Windows Codex App crashes LocalConversationPage when rendering git directives with backslash cwd

Windows Codex App crashes LocalConversationPage when rendering git directives with backslash cwd

What version of the Codex App are you using?

Microsoft Store package:

OpenAI.Codex_26.513.3673.0_x64__2p2nqsd0c76g0
Version: 26.513.3673.0

What subscription do you have?

ChatGPT subscription with Codex access.

What platform is your computer?

Windows x64.

What issue are you seeing?

After updating Codex App for Windows, opening local chat threads can crash the conversation UI and show:

Oops, an error has occurred

The same account and threads are accessible from the VS Code Codex extension, so this appears to be a local Codex App rendering / session-history issue, not an account, subscription, or server-side access issue.

The crash happens when a saved local session contains Codex git UI directives whose cwd value is a Windows path with backslashes, for example:

::git-stage{cwd="C:\Users\<user>\java\report_app"}
::git-commit{cwd="C:\Users\<user>\java\report_app"}

The renderer / directive parser appears to parse the directive attributes and treats the backslashes as invalid syntax. The app then throws inside LocalConversationPage and the chat cannot be opened.

Relevant log evidence

From the Codex desktop log:

error [electron-message-handler] error boundary
name=LocalConversationPage
errorMessage="invalid syntax at line 1 col 5:

1  cwd=\"C:\\Users\\<user>\\java\\report_app\"
       ^"

The component stack includes:

at Br (.../markdown-*.js)
at ... local-conversation-thread-*.js
at ... local-conversation-page-*.js
name=LocalConversationPage

There was also an unhandled rejection around the same syntax error:

[desktop-notifications][unhandled-rejection] Error: invalid syntax at line 1 col 5:

1  cwd="C:\Users\<user>\java\report_app"
       ^

Steps to reproduce

1. Use Codex App on Windows.
2. Have a local thread/session whose final assistant response contains git directives such as git-stage or git-commit.
3. Ensure the directive cwd attribute is a normal Windows path using backslashes, for example C:\Users\<user>\java\report_app.
4. Restart / update Codex App.
5. Open that local chat thread.

Expected behavior

Codex App should render the local chat safely.

If a directive contains a Windows path with backslashes, the app should either:

• accept and normalize it,
• ignore the malformed directive while still rendering the message,
• or show a recoverable warning without crashing the entire conversation page.

Actual behavior

The conversation page enters an error boundary and displays:

Oops, an error has occurred

After navigating away, reopening the same affected chat repeats the error.

Workaround

Editing local session JSONL files to replace directive cwd values from Windows-backslash paths to forward-slash paths fixes affected chats.

For example:

C:\Users\<user>\java\report_app

changed to:

C:/Users/<user>/java/report_app

After replacing those values inside saved git directives, the affected chat opens normally again.

I also added a local agent instruction to emit future git directives with forward slashes on Windows, but the app should ideally handle old persisted sessions and Windows paths without crashing.

Suggested fix direction

The directive parser should not let malformed directive attributes crash LocalConversationPage.

Possible fixes:

• normalize Windows backslashes in directive path attributes before parsing,
• support escaped Windows paths in directive attributes,
• ignore invalid directive syntax and render the original markdown text,
• add an error boundary around directive parsing that degrades to plain text for only the affected message.

This is especially important because old local session files can persist across Codex App updates, so users can get locked out of existing chats after an update even though the underlying session history is still present and usable by other Codex surfaces.