Chrome plugin connection times out despite extension showing Connected

[xianyuchen-king]

What version of Codex CLI is running?

codex-cli 0.130.0

What subscription do you have?

Unknown

Which model were you using?

GPT-5 in Codex app (Chrome plugin task)

What platform is your computer?

Darwin 25.3.0 arm64 arm; macOS 26.3.1 (25D771280a)

What terminal emulator and version are you using (if applicable)?

Codex app / Chrome plugin workflow; terminal not involved. Shell: zsh; Ghostty installed.

What issue are you seeing?

The Codex Chrome plugin cannot connect from Codex even though the Chrome extension popup shows "Connected".

When using @chrome from Codex, the browser-client connection times out repeatedly while trying to list/control Chrome tabs. Reinstalling the Chrome plugin and reopening Chrome did not fix it.

Thread ID: 019e0b4c-4552-76e3-b094-1985eb424eb4

What steps can reproduce the bug?

Uploaded thread: 019e0b4c-4552-76e3-b094-1985eb424eb4

1. In Codex app, use @chrome for a task that needs the signed-in Chrome browser.
2. Codex tries to connect to Chrome and list/open tabs.
3. The browser-client call times out.
4. Retry after waiting.
5. Confirm Chrome is running.
6. Confirm Codex Chrome Extension is installed/enabled and its popup shows "Connected".
7. Confirm native host manifest check passes.
8. Open a fresh Chrome window for the Default profile and retry.
9. Reinstall the Chrome plugin and retry.

Observed: the connection still times out.

What is the expected behavior?

Codex should connect to the Chrome extension and list/control Chrome tabs.

Additional information

Environment observed during troubleshooting:

• Google Chrome 147.0.7727.138
• Codex Chrome Extension v1.1.4
• Extension installed/enabled check passed.
• Native host manifest check passed.
• Chrome running check passed.
• Computer Use could see Chrome and the extension popup showing Connected, but @chrome browser automation remained unusable.

[github-actions]

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

• Codex Desktop Chrome plugin connection times out despite extension and native host checks passing #21851
• Chrome plugin hangs during backend setup despite extension and native host running #21879
• Codex Desktop Chrome plugin times out during extension handshake despite extension and native host checks passing #21705
• Chrome plugin discovery still times out after socket cleanup; extension-host socket does not respond to getInfo #21681
• Codex Desktop Chrome plugin native host connects to different socket than Codex browser-use pipe and times out #21719

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[xianyuchen-king]

Additional update after reinstalling both Codex App and the Chrome plugin:

The issue still reproduces after a clean restart path.

Environment:

• Codex App: 26.506.31421, build 2620
• macOS: darwin / arm64
• Chrome: 147.0.7727.138
• Codex Chrome Extension: 1.1.4_0
• Chrome profile: Default
• Extension ID: hehggadaopoacecdllhhajmbjkdcmajg

What I tried:

1. Reinstalled the Codex Chrome plugin.
2. Reinstalled the Codex desktop app.
3. Fully quit Chrome.
4. Killed stale extension-host processes.
5. Cleared /tmp/codex-browser-use/*.sock.
6. Reopened Chrome using the Default profile.
7. Confirmed a fresh extension-host was started and a new socket was created.

Clean state observed:

• Chrome started fresh at May 10 11:44.
• extension-host started fresh at May 10 11:44.
• /tmp/codex-browser-use contained only the current extension socket.
• check-extension-installed.js --json reports installed/enabled.
• Native host config was previously verified as correct.

Result:

• browser.user.openTabs() still times out after 30s.
• nodeRepl.fetch('https://chatgpt.com/backend-api/me') also hangs until timeout.
• This makes it look like the browser-client setup path or internal nodeRepl.fetch is blocking before Chrome tab discovery can complete.

So this no longer appears to be caused only by stale sockets or stale extension-host processes.