Chrome browser provider unavailable in Codex CLI while working in ChatGPT UI

What version of Codex CLI is running?

codex-cli 0.144.3

What subscription do you have?

Details available privately if required.

Which model were you using?

gpt-5.6-sol

What platform is your computer?

macOS, Apple Silicon

What terminal emulator and version are you using (if applicable)?

VS Code integrated terminal

Codex doctor report

The doctor report returned overallStatus: "ok". The complete report contains local paths and environment metadata, so it is omitted from this public issue and can be provided privately to OpenAI maintainers if needed.

What issue are you seeing?

The ChatGPT Chrome Extension works from the ChatGPT desktop UI, but the same installed Chrome plugin is unavailable from a standalone Codex CLI session. The CLI browser runtime initializes successfully, yet browser discovery returns no providers:

await agent.browsers.list()
// []

await agent.browsers.get("extension")
// Error: Browser is not available: extension

Reinstalling the Chrome plugin/extension did not resolve the CLI behavior.

Environment:

• Codex CLI: 0.144.3
• ChatGPT desktop app and Chrome plugin: 26.707.62119
• ChatGPT embedded Codex app-server used by node_repl: 0.144.2
• ChatGPT Chrome Extension: 1.2.27203.26575_0
• Google Chrome: 150.0.7871.49
• macOS on Apple Silicon

All bundled setup checks pass:

• Chrome is installed and running.
• The ChatGPT Chrome Extension is installed and enabled in the selected profile.
• The native messaging host manifest is present and valid.
• The native host binary is present and signed by OpenAI.
• The native host process and Browser Use sockets are live.
• CLI configuration advertises BROWSER_USE_AVAILABLE_BACKENDS = "chrome,iab".
• Chrome control works from the ChatGPT desktop UI in another session.

Possible compatibility clue: the standalone CLI is 0.144.3, while its configured node_repl launches the ChatGPT app's embedded Codex app-server 0.144.2. This is only a hypothesis; the stronger symptom is that a live, working native host is absent from agent.browsers.list() in the CLI session.

What steps can reproduce the bug?

1. Start an interactive Codex CLI session.
2. Ask Codex to open a site in Chrome.
3. Bootstrap the bundled Chrome browser-client.mjs and request the extension-backed browser.
4. Observe Error: Browser is not available: extension.
5. Run await agent.browsers.list() and observe [].
6. Open a fresh Chrome window, wait two seconds, and retry; the result is unchanged.

The failing session was uploaded through /feedback. The session identifier can be provided privately to OpenAI maintainers if required.

What is the expected behavior?

The CLI should discover the live extension-backed Chrome provider and return a Chrome browser binding, as the ChatGPT desktop UI does with the same extension and profile.

Additional information

No secrets or credentials are included in this public report. Full diagnostics are available privately to OpenAI maintainers.