Codex Windows app: "New task" outside a project crashes the UI

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

26.707.72221

What subscription do you have?

Business

What platform is your computer?

Microsoft Windows NT 10.0.26100.0, x64

What issue are you seeing?

Summary

Creating a new task from the global "New task" entry outside all projects
opens the generic error page ("Oops, an error occurred"). New tasks inside a
project and existing tasks remain usable.

Environment

• Windows desktop app from Microsoft Store
• Package: OpenAI.Codex
• Package version after clean reinstall: 26.707.9981.0
• Date reproduced: 2026-07-14

What steps can reproduce the bug?

1. Start the Codex/ChatGPT Windows app.
2. Use the global "New task" action outside a project.
3. The new-task route is created as client-new-thread:<uuid>.
4. The UI immediately enters the app error boundary and displays the generic

error page. The app may then need to be terminated in Task Manager.

What is the expected behavior?

A new projectless Codex task should open with the default projectless working
directory.

Additional information

codex-desktop-3c4eac57-125c-4a6d-88d2-2d7514b54fc3-8712-t0-i1-141632-0.log

Actual behavior

The renderer crashes while rendering the new-task composer. A representative
current-build log entry is:

2026-07-14T14:17:47.104Z ... conversationId=client-new-thread:<uuid>
2026-07-14T14:17:47.567Z error [electron-message-handler] error boundary
name=AppRoutes
componentStack=... composer-DAlEL18q.js ... composer-layout ...

An earlier reproduction of the same symptom logged:

Minified React error #185

React error 185 indicates a maximum update-depth/render-update loop.

Diagnostics already completed

• A projectless thread was created successfully through the app/backend API.

This indicates that projectless thread creation itself works and the failure
is in the desktop UI route/composer.

• Chromium caches were reset.
• The isolated Chromium web profile was replaced.
• The complete Electron roaming state was replaced.
• The Microsoft Store app was uninstalled, Windows was restarted, and the app

was installed again. The reinstall updated the package to 26.707.9981.0.

• The issue remained unchanged after every reset and after the clean reinstall.
• Saved project paths exist and the Codex global-state JSON is valid.

Relevant local log

C:\Users\...\AppData\Local\Codex\Logs\2026\07\14\codex-desktop-3c4eac57-125c-4a6d-88d2-2d7514b54fc3-8712-t0-i1-141632-0.log

The first matching error-boundary entry is at line 142.

Requested investigation

Please investigate the Windows desktop new-task composer for the projectless
client-new-thread route, especially the permission/composer state
synchronization that triggers the React update loop.