›_ Codex Issues
Codex Issues / #28330

Regression: newer VS Code Codex extension crashes on curated plugin ngs-analysis defaultPrompt >128 chars; works in 26.602.71036

Open 💬 6 comments Opened Jun 15, 2026 by SEngelnkemper
💡 Likely answer: A maintainer (github-actions[bot], contributor) responded on this thread — see the highlighted reply below.

What issue are you seeing?

Codex VS Code extension crashes immediately after a fresh install because the curated/remote plugin ngs-analysis contains an invalid defaultPrompt longer than 128 characters.

This still happens after fully deleting local Codex state and reinstalling the VS Code extension.

Error

Codex process errored: Codex app-server process exited unexpectedly (code=unknown, signal=SIGTRAP).

Last CLI error:

codex_core_plugins::manifest: ignoring interface.defaultPrompt[0]: prompt must be at most 128 characters path=/Users/engel/.codex/.tmp/plugins/plugins/ngs-analysis/.codex-plugin/plugin.json

Why this looks remote / curated-catalog related

Before purging, I found the offending prompt in:

~/.codex/cache/remote_plugin_catalog/193ea2e8c7732e77.json

with:

"default_prompt": "Guide me through the minimum required NGS analysis questions, inspect available BCL/FASTQ files or count matrices, choose the right public pipeline or deeper assay-specific skill, check whether required tools already exist, and execute supported local workflows with pre-execution validation and artifact capture."

After deleting:

  • ~/.codex
  • VS Code Codex/OpenAI extension files
  • VS Code globalStorage/workspaceStorage entries for Codex/OpenAI/ChatGPT

and reinstalling the extension, Codex recreated:

~/.codex/.tmp/plugins/plugins/ngs-analysis/.codex-plugin/plugin.json

and crashed again with the same validation error.

What steps can reproduce the bug?

Install newest Codex VS Code plugin and start an arbitrary prompt.

What is the expected behavior?

Invalid curated plugin manifests should not crash the Codex app-server. The plugin should be skipped, disabled, or the remote catalog entry should satisfy the 128 character limit.

Additional information

I downgraded the VS Code Codex extension to 26.602.71036 and the issue disappeared. This suggests a regression in newer extension/app-server versions when handling invalid curated plugin manifests.

Environment

  • OS: macOS
  • VS Code Codex extension: freshly reinstalled
  • Codex CLI: not installed globally / no codex command available in normal terminal
  • Path in error: /Users/engel/.codex/.tmp/plugins/plugins/ngs-analysis/.codex-plugin/plugin.json

View original on GitHub ↗

6 Comments

github-actions[bot] contributor · 1 month ago

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

  • #28280
  • #26926
  • #26951

Powered by Codex Action

SEngelnkemper · 1 month ago

Thanks for the duplicate hints.

This appears closest to #26926 and possibly #28280. My case adds:

  • macOS, not Windows
  • VS Code Codex extension, not only the desktop app
  • Fresh reinstall after deleting ~/.codex and VS Code Codex/OpenAI state still reproduces it
  • The offending plugin is again ngs-analysis
  • The crash disappears after downgrading the VS Code Codex extension to 26.602.71036

So this looks like either:

  1. the same invalid curated plugin manifest issue as #26926, now affecting newer VS Code extension builds, or
  2. a regression in newer app-server/extension versions where invalid curated plugin manifests crash instead of being skipped.

Happy to close as duplicate if maintainers prefer #26926 or #28280 as the tracking issue.

daniel-graham · 1 month ago

I reproduced the same curated-plugin manifest issue locally: ngs-analysis v1.0.3 has a 313-character interface.defaultPrompt[0], while the Codex manifest loader enforces a 128-character limit.

I prepared the minimal upstream source patch here:

Patch scope: one file, plugins/ngs-analysis/.codex-plugin/plugin.json, shortening the default prompt to 109 characters while preserving the intent. I verified the updated interface.defaultPrompt[0] is 109 chars and no default prompt entry in that manifest exceeds 128 chars.

I tried opening the PR directly against openai/plugins, but GitHub returned: daniel-graham does not have the correct permissions to execute CreatePullRequest. That repo also appears to have issues disabled, so I’m linking the ready branch here.

delete-cloud · 20 days ago

Additional reproduction on Linux / VS Code with a newer extension build.

Environment:

  • Codex IDE extension version: 26.623.31921
  • IDE: VS Code 1.125.1
  • OS: Linux x64

On extension startup, Codex app-server logs:

WARN codex_core_plugins::manifest: ignoring interface.defaultPrompt[0]: prompt must be at most 128 characters path=/home/wps/.codex/.tmp/plugins/plugins/ngs-analysis/.codex-plugin/plugin.json

The relevant plugin is not installed locally:

ngs-analysis@openai-curated  not installed  /home/wps/.codex/.tmp/plugins/plugins/ngs-analysis

So this appears to happen while Codex scans the curated marketplace snapshot, even though the plugin is not installed by the user.

Root cause still appears to be the same manifest issue: ngs-analysis release 1.0.3 in openai-curated has interface.defaultPrompt / default_prompt longer than the 128-character manifest limit.

Local workaround that stops the warning:

  • Shorten defaultPrompt in ~/.codex/.tmp/plugins/plugins/ngs-analysis/.codex-plugin/plugin.json
  • Shorten the matching default_prompt entry in ~/.codex/cache/remote_plugin_catalog/<hash>.json

Expected behavior:

  • The curated ngs-analysis plugin manifest should satisfy the 128-character limit; or
  • Marketplace / curated snapshot scanning should not surface warnings for not-installed plugins as extension/app-server errors.
AFCMS · 14 days ago

26.602.71036 doesn't seem to work anymore for me.

Since I use Codex only from VSCode I won't renew my subscription until this bug is fixed.

ClementV78 · 9 days ago

same issue here, on linux mint with Vs Code +remote vscode extension. Downgrade to 26.602.71036 is the good workarount. thanks ! lost one day investigating my config...