macOS 15.6 arm64: codex CLI installs via npm but native binary fails to execute (spawn Unknown system error -88) #21199

Summary

On macOS 15.6 (Apple Silicon), npm install -g @openai/codex completes, but codex --version fails immediately. The failure occurs when the Node launcher tries to spawn the native Darwin ARM64 binary.

Environment

• macOS 15.6
• Build: 24G84
• Architecture: arm64
• Kernel: Darwin 24.6.0
• Node.js: v25.9.0
• npm: 11.12.1

Install command

npm install -g @openai/codex

Also reproduced after rolling back to @openai/codex@0.125.0.

Reproduction

codex --version

Actual result

node:internal/child_process:440
    throw new ErrnoException(err, 'spawn');
          ^

Error: spawn Unknown system error -88
    at ChildProcess.spawn (node:internal/child_process:440:11)
    at spawn (node:child_process:796:9)
    at file:///opt/homebrew/lib/node_modules/@openai/codex/bin/codex.js:175:15
    at ModuleJob.run (node:internal/modules/esm/module_job:437:25)
    at async onImport.tracePromise.__proto__ (node:internal/modules/esm/loader:639:26)
    at async asyncRunEntryPointWithESMLoader (node:internal/modules/run_main:101:5) {
  errno: -88,
  code: 'Unknown system error -88',
  syscall: 'spawn'
}

Node.js v25.9.0

Additional diagnostics

The native binary is present and matches the machine architecture:

file /opt/homebrew/lib/node_modules/@openai/codex/node_modules/@openai/codex-darwin-arm64/vendor/aarch64-apple-darwin/codex/codex

Output:

Mach-O 64-bit executable arm64

Gatekeeper / signing checks:

codesign -dv /opt/homebrew/lib/node_modules/@openai/codex/node_modules/@openai/codex-darwin-arm64/vendor/aarch64-apple-darwin/codex/codex

code object is not signed at all

spctl --assess --type execute -vv /opt/homebrew/lib/node_modules/@openai/codex/node_modules/@openai/codex-darwin-arm64/vendor/aarch64-apple-darwin/codex/codex

invalid or unsupported format for signature

Also present in xattrs:

xattr -l /opt/homebrew/lib/node_modules/@openai/codex/node_modules/@openai/codex-darwin-arm64/vendor/aarch64-apple-darwin/codex/codex

com.apple.provenance: ...

Attempting to ad-hoc sign locally also failed:

codesign --force --sign - /opt/homebrew/lib/node_modules/@openai/codex/node_modules/@openai/codex-darwin-arm64/vendor/aarch64-apple-darwin/codex/codex

main executable failed strict validation

Notes

This is not specific to any project directory; it reproduces from the home directory as well.

It also reproduced after uninstalling, cleaning the global install, reinstalling, and then rolling back from 0.128.0 to 0.125.0.