Codex Desktop Browser Bridge fails on Windows: windows sandbox failed: spawn setup refresh

Resolved 💬 4 comments Opened May 30, 2026 by carypdarling-star Closed Jun 12, 2026

Codex Desktop Browser Bridge fails on Windows after app restart and fresh thread.

When attempting to initialize Browser Bridge through the trusted node_repl/browser skill path, node_repl crashes with:

node_repl kernel exited unexpectedly
node_repl diagnostics: {"kernel_pid":25712,"kernel_status":"running","kernel_stderr_tail":"windows sandbox failed: spawn setup refresh","reason":"stdout_eof","stream_error":null}

Another attempt produced the same error with a different kernel_pid.

Trying the bundled browser client directly from local Node produced:
Error: privileged native pipe bridge is not available; browser-client is not trusted

I understand the local Node error may be expected, but the trusted node_repl Browser Bridge path is failing. This prevents agents from connecting to real Chrome/listing tabs/using DOM control. Windows screen/mouse fallback works only in sessions where those tools are exposed, but other sessions do not have that fallback.

Environment: Windows 11, Codex Desktop, Chrome installed with Codex Chrome extension.

Repro steps:

  1. Restart Codex Desktop.
  2. Open a fresh thread.
  3. Ask Browser skill to initialize Browser Bridge / list real Chrome tabs.
  4. node_repl exits with the sandbox error above.

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