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Codex Issues / #21890

Chrome plugin connection times out despite extension showing Connected

Open 💬 3 comments Opened May 9, 2026 by xianyuchen-king
💡 Likely answer: A maintainer (github-actions[bot], contributor) responded on this thread — see the highlighted reply below.

What version of Codex CLI is running?

codex-cli 0.130.0

What subscription do you have?

Unknown

Which model were you using?

GPT-5 in Codex app (Chrome plugin task)

What platform is your computer?

Darwin 25.3.0 arm64 arm; macOS 26.3.1 (25D771280a)

What terminal emulator and version are you using (if applicable)?

Codex app / Chrome plugin workflow; terminal not involved. Shell: zsh; Ghostty installed.

What issue are you seeing?

The Codex Chrome plugin cannot connect from Codex even though the Chrome extension popup shows "Connected".

When using @chrome from Codex, the browser-client connection times out repeatedly while trying to list/control Chrome tabs. Reinstalling the Chrome plugin and reopening Chrome did not fix it.

Thread ID: 019e0b4c-4552-76e3-b094-1985eb424eb4

What steps can reproduce the bug?

Uploaded thread: 019e0b4c-4552-76e3-b094-1985eb424eb4

  1. In Codex app, use @chrome for a task that needs the signed-in Chrome browser.
  2. Codex tries to connect to Chrome and list/open tabs.
  3. The browser-client call times out.
  4. Retry after waiting.
  5. Confirm Chrome is running.
  6. Confirm Codex Chrome Extension is installed/enabled and its popup shows "Connected".
  7. Confirm native host manifest check passes.
  8. Open a fresh Chrome window for the Default profile and retry.
  9. Reinstall the Chrome plugin and retry.

Observed: the connection still times out.

What is the expected behavior?

Codex should connect to the Chrome extension and list/control Chrome tabs.

Additional information

Environment observed during troubleshooting:

  • Google Chrome 147.0.7727.138
  • Codex Chrome Extension v1.1.4
  • Extension installed/enabled check passed.
  • Native host manifest check passed.
  • Chrome running check passed.
  • Computer Use could see Chrome and the extension popup showing Connected, but @chrome browser automation remained unusable.

View original on GitHub ↗

3 Comments

github-actions[bot] contributor · 3 months ago

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

  • #21851
  • #21879
  • #21705
  • #21681
  • #21719

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xianyuchen-king · 3 months ago

Additional update after reinstalling both Codex App and the Chrome plugin:

The issue still reproduces after a clean restart path.

Environment:

  • Codex App: 26.506.31421, build 2620
  • macOS: darwin / arm64
  • Chrome: 147.0.7727.138
  • Codex Chrome Extension: 1.1.4_0
  • Chrome profile: Default
  • Extension ID: hehggadaopoacecdllhhajmbjkdcmajg

What I tried:

  1. Reinstalled the Codex Chrome plugin.
  2. Reinstalled the Codex desktop app.
  3. Fully quit Chrome.
  4. Killed stale extension-host processes.
  5. Cleared /tmp/codex-browser-use/*.sock.
  6. Reopened Chrome using the Default profile.
  7. Confirmed a fresh extension-host was started and a new socket was created.

Clean state observed:

  • Chrome started fresh at May 10 11:44.
  • extension-host started fresh at May 10 11:44.
  • /tmp/codex-browser-use contained only the current extension socket.
  • check-extension-installed.js --json reports installed/enabled.
  • Native host config was previously verified as correct.

Result:

  • browser.user.openTabs() still times out after 30s.
  • nodeRepl.fetch('https://chatgpt.com/backend-api/me') also hangs until timeout.
  • This makes it look like the browser-client setup path or internal nodeRepl.fetch is blocking before Chrome tab discovery can complete.

So this no longer appears to be caused only by stale sockets or stale extension-host processes.

ebenezerdgailz · 2 months ago

Hello.
For some reason it will work when sandbox is not set up.
Does it has anything to do with it?