Codex in VSCode never loads

What version of the IDE extension are you using?

26.715.31925

What subscription do you have?

ChatGPT Plus

Which IDE are you using?

VSCode 1.129.1

What platform is your computer?

Linux 6.1.0-51-amd64 x86_64 unknown

What issue are you seeing?

The Codex chat window does not load when activated. It was working perfectly a few days ago. From than until now, I have updated VSCode and the extensions have updated on their own.

What steps can reproduce the bug?

Just open the VSCode and try to open the Codex in sidebar. It shows the logo, but never loads. It does not matter how much you leave it like that.

What is the expected behavior?

Codex chat window opens in sidebar when activated.

Additional information

The OS is Debian 12 KDE.

What steps I have tried:

• uninstalled the extension, closed the VSCode, restart VSCode, retry opening the Codex chat window
• uninstalled the extension, closed the VSCode, I have deleted the ~/.codex folder, restart VSCode, reinstall the Codex extension, retry opening the Codex chat window

What errors I get in the Output console of Codex:

2026-07-19 17:53:59.428 [info] Activating Codex extension
2026-07-19 17:53:59.428 [info] [CodexMcpConnection] Spawning codex app-server
2026-07-19 17:53:59.428 [info] [IpcRouter] I am the router
2026-07-19 17:53:59.428 [info] [CodexMcpConnection] Initialize received id=1
2026-07-19 17:53:59.428 [warning] [IpcClient] Received broadcast but no handler is configured method=client-status-changed
2026-07-19 17:53:59.428 [warning] [CodexMcpConnection] cli: message="codex_core_plugins::manager: failed to warm featured plugin ids cache error=remote featured plugin request to https://chatgpt.com/backend-api/plugins/featured failed with status 401 Unauthorized: {\"detail\":\"Unauthorized\"}"
2026-07-19 17:53:59.962 [error] [CodexMcpConnection] cli: message="2026-07-19T14:53:59.935567Z  WARN codex_core_plugins::manifest: ignoring interface.defaultPrompt[0]: prompt must be at most 128 characters path=file:///home/user/.codex/.tmp/plugins/plugins/ngs-analysis/.codex-plugin/plugin.json\n2026-07-19T14:53:59.937799Z  WARN codex_core_plugins::manifest: ignoring interface.defaultPrompt[0]: prompt must be at most 128 characters path=file:///home/user/.codex/.tmp/plugins/plugins/ngs-analysis/.codex-plugin/plugin.json"

If I'm accessing the https://chatgpt.com/backend-api/plugins/featured URL in browser (where I'm logged-in on ChatGPT), it returns valid JSON output:

[
  "github@openai-curated",
  "slack@openai-curated",
  "notion@openai-curated",
  "linear@openai-curated",
  "datadog@openai-curated",
  "statsig@openai-curated",
  "gmail@openai-curated",
  "google-calendar@openai-curated",
  "google-docs@openai-curated",
  "google-drive@openai-curated",
  "google-sheets@openai-curated",
  "google-slides@openai-curated",
  "adobe-acrobat@openai-curated",
  "teams@openai-curated",
  "sharepoint@openai-curated",
  "outlook-email@openai-curated",
  "outlook-calendar@openai-curated",
  "figma@openai-curated",
  "datascience@openai-monorepo"
]