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Codex Issues / #33991

Codex VS Code extension stuck on logo / blank grey webview with overlapping app-servers after extension update (Linux)

Open 💬 3 comments Opened Jul 18, 2026 by nboulikas
💡 Likely answer: A maintainer (github-actions[bot], contributor) responded on this thread — see the highlighted reply below.

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

Updated extension: 26.715.31925

What subscription do you have?

Superman ProMax

What platform is your computer?

openSUSE Leap 15.6, Linux x86_64

What issue are you seeing?

Codex VS Code extension stuck on logo / blank grey webview with overlapping app-servers after extension update (Linux)

Environment

  • Reporter: METIS INTELLIGENCE
  • Date observed: 2026-07-18 (Europe/Athens)
  • OS: openSUSE Leap 15.6, Linux x86_64
  • VS Code: 1.129.1 (8a7abeba6e03ea3af87bfbce9a1b7e48fed567b8)
  • Extension: openai.chatgpt
  • Updated extension: 26.715.31925
  • Previous extension: 26.5715.31925
  • Bundled Codex CLI in the updated extension: 0.145.0-alpha.18
  • Authentication: ChatGPT login

Issue

After the Codex VS Code extension updated, its sidebar remained indefinitely on the Codex logo. After reinstalling or rolling back the extension, the sidebar became a blank grey webview.

The extension host log showed activation and app-server initialization without a fatal error:

Activating Codex extension
[CodexMcpConnection] Spawning codex app-server
[CodexMcpConnection] Initialize received id=1

Authentication was valid (codex login status reported Logged in using ChatGPT). Despite successful backend initialization, the webview never reached its usable UI.

Host process inspection revealed two Codex app-servers running simultaneously from different extension versions:

.../openai.chatgpt-26.715.31925-linux-x64/bin/linux-x86_64/codex ... app-server
.../openai.chatgpt-26.5715.31925/bin/linux-x86_64/codex ... app-server

This occurred because VS Code windows and extension hosts from the earlier version remained alive while another window loaded the replacement version.

Recovery that worked

  1. Terminated the complete native VS Code process tree, which stopped both Codex app-servers.
  2. Preserved and removed these active VS Code renderer caches so VS Code would rebuild them:
  • Cache
  • Code Cache
  • GPUCache
  • Service Worker
  • WebStorage
  1. Installed and pinned the locally cached previous extension build, 26.5715.31925.
  2. Started one clean native VS Code window.

The Codex sidebar then loaded normally. Login state, conversations, settings, and projects did not need to be reset.

Expected behavior

  • Updating or replacing the extension should stop app-server processes owned by superseded extension hosts.
  • The new extension version should not coexist with an app-server launched from an older extension directory.
  • Stale service-worker/webview state should be invalidated or detected after an extension update.
  • If the frontend cannot complete startup, the sidebar should show a diagnostic/recovery action instead of remaining on the logo or a blank grey panel.

Related reports

  • #8197: grey/blank extension panel
  • #15975: extension stuck on the loading/logo screen after an update
  • #24601: blank sidebar after an extension update; rollback fixes it

Reported by METIS INTELLIGENCE.

What steps can reproduce the bug?

The Codex sidebar then loaded normally. Login state, conversations, settings, and projects did not need to be reset.

What is the expected behavior?

_No response_

Additional information

_No response_

View original on GitHub ↗

3 Comments

github-actions[bot] contributor · 1 month ago

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

  • #33968
  • #33032
  • #33059
  • #33649

Powered by Codex Action

collectifweb · 1 month ago

Same greyed-out Codex panel here (VS Code on Linux). In my case it showed up when opening the panel, not after extended use, and only the Codex panel was affected. Other webview panels rendered fine.

Turned out it wasn't the extension. The extension host logs showed Codex activating and mounting its UI normally (app routes mounted after ...ms), so the problem was purely in rendering. Rolling the extension back to an older version didn't help either (both versions greyed out). It was VS Code's own webview/display cache that was corrupted.

What fixed it: fully quit VS Code, delete its cache folders, relaunch.

  • Linux : in ~/.config/Code/, delete: Cache, Code Cache, GPUCache, Service Worker, CachedData
  • macOS : same folders in ~/Library/Application Support/Code/
  • Windows : same folders in %APPDATA%\Code\

Your settings and installed extensions are untouched. Those folders get regenerated on the next launch (first start is just a bit slower). Worth trying if a plain window reload or reinstall didn't do it.

barrelltitor · 1 month ago

Getting the same greyed out panel on Windows as well.

Downgrading vscode to 129.0 fixed it for me

Given the different OS not sure if this is relevant here though