High CPU usage and overheating on macOS when Codex is active in Antigravity, even with an empty project

[gunesyusuf34]

What version of the IDE extension are you using?

26.409.20454

What subscription do you have?

ChatGPT Plus

Which IDE are you using?

Google Antigravity

What platform is your computer?

Darwin 25.3.0 arm64 arm

What issue are you seeing?

When Codex is active inside Antigravity on macOS, CPU usage becomes abnormally high and my MacBook heats up significantly.

I tested this multiple times with Activity Monitor and isolated the issue as much as possible. The abnormal load appears when Codex is enabled in Antigravity. In the problematic state, Activity Monitor shows very high CPU usage from these processes:

Antigravity Helper (Renderer)
Antigravity Helper (Plugin)

In some cases I observed values like:

Antigravity Helper (Renderer): 285%+
Antigravity Helper (Renderer): 100%+
Antigravity Helper (Plugin): 50%+

When this happens, the machine gets noticeably hot.

I also tested with an empty project folder, and the issue still occurs there, so this does not seem to depend on project size.

What steps can reproduce the bug?

1. Open Antigravity on macOS.
2. Enable the Codex extension/plugin.
3. Open a project folder in Antigravity.
4. Wait briefly and check Activity Monitor.
5. Observe very high CPU usage from Antigravity Helper (Renderer) and Antigravity Helper (Plugin).

I also tested these comparison cases:

• Antigravity closed -> no overheating, no abnormal CPU
• Antigravity open, no project open, Codex disabled -> normal
• Antigravity open, no project open, Codex enabled -> normal
• Antigravity open, project open, Codex disabled -> normal
• Antigravity open, project open, Codex enabled -> high CPU and overheating
• Antigravity open, empty project folder open, Codex enabled -> high CPU and overheating again

This suggests the problem is specifically triggered when Codex is active in Antigravity, even if the opened folder is empty.

What is the expected behavior?

CPU usage should remain near idle when no heavy task is running.

Enabling Codex should not cause Antigravity Helper (Renderer) and Plugin processes to consume excessive CPU, especially when the opened folder is empty or when no meaningful task is running.

The app should stay thermally normal during idle or light use.

Additional information

I downgraded the Codex extension to a previous version, but the problem remained.
This does not seem to be caused by Antigravity alone, because CPU stays normal when Codex is disabled.
This does not seem to be caused by project size alone, because the issue also happens with an empty folder.
Based on Activity Monitor, the issue appears related to Antigravity Helper (Renderer) / Plugin behavior when Codex is active.

[github-actions]

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

• High CPU usage on macOS after updating Codex in VS Code extension to 26.325.31654 #16231
• VS Code extension: high renderer CPU in non-git workspace caused by repeated git stable-metadata worker loop #17394
• VS Code extension high CPU in window processes when switching to Codex chat list; fixed by downgrading to 0.4.79 #17429
• High CPU load in vscode codex extension in recent versions on linux #17730

Powered by Codex Action

[gunesyusuf34]

Thanks, I reviewed the suggested potential duplicates.

My case seems especially close to #17394.
I can reproduce the high CPU issue when Codex is active even in an empty folder, and the load appears in renderer/plugin helper processes while the app is otherwise idle.

In my setup this happens inside Antigravity rather than plain VS Code, but the pattern looks very similar to the non-git workspace / renderer high CPU behavior described there.

I also tested:

• Codex disabled + project open -> normal CPU
• Codex enabled + empty folder open -> high CPU
• Downgrading the extension -> did not fix it in my case

This may be related to the same underlying issue as #17394, possibly around workspace/git-state handling or a renderer/webview loop.

[gunesyusuf34]

I reviewed the suggested duplicates and after further testing, this now appears to be a duplicate of #17394.

My results matched the same pattern:

• non-git workspace + Codex enabled -> high CPU
• after git init -> CPU returns to normal

[gunesyusuf34]

Update: I found that git init only fixes one part of the problem.

I confirmed that:

• non-git workspace + Codex enabled -> high CPU
• after git init -> CPU returns to normal

However, after that, I ran a Codex agent task that created/modified files, and high CPU usage came back again even though the workspace was still a valid git repository (git rev-parse --is-inside-work-tree returned true).

So there seem to be at least two triggers in my setup:

1. Codex in a non-git workspace
2. Codex after file-changing agent activity, even in a git workspace

[AK25789]

Downgrade Codex to v.26.325.21211 or lower - it resolved the same issue on Linux (the issue was both in VS Code and Antigravity)

#16231 (comment)

[sdubois]

I am using openai.chatgpt-26.318.11754-darwin-arm64.vsix and still have this problem

[GoXLd]

Fix for macOS arm64 #16231 (comment)