Codex Desktop: Window Restoration Animation Bug on macOS Sequoia

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

26.707.62119

What subscription do you have?

Plus

What platform is your computer?

_No response_

What issue are you seeing?

When Codex is minimized to the Dock and then restored by clicking the Dock icon, the window restoration animation displays multiple overlapping semi-transparent windows that scale from small to large before the actual application window appears. These ghost/phantom windows are visible only during the macOS Dock "genie" restoration animation.

What steps can reproduce the bug?

1. Launch Codex Desktop
2. Minimize the window (Cmd+M or click the yellow minimize button)
3. Click the Codex icon in the Dock to restore
4. Observe the restoration animation showing multiple overlapping transparent windows before the actual window

What is the expected behavior?

Clicking the Dock icon should restore the minimized Codex window cleanly with a single window restoration animation, showing only the actual application window. But multiple (3-5) overlapping transparent window outlines appear during the restoration animation, scaling from small to large. These ghost windows are visible only during the Dock animation and disappear once the actual window is fully restored.

Additional information

Environment Details

• macOS: 26.5.2 (Sequoia, 25F84)
• Machine: Apple Silicon (arm64)
• Codex Version: 26.707.62119
• Chromium Version: 150.0.7871.115
• Electron Framework: Custom (Codex Framework.framework, not standard Electron Framework)
• App Location: /Applications/ChatGPT.app (bundle ID com.openai.codex)
• Minimum OS Required: 12.0
• Library Type: Developer Tools (LSApplicationCategoryType: public.app-category.developer-tools)

Scope Assessment

• Isolated to Codex: Yes. Other Electron-based applications (VS Code) do not exhibit this behavior on the same system.
• Persistent across app restarts: Yes. The bug persists after killing the app and relaunching.
• Not resolved by preference reset: Clearing defaults (defaults delete com.openai.Codex) does not fix it.
• Not resolved by Dock operations: Restarting Dock (killall Dock), removing/re-adding the Dock icon, and toggling minimize-to-application all have no effect.

Root Cause Hypothesis

This appears to be a WindowServer compositing compatibility issue between macOS 26 Sequoia and the Chromium 150 graphics layer used by Codex. The multiple overlapping transparent windows during Dock restoration suggest that the app's NSWindow instances are not correctly registered with the macOS window manager for single-window restoration, potentially related to:

1. The app having multiple off-screen BrowserWindow instances (in-app browser, popup threads) that macOS WindowServer attempts to restore simultaneously
2. A race condition in how Chromium 150 handles window backing store snapshots during macOS Dock restoration
3. The sandboxed app environment interfering with WindowServer's window state caching

System Log Observations

Kernel-level logs show tcp_connection_summary and udp_connection_summary entries from "Codex (Service)" process (PID: 75490), indicating network connections from the app's service component, but no window-related errors or crashes were recorded.