Windows Desktop: browser verification requires missing `agent-browser`, while bundled Playwright is incomplete

Summary

Codex Desktop exposes an automated browser-verification workflow, Browser/Computer Use capabilities, and workspace dependencies advertised for browser automation, but the default verification path cannot execute on Windows.

There are two consecutive packaging/integration failures:

1. The browser-verification skill requires the agent-browser CLI, but that executable is not installed or available on PATH.
2. The bundled workspace runtime contains playwright@1.61.1, but its declared playwright-core@1.61.1 dependency is absent. Importing Playwright therefore fails before a browser can start.

The session also exposed Browser Use and Computer Use capabilities, but the verification workflow did not route to either capability when agent-browser was unavailable.

Direct headless Chromium capture works successfully on the same machine, so the browser host and the application under test are available.

Environment

• Codex Desktop: 26.707.8479.0
• Bundled Codex CLI: 0.137.0
• OS: Windows 11 x64 (Microsoft Windows NT 10.0.26200.0)
• PowerShell: 5.1.26100.8737
• Workspace dependency bundle: 26.709.11516
• Playwright package: 1.61.1
• Native Windows Desktop session
• Browser Use and Computer Use capabilities exposed in the session
• Chrome installed; direct headless capture succeeds

Steps to reproduce

1. Start a local website or development server.
2. Invoke the automated browser-verification workflow.
3. Attempt one of the documented verifier commands, such as:

``powershell
agent-browser --help
``

1. Observe that the executable is unavailable.
2. Load the bundled workspace dependencies, which advertise support for browser automation.
3. Attempt to import the bundled Playwright package using the bundled Node runtime.
4. Observe that the import fails because playwright-core is missing.

Actual behavior

The required verifier executable is unavailable:

agent-browser : The term 'agent-browser' is not recognized as the name of a cmdlet,
function, script file, or operable program.

The advertised Playwright runtime is also unloadable:

Error: Cannot find module 'playwright-core'
Require stack:
- <codex-runtime>\node_modules\playwright\index.js
- <workspace>\[eval]

Package inspection shows:

playwright package: present (1.61.1)
declared playwright-core dependency: 1.61.1
playwright-core package: absent

The failure occurs before Playwright launches a browser or interacts with the application.

Expected behavior

Codex Desktop should provide at least one reliable default route for automated browser verification:

• Ship agent-browser when the verification skill requires it; or
• Route the verification workflow through the installed Browser Use or Computer Use capability; or
• Ship Playwright with its complete dependency closure.

The workspace dependency loader should not advertise browser automation when the provided package cannot be imported.

A preflight check should identify missing components and select an available verification path, or return one actionable diagnostic, instead of discovering multiple broken paths sequentially.

Impact

• Automated UI verification is unavailable even when browser automation capabilities appear installed.
• Agents must construct ad hoc Chromium screenshot scripts.
• Screenshot-only fallbacks lose DOM, console, interaction, accessibility, and responsive-layout checks.
• The sequential failures consume unnecessary tool calls, tokens, and troubleshooting time.
• A working application can incorrectly appear to be the source of the problem when the failure is in the bundled automation tooling.

Scope boundary

The following checks succeed in the same environment:

• Application routes and assets return HTTP 200.
• Direct headless Chromium capture works at desktop and mobile viewport sizes.
• Chrome is installed and executable.

This report does not claim that the Browser Use or Computer Use plugins themselves are broken. The observed problem is the verification workflow’s packaging, dependency completeness, and fallback routing.

Possibly related

• #22035 — another Windows Desktop packaging-contract failure where an exposed browser-use skill references a missing runtime file.
• #24871 — repeated local UI-verification failure, but with a different startup and sandbox signature.
• #21579 — Computer Use exposure/installation mismatch.

These appear related at the capability-integration level, but none documents this exact combination of a missing agent-browser executable and an incomplete bundled Playwright installation.