. The xcodebuildmcp-only listing is a clue. codex mcp list returning just one entry (not even an error for computer-use) usually means the marketplace registry was reset (cache eviction during upgrade) but the new CLI didn't auto-re-add the bundled marketplace. Confirmed by running codex plugin marketplace list — if openai-bundled is absent from that list entirely, the manual re-add in step 1 is the fix.

If all three rule out: yes, it's almost certainly a rollout/availability gate, and the only path is contacting OpenAI support with your account ID + the auth.json entitlement output.

If you'd rather get the bundle reviewed in one shot — including the auth.json entitlement check and a confirmed "rollout gate vs local config" verdict — the $19 quick read does same-day root-cause notes against your full bundle: https://igorganapolsky.github.io/openclaw-mac-ai-workstation-setup/speed-to-lead.html

(Free walkthrough of the six root-cause classes is still at https://igorganapolsky.github.io/openclaw-mac-ai-workstation-setup/troubleshooting.html — and there's a one-line curl ... | node self-diagnose script there now that captures all surfaces into a redacted bundle.)

Thanks @IgorGanapolsky — I went through the extra checks and found a more specific failure mode.

What I checked

LaunchServices / codesign

All visible helper copies have the same bundle identifier and TeamIdentifier:

Identifier=com.openai.sky.CUAService
TeamIdentifier=2DC432GLL2

This was true for:

~/.codex/computer-use/Codex Computer Use.app
~/Applications/Codex Computer Use.app
/Applications/Codex.app/Contents/Resources/plugins/openai-bundled/plugins/computer-use/Codex Computer Use.app

The cached helper also verifies correctly:

~/.codex/plugins/cache/openai-bundled/computer-use/latest/Codex Computer Use.app: valid on disk
~/.codex/plugins/cache/openai-bundled/computer-use/latest/Codex Computer Use.app: satisfies its Designated Requirement

Cache / plugin metadata

The cache is now hydrated under:

~/.codex/plugins/cache/openai-bundled/computer-use/1.0.793

The cached plugin.json matches the app bundle plugin metadata:

{
  "name": "computer-use",
  "version": "1.0.793",
  "schemaVersion": null,
  "displayName": "Computer Use"
}

codex mcp list now does see the MCP server:

Name          Command                                                                                                       Args  Cwd                                                                             Status   Auth
computer-use  ./Codex Computer Use.app/Contents/SharedSupport/SkyComputerUseClient.app/Contents/MacOS/SkyComputerUseClient  mcp   ~/.codex/plugins/cache/openai-bundled/computer-use/1.0.793/.  enabled  Unsupported

So this no longer looks like a missing cache entry or a broken .mcp.json.

Chrome side

The Chrome extension is installed/enabled and the native messaging manifest is correct after repair:

{
  "expectedHostName": "com.openai.codexextension",
  "actualHostName": "com.openai.codexextension",
  "hasExpectedOrigin": true,
  "exists": true,
  "correct": true,
  "problem": null
}

The actual failure I found

The strongest evidence is in the Codex Desktop logs. On every app startup, Codex rewrites the runtime bundled marketplace with only browser and latex, then explicitly uninstalls/removes chrome and computer-use because they are not in that generated list:

[BundledPluginsMarketplace] bundled_plugins_runtime_marketplace_written pluginCount=2 pluginNames=["browser","latex"] targetMarketplaceRoot=~/.codex/.tmp/bundled-marketplaces/openai-bundled
[chrome-plugin-native-host-lifecycle] chrome_native_host_manifest_remove_requested marketplaceName=openai-bundled nativeHostName=com.openai.codexextension pluginName=chrome
[BundledPluginsMarketplace] bundled_plugin_uninstall_requested pluginId=chrome@openai-bundled pluginName=chrome reason=not_in_bundled_marketplace_plugin_names
[BundledPluginsMarketplace] bundled_plugin_uninstall_requested pluginId=computer-use@openai-bundled pluginName=computer-use reason=not_in_bundled_marketplace_plugin_names

This repeats after a full Command+Q / relaunch.

That seems to explain the confusing state:

• the app bundle physically contains chrome and computer-use
• the plugin cache can be manually rehydrated
• codex debug prompt-input / runtime can see the skills after repair
• but Codex Desktop startup regenerates openai-bundled as browser + latex only, then removes the two plugins and the Chrome native host manifest

Current workaround tested locally

A local repair script can restore the full bundled marketplace from:

/Applications/Codex.app/Contents/Resources/plugins/openai-bundled

and re-register the Chrome native host after Codex removes it. With that in place, runtime/debug sees both:

chrome:Chrome
computer-use:computer-use

However, this is only a workaround. The underlying issue appears to be that Codex Desktop’s BundledPluginsMarketplace generation path is producing a reduced bundled marketplace (browser, latex) even though the installed app bundle contains the full marketplace (browser, chrome, computer-use, latex).

At this point this looks less like LaunchServices/codesign/cache corruption and more like either:

1. a rollout / feature-gating decision feeding the bundled marketplace generator, or
2. a Codex Desktop discovery bug where the generated runtime marketplace is out of sync with the actual app bundle marketplace.

One more small note: in this build, codex plugin marketplace only exposes add, upgrade, and remove; there is no list subcommand available, so I could not use that exact suggested check.

Update from the same Mac mini: the visible symptom has changed.

Computer Use now appears in Codex Settings, but the shown controls are disabled with this exact message:

"Disabled by your organization or unavailable in your region"

This is a personal ChatGPT Plus account, and the user is located in Israel.

Verified diagnostics from this Mac mini:

• Environment: macOS 26.5 (Build 25F71), arm64; locale en_IL; timezone Asia/Jerusalem.
• Codex desktop app: 26.519.41501 (Build 3044); bundled codex-cli: codex-cli 0.133.0-alpha.1.
• Local managed policy checks: ~/.codex/managed_config.toml absent; /etc/codex/requirements.toml absent; /etc/codex/managed_config.toml absent; com.openai.codex requirements_toml_base64 absent; com.openai.codex config_toml_base64 absent.
• Device management: DEP enrollment No; MDM enrollment No.
• Codex Computer Use helper apps found: /Applications/Codex.app/Contents/Resources/plugins/openai-bundled/plugins/computer-use/Codex Computer Use.app present, bundle com.openai.sky.CUAService, TeamIdentifier 2DC432GLL2, codesign passed; ~/.codex/plugins/cache/openai-bundled/computer-use/1.0.793/Codex Computer Use.app present, bundle com.openai.sky.CUAService, TeamIdentifier 2DC432GLL2, codesign passed; ~/Applications/Codex Computer Use.app present, bundle com.openai.sky.CUAService, TeamIdentifier 2DC432GLL2, codesign passed. All discovered helper copies match: yes.
• ~/.codex/config.toml: exists yes; [features] section yes; explicit computer_use setting not present; computer-use@openai-bundled entry yes; browser entry yes; Chrome entry yes; openai-bundled mention yes.
• Current on-disk bundled marketplace manifests checked: /Applications/Codex.app/Contents/Resources/plugins/openai-bundled/.agents/plugins/marketplace.json plugin names ['browser', 'chrome', 'computer-use', 'latex']; ~/.codex/.tmp/bundled-marketplaces/openai-bundled/.agents/plugins/marketplace.json plugin names ['browser', 'chrome', 'computer-use', 'latex'].
• Recent bundled marketplace/reconciliation logs: conflicting openai-bundled source yes; runtime log plugin names omit computer-use yes; reconciliation requests uninstall/exclusion of computer-use yes.

Relevant sanitized log excerpts:

2026-05-23T12:10:44.572Z info [BundledPluginsMarketplace] bundled_plugins_runtime_marketplace_written pluginCount=2 pluginNames=["browser","latex"] targetMarketplaceRoot=~/.codex/.tmp/bundled-marketplaces/openai-bundled

2026-05-23T12:10:44.575Z warning [BundledPluginsMarketplace] bundled_plugins_marketplace_add_failed errorMessage="marketplace 'openai-bundled' is already added from a different source; remove it before adding this source" errorName=Error

2026-05-23T12:10:44.612Z info [BundledPluginsMarketplace] bundled_plugin_uninstall_requested pluginId=computer-use@openai-bundled pluginName=computer-use reason=not_in_bundled_marketplace_plugin_names

Could you confirm whether Computer Use is currently unavailable for personal Plus accounts in Israel, or whether this points to an incorrect entitlement, organization policy, regional availability gate, feature gate, or bundled marketplace reconciliation state?

A screenshot showing the disabled controls is available if maintainers need it.

This appears to be resolved for me now after updating Codex.

My best guess is that it may have been related to the Computer Use / plugin availability rollout in Europe, which now seems to be available. That said, I am actually based in Israel, so the regional gating was a bit confusing from my side.

Closing this since the feature is now visible and working for me.