Codex App overwrites bundled plugin config/cache and removes Computer Use/Browser plugins
What version of the Codex App are you using (From “About Codex” dialog)?
Codex App 26.527.60818 Bundle version: 3437 Bundle identifier: com.openai.codex
What subscription do you have?
Plus
What platform is your computer?
Darwin 25.5.0 arm64 arm
What issue are you seeing?
Codex App is repeatedly removing the bundled Computer Use, Browser, and Chrome plugins from the active config/cache.
Computer Use disappeared from the available tools. I inspected ~/.codex/config.toml and found that computer-use@openai-bundled had previously appeared under disabled tools, and later the plugin enable stanzas were missing entirely.
The bundled plugins do exist inside the app bundle:
/Applications/Codex.app/Contents/Resources/plugins/openai-bundled/plugins/browser/Applications/Codex.app/Contents/Resources/plugins/openai-bundled/plugins/chrome/Applications/Codex.app/Contents/Resources/plugins/openai-bundled/plugins/computer-use/Applications/Codex.app/Contents/Resources/plugins/openai-bundled/plugins/latex
The app bundle marketplace JSON lists all four plugins: browser, chrome, computer-use, and latex.
However, the active generated marketplace/cache is being rewritten to LaTeX-only:
~/.codex/.tmp/bundled-marketplaces/openai-bundled/.agents/plugins/marketplace.jsonlists onlylatex~/.codex/plugins/cache/openai-bundledcontains onlylatex~/.codex/config.tomlloses these stanzas:
[plugins."browser@openai-bundled"]
enabled = true
[plugins."chrome@openai-bundled"]
enabled = true
[plugins."computer-use@openai-bundled"]
enabled = true
I manually restored the marketplace/cache/config from the bundled app plugin source, and the state was correct briefly. Then the running Codex App modified the files again at the same timestamp and reverted them back to LaTeX-only.
Observed timestamp of overwrite:
2026-06-02 10:02:15 +0700 ~/.codex/config.toml
2026-06-02 10:02:15 +0700 ~/.codex/plugins/cache/openai-bundled
2026-06-02 10:02:15 +0700 ~/.codex/.tmp/bundled-marketplaces/openai-bundled
This appears to be an app-side overwrite/sync policy issue, and not a missing plugin file issue.
What steps can reproduce the bug?
- Start with Codex App installed at
/Applications/Codex.app.
- Confirm bundled plugins exist in the app bundle:
find /Applications/Codex.app/Contents/Resources/plugins/openai-bundled/plugins -maxdepth 1 -type d -print
Expected entries include:
browser
chrome
computer-use
latex
- Confirm active generated bundled marketplace/cache only contains LaTeX:
find ~/.codex/.tmp/bundled-marketplaces/openai-bundled -maxdepth 5 \( -name marketplace.json -o -name plugin.json -o -name SKILL.md -o -name .mcp.json \) -print | sort
find ~/.codex/plugins/cache/openai-bundled -maxdepth 5 \( -name plugin.json -o -name SKILL.md -o -name .mcp.json \) -print | sort
- Manually restore the bundled plugin source to a stable local marketplace and cache.
- Add the following to ~/.codex/config.toml:
[plugins."browser@openai-bundled"]
enabled = true
[plugins."chrome@openai-bundled"]
enabled = true
[plugins."computer-use@openai-bundled"]
enabled = true
- Verify the config/cache contains Computer Use.
- Continue using/restart Codex App.
- Observe that Codex App rewrites:
~/.codex/config.toml
~/.codex/plugins/cache/openai-bundled
~/.codex/.tmp/bundled-marketplaces/openai-bundled
back to a LaTeX-only bundled plugin state.
What is the expected behavior?
Codex App should preserve and load the bundled browser, chrome, and computer-use plugins when they are present in the app bundle and enabled in ~/.codex/config.toml.
The generated bundled marketplace/cache should not be rewritten to LaTeX-only when the app bundle marketplace contains all four bundled plugins.
Computer Use and Browser tools should appear in the live tool registry after restart.
Additional information
The app bundle itself appears valid:
CFBundleDisplayName: Codex
CFBundleIdentifier: com.openai.codex
CFBundleShortVersionString: 26.527.60818
CFBundleVersion: 3437
The source marketplace copy remains intact and contains all bundled plugins, while the active generated marketplace/cache is repeatedly rewritten to LaTeX-only. This suggests the problem is in Codex App plugin sync/registration logic rather than file absence.
The issue started after I asked ChatGPT/Codex to add a new skill. Computer Use had been available before that.
5 Comments
Potential duplicates detected. Please review them and close your issue if it is a duplicate.
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Yeah that is the same issue. Appears to be on both MacOS and Windows then.
Adding another data point from a macOS 26.5 machine. This may be adjacent to the bundled plugin availability/cache issue here, but the local evidence points to a related Computer Use failure mode: a sandboxed trust-evaluation problem rather than the
Codex Computer Use.appbundle actually being damaged.Environment, with private machine/user paths redacted:
<Codex.app>/Contents/Resources/plugins/openai-bundled/plugins/computer-use/Codex Computer Use.appObserved symptom:
"Codex Computer Use.app" is damaged and can't be opened. You should move it to the Trash.What I checked:
The same was true for the main executable and bundled helper apps, including:
A direct LaunchServices open also succeeded:
and the
SkyComputerUseServiceprocess started. No newCoreServicesUIAgent/syspolicyddamaged/rejected log entries appeared after that direct open.Even an Apple system app fails in that sandboxed context:
and keychain lookup is broken there:
Conclusion:
The damaged-app dialog appears to be a false Gatekeeper/code-signing failure triggered by the Codex tools sandbox / Computer Use launch context. The bundled app itself is signed and notarized correctly in the normal macOS trust context. Reinstalling or removing quarantine attributes is unlikely to fix this specific failure mode, because
com.apple.quarantinewas not present and normalspctl/codesignchecks pass.A likely area to inspect is how Codex launches or validates bundled plugins from the tool sandbox, especially whether that sandbox loses access to the normal keychain/trust evaluation context on macOS 26.5.
Hope this can be fixed soon. Both my macs are affected.
The issue is fixed on my Mac.