Codex Desktop intermittently disables local “create and checkout new branch” action while idle

What version of the Codex App are you using (from the About dialog)?

Codex Desktop / ChatGPT app 26.707.41301 (build 5103).

What platform is your computer?

macOS, Apple Silicon (Darwin 25.5.0 arm64).

What issue are you seeing?

The right-side Environment panel is present and correctly shows the local Git repository and current branch, but the action to create and check out a new local branch is intermittently disabled/greyed out.

This is not the regression where the entire Git sidebar or branch UI is missing. The panel and branch context remain visible; only the new-branch action becomes unavailable.

The disabled state can persist in brand-new local tasks where no turn is running. In the latest occurrence, the same action became enabled again roughly five minutes later without restarting the app or intentionally changing the Git repository state.

What steps can reproduce the bug?

The problem is intermittent, but the observed sequence is:

1. Open a valid local Git project in Codex Desktop.
2. Open a new local task.
3. Ensure no Codex turn or background task is running.
4. Open the right-side Environment panel and its branch controls.
5. Observe that creating and checking out a new branch is disabled/greyed out.
6. Wait for several minutes and check the same control again.
7. The action may become enabled without an app restart or an intentional repository change.

Diagnostics from an affected occurrence

• The task was idle.
• The Git working tree was clean.
• The current branch was detected correctly.
• Only one Git worktree existed.
• No other worktree held the branch.
• Local Git operations worked normally from the terminal.
• The Environment panel itself remained visible.
• Branch creation through this UI worked on the same machine approximately three to four weeks earlier.

These observations make a repository error or normal Git worktree branch conflict unlikely. The behavior looks like a stale background busy/lock state or UI gating condition that is not cleared reliably.

What is the expected behavior?

For a valid local Git repository, the create-and-checkout-new-branch action should remain available whenever no conflicting Git operation or Codex turn is running.

If Codex intentionally disables the action temporarily, the UI should expose the reason instead of presenting an unexplained greyed-out control.

Additional information

This appears distinct from:

• #30336, where branch/worktree controls are missing from the UI
• #30484, where the broader Git/review/branch UI is not surfaced

In this report the complete Environment panel is present, and only the local new-branch action is intermittently disabled.