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Codex Desktop: Computer Use approval denied in old/resumed threads after restart, while new threads can authorize normally #18522

@smartlau83

Description

@smartlau83

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

26.415.40636 (1799)

What subscription do you have?

Pro for $200

What platform is your computer?

macOS 26.4.1, Codex Desktop

What issue are you seeing?

After restarting Codex Desktop, old/resumed threads can no longer use Computer Use for app state access. Calls such as get_app_state for Chrome, Excel, or Word fail immediately with:

Computer Use approval denied via MCP elicitation for app 'com.google.Chrome'.
Computer Use approval denied via MCP elicitation for app 'com.microsoft.Excel'.
Computer Use approval denied via MCP elicitation for app 'com.microsoft.Word'.

Newly created threads can trigger Computer Use authorization and use Chrome/Word/Excel normally, so this does not appear to be a macOS Accessibility/Screen Recording permission issue or a missing plugin installation issue.

What steps can reproduce the bug?

  1. Open a Codex Desktop thread.
  2. Use Computer Use successfully in that thread, e.g. inspect Google Chrome.
  3. Restart Codex Desktop.
  4. Return to the old thread.
  5. Ask Codex to inspect Chrome with Computer Use.
  6. Observe that the tool returns approval denied via MCP elicitation.
  7. Create a new thread and ask the same Computer Use request.
  8. Observe that the new thread can use Computer Use successfully.

What is the expected behavior?

Old/resumed threads should either preserve the previous Computer Use approval state or re-trigger the app authorization prompt.

Additional information

Actual behavior

Old/resumed threads fail immediately with MCP elicitation approval denied. No usable reauthorization prompt appears.

Additional local evidence

The Computer Use plugin is enabled in ~/.codex/config.toml:

[plugins."computer-use@openai-bundled"]
enabled = true

The Computer Use client exposes only:

  • mcp
  • turn-ended

No public reset/authorize/grant command was found.

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    appIssues related to the Codex desktop appbugSomething isn't workingcomputer-usemcpIssues related to the use of model context protocol (MCP) serverssessionIssues involving session (thread) management, resuming, forking, naming, archiving

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