macOS Desktop: Browser/node_repl tools are not provisioned to Remote SSH tasks

Summary

The bundled Browser works from a Local Codex task in the macOS desktop app, but tasks running on Linux hosts through the desktop app's Remote SSH connection are not provisioned with the Browser runtime or the required node_repl/js tool.

The right-side in-app browser can be opened manually and its ambient URL is visible to the remote task, but the remote task cannot navigate, inspect, click, scroll, or read the page.

Environment

• Desktop client: macOS ChatGPT/Codex desktop app
• Browser bundle observed in a working Local task: openai-bundled/browser/26.715.21425
• Remote Codex CLI: codex-cli 0.144.6
• Remote OS: Ubuntu Linux 6.8 x86_64
• Reproduced on two separate Linux Remote SSH hosts
• Same desktop app, account, and authenticated built-in Browser profile in all tests

Reproduction

1. In the macOS desktop app, enable/install the bundled Browser plugin and sign in to a website in the built-in browser.
2. Start a Local Codex task.
3. Ask Codex to use the built-in browser.
4. The Local task exposes node_repl/js, imports browser-client.mjs, connects with agent.browsers.get("iab"), and can navigate/read the page.
5. Start a task on a saved Linux Remote SSH host in the same desktop app.
6. Open the right-side built-in browser and ask the remote task to inspect or navigate it.
7. Tool discovery in the remote task exposes no node_repl/js and no Browser control tool. The remote filesystem also has no bundled Browser client.
8. Starting a fresh Remote SSH task does not change the result.

The Local task can use the authenticated Browser profile successfully. The Remote SSH task can only see ambient UI state such as the current URL and cannot control the page.

Expected behavior

A Remote SSH task opened from the desktop app should receive a bridge to the desktop app's local built-in Browser while its shell and filesystem operations continue to run on the remote host.

If Browser control is intentionally unsupported for Remote SSH tasks, the app and Browser documentation should state that clearly and the task should report a specific unsupported-surface error.

Actual behavior

The Browser pane is visible to the user and ambient browser state is supplied to the remote task, which implies integration, but the execution bridge required to act on that state is absent. The failure is silent: the model simply has no Browser or node_repl tool.

Workaround

Delegate the browser-only step to a separate Local task, then relay extracted data back to the Remote SSH task. This works but is fragile for scheduled workflows, durable state, approvals, and task continuity.

Related issues

This appears to be the macOS Remote SSH equivalent of the tool-provisioning failures reported in:

• #19365
• #21575

Those reports involve Windows/WSL, but the key symptom is the same: Browser is installed/enabled while the active non-local task does not receive node_repl/js or the IAB bridge.