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Codex Issues / #26204

Windows Codex Desktop: Computer Use unavailable after reinstall; computer-use missing from plugin marketplace

Open 💬 3 comments Opened Jun 3, 2026 by Austinlsink
💡 Likely answer: A maintainer (github-actions[bot], contributor) responded on this thread — see the highlighted reply below.

What version of the Codex App are you using (From “About Codex” dialog)?

Codex Desktop for Windows: OpenAI.Codex_26.601.2237.0_x64__2p2nqsd0c76g0

Workspace Dependencies current version shown in settings: 26.601.10930

Codex CLI/runtime from codex doctor: 0.136.0-alpha.2

What subscription do you have?

ChatGPT Pro

What platform is your computer?

Microsoft Windows NT 10.0.26200.0 x64

What issue are you seeing?

Codex Desktop settings shows:

Computer Use plugins unavailable

Computer Use remains unavailable after both:

  • Reinstalling the Codex desktop app
  • Reinstalling/resetting Workspace Dependencies from Codex settings

The local config still contains stale Computer Use entries:

notify = [ "<CODEX_HOME>\\plugins\\cache\\openai-bundled\\computer-use\\26.527.60818\\node_modules\\@oai\\sky\\bin\\windows\\codex-computer-use.exe", "turn-ended" ]

[plugins."computer-use@openai-bundled"]
enabled = true

However, the current plugin catalog does not appear to expose Computer Use anymore:

codex plugin list

does not list openai-bundled or computer-use@openai-bundled.

Trying the supported plugin install path returns:

codex plugin add computer-use@openai-bundled
Error: plugin `computer-use` was not found in marketplace `openai-bundled`

The active session also lacks the native Computer Use pipe metadata:

{
  "nativePipeType": "undefined",
  "envKeysWithPipe": [],
  "pipeDir": null
}

Trying the bundled Computer Use bootstrap fails with:

Computer Use native pipe path is unavailable

No live codex-computer-use-* named pipe exists, while browser-use pipes do exist:

\\.\\pipe\\codex-browser-use-...
\\.\\pipe\\codex-ipc

Windows Defender does not appear to be the active blocker. Recent Defender Operational events did not mention Codex, Computer Use, codex-computer-use.exe, @oai\\sky, or the .codex\\plugins\\cache\\openai-bundled\\computer-use path.

What steps can reproduce the bug?

Feedback ID: 019e8e16-d30a-75d2-a723-1d8047748a13

  1. Open Codex Desktop on Windows.
  2. Open Settings > Computer use.
  3. Observe Computer Use plugins unavailable.
  4. Restart Codex Desktop.
  5. Re-check Settings > Computer use; the issue remains.
  6. Reinstall/reset Workspace Dependencies from Settings > Configuration.
  7. Reinstall the Codex desktop app.
  8. Open a new Codex session and verify Computer Use still cannot initialize.
  9. Run diagnostics:
codex plugin list
codex plugin marketplace list
codex plugin add computer-use@openai-bundled
Get-ChildItem '\\.\pipe\' | Where-Object { $_.Name -match 'codex|computer|sky|cua' }

Observed results:

  • codex plugin list does not include openai-bundled or computer-use
  • codex plugin marketplace list shows austin-local, openai-primary-runtime, and openai-curated, but not openai-bundled
  • codex plugin add computer-use@openai-bundled reports the plugin is not found in that marketplace
  • There is no live codex-computer-use-* pipe
  • The stale local Computer Use cache remains at 26.527.60818 from June 1, while the workspace runtime was refreshed to 26.601.10930

What is the expected behavior?

Computer Use should either:

  1. Be available in Codex Desktop settings, with a live native pipe and the required session metadata injected (nodeRepl.nativePipe / SKY_CUA_NATIVE_PIPE_DIRECTORY), or
  2. Display a clear product-level reason why Computer Use is unavailable, such as account eligibility, feature rollout, unsupported platform, missing bundled plugin, or disabled marketplace entry.

If computer-use@openai-bundled is no longer available in the current bundled marketplace, stale enabled config entries should not make the app look partially configured while the actual plugin cannot be installed or loaded.

Additional information

Related issues found before filing:

  • #25962 - Codex desktop app shows “Computer Use plugins unavailable” on Windows
  • #25795 - Windows Codex Desktop: Computer Use plugin missing from UI and native pipe fails with missing-helper-path
  • #25507 - Windows Computer Use unavailable: nativePipe missing and SKY_CUA_NATIVE_PIPE_DIRECTORY not injected
  • #25391 - Windows Computer Use plugin fails to bootstrap: native pipe path is unavailable

This report adds a fresh feedback upload ID and post-reinstall evidence from 26.601.2237.0 showing that the current plugin list/marketplace no longer includes openai-bundled / computer-use, even though stale local config/cache entries remain.

View original on GitHub ↗

3 Comments

github-actions[bot] contributor · 2 months ago

Potential duplicates detected. Please review them and close your issue if it is a duplicate.

  • #25962
  • #25795
  • #26078
  • #25878
  • #25813

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gshershov · 2 months ago

What I changed locally

The issue was in:

scripts/computer-use-client.mjs

Originally, NativePipeComputerUseTransport.create() only worked when one of these was available:

globalThis.nodeRepl?.nativePipe
globalThis.nodeRepl?.env?.SKY_CUA_NATIVE_PIPE_DIRECTORY

In WSL mode, both were unavailable/empty, even though the real Windows named pipe already existed:

\\.\pipe\codex-computer-use-<uuid>

I fixed it by adding a fallback path that:

  1. lists Windows named pipes via Node:
await readdir("\\\\.\\pipe\\")
  1. finds the active Computer Use pipe:
/^codex-computer-use-/i
  1. builds the pipe path:
"\\\\.\\pipe\\" + pipeName
  1. connects directly to that named pipe using Node’s net.createConnection():
const socket = createConnection(pipePath, () => resolve(socket));
  1. keeps the original privileged bridge behavior when available:
const socket =
  nativePipe != null && typeof nativePipe.createConnection === "function"
    ? await nativePipe.createConnection(pipePath)
    : await createNamedPipeConnection(pipePath);

So the local fix did not switch Codex out of WSL mode and did not use the partial helper fallback. It kept the normal NativePipeComputerUseClient path, but added direct discovery/connection to the existing Windows codex-computer-use-* named pipe when WSL mode does not expose nodeRepl.nativePipe or SKY_CUA_NATIVE_PIPE_DIRECTORY.

After that:

  • the blue overlay appeared: Codex is using your computer · Esc to cancel
  • list_apps() worked
  • screenshots worked
  • keyboard input worked
  • mouse clicks worked
  • Spotify was controlled successfully from Codex running in WSL
zemeng5208 · 16 days ago

I maintain WinBridge Recovery for Windows Codex Desktop local plugin/runtime state: https://github.com/zemeng5208/winbridge-recovery

The original diagnostics here show a local version/state split that is within WinBridge's scope even though the later WSL named-pipe workaround is not. In particular: a stale computer-use cache/notify path from 26.527, a newer 26.601 workspace/runtime, openai-bundled missing from the active marketplace, and no current Computer Use helper path are exactly the kind of package -> marketplace -> cache/runtime inconsistencies the tool checks.

WinBridge compares the currently installed official package/plugin manifest against the active bundled marketplace, versioned cache/latest, CUA runtime and generated helper/config paths. If those user-owned layers are stale or partial, it can rebuild them from the already installed official package with verified staging, SHA-256 checks and rollback data.

Important boundary: I would not use WinBridge to apply the later direct WSL named-pipe discovery patch from this thread, and the project does not bypass the trusted bridge or patch computer-use-client.mjs. If the current marketplace/runtime/helper files are healthy and the only failure is WSL/native-pipe injection, that remains an upstream runtime/bridge issue rather than a WinBridge repair.