Unable to start custom pet creation in Codex desktop app

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

• #37691

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Are you using this configs?
Agent environment: Windows Subsystem for Linux
Integrated terminal shell: WSL

Just in case your environment is close to mine.

I can reproduce this on Windows Desktop 26.814.5517.0 specifically when WSL backend is enabled, and the Desktop logs expose a concrete filesystem-path failure.

Environment (sanitized):

Codex Desktop: OpenAI.Codex 26.814.5517.0
platform: win32 (Electron main process)
WSL backend: enabled
CODEX_HOME: C:\Users\<USER>\.codex

Clicking Create Pet sends an install-recommended-skill IPC request for the bundled hatch-pet skill:

hostId = local
skillId = hatch-pet
source = bundled
repoPath = skills/.curated/hatch-pet
installRoot = null
forceReinstall = true

Tracing the shipped app.asar shows the installer computes the destination using:

getCodexHome({ preferWsl: false })
  -> C:\Users\<USER>\.codex

executionHost.platformPath()
  -> path.posix

So the install root begins as:

path.posix.join("C:\\Users\\<USER>\\.codex", "skills")
-> C:\Users\<USER>\.codex/skills

The destination is then passed through POSIX resolve() and the local execution-host filesystem-path conversion. In the failing run, Desktop logs:

Failed to install recommended skill
EPERM: operation not permitted, mkdir '\\wsl$\Ubuntu\Program Files'

This error repeats after a full app restart.

The exact runtime origin of the Program Files segment is not logged, so I am not claiming that last transformation is fully proven. However, the following points are confirmed in the current bundle:

• CODEX_HOME is a Windows drive path.
• the installer uses path.posix because the local execution host is marked as running inside WSL.
• file operations ultimately execute in the Windows Electron main process via native Node fs.
• POSIX absolute paths are converted by the local host into \\wsl$\Ubuntu\... paths.
• the visible failure is the resulting EPERM during recommended-skill installation.

This looks like the same shared Windows/WSL path-abstraction problem as the existing custom-pet discovery issue (#20730), though not necessarily the same specific function.

Expected behavior: Create Pet should install/prepare the bundled hatch-pet skill using one consistent path representation for the selected filesystem host, without constructing a protected/invalid WSL UNC target.

No files, permissions, configuration, or application bundle were modified during this investigation.

This failure appears tied to the WSL agent environment. A temporary method is:

1. In Codex settings, switch the Agent environment from WSL to Windows.
2. Fully quit the desktop app, then reopen it.
3. Open Settings > Pets and choose Create again.
4. Verify that the pet-creation screen opens and the new pet can be selected.

Limitation: switching the Agent environment back to WSL may reintroduce the separate custom-pet loading/path problem. This only bypasses the mixed Windows/WSL path during creation; it is not the underlying fix.