Codex Desktop: unified exec process fails after plugin manifest crash

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

26.623.70822

What subscription do you have?

ChatGPT Pro

What platform is your computer?

macOS on MacBook Pro; unable to run uname -mprs because all Codex local exec commands fail with this bug.

What issue are you seeing?

Codex Desktop on macOS cannot create unified exec process after plugin manifest crash.

Environment:

• macOS Codex Desktop app
• Codex app version shown in config env: 26.623.70822
• Project path: /Users/chen/Documents/Obsidian
• CODEX_HOME: /Users/chen/.codex

Observed behavior:

• Any local shell command fails, including pwd, /bin/zsh, /bin/bash, /bin/sh.
• Error from tool execution:

Failed to create unified exec process: No such file or directory

• Creating a new Codex thread in the same local project does not fix it.
• Fully quitting/restarting Codex does not fix it.
• The desktop app previously showed a crash overlay with:

code=null, signal=SIGTERM
ignoring interface.defaultPrompt: maximum of 3 prompts is supported
path=/Users/chen/.cache/codex-runtimes/codex-primary-runtime/plugins/openai-primary-runtime/plugins/template-creator/.codex-plugin/plugin.json
target=codex_core_plugins::manifest

Attempted remediation:

• Set [plugins."template-creator@openai-primary-runtime"] enabled = false in ~/.codex/config.toml
• Saved config.toml
• Restarted Codex
• Created a new thread
• pwd still fails with the same unified exec process error

Expected behavior:

• A disabled plugin should not break local shell execution.
• A bad plugin manifest should not prevent the unified exec process from starting.
• Codex should expose a clear recovery path or ignore disabled/bad plugin manifests.

What steps can reproduce the bug?

Feedback ID: 019f1923-b89a-71b2-b4b2-214ceb8023fd

What is the expected behavior?

• Codex should be able to start the local unified exec process and run minimal commands such as pwd.
• A disabled plugin should not be loaded in a way that can break local shell execution.
• A bad plugin manifest should be isolated, ignored, or surfaced with a recovery action instead of breaking all local commands.
• Restarting Codex or creating a new thread should recover the local exec environment when the user has disabled the problematic plugin.

Additional information

The problematic plugin is already disabled in ~/.codex/config.toml:

[plugins."template-creator@openai-primary-runtime"]
enabled = false

However, after saving the config and restarting Codex, the unified exec process still cannot start.

A possible recovery workaround may be to rename or remove the cached plugin directory:
/Users/chen/.cache/codex-runtimes/codex-primary-runtime/plugins/openai-primary-runtime/plugins/template-creator

I have not submitted that workaround yet because I wanted to report the disabled-plugin behavior first.