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Windows Codex Desktop: Browser Use fails because import.meta.__codexNativePipe is undefined #19693
Description
What version of the Codex App are you using (From “About Codex” dialog)?
Codex 26.422.30944 © OpenAI
What subscription do you have?
Plus plan
What platform is your computer?
Microsoft Windows NT 10.0.26200.0 x64
What issue are you seeing?
Codex Desktop: 26.422.3464.0
Codex CLI: 0.125.0
OS: Windows
Plugin: browser-use 0.1.0-alpha1
Issue:
In-app browser opens and navigates normally, and a browser-use named pipe exists:
\.\pipe\codex-browser-use...
But Browser Use from node_repl fails because:
import.meta.__codexNativePipe === undefined
Result:
Browser Use cannot connect to the in-app browser and reports:
failed to start codex app-server: The system cannot find the path specified. (os error 3)
Evidence:
nodeRepl.requestMeta has x-codex-turn-metadata with session_id and turn_id.
import.meta.__codexNativePipe is undefined even after js_reset.
What steps can reproduce the bug?
Steps to reproduce
- Install/update Codex Desktop on Windows.
- Install/update Codex CLI to
0.125.0. - Launch the desktop app with:
codex app- Open a Codex Desktop thread with the in-app browser visible.
- In the in-app browser, navigate manually to any page, for example:
https://www.youtube.com/
- Ask Codex to use the Browser Use plugin / in-app browser automation to inspect the selected tab.
- From Node REPL, inspect the browser bridge state:
nodeRepl.write(JSON.stringify({
hasNativePipe: !!import.meta.__codexNativePipe,
nativePipeType: typeof import.meta.__codexNativePipe,
nativePipeKeys: import.meta.__codexNativePipe
? Object.keys(import.meta.__codexNativePipe)
: null,
turnMeta: nodeRepl.requestMeta?.["x-codex-turn-metadata"],
}, null, 2));-
Observe that
import.meta.__codexNativePipeisundefined. -
Attempt to initialize Browser Use:
const { setupAtlasRuntime } = await import(
"C:/Users/<user>/.codex/plugins/cache/openai-bundled/browser-use/0.1.0-alpha1/scripts/browser-client.mjs"
);
await setupAtlasRuntime({
globals: globalThis,
backend: "iab",
});- Observe Browser Use failure:
failed to start codex app-server: The system cannot find the path specified. (os error 3)
- Optional confirmation: verify that the browser-use named pipe exists from PowerShell:
Get-ChildItem -Path '\\.\pipe\' |
Where-Object { $_.Name -match 'codex-browser-use' } |
Select-Object Name,FullNameExample observed pipe:
\\.\pipe\codex-browser-use\<guid>
Expected behavior
Browser Use should connect to the in-app browser backend and allow reading the selected tab URL, DOM snapshot, screenshots, and normal browser automation.
Actual behavior
The in-app browser works visually and can navigate manually, and a codex-browser-use pipe exists, but Browser Use cannot connect because the Node REPL environment does not expose import.meta.__codexNativePipe.
What is the expected behavior?
No response
Additional information
No response
Activity
github-actions commentedon Apr 26, 2026
Potential duplicates detected. Please review them and close your issue if it is a duplicate.
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c40205193-lgtm commentedon May 2, 2026
I can confirm this issue on the latest Codex Desktop release. Additional diagnostics:
Environment
browser-use@openai-bundled)Confirmed: not a helper-path mismatch
Two helper directories exist on this system:
%LOCALAPPDATA%\OpenAI\Codex\bin%LOCALAPPDATA%\Packages\OpenAI.Codex_2p2nqsd0c76g0\LocalCache\Local\OpenAI\Codex\bin(Store LocalCache)All 6 files (
codex.exe,node.exe,node_repl.exe,codex-command-runner.exe,codex-windows-sandbox-setup.exe,rg.exe) have identical SHA256 hashes between both directories. PATH has Store LocalCache first (line 17) and standalone bin second (line 23), but since the files are byte-for-byte identical, this is not a version skew issue.Named pipes exist but bridge injection fails
After a clean restart of Codex Desktop,
\.\pipe\shows:codex-ipccodex-browser-use-<uuid>× 2But
import.meta.__codexNativePiperemainsundefinedin the Node REPL.Root cause
The native bridge injection into
node_repl.exeis not happening, even though the IAB backend pipes are being created. Thebrowser-client.mjscode path correctly falls through to the "No Codex IAB backends were discovered" error wheneN()returns null.This bug persists across versions 26.422 → 26.429, so it's not a regression introduced in a single build. The same issue also appears on macOS (#20248), suggesting it may be in the shared app-server / bridge injection layer rather than platform-specific code.