Codex Desktop repeatedly crashes on macOS: CrBrowserMain EXC_BREAKPOINT/SIGTRAP in V8 code cache path

What happened?

Codex Desktop / ChatGPT macOS app repeatedly crashes while using Codex. The macOS crash reporter shows the same native crash signature each time:

• EXC_BREAKPOINT / SIGTRAP
• Trace/BPT trap: 5
• faulting thread: CrBrowserMain
• top frames repeatedly include:
• ares_llist_replace_destructor
• v8::ScriptCompiler::ConsumeCodeCacheTask::ConsumeCodeCacheTask(...)
• v8::ScriptCompiler::CreateCodeCache(...) in later reports
• v8impl::Reference::InvokeFinalizerFromGC()

This looks related to, but not exactly identical to, existing reports:

• https://github.com/openai/codex/issues/31094
• https://github.com/openai/codex/issues/27880
• https://github.com/openai/codex/issues/30005

Frequency

Very frequent. There are 11 ChatGPT-2026-07-13*.ips crash reports on the machine today.

Recent crash reports:

ChatGPT-2026-07-13-101501.ips
ChatGPT-2026-07-13-101659.ips
ChatGPT-2026-07-13-102517.ips

The latest three all have the same pattern:

app_version: 26.707.61608
build: 5200
exception: EXC_BREAKPOINT / SIGTRAP
termination: Trace/BPT trap: 5
thread: CrBrowserMain

Environment

macOS: 26.5.1 (25F80)
machine: Apple Silicon, Mac16,8
ChatGPT/Codex app version from crash reports: 26.707.61608, build 5200
Codex CLI bundled in ChatGPT.app: codex-cli 0.144.0-alpha.4
Codex Framework shown in process args: 150.0.7871.115

Crash signature excerpt

From the latest reports, sanitized summary only:

exception: EXC_BREAKPOINT SIGTRAP
termination: Trace/BPT trap: 5
faulting thread: CrBrowserMain
frames:
ares_llist_replace_destructor
ares_llist_replace_destructor
ares_llist_replace_destructor
ares_llist_replace_destructor
ares_llist_replace_destructor
v8::ScriptCompiler::ConsumeCodeCacheTask::ConsumeCodeCacheTask(...)
v8::ScriptCompiler::ConsumeCodeCacheTask::ConsumeCodeCacheTask(...)
v8::ScriptCompiler::CreateCodeCache(v8::Local<v8::UnboundScript>)

Diagnostics already checked

Local Codex auth and SQLite state do not appear to be the cause:

auth mode: chatgpt
state_5.sqlite: integrity_check ok
logs_2.sqlite: integrity_check ok
goals_1.sqlite: integrity_check ok
memories_1.sqlite: integrity_check ok

No obvious auth/network patterns were present in local Codex logs:

hadToken=false: 0
Unauthorized: 0
websocket: 0
stream disconnected: 0
cannot access local database: 0
SQLite errors: 0

Mitigations attempted

1. Moved Electron/Chromium cache-like directories out of ~/Library/Application Support/Codex:

• Cache
• Code Cache
• GPUCache
• GPUPersistentCache
• GrShaderCache
• ShaderCache
• DawnGraphiteCache
• DawnWebGPUCache
• GraphiteDawnCache
• component_crx_cache
• extensions_crx_cache
• several optimization/safety/component cache folders

1. Disabled bundled browser/chrome plugins in ~/.codex/config.toml:

[plugins."chrome@openai-bundled"]
enabled = false

[plugins."browser@openai-bundled"]
enabled = false

The crashes continued after the first cache cleanup. The plugin-disable mitigation is currently being tested, but the user requested this issue because the crash frequency is high.

Expected behavior

Codex Desktop should not crash the entire ChatGPT/Codex macOS app during normal Codex use.

Actual behavior

The app exits and macOS shows "ChatGPT quit unexpectedly." Reopening the app works temporarily, but the same crash recurs.

Privacy note

I am not attaching the full .ips files publicly because they may contain local paths and machine-specific details. I can provide additional sanitized excerpts if helpful.