[bug] Computer Use helper's black console briefly appears when a turn completes

English translation:

What version of the Codex App are you using?

• Codex Desktop: 26.707.9981.0
• Packaged Codex CLI: 0.144.2
• @oai/sky: 0.4.20
• Platform: Windows x64

What subscription do you have?

ChatGPT Pro

What platform is your computer?

• Microsoft Windows NT 10.0.26200.0
• PowerShell 7.5.8

What issue are you seeing?

With the bundled Computer Use plugin enabled, a black console window briefly opens and closes whenever a Codex turn completes.

The app-managed global notify hook is:

notify = ["%LOCALAPPDATA%\\OpenAI\\Codex\\runtimes\\cua_node\\<runtime>\\bin\\node_modules\\@oai\\sky\\bin\\windows\\codex-computer-use.exe", "turn-ended"]

This does not mean Computer Use is actively clicking or capturing the screen on every turn. Static inspection shows that turn-ended signals the turn-end named event used to prevent Computer Use after the turn has finished. The problem is the visible process launch:

• codex-computer-use.exe is PE subsystem 3 (IMAGE_SUBSYSTEM_WINDOWS_CUI).
• The legacy notify implementation starts the configured process normally and does not apply a Windows no-window creation flag such as CREATE_NO_WINDOW.
• The helper exits quickly after signaling the turn-ended event, matching the visible open-then-close console symptom.
• The executable is currently unsigned.

Current helper identity:

SHA-256: F2B2F56FCD1699B0FA32DEC3214A56A1D36B937A2ECF58CC822AB4A904551E03
Authenticode: NotSigned

Codex Desktop also automatically installs or repairs this notify entry while Computer Use is enabled. Removing it from config.toml is therefore not durable and can remove an important turn-boundary safety signal.

What steps can reproduce the bug?

1. Install Codex Desktop on Windows.
2. Enable the bundled Computer Use plugin.
3. Confirm that Desktop installs the codex-computer-use.exe turn-ended global notify entry.
4. Complete several normal Codex turns without invoking Computer Use.
5. Observe a black console window briefly open and close at turn completion.

What is the expected behavior?

The Computer Use turn-ended safety signal should run without creating a visible console window or stealing focus.

Possible product-side fixes:

1. Launch legacy notify hooks with CREATE_NO_WINDOW / an equivalent hidden-process option on Windows when appropriate.
2. Ship a windowless turn-ended notifier separate from the console/stdio Computer Use transport helper.
3. Move this internal Computer Use lifecycle signal out of the user-facing global notify hook.

The fix should preserve the turn-ended safety behavior. A PowerShell/CMD wrapper is not a good workaround because the JSON payload would be re-parsed by a shell, and Desktop's --previous-notify repair behavior can create fragile chaining.

Related issues

These are adjacent but not exact duplicates:

• #28404 — Desktop rewrites the user notify hook through Computer Use.
• #30873 — Windows legacy notify can hit error 206 and destabilize the app.
• #31419 — Defender flags the unsigned Windows Computer Use helper invocation.
• #32783 — Computer Use turn-ended helper can leave a persistent blank desktop surface.

This issue is specifically about the short-lived visible black console window created on every completed turn while retaining Computer Use.

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Adding a related Windows variant to this report.

Environment:

• Windows 11 Pro
• Codex Desktop 26.814.5517.0
• codex-cli 0.147.0

Instead of only a brief black console, Windows can show the system “How do you want to open this file?” app-picker after each completed Codex turn when the Desktop-managed notify hook invokes codex-computer-use.exe turn-ended.

Reproduction evidence:

• notify hook enabled: reproduced after 2/2 completed turns
• same hook commented out: 0/2 completed turns reproduced the dialog

The hook is app-managed and may be restored by a Desktop update. The current workaround is to comment out the notify entry. No credentials, account identifiers, or absolute user paths are included here.