Windows Remote SSH - bundled codex 0.142.0-alpha.6 fails with sandbox timeout, 0.140.0 works

What version of the IDE extension are you using?

OpenAI ChatGPT extension 26.616.41845

What subscription do you have?

PLUS

Which IDE are you using?

vs code

What platform is your computer?

Microsoft Windows NT 10.0.26200.0 x64

What issue are you seeing?

Environment:

• VS Code Remote SSH
• Remote host: Windows 11 Pro
• OpenAI ChatGPT extension 26.616.41845
• Bundled Codex version: 0.142.0-alpha.6
• Standalone Codex version: 0.140.0
• Subscription: ChatGPT Plus

Problem:

The bundled Codex binary shipped with the VS Code extension fails to execute sandboxed commands on a Windows Remote SSH environment.

The issue causes:

• apply_patch failures
• file editing failures
• command execution failures
• excessive fallback behavior using PowerShell scripts

The error consistently appears as:

windows sandbox failed: timed out after 15000ms connecting runner pipe-in

The failure occurs even for very small operations such as:

codex sandbox pwsh -NoProfile -Command Get-Location

or attempting a trivial apply_patch modification.

Important finding:

The issue is not related to permissions, project size, Git status, file size, or workspace configuration.

I isolated the problem to the bundled Codex executable included with the extension.

Bundled binary:

C:\Users\Addiel.vscode-server\extensions\openai.chatgpt-26.616.41845-win32-x64\bin\windows-x86_64\codex.exe

Version:

codex-cli 0.142.0-alpha.6

Running:

codex sandbox pwsh -NoProfile -Command Get-Location

produces:

windows sandbox failed: timed out after 15000ms connecting runner pipe-in

Workaround:

Replacing the bundled codex.exe with a standalone Codex CLI 0.140.0 installation immediately fixes:

• apply_patch
• sandbox execution
• file editing
• command execution

The same machine, same user account, same workspace, same project and same SSH session work correctly with Codex CLI 0.140.0.

What steps can reproduce the bug?

1. Install the OpenAI ChatGPT extension version 26.616.41845.

1. Connect to a Windows machine through VS Code Remote SSH.

1. Open any workspace.

1. Use the bundled Codex binary shipped with the extension:

C:\Users<user>.vscode-server\extensions\openai.chatgpt-26.616.41845-win32-x64\bin\windows-x86_64\codex.exe

1. Run:

codex sandbox pwsh -NoProfile -Command Get-Location

1. Observe the failure:

windows sandbox failed: timed out after 15000ms connecting runner pipe-in

1. Open a Codex chat in VS Code and request a small apply_patch change (for example adding a comment to an existing file).

1. Observe that apply_patch fails and Codex falls back to alternative editing approaches.

1. Replace the bundled codex.exe with Codex CLI 0.140.0.

1. Repeat steps 5-8.

1. Observe that sandbox execution and apply_patch work normally.

What is the expected behavior?

The bundled Codex binary should execute sandboxed commands successfully in a Windows Remote SSH environment.

Commands such as:

codex sandbox pwsh -NoProfile -Command Get-Location

should complete successfully.

apply_patch should be able to edit existing files without timing out or requiring PowerShell-based workarounds.

The bundled binary should behave consistently with the standalone Codex CLI installation on the same machine.

Additional information

Additional observations:

• The standalone Codex CLI 0.140.0 works correctly on the same machine.
• The bundled extension binary reports version 0.142.0-alpha.6.
• The issue reproduces on existing files and small files.
• The issue is not specific to Laravel.
• The issue occurs even when testing with routes files containing only a few lines.
• Codex Doctor reports no critical failures.
• The sandbox timeout occurs before the command is executed.