Chrome plugin crashes before browser discovery with “Cannot redefine property: process”

Potential duplicates detected. Please review them and close your issue if it is a duplicate.

• #32991
• #33001
• #32951
• #32954
• #32936

Powered by Codex Action

The Chrome extension shows Connected, but Codex cannot initialize the Chrome browser-control runtime. Environment: Windows 11 Pro 10.0.26200, x64 Codex/ChatGPT desktop app: 26.707.9564.0 Chrome: 150.0.7871.115 Chrome plugin: 26.707.71524 Chrome extension: 1.2.27203.26575 Chrome extension ID: hehggadaopoacecdllhhajmbjkdcmajg CUA Node: 24.14.0 node_repl runtime: 20260713.2 * Task ID: 019f5fad-381b-7601-8f0c-6164dd3ff9da Reproduction: 1. Open the latest Codex desktop app. 2. Confirm the ChatGPT Chrome extension displays “Connected”. 3. Start a new Codex task. 4. Invoke @chrome or ask Codex to inspect Chrome. 5. Browser initialization fails immediately. Exact error: `` TypeError: Cannot redefine property: process at .../chrome/26.707.71524/scripts/browser-client.mjs:33:22 at SourceTextModule.evaluate (node:internal/vm/module:233:26) ` The failing source line is: ` globalThis.process = processShim; ` Troubleshooting already completed: * Restarted Codex three times. * Reinstalled the Chrome plugin. * Reinstalled the Chrome extension. * Confirmed the extension remains Connected. * Tested from a new task. * Reset and retried the browser-control runtime. * Verified the native messaging manifest exists and is correct. * Verified the Windows registry points to the correct native-host manifest. * Verified native-host name, extension origin, and extension ID all match. * Verified the extension is installed and enabled in the active Chrome profile. * Verified the same browser-client.mjs imports successfully with standalone Node; it fails only inside Codex’s browser-control execution runtime. This appears to be a compatibility regression between the current node_repl runtime and the bundled Chrome plugin. The runtime may be exposing a non-redefinable process` property while browser-client.mjs attempts to replace it. Expected: Codex initializes @chrome and discovers/controls the connected Chrome session. Actual: Initialization fails before Chrome discovery or native-host communication begins.

The bundled Browser plugin is affected by the same failure as the Chrome plugin.

Verified after updating the Codex Windows app:

• Codex desktop: 26.707.9981.0
• Browser plugin: 26.707.71524
• Chrome plugin (latest): resolves to 26.707.71524

Both fail during browser runtime initialization with:

Cannot redefine property: process

The failure occurs before either plugin can discover or access a tab. I tested each plugin independently after resetting the JavaScript runtime, so this does not appear to be stale state shared between the two tests.

The in-app Browser already had a localhost tab open, and Chrome had an available tab, but neither could be reached because initialization failed first.

I reproduced the same failure on Windows with the following environment:

• Codex/ChatGPT desktop app: 26.707.9564.0
• Bundled Chrome plugin: 26.707.71524
• Plugin app-server Codex CLI: 0.144.2
• ChatGPT Chrome extension: 1.2.27203.26575
• Google Chrome: 150.0.7871.114

The extension installation check reports installed/enabled, and the native host manifest check reports correct: true. The failure reproduces after reinstalling the plugin and extension, restarting Chrome and the app, rebooting Windows, and resetting the JavaScript kernel. Initialization stops at Cannot redefine property: process before Chrome discovery.

I see. Was your in-app Browser plugin experienced the same thing as well?

Yes. The bundled in-app Browser plugin initially failed with the same Cannot redefine property: process error before tab discovery. I later got the in-app Browser working through a temporary local workaround, but this was not an official fix, and the Chrome plugin remained affected.

I see. What was your workaround? I just gave up and switch to another agent lol.

It was a temporary, unsupported runtime-only workaround for the in-app Browser. I had the agent copy the bundled browser-client.mjs to a temporary file and replace these global writes:

globalThis.process = processShim;
globalThis.global = globalThis.global ?? globalThis;
globalThis.global.process = processShim;

with module-local bindings:

const process = processShim;
const global = globalThis;

The agent then imported that temporary copy in the Node REPL and initialized the in-app Browser binding from it. I did not modify the installed plugin, and the temporary file was deleted afterward. It only worked for the in-app Browser in that running kernel; it did not fix the Chrome plugin and would need to be recreated after a runtime reset. So it was useful for finishing the task, but definitely not a permanent or supported fix.

So the issue was 100% from Codex and the plugins' side of things. This would be helpful for the fix, I think. I also found a post that might explain what happened here, alongside a real fix: https://github.com/openai/codex/issues/32936