Documents render_docx.py fails on Windows with LibreOffice temporary UserInstallation profile

Summary

The Documents plugin renderer render_docx.py fails on Windows when it launches LibreOffice with a temporary UserInstallation profile. Direct LibreOffice conversion of the same DOCX succeeds, and Poppler PDF-to-PNG conversion succeeds, so the failure appears tied to the temporary LibreOffice profile invocation used by the renderer.

Environment

• OS: Windows 10 Home
• Codex CLI: codex-cli 0.130.0-alpha.5
• Codex Desktop App on Windows
• Documents plugin bundle/version: openai-primary-runtime/documents/26.521.10419
• LibreOffice: 26.2.3.2
• Poppler / pdftoppm: installed and usable

Observed behavior

Running the Documents skill renderer against a simple generated DOCX fails before producing the intermediate PDF/PNGs:

RuntimeError: Failed to produce PDF for rasterization (direct and ODT fallback).
--- DOCX->PDF ---
CMD: soffice -env:UserInstallation=file://C:\Users\<USER>\AppData\Local\Temp\soffice_profile_xxx --invisible --headless --norestore --convert-to pdf --outdir C:\Users\<USER>\AppData\Local\Temp\soffice_convert_xxx C:\path\to\render-test.docx
EXIT: 1
STDERR:
libpng error: Write Error
--- DOCX->ODT ---
CMD: soffice -env:UserInstallation=file://C:\Users\<USER>\AppData\Local\Temp\soffice_profile_xxx --invisible --headless --norestore --convert-to odt --outdir C:\Users\<USER>\AppData\Local\Temp\soffice_convert_xxx C:\path\to\render-test.docx
EXIT: 1
STDERR:
libpng error: Write Error

The same error persisted after:

• MSI repair via msiexec.exe /fa {product-code}
• winget install --id TheDocumentFoundation.LibreOffice -e --silent --force

Expected behavior

render_docx.py should successfully render a DOCX to page PNGs on Windows when LibreOffice and Poppler are installed, or should generate a Windows-compatible LibreOffice UserInstallation URI.

Reproduction outline

1. On Windows, create a simple DOCX, e.g. a heading and one paragraph.
2. Run the Documents plugin renderer:

python render_docx.py C:\path\to\render-test.docx --output_dir C:\path\to\rendered --emit_pdf

1. Observe the failure above.

Additional evidence

Direct LibreOffice conversion works for the same file:

& 'C:\Program Files\LibreOffice\program\soffice.exe' --headless --convert-to pdf --outdir C:\path\to\out C:\path\to\render-test.docx

The PDF is produced successfully.

Poppler PDF-to-PNG conversion also works:

pdftoppm -png C:\path\to\render-test.pdf C:\path\to\page

The PNG is produced successfully.

This provides a viable workaround:

DOCX -> LibreOffice direct PDF export -> pdftoppm PNG rasterization

Suspected cause

render_docx.py appears to build the LibreOffice profile argument by concatenating:

-env:UserInstallation=file:// + user_profile

On Windows this produces a value like:

file://C:\Users\<USER>\AppData\Local\Temp\soffice_profile_xxx

That may not be a valid/stable file URI for LibreOffice on Windows. A more Windows-compatible URI would likely be closer to:

file:///C:/Users/<USER>/AppData/Local/Temp/soffice_profile_xxx

Using pathlib.Path(user_profile).as_uri() or equivalent URI normalization may be safer.

Notes

No customer documents were used for this report. The failure was reproduced with a trivial test DOCX.