Codex Desktop macOS UI renders behind dark/blurred overlay unless GPU compositing is disabled

Summary

Codex Desktop on macOS renders parts of the UI behind a dark/blurred/opaque layer. This makes sections of the app partially unusable. I can reproduce it on both the main prompt screen and the Plugins section.

The issue appears to be GPU compositing related. Launching Codex with --disable-gpu-compositing --disable-accelerated-2d-canvas works around the problem.

Environment

• App: Codex Desktop
• Codex version: 26.519.41501
• Bundle version: 3044
• OS: macOS 26.5
• macOS build: 25F71
• Mac model: MacBookPro16,1
• CPU: 6-Core Intel Core i7
• Memory: 16 GB
• GPUs:
• Intel UHD Graphics 630
• AMD Radeon Pro 5300M
• Install path: /Applications/Codex.app

What Happens

Large areas of the Codex UI are hidden behind what looks like a dark translucent or blurred compositing layer.

Observed in:

1. Main Codex prompt screen
2. Plugins section

In the Plugins section, plugin cards/text appear partially clipped or hidden behind a large dark rectangular layer. Some controls remain visible, but the content underneath is obscured and hard/impossible to use.

Expected Behavior

The UI should render normally without hidden/clipped sections or dark overlay artifacts.

Workaround That Works

Launching Codex directly with GPU compositing disabled fixes the rendering problem:

"/Applications/Codex.app/Contents/MacOS/Codex" \
  --disable-gpu-compositing \
  --disable-accelerated-2d-canvas

Attempted Fixes That Did Not Work

Cleared renderer/cache folders:

rm -rf "$HOME/Library/Application Support/Codex/GPUCache" \
       "$HOME/Library/Application Support/Codex/DawnGraphiteCache" \
       "$HOME/Library/Application Support/Codex/DawnWebGPUCache" \
       "$HOME/Library/Application Support/Codex/Code Cache" \
       "$HOME/Library/Application Support/Codex/Cache" \
       "$HOME/Library/Caches/com.openai.codex"

Reset Codex app profile:

mv "$HOME/Library/Application Support/Codex" \
   "$HOME/Library/Application Support/Codex.backup.$(date +%Y%m%d-%H%M%S)"

Tried launching with full GPU disabled:

"/Applications/Codex.app/Contents/MacOS/Codex" \
  --disable-gpu \
  --disable-gpu-compositing \
  --disable-accelerated-2d-canvas \
  --enable-logging=stderr

That fails and the app does not launch:

Error: GPU access not allowed. Reason: GPU access is disabled through commandline switch --disable-gpu and --disable-software-rasterizer.

Notes

This looks like a GPU compositor / accelerated canvas rendering issue on macOS, especially because disabling GPU compositing fixes the visual corruption while full GPU disable causes Codex to crash at startup.

Attachments

I have screenshots showing:

1. Main prompt screen with dark blurred overlay
2. Plugins screen with content hidden/clipped behind dark overlay

I was not able to attach them via the API path used to create this issue, but they can be added manually through the GitHub web UI if needed.