What version of the Codex App are you using (From “About Codex” dialog)?
Codex Desktop 26.506.31421; bundled codex-cli 0.130.0-alpha.5
What subscription do you have?
ChatGPT Pro
What platform is your computer?
Darwin 25.3.0 arm64 arm
What issue are you seeing?
Codex Desktop intermittently loses system skills, including Image Gen.
After restarting Codex Desktop, the system skills are restored under ~/.codex/skills/.system, and ~/.codex/skills/.system/imagegen/SKILL.md exists. Image Gen also appears in the System skills section.
After Chronicle starts a background summary process, ~/.codex/skills/.system disappears again. This makes $imagegen and other system skills unavailable until Codex Desktop later recreates .system.
Observed Chronicle child process args included:
codex exec --json ... --config skills.bundled.enabled=false ... --cd /var/folders/.../chronicle/screen_recording -
The issue appears intermittent because normal skills list/reload later recreates .system.
What steps can reproduce the bug?
Uploaded thread: 019e0cc8-a1f5-7820-8d8d-5cf5f8b4f080
- Start Codex Desktop with Chronicle enabled.
- Confirm system skills exist:
find ~/.codex/skills/.system -maxdepth 2 -name SKILL.md
Observed after restart: imagegen/SKILL.md, openai-docs/SKILL.md, skill-creator/SKILL.md, plugin-creator/SKILL.md, and skill-installer/SKILL.md existed.
- Wait for Chronicle to start a background summary session. Desktop logs showed entries like:
starting codex exec summary session executable_path=codex cwd="/var/folders/.../chronicle/screen_recording"
- While the summary child process is running, inspect the process args. The child process included:
--config skills.bundled.enabled=false
- Check the system skills directory again:
find ~/.codex/skills -maxdepth 2 -type d -name .system
Observed result: no output; ~/.codex/skills/.system had been removed.
- Restarting Codex Desktop or triggering a normal skills reload recreates
.system, so the bug appears as a disappear/reappear loop.
In this case, stopping Chronicle and restarting Codex Desktop restored .system, and the Chronicle process no longer appeared in ps output.
What is the expected behavior?
Chronicle background summary processes should not delete or uninstall global system skills from the user's shared CODEX_HOME.
If a background/ephemeral codex exec process disables bundled skills for its own run, that should only affect that process. It should not remove ~/.codex/skills/.system or make system skills unavailable in the main Codex Desktop app.
Additional information
Suspected cause: skills.bundled.enabled=false appears to trigger the system skill uninstall path, which removes .system. That seems unsafe when the process is a Chronicle summary child process sharing the user's real CODEX_HOME.
Relevant local observations:
/Applications/Codex.app/Contents/Resources/codex app-server --analytics-default-enabled
/Applications/Codex.app/Contents/Resources/codex_chronicle
The Chronicle log line used executable_path=codex. On this machine, which codex resolves to /opt/homebrew/bin/codex (codex-cli 0.128.0), while the Desktop bundled codex is 0.130.0-alpha.5. I am not sure whether the PATH version mismatch is required to reproduce, but it may be relevant.
Possible fix direction: Chronicle summary processes could use an isolated CODEX_HOME, or Codex could treat skills.bundled.enabled=false as a per-process load decision rather than uninstalling shared .system skills.
What version of the Codex App are you using (From “About Codex” dialog)?
Codex Desktop 26.506.31421; bundled codex-cli 0.130.0-alpha.5
What subscription do you have?
ChatGPT Pro
What platform is your computer?
Darwin 25.3.0 arm64 arm
What issue are you seeing?
Codex Desktop intermittently loses system skills, including Image Gen.
After restarting Codex Desktop, the system skills are restored under
~/.codex/skills/.system, and~/.codex/skills/.system/imagegen/SKILL.mdexists. Image Gen also appears in the System skills section.After Chronicle starts a background summary process,
~/.codex/skills/.systemdisappears again. This makes$imagegenand other system skills unavailable until Codex Desktop later recreates.system.Observed Chronicle child process args included:
The issue appears intermittent because normal skills list/reload later recreates
.system.What steps can reproduce the bug?
Uploaded thread: 019e0cc8-a1f5-7820-8d8d-5cf5f8b4f080
find ~/.codex/skills/.system -maxdepth 2 -name SKILL.mdObserved after restart:
imagegen/SKILL.md,openai-docs/SKILL.md,skill-creator/SKILL.md,plugin-creator/SKILL.md, andskill-installer/SKILL.mdexisted.find ~/.codex/skills -maxdepth 2 -type d -name .systemObserved result: no output;
~/.codex/skills/.systemhad been removed..system, so the bug appears as a disappear/reappear loop.In this case, stopping Chronicle and restarting Codex Desktop restored
.system, and the Chronicle process no longer appeared inpsoutput.What is the expected behavior?
Chronicle background summary processes should not delete or uninstall global system skills from the user's shared
CODEX_HOME.If a background/ephemeral
codex execprocess disables bundled skills for its own run, that should only affect that process. It should not remove~/.codex/skills/.systemor make system skills unavailable in the main Codex Desktop app.Additional information
Suspected cause:
skills.bundled.enabled=falseappears to trigger the system skill uninstall path, which removes.system. That seems unsafe when the process is a Chronicle summary child process sharing the user's realCODEX_HOME.Relevant local observations:
The Chronicle log line used
executable_path=codex. On this machine,which codexresolves to/opt/homebrew/bin/codex(codex-cli 0.128.0), while the Desktop bundled codex is0.130.0-alpha.5. I am not sure whether the PATH version mismatch is required to reproduce, but it may be relevant.Possible fix direction: Chronicle summary processes could use an isolated
CODEX_HOME, or Codex could treatskills.bundled.enabled=falseas a per-process load decision rather than uninstalling shared.systemskills.