[Windows] plugin marketplace add fails to spawn Git when PATH has a stray quote before Git

What version of Codex is running?

codex-cli 0.147.0

What subscription do you have?

N/A — this is a local plugin-marketplace command and reproduces with an isolated CODEX_HOME, before authentication or model use.

Which model were you using?

N/A

What platform is your computer?

Microsoft Windows 10.0.29639 x64 (Windows 11 Pro Insider Preview)

What terminal software are you using?

PowerShell 7.6.4. Also reproduced from Codex Desktop 26.803.10989.0.

What issue are you seeing?

On Windows, codex plugin marketplace add can fail to launch Git even though the same PowerShell process resolves and runs git.exe successfully:

Error: failed to run git clone https://github.com/DietrichGebert/ponytail.git C:\Users\<user>\...\.tmp\marketplaces\.staging\marketplace-add-<id>: program not found

In the affected environment:

where.exe git
C:\Users\<user>\AppData\Local\hermes\git\cmd\git.exe

git --version
git version 2.54.0.windows.1

A direct git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/DietrichGebert/ponytail.git <destination> from that shell also succeeds.

The relevant part of codex doctor --json is:

{
  "schemaVersion": 1,
  "codexVersion": "0.147.0",
  "checks": {
    "git.environment": {
      "status": "warning",
      "summary": "Git repository detected but git executable was not found",
      "details": {
        "PATH git entries": "0",
        "repo detected": "true",
        "repo root": "C:\\Users\\<user>\\...\\codex",
        "selected git": "not found"
      }
    },
    "runtime.provenance": {
      "summary": "running local build on windows-x86_64",
      "details": {
        "platform": "windows-x86_64",
        "version": "0.147.0"
      }
    },
    "system.environment": {
      "details": {
        "os": "Windows 10.0.29639 (Windows 11 Professional) [64-bit]"
      }
    }
  }
}

Steps to reproduce

The trigger is a single stray trailing quote in a PATH entry before the Git entry. PowerShell still resolves Git, while Rust's Windows PATH parsing does not expose the later entry to std::process::Command.

$codexExe = (Get-Command codex -CommandType Application).Source
$gitDir = Split-Path (Get-Command git -CommandType Application).Source

$env:PATH = 'C:\Program Files\PowerShell\7";' + $gitDir + ';C:\Windows\System32'
$env:CODEX_HOME = Join-Path $env:TEMP ("codex-git-spawn-" + [guid]::NewGuid())
New-Item -ItemType Directory -Path $env:CODEX_HOME | Out-Null

Get-Command git
git --version
& $codexExe plugin marketplace add DietrichGebert/ponytail --json

Observed: PowerShell finds and runs git.exe, but Codex exits 1 with failed to run git clone ...: program not found.

Replacing PATH with a clean $gitDir + ';C:\Windows\System32' makes the same Codex binary and command succeed.

What did you expect to happen?

Codex should clone and register the marketplace when Git is resolvable by the host shell. At minimum, it should diagnose the malformed PATH entry rather than reporting that Git is absent.

Additional information

The inherited PATH contains one unmatched quote at the end of an entry, for example:

C:\Program Files\PowerShell\7";C:\Users\<user>\AppData\Local\hermes\git\cmd;...

On Windows, Rust's quote-aware std::env::split_paths treats the unmatched quote as continuing across later semicolons. Command::new("git") therefore returns NotFound, although PowerShell's executable lookup tolerates this PATH and locates a later git.exe.

The marketplace code launches bare git in these paths:

• marketplace add
• marketplace upgrade
• plugin Git-source clone

A conservative patch is prepared and tested locally. It preserves the ordinary bare-git attempt and Windows search order. Only after NotFound, and only for the exact unambiguous case of one stray quote at a PATH-entry boundary, it repairs that quote in a copy of PATH, parses the repaired value with std::env::split_paths, and retries the first existing git.exe by absolute path. It does not mutate the process environment or reinterpret balanced/ambiguous quoted PATH values. The fallback is applied only to marketplace add, upgrade, and plugin-source cloning.

Per the repository's invitation-only contribution policy, I am filing the issue first and will open the prepared PR only if a Codex maintainer invites it.

I searched open and closed issues for the exact error and for marketplace + program-not-found/Git-clone combinations. The closest reports appear related but distinct:

• #21959 reports a generic Windows Desktop custom-marketplace failure but does not expose this CLI error or PATH/spawn evidence.
• #13015 concerns the older Recommended Skills subsystem.
• #15586 affects the Desktop terminal's general process launcher; here Git runs normally in PowerShell.