Windows: browser-use IAB can initialize and list tabs, but tab.goto() fails with `failed to start codex app-server: 系统找不到指定的路径 (os error 3)`

[lushijian]

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

OpenAI.Codex 26.422.8496.0_x64__2p2nqsd0c76g0

What subscription do you have?

No response

What platform is your computer?

Windows x64

What issue are you seeing?

@browser-use is partially working on Windows, but external navigation through the IAB backend fails.

In my session, Browser Use can:

• initialize successfully with setupAtlasRuntime({ backend: "iab" })
• create/select/list tabs
• return a selected tab object

But it fails consistently when trying to navigate to an external URL with tab.goto(...).

Observed error:

failed to start codex app-server: 系统找不到指定的路径。 (os error 3)

[github-actions]

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

• Windows Codex Desktop Browser Use fails to start app-server despite working npm CLI #20048
• Windows browser-use external navigation fails when Codex helper bin path is missing #19562
• Browser Use / in-app browser fails to start app-server on Windows 10 (os error 3) #19450
• Codex Desktop IAB cannot inspect external pages because app-server fails to start on Windows #19423
• Browser Use can list in-app tabs, but external navigation fails with failed to start codex app-server #19314

Powered by Codex Action

[jay52121]

I found a working workaround for Windows Codex App Browser Use failing with:

failed to start codex app-server
The system cannot find the path specified. (os error 3)

In my case, Codex Browser Use was looking for runtime files under:

%LOCALAPPDATA%\OpenAI\Codex\bin

But that directory was missing or incomplete.

Workaround:

1. Create this directory:

%LOCALAPPDATA%\OpenAI\Codex\bin

2. Copy the runtime files from:

%LOCALAPPDATA%\Packages\OpenAI.Codex_2p2nqsd0c76g0\LocalCache\Local\OpenAI\Codex\bin

to:

%LOCALAPPDATA%\OpenAI\Codex\bin

3. If the LocalCache source directory does not exist, try copying the same runtime files from the Codex install resources directory, for example:

C:\Program Files\WindowsApps\OpenAI.Codex_\app\resources

4. The important files appear to include:

• codex.exe
• codex-command-runner.exe
• codex-windows-sandbox-setup.exe
• node.exe
• node_repl.exe
• rg.exe

5. Fully quit and restart Codex App.

After copying those files and restarting Codex, Browser Use / in-app browser started working again.

This looks like a Windows packaging/cache/runtime path issue: Browser Use expects the local Codex runtime under %LOCALAPPDATA%\OpenAI\Codex\bin, but the files may only exist under the MSIX LocalCache or installation resources path.