Windows: Codex 5.3 path appears to disrupt Windows Terminal settings and active sessions

Incident summary

A Windows Codex session using the 5.3-era model path appears to have triggered destructive terminal behavior on a Windows workstation.

Impact

• Windows Terminal settings changed unexpectedly around 2026-05-09 14:34 local time.
• Active multi-session terminal layout was lost.
• The Terminal state file had persistedWindowLayouts: [], so the prior live PTY/window layout was not recoverable from Windows Terminal state.
• User reports seven concurrent code-modification sessions were interrupted.

Local evidence observed

• Codex CLI package: @openai/codex 0.130.0 on Windows.
• Windows Terminal: Microsoft.WindowsTerminal_1.24.10921.0_x64__8wekyb3d8bbwe.
• Current Terminal config timestamp at incident: settings.json last write 2026-05-09 14:34:10 local.
• Current Terminal state.json showed persistedWindowLayouts empty.
• A prior backup settings.json.bak-codevelop-20260509-200152 still contained the expected co-develop profiles, passthrough keybindings, and persisted-window preference.
• Local mitigation restored that prior backup and preserved the damaged config as settings.json.bak-incident-20260509-143410.

Request

Please investigate whether recent Codex/model/runtime changes can overwrite or mutate Windows Terminal settings/state, especially in active multi-session workflows, and consider removing or disabling the affected 5.3 path from advertised/suggested options until it is proven safe.

Safety note

No secrets are included here. This report intentionally omits local credentials and private repo content.