Bundled sites-design-picker MCP fails with “No such file or directory (os error 2)” when Node.js is not installed

[zeyuli97]

What version of Codex CLI is running?

Codex CLI: 0.144.0

What subscription do you have?

Pro

Which model were you using?

gpt-5.6 sol

What platform is your computer?

Darwin 25.5.0 arm64 arm

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

MacOS Terminal

Codex doctor report

What issue are you seeing?

After upgrading to Codex CLI 0.144.0 on macOS, the bundled Sites plugin was enabled, but its sites-design-picker MCP server failed during every CLI startup:

MCP client for `sites-design-picker` failed to start:
MCP startup failed: No such file or directory (os error 2)

MCP startup incomplete (failed: sites-design-picker)

The error does not identify which file or executable is missing.

After investigating, I confirmed that the bundled MCP server file existed:

~/.codex/plugins/cache/openai-bundled/sites/0.1.27/mcp/server.mjs

The Sites plugin MCP configuration was:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "sites-design-picker": {
      "command": "node",
      "args": ["./mcp/server.mjs"],
      "cwd": "."
    }
  }
}

The actual missing executable was node, because Node.js was not installed or available on PATH.

Installing Node.js with the following command and restarting Codex resolved the problem.

What steps can reproduce the bug?

1. Use macOS with Node.js not installed or not available on PATH.

2. Confirm that node is unavailable:

   command -v node

   The command returns no path.

3. Install or upgrade to Codex CLI 0.144.0.

4. Ensure that the bundled Sites plugin (sites@openai-bundled) is enabled.

5. Start Codex CLI:

   codex

6. Observe the following startup warnings:

   MCP client for `sites-design-picker` failed to start:
   MCP startup failed: No such file or directory (os error 2)
   
   MCP startup incomplete (failed: sites-design-picker)
   

7. Install Node.js:

   brew install node

8. Restart Codex CLI.

9. Observe that the sites-design-picker MCP startup warning no longer appears.

What is the expected behavior?

Codex or the bundled Sites plugin should do one of the following:

1. Bundle the JavaScript runtime required by the plugin.

2. Detect that Node.js is unavailable before enabling or starting the MCP server.

3. Skip or disable the MCP server when its required runtime is unavailable.

4. Display an actionable error message, for example:

   Sites design picker requires Node.js, but `node` was not found on PATH.
   Install Node.js and restart Codex.
   

Codex should not display only a generic No such file or directory (os error 2) error when the missing executable is a known plugin dependency.

Actual behavior

The bundled Sites plugin attempts to execute node even when Node.js is unavailable. Codex then displays a low-level filesystem error without identifying the missing dependency.

Workaround

Install Node.js and restart Codex:

brew install node

Additional information

No response