Windows Codex Desktop sandbox becomes extremely slow on large Node.js workspaces and appears to traverse node_modules

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

Codex Desktop Version: 26.616.81150

What subscription do you have?

ChatGPT Plus

What platform is your computer?

OS Name Microsoft Windows 10 Pro

What issue are you seeing?

I'm seeing severe performance degradation when using Codex Desktop on a Node.js workspace.

The application frequently becomes unresponsive and the sandbox reports errors such as:

helper_unknown_error: apply deny-read ACLs
approval timeouts
repeated requests for escalated permissions even for simple read operations
extremely slow Get-Content operations

Reading a single project source file may take tens of seconds, while simple Git commands executed directly in PowerShell (git status, git diff) complete almost instantly.

The desktop application also occasionally freezes during these operations.

What steps can reproduce the bug?

I spent time trying to isolate the issue before reporting it.

I verified that:

Secure Boot / UEFI are correctly configured.
Windows Defender Controlled Folder Access is disabled.
NTFS ACLs are correct (CodexSandboxUsers has Modify permissions).
The repository is located on an internal SATA SSD.
Git performance is normal.
PowerShell file reads are normal.
Another repository on the same SSD performs significantly better.

The issue appears to correlate with the size of the workspace, particularly the large number of files inside node_modules.

Approximately 32,700 of the 34,900 files belong to node_modules.

Feature request

It would be extremely helpful if Codex Desktop could support one or more of the following:

Ignore node_modules by default when indexing or traversing a workspace.
Respect .gitignore for indexing/sandbox traversal.
Allow users to configure ignored directories (similar to VS Code's files.exclude or search.exclude).
Avoid traversing dependency folders unless explicitly requested.
Cache workspace indexing so it is not repeated unnecessarily.

For software engineering workflows, dependency folders rarely need to be inspected by the coding agent, yet they represent the overwhelming majority of files in many Node.js repositories.

Ignoring them would likely improve responsiveness, reduce sandbox overhead, and avoid unnecessary approval requests.

I'd be happy to provide additional diagnostics or reproduce the issue if needed.

What is the expected behavior?

_No response_

Additional information

Suggested Improvement

I have one feature request that I believe would significantly improve the developer experience, especially for large software projects.

1. Support a .codexignore file

Please consider adding support for a .codexignore file, similar to .gitignore.

Example:

node_modules/
dist/
build/
coverage/
.next/
out/
target/
vendor/
*.log
*.tmp

Codex should avoid indexing, traversing, searching, or requesting sandbox access for these directories unless the user explicitly asks for it.

---

2. Respect .gitignore by default

If a .codexignore file is not present, Codex could automatically respect .gitignore for workspace indexing.

Most generated folders (especially node_modules) never need to be inspected by the coding agent.

---

3. Workspace Ignore Settings

It would also be useful to expose a Workspace Settings page where users can configure excluded folders.

For example:

• node_modules
• dist
• build
• coverage
• .next
• vendor
• target
• generated folders

This would be similar to VS Code's files.exclude or search.exclude.

---

4. Smarter Workspace Indexing

Codex could detect extremely large generated directories and automatically skip them or ask the user:

"This workspace contains approximately 33,000 generated dependency files inside node_modules. Would you like Codex to ignore these folders for indexing and sandbox traversal?"

This would greatly reduce unnecessary filesystem operations.

---

5. Persistent Workspace Cache

If Codex has already indexed a workspace once, it could cache that information and only re-index files that have changed instead of traversing the entire project repeatedly.

---

I believe these improvements would make Codex much faster and more reliable for Node.js, React, Next.js, Java, Flutter, Rust, and many other ecosystems where dependency folders can contain tens of thousands of generated files that rarely need to be analyzed.

In my case, over 93% of the files in the repository belong to node_modules, yet Codex never needs to inspect them for the tasks I assign. Ignoring those directories would likely reduce sandbox overhead, improve responsiveness, and eliminate many unnecessary approval requests.