imagen can't use

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

26.707.72221

What subscription do you have?

image_gen repeatedly fails with network error

What platform is your computer?

macOS

What issue are you seeing?

[Codex] Bug: image_gen repeatedly fails with network error

Bug Description

Component: Other - Codex built-in image_gen service
Summary: Two consecutive image-generation requests failed with the same network error, and no image artifact was returned.

Environment

• Agent Platform: Codex Desktop
• Agent Version: codex-cli 0.142.4
• OS: Darwin 25.5.0, arm64
• Compound Engineering Plugin: 3.12.0
• Plugin Involvement: The plugin was used only to format this report. The failure appears to originate from the Codex image-generation backend.

What Happened

The user requested a Chinese workflow diagram for the local reader skill using the built-in image-generation model.

The first image_gen request remained pending and then failed with a network error. A second request was made with a shorter but equivalent prompt. It failed with the same error.

No image or partial artifact was returned by either request.

Expected Behavior

image_gen should generate and return a new image containing the requested Reader workflow diagram. If the backend is temporarily unavailable, the tool should return a more actionable service-status or retry message.

Steps to Reproduce

1. Open a Codex Desktop conversation.
2. Request a newly generated image using the built-in image model.
3. Call image_gen with a text-only prompt and no referenced images.
4. Wait for the generation request to complete.
5. Observe the network error.
6. Retry with a shorter equivalent prompt.
7. Observe the same network error again.

Error Messages

image generation failed: network error: error sending request for url (https://chatgpt.com/backend-api/codex/images/generations)

The same error occurred on both attempts.

Impact

The requested image workflow could not be completed, and no visual artifact was generated. The failure reproduced twice in the same session.

Additional Context

• This was a new image-generation request, not an image-editing request.
• No source images were attached.
• Both a detailed prompt and a shorter equivalent prompt produced the same failure.
• It is not yet known whether the problem was a transient backend outage or specific to this session.
• Suggested ownership: OpenAI/Codex image-generation service rather than EveryInc/compound-engineering-plugin.

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Report structured via /ce-report-bug; not submitted.

What steps can reproduce the bug?

I don't know

What is the expected behavior?

_No response_

Additional information

_No response_