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Codex app-server repeatedly exits on Windows; crash dialog surfaces plugin metadata and PowerShell shell_snapshot WARNs #26440

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Codex app-server repeatedly exits on Windows; crash dialog surfaces plugin metadata and PowerShell shell_snapshot WARNs#26440
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appIssues related to the Codex desktop appapp-serverIssues involving app server protocol or interfacesbugSomething isn't workingskillsIssues related to skillswindows-osIssues related to Codex on Windows systems

Description

@d-kamposh
d-kamposh
opened on Jun 4, 2026

What version of the Codex App are you using (From “About Codex” dialog)?

Version 26.601.21317 • Released Jun 2, 2026

What subscription do you have?

Enterprise

What platform is your computer?

Microsoft Windows NT 10.0.26200.0 x64

What issue are you seeing?

Codex app-server crashes on Windows while loading a cached plugin manifest. This happens in both Codex Desktop and Codex in VS Code, including when the chat is idle.

The error points to a cached ngs-analysis plugin manifest where interface.defaultPrompt[0] is longer than Codex's 128-character limit.

Error message:

Codex process errored: Codex app-server process exited unexpectedly (code=1 (0x1), signal=null).

Last CLI error:
2026-06-04T17:58:16.573645Z WARN codex_core_plugins::manifest: ignoring interface.defaultPrompt[0]: prompt must be at most 128 characters path=C:\Users<user>.codex.tmp\plugins\plugins\ngs-analysis.codex-plugin/plugin.json
2026-06-04T17:58:16.573800Z WARN codex_core_plugins::manifest: ignoring interface.defaultPrompt[0]: prompt must be at most 128 characters path=C:\Users<user>.codex.tmp\plugins\plugins\ngs-analysis.codex-plugin/plugin.json

The offending cached manifest contains a defaultPrompt string around 313 characters long, while Codex logs that it must be at most 128 characters.

The plugin is not explicitly enabled in my config.toml.

What steps can reproduce the bug?

  1. Use Codex Desktop or Codex in VS Code on Windows.
  2. Let Codex load/sync the plugin cache under: C:\Users<user>.codex.tmp\plugins
  3. The regenerated cache includes: C:\Users<user>.codex.tmp\plugins\plugins\ngs-analysis.codex-plugin\plugin.json
  4. Start Codex Desktop or Codex in VS Code.
  5. Codex logs:
    WARN codex_core_plugins::manifest: ignoring interface.defaultPrompt[0]: prompt must be at most 128 characters
  6. The Codex app-server exits unexpectedly with code 1.
    This can happen even if the chat is idle.

I tried closing Codex and renaming these cache folders:

$codex = "$env:USERPROFILE.codex"
$stamp = Get-Date -Format "yyyyMMdd-HHmmss"

Copy-Item "$codex\config.toml" "$codex\config.toml.bak-$stamp"

if (Test-Path "$codex.tmp\plugins") {
Rename-Item -LiteralPath "$codex.tmp\plugins" -NewName "plugins.bak-$stamp"
}

if (Test-Path "$codex.tmp\bundled-marketplaces") {
Rename-Item -LiteralPath "$codex.tmp\bundled-marketplaces" -NewName "bundled-marketplaces.bak-$stamp"
}
This only helps temporarily. Codex regenerates the plugin cache and the same bad ngs-analysis manifest returns.

Session id, if useful:

019e93bd-8c64-7393-898a-caeb32608d4c
Token limit usage / context window usage: not available.

What is the expected behavior?

Codex should not crash because of an invalid cached plugin manifest.

At minimum, Codex should skip or ignore the invalid plugin and continue running, especially if the plugin is not explicitly enabled in config.toml.

Additional information

The regenerated plugin cache appears to be a git repo:

origin: https://github.com/openai/plugins.git
branch: main
HEAD: 265aae0869eaffa7e00e368fb86c87d930dc69af

The problematic cached manifest path is:

C:\Users<user>.codex.tmp\plugins\plugins\ngs-analysis.codex-plugin\plugin.json

The manifest contains a long defaultPrompt similar to:

"defaultPrompt": [
"Guide me through the minimum required NGS analysis questions, inspect available BCL/FASTQ files or count matrices, choose the right public pipeline or deeper assay-specific skill, check whether required tools already exist, and execute supported local workflows with pre-execution validation and artifact capture."
]

This does not appear to be caused by Windows path length. The error is about the character length of the prompt string inside the plugin manifest.

A temporary local workaround is to shorten interface.defaultPrompt[0] to fewer than 128 characters. However, this may be overwritten when Codex resyncs the plugin cache.

After locally shortening interface.defaultPrompt[0], Windows PowerShell Set-Content -Encoding UTF8 wrote the file with a UTF-8 BOM. Codex then failed to parse the manifest with:

failed to parse plugin manifest: expected value at line 1 column 1
Rewriting the file as UTF-8 without BOM fixed that local parse error. The original issue remains: the regenerated upstream cached ngs-analysis manifest contains a defaultPrompt longer than Codex's 128-character limit.

Disabling [plugins."teams@openai-curated"] did not prevent Codex from regenerating/loading C:\Users<user>.codex.tmp\plugins, and the invalid ngs-analysis manifest returned.

After patching the cached plugin metadata issues, Codex crashed again with a different last CLI warning:

Failed to create shell snapshot for powershell: Shell snapshot not supported yet for PowerShell
target="codex_core::shell_snapshot"

This may be related to #19382 and #16886, but this report is specifically about the Codex app-server exiting with code 1 on Windows/Desktop/VS Code due to the regenerated ngs-analysis cached plugin manifest.

Activity

  1. d-kamposh
    added
    appIssues related to the Codex desktop app
    on Jun 4, 2026
  2. github-actions
    added
    bugSomething isn't working
    windows-osIssues related to Codex on Windows systems
    skillsIssues related to skills
    app-serverIssues involving app server protocol or interfaces
    on Jun 4, 2026
  3. d-kamposh
    changed the title [-]Codex app-server crashes on Windows due to cached ngs-analysis plugin defaultPrompt >128 chars[/-] [+]Codex app-server crashes on Windows due to cached ngs-analysis plugin defaultPrompt >128 chars and Codex app-server crashes on Windows while loading invalid cached openai-curated plugin metadata[/+] on Jun 4, 2026
  4. d-kamposh
    changed the title [-]Codex app-server crashes on Windows due to cached ngs-analysis plugin defaultPrompt >128 chars and Codex app-server crashes on Windows while loading invalid cached openai-curated plugin metadata[/-] [+]Codex app-server repeatedly exits on Windows; crash dialog surfaces plugin metadata and PowerShell shell_snapshot WARNs[/+] on Jun 4, 2026

  5. yeziahehe commented on Jun 5, 2026

    @yeziahehe
    yeziahehe
    on Jun 5, 2026

    Intel Mac has same error

  6. maindlt commented on Jun 5, 2026

    @maindlt
    maindlt
    on Jun 5, 2026

    Intel Mac has same error

    Confirm - same here (Intel Mac):

    Codex
    Version 26.602.30954 • Released Jun 4, 2026

    Codex crashed with the following error:

  (code=null, signal=SIGSEGV).
Most recent error: {"timestamp":"2026-06-05T14:04:49.795646Z","level":"WARN","fields":{"message":"ignoring interface.defaultPrompt[0]: prompt must be at most 128 characters","path":"/Users/<user>/.codex/.tmp/plugins/plugins/ngs-analysis/.codex-plugin/plugin.json"},"target":"codex_core_plugins::manifest"}

  7. ZachCharlick commented on Jun 5, 2026

    @ZachCharlick
    ZachCharlick
    on Jun 5, 2026

    Same problem here (Linux Ubuntu):

    Codex crashed with the following error:

    Codex process errored: Codex process is not available codex_core_plugins::manifest: ignoring interface.defaultPrompt[0]: prompt must be at most 128 characters path=/home/{username}/.codex/.tmp/plugins/plugins/ngs-analysis/.codex-plugin/plugin.json

  8. lofiCafe commented on Jun 5, 2026

    @lofiCafe
    lofiCafe
    on Jun 5, 2026

    Intel Mac has same error

    Confirm - same here (Intel Mac):

    Codex Version 26.602.30954 • Released Jun 4, 2026

    Codex crashed with the following error:

  (code=null, signal=SIGSEGV).
Most recent error: {"timestamp":"2026-06-05T14:04:49.795646Z","level":"WARN","fields":{"message":"ignoring interface.defaultPrompt[0]: prompt must be at most 128 characters","path":"/Users/<user>/.codex/.tmp/plugins/plugins/ngs-analysis/.codex-plugin/plugin.json"},"target":"codex_core_plugins::manifest"}

    Same issue. :(

  9. lofiCafe commented on Jun 5, 2026

    @lofiCafe
    lofiCafe
    on Jun 5, 2026

    Does anybody know how to fix this issue?

  10. qwzx-qwas commented on Jun 8, 2026

    @qwzx-qwas
    qwzx-qwas
    on Jun 8, 2026

    My logs show the same ngs-analysis defaultPrompt[0] > 128 warning, but my setup is VS Code over Remote-SSH to a remote Ubuntu server. In my current state, the Codex app-server can start and remain running, while the Codex Webview stays stuck on loading. The latest logs show "Initialize received id=1" followed by "IpcClient Received broadcast but no handler is configured", rather than a consistent app-server exit with code 1.

  11. d-kamposh commented on Jul 1, 2026

    @d-kamposh
    d-kamposh
    on Jul 1, 2026
    Author

    I have found that, at least on my machine, my PowerShell version was old and needed to be updated. Once I updated my PowerShell the issue has gone away. I cannot personally speak for Intel Mac or remoting into an Ubuntu server through Remote-SSH, however.

  12. Cheeenyy628 commented on Sep 7, 2026

    @Cheeenyy628
    Cheeenyy628
    on Sep 7, 2026 – with ChatGPT Codex Connector

    Fresh reproduction on Windows Codex Desktop 26.901.6511.0 (2026-09-07). This issue is still reproducible on a current build.

    Observed behavior:

    • Codex Desktop accepts the prompt, then spins indefinitely with no response.
    • Reproduces with a very short prompt and with different model selections (including GPT-5.6), so it does not appear model-specific.
    • Reproduces without selecting a project; no custom approval/sandbox policy was configured by the user.
    • codex.exe starts successfully, and Desktop <-> app-server requests such as account/read, getAuthStatus, config/read, and plugin/list initially return with errorCode=null.
    • The app-server then closes and the CLI exits with code 1.

    Relevant log excerpt (username/path redacted):

    [AppServerConnection] app_server_connection.closed code=1 ... reason="... ignoring interface.defaultPrompt[0]: prompt must be at most 128 characters ... path=file:///C:/Users/<user>/.codex/.tmp/plugins/plugins/ngs-analysis/.codex-plugin/plugin.json"
[AppServerConnection] app_server_connection.state_changed cause=transport_closed ... connectionError={"code":"connection-failed", ...}
[AppServerConnection] Codex CLI process exited classifiedAsExpected=false code=1
[AppServerConnection] fatal_error_broadcasted ...

    I also inspected the cached manifest directly in read-only mode. interface.defaultPrompt[0] is 313 characters, while Codex reports a maximum of 128.

    This strongly suggests the same regenerated ngs-analysis plugin manifest is still able to terminate the app-server in 26.901.6511.0, rather than merely being ignored as the warning wording implies.

    It would be useful if the app-server treated an invalid plugin manifest as non-fatal, or if the upstream ngs-analysis manifest were corrected so the regenerated cache is valid.

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