Codex Desktop Windows: bundled marketplace rebuild can be blocked by Chrome native host, breaking Computer Use pipe startup

Environment

• OS: Windows
• Codex Desktop: OpenAI.Codex_26.602.4764.0_x64
• Bundled plugin versions observed after restart: 26.602.40724
• Affected plugins: Browser, Chrome, Computer Use

Summary

On Windows, Codex Desktop can end up with a partially rebuilt bundled marketplace after the Chrome native messaging host keeps a handle open under the temporary bundled marketplace path. After that, the built-in Browser/Chrome/Computer Use plugin state becomes inconsistent. In my case this broke Computer Use startup with:

Windows Computer Use helper paths are unavailable

and the active Computer Use client later failed with:

Computer Use native pipe path is unavailable

Failure chain observed

1. Chrome native host was launched through:

%USERPROFILE%\.codex\plugins\cache\openai-bundled\chrome\latest

1. chrome\latest was a junction into:

%USERPROFILE%\.codex\.tmp\bundled-marketplaces\openai-bundled\plugins\chrome

1. The running extension-host.exe held a handle under the temporary marketplace.
2. Codex Desktop tried to rebuild the bundled marketplace and failed with EBUSY while removing:

%USERPROFILE%\.codex\.tmp\bundled-marketplaces\openai-bundled\plugins\chrome\extension-host\windows\x64

1. The temporary openai-bundled marketplace was left partial:

• missing .agents\plugins\marketplace.json
• only plugins\chrome remained
• Browser and Computer Use plugin directories were missing

1. Desktop then repeatedly logged:

computer-use native pipe startup failed errorMessage="Windows Computer Use helper paths are unavailable"

1. No \\.\pipe\codex-computer-use-* pipe was created, so Computer Use was unavailable in Codex settings and runtime.

Log evidence

Relevant desktop log included:

bundled_plugins_marketplace_resolve_failed errorCode=EBUSY ... rmdir '%USERPROFILE%\.codex\.tmp\bundled-marketplaces\openai-bundled\plugins\chrome\extension-host\windows\x64'

and then repeated:

computer-use native pipe startup failed errorMessage="Windows Computer Use helper paths are unavailable"

Browser native pipe startup still succeeded, so the failure appeared specific to the bundled marketplace/plugin helper resolution path for Computer Use.

Local repair that restored functionality

I repaired the local state by:

1. Stopping only the Chrome native messaging host process launched from chrome\latest.
2. Repointing %USERPROFILE%\.codex\plugins\cache\openai-bundled\chrome\latest back to a stable cache version path instead of the temporary bundled marketplace.
3. Rebuilding %USERPROFILE%\.codex\.tmp\bundled-marketplaces\openai-bundled from the installed app resource bundle.
4. Restarting Codex Desktop.

After restart:

• codex plugin marketplace list showed openai-bundled again.
• codex plugin list --marketplace openai-bundled showed Browser, Chrome, and Computer Use as installed, enabled.
• \\.\pipe\codex-computer-use-* existed.
• Browser iab worked.
• Chrome extension worked.
• Computer Use sky.list_apps() worked and returned app entries.

Expected behavior

A running Chrome native messaging host should not be able to leave the bundled marketplace in a partial/broken state. If the temporary marketplace cannot be removed because a helper process is still running, Codex should either:

• shut down/restart that helper cleanly,
• rebuild into a fresh temp directory and swap atomically,
• keep native hosts pointed at stable cache paths instead of temp marketplace paths, or
• recover the marketplace on next startup before plugin discovery/native pipe startup.

Why this seems product-side

The installed app resources were complete, and functionality recovered once the temporary bundled marketplace and cache junction were corrected. The failure was not caused by missing installed resources. It appears to be an update/rebuild race or path ownership issue around the bundled marketplace and Chrome native host process on Windows.