ChatGPT Desktop Work Mode cannot reliably connect to Chrome despite it working 100% of the time in Codex

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

26.803.5235.0

What subscription do you have?

$100

What platform is your computer?

Windows 10

What issue are you seeing?

no-active-thread-019fe34c-296b-7bc0-b9f4-04bdca4edcec

For more than a week, we have repeatedly tried to resolve a serious Chrome integration failure in normal ChatGPT Work Mode. We have attempted well over a dozen troubleshooting steps, including:

• Completely uninstalling and reinstalling the ChatGPT desktop application
• Signing out of ChatGPT and signing back in
• Fully removing and reinstalling the Chrome plugin and browser extension
• Restarting ChatGPT, Chrome, Brave, and Windows
• Removing the ChatGPT extension from Brave
• Closing Brave completely and attempting to isolate the extension and connection exclusively to actual Google Chrome
• Checking multiple browser profiles and extension installations
• Confirming the ChatGPT extension side panel opens correctly in Chrome
• Confirming ChatGPT Settings shows the Chrome plugin as installed and enabled
• Testing with and without Brave running
• Checking browser and Computer Use permissions
• Starting brand-new Work Mode conversations inside the project
• Explicitly attaching @Chrome through the plugin picker
• Repeating the test without using the cloud browser, Computer Use, CDP, or an isolated browser session

The failure is now clearly reproducible. When @Chrome is explicitly attached in a normal ChatGPT Work conversation, the conversation receives no callable chrome@openai-bundled control tool, no desktop-extension handshake, and no Chrome tab-control endpoint. The Chrome capability is completely absent from the available tool registry, so the conversation cannot inspect or control the open desktop Chrome tabs.

The same installed desktop browser connection works reliably 100% of the time from Codex. This strongly indicates that the Chrome extension, desktop bridge, and local browser setup are functional. The failure appears to be in how the Chrome capability is routed or attached to normal ChatGPT Work conversations.

This must be fixed. I need to access and control my installed desktop Chrome from normal Work Mode inside my existing projects, where my project instructions, files, context, history, and ongoing work are located. Codex is not an adequate substitute because it does not provide the same project-based workflow and continuity.

This issue is costing me significant time and interfering with real business work. We have spent more than a week repeating resets, reinstalls, connection tests, browser isolation attempts, and new-chat tests. We have exhausted the standard troubleshooting steps.

Please escalate this report to the engineering team responsible for ChatGPT Work, plugins, and desktop Chrome-extension capability routing. Please investigate why chrome@openai-bundled works consistently in Codex but is not attached to normal Work Mode conversations, even when the plugin is installed, enabled, explicitly selected, and tested from a brand-new project conversation.

Please do not respond with another generic reinstall, sign-out, cache-clearing, or browser-reset checklist. Those steps have already been attempted repeatedly. We need the underlying Work Mode capability-routing failure investigated and fixed so desktop Chrome can be used normally within the context of ChatGPT projects.

What steps can reproduce the bug?

Feedback ID: no-active-thread-019fe34c-296b-7bc0-b9f4-04bdca4edcec

What is the expected behavior?

_No response_

Additional information

It may be some issue where ChatGPT cannot distinguish between Chrome and Brave. This limitation has really hamstrung business operations.