macOS Codex in-app Browser cannot connect: Reconnecting 5/5 while browser-use native pipe starts

[1HelloMan1]

What version of the Codex App are you using?

Codex bundled CLI: codex-cli 0.130.0-alpha.5

What subscription do you have?

Plus

What platform is your computer?

• macOS 26.1 / build 25B78
• Darwin 25.1.0
• Apple Silicon / arm64

What issue are you seeing?

The built-in Codex in-app Browser does not connect on macOS.

This is not about the Chrome extension. I am specifically reporting the built-in @Browser / in-app Browser path.

Simple public pages fail to open, including:

• https://example.com
• Baidu

The task repeatedly reconnects and eventually fails, showing behavior like:

• Reconnecting... 2/5, 3/5, 4/5, 5/5
• Browser / Node Repl setup hangs
• Previously observed: js execution timed out; kernel reset, rerun your request

What steps can reproduce the bug?

1. Open Codex Desktop on macOS.
2. Start a new conversation.
3. Run: @Browser open https://example.com.
4. Observe the Browser task reconnecting repeatedly and eventually failing.
5. The same happens for other public pages.

What is the expected behavior?

The built-in in-app Browser should open a simple public page such as https://example.com.

What is the actual behavior?

The built-in Browser never successfully connects. The task gets stuck in reconnect attempts and fails.

What I already tried

• Restarted Codex.
• Restarted Chrome.
• Created new Codex threads.
• Clean reinstalled Codex.
• Removed Codex logs/cache/preferences.
• Temporarily removed ~/.codex, then restored ~/.codex/sessions from backup.
• Cleared /tmp/codex-browser-use.
• Tested simple public sites instead of localhost or authenticated pages.
• The issue still reproduces.

Relevant logs

The logs show the browser-use native pipe starts successfully:

browser_use_runtime_paths_selected codexCliPath=/Applications/Codex.app/Contents/Resources/codex codexCliPathSource=bundled-or-dev nodePath=/Applications/Codex.app/Contents/Resources/node nodePathSource=bundled-or-dev nodeReplPath=/Applications/Codex.app/Contents/Resources/node_repl nodeReplPathSource=bundled-or-dev nodeVersionError=undefined nodeVersionMajor=24 nodeVersionStatus=ok nodeVersionValue=v24.14.0 platform=darwin
browser-use-native-pipe-peer-authorizer browser-use native pipe peer authorization enabled mode=packaged
browser-session-registry IAB_LIFECYCLE registered browser sidebar thread conversationId=... windowId=1
browser-use-native-pipe-server browser-use native pipe listening pipePath=/tmp/codex-browser-use/37530b10-0376-4639-a6d1-5284cdf06886.sock

But the in-app browser lifecycle repeatedly rebounds / fails to become usable:

browser-session-registry IAB_LIFECYCLE rebound browser sidebar window ownerWebContentsId=1 previousOwnerWebContentsId=1 windowId=1
browser-session-registry IAB_LIFECYCLE captured turn route conversationId=... disposeAfterTurn=false ownerWebContentsId=1 turnId=... windowId=1
browser-session-registry IAB_LIFECYCLE ended browser use turn route conversationId=... turnId=... windowId=1

There are also repeated app-level requests around the same time, while the Browser never becomes usable:

AppServerConnection response_routed ... method=plugin/list ...
AppServerConnection response_routed ... method=config/read ...
AppServerConnection response_routed ... method=turn/start ...

The temp directory also accumulates multiple browser-use socket files, for example:

/tmp/codex-browser-use/*.sock

Additional notes

A sensitive-info scan was run over the generated bug report files using:

grep -RinE "sk-|Bearer|Authorization|api[_-]?key|password|secret|cookie|github_pat" ~/Desktop/codex-browser-bug-report

The only matches were false positives for browser-use-native-pipe-peer-authorizer / authorization enabled; no API keys, bearer tokens, cookies, or passwords were found.

I can provide the full redacted log bundle if needed.

[github-actions]

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

• browser-use in-app browser hangs during initialization: setupAtlasRuntime({ globals: globalThis }) consistently times out in node_repl #21941
• Codex Desktop browser-use iab backend is discovered but session/tab commands hang #22108
• Browser Use and Chrome backend time out despite installed extension and valid native host #22057
• Codex Desktop browser-use IAB backend sockets close without getInfo response on macOS #21711

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[1HelloMan1]

Thanks. I reviewed the potential duplicates.

This issue looks most closely related to #21941 and #21711.

However, I would like to keep this issue open for now because this reproduction is specifically about the built-in in-app Browser only, not the Chrome extension, and it still reproduces on:

• Codex bundled CLI: codex-cli 0.130.0-alpha.5
• macOS 26.1 / Darwin 25.1.0
• Apple Silicon / arm64

In my case, @Browser open https://example.com fails before any real browser operation becomes usable. The logs show that browser-use native pipe starts, but the in-app Browser remains stuck in Reconnecting... 5/5.

This may be the same root cause as #21941 / #21711, but I am keeping this report open as an additional reproduction on a newer Codex build unless maintainers prefer to consolidate it.