Windows Codex Desktop: node_repl exits with "windows sandbox failed: spawn setup refresh"; Chrome and Computer Use unavailable

Bug: Codex Windows desktop automation runtime fails to start

Summary

On Windows, Codex Desktop cannot use the Chrome plugin or Computer Use plugin. Both fail because the Node REPL / Windows sandbox runtime exits immediately during startup.

Environment

• OS: Windows
• Codex Desktop version: 26.527.3686.0
• Plugin version: 26.527.31326
• Chrome installed: Yes
• Chrome extension installed/enabled: Yes
• Native host manifest/registry: Verified

Errors observed

node_repl kernel exited unexpectedly
windows sandbox failed: spawn setup refresh
Computer Use native pipe is unavailable

Impact

• @chrome cannot control Chrome.
• computer-use cannot control Windows apps.
• Browser/dashboard automation cannot proceed.
• The failure happens before browser/app automation begins.

Reproduction steps

1. Open Codex Desktop on Windows.
2. Use a task that requires @chrome or computer-use.
3. Attempt to initialize the tool through Node REPL.
4. Runtime exits immediately.

Expected behavior

Node REPL should start successfully, allowing the Chrome plugin and Computer Use plugin to communicate with their native runtimes.

Actual behavior

Node REPL exits immediately with:

windows sandbox failed: spawn setup refresh

Computer Use also fails with:

Computer Use native pipe is unavailable

Troubleshooting already attempted

• Restarted Codex Desktop.
• Fully exited Codex and restarted.
• Reinstalled Codex Desktop.
• Reinstalled/reconnected Chrome plugin.
• Verified Chrome is installed and running.
• Verified Chrome extension is installed and enabled.
• Verified native host manifest and registry.
• Verified local codex-windows-sandbox-setup.exe exists.
• Ran local sandbox setup refresh successfully.
• Tested node_repl.exe --help; it exposes --disable-sandbox.
• Temporarily tested adding --disable-sandbox to C:\Users\user\.codex\config.toml, but Codex Desktop still launched node_repl.exe without the arg.
• Reverted the config change for safety.

Additional detail

Running processes showed Codex launched:

C:\Users\user\AppData\Local\OpenAI\Codex\bin\34ab3e1324cc55b5\node_repl.exe

without --disable-sandbox, even after editing:

[mcp_servers.node_repl]
args = ["--disable-sandbox"]

This suggests Codex Desktop may not be reading that MCP config for this local desktop session, or the app server is generating/launching the MCP server separately.

Request

Please advise how to repair the Windows sandbox setup / Node REPL startup path for Codex Desktop on Windows, or provide a supported way to reset the native runtime/plugin pipe state.