IDE Context silently disables because workspaceRoot is missing in recent VS Code extension builds

What version of the IDE extension are you using?

Affected version: 26.715.61943. The same faulty IDE-context request construction was also found in 26.715.31925 and 26.707.91948. Version 26.5609.30741 works as a rollback.

What subscription do you have?

ChatGPT Plus

Which IDE are you using?

Visual Studio Code 1.129.1

What platform is your computer?

Microsoft Windows NT 10.0.19045.0 x64

What issue are you seeing?

In recent VS Code extension builds, IDE Context fails silently and then disables itself.

When IDE Context is enabled, its indicator may appear briefly and then disappear. Codex can receive the active/open tab names, but it does not receive the active editor selection.

The extension log contains:

2026-07-22 13:48:35.560 [error] [Composer] failed to fetch ide-context error={}

A direct IPC diagnostic showed that a request containing the correct workspace root returns the IDE context successfully, while the same request with an empty workspace root returns no-client-found.
Inspection of the shipped extension bundle shows that the webview's ide-context query constructs undefined request parameters, while the extension-side IPC handler requires workspaceRoot to route the request to the matching VS Code window.
After this request fails, the frontend automatically disables IDE Context. The persisted composer-auto-context-enabled value is consequently reset to false, which explains why the indicator disappears.
All third-party selection/context extensions were disabled during the final reproduction. Only the official openai.chatgpt extension was active.

What steps can reproduce the bug?

1. Install the official openai.chatgpt VS Code extension version 26.715.61943 on Windows.
2. Open a local folder as a VS Code workspace.
3. Open a text or source file.
4. Select a unique line, for example:

CODEX_IDE_CONTEXT_CANARY_7F3A9C

5.Open a local Codex conversation.
6.Enable IDE Context from the composer control or slash-command menu.
7.Send: Print the current selection verbatim.
8.Observe that the IDE Context indicator disappears and Codex can see only the open tab, not the selected text.
9.Check Codex.log; it contains [Composer] failed to fetch ide-context error={}.

Control test:
Downgrade and pin the official extension to 26.5609.30741.
Enable the same official IDE Context option.
Repeat the selection test.
The exact selected text is transmitted successfully.

What is the expected behavior?

When IDE Context is enabled, the extension should keep the setting enabled and attach the active editor selection, active file, open tabs, and IDE metadata to the next Codex request

A context-fetch failure should be shown to the user instead of silently disabling and persisting the feature as off.

Additional information

Runtime reproduction was confirmed with 26.715.61943.

The same faulty query construction is present in the shipped bundles for:

• 26.715.31925
• 26.707.91948

Confirmed working workaround:

• Install and pin the official 26.5609.30741 build.
• Restore the official auto-context preference.
• Selected text is then transmitted correctly.
• No failed to fetch ide-context or no-client-found errors occur.

This appears to be a webview-to-extension IPC routing regression, rather than a VS Code selection, workspace permission, authentication, or user-configuration problem.