Desktop should dedupe/reap MCP bridge process trees and batch bridge tool updates #30429

Summary

When Codex Desktop renderer freezes, MCP/codex_apps bridge tools can still be alive and mostly functional. However, repeated app-server/runtime setup can leave many bridge/helper process trees around, which increases event/tool-list pressure and makes renderer freezes harder to diagnose.

This issue is about bridge lifecycle and renderer-facing bridge/tool update pressure, not a single bridge plugin failing.

Local evidence

During the investigation, process inspection showed multiple live bridge/helper families, including variants of:

cua_node/bin/node_repl
components/codegraph/dist/serve.js
components/lsp-daemon/dist/cli.js mcp
SkyComputerUseClient mcp

These appeared under multiple app-server/session process trees. The important observation was:

• bridge/helper processes were still running;
• the app-server was still running;
• the renderer/UI was the component that became unusable;
• repeated bridge/runtime process sets increased the amount of status/tool/runtime state the renderer could receive.

I am intentionally not pasting full process command lines because some app-server command lines can include local paths or token-file paths.

Problem

Desktop currently makes it hard to distinguish these states:

1. a bridge process is dead;
2. a bridge process is alive but disconnected from the current renderer/session;
3. a bridge process is duplicated/stale from an older app-server/session tree;
4. bridge/tool-list/status updates are alive but creating too much renderer-facing churn.

When the renderer is already under pressure, repeated bridge/tool-list updates can worsen the UI failure even if the tools themselves are not the root cause.

Suggested fix

Add stronger lifecycle ownership and batching for Desktop bridge processes:

• each app-server/session should own a process group for spawned bridge helpers;
• bridge helpers should be reaped when their owning app-server/session disconnects;
• duplicate bridge process trees for the same plugin/workspace should be deduped or intentionally shared through a supervisor;
• list_tools / bridge health / runtime-status updates should be debounced or coalesced before sending to the renderer;
• the renderer should receive bounded bridge-state projections, not every low-level lifecycle event;
• expose bridge states explicitly: starting, ready, stale, disconnected, failed, reaped;
• add diagnostics that report bridge process counts by owner/session/plugin without leaking command-line secrets.

Expected behavior

A renderer freeze or reload should not multiply bridge process trees. Restarting or reconnecting Desktop should either reuse healthy bridges or reap stale ones, and renderer-facing bridge/tool status updates should remain bounded.

Acceptance criteria

• Repeated renderer reloads or session reconnects do not leave unowned bridge helper processes.
• Repeated bridge/tool listing does not emit unbounded renderer updates.
• The UI can show whether bridges are healthy independently from renderer health.
• Diagnostic output redacts token paths and sensitive command-line arguments by default.

Related issues

Related but not identical:

• Codex macOS app renderer freezes at 100% CPU after auto-starting browser/node_repl runtime #28502
• Codex Desktop renderer crashes after MCP/runtime burst with large active thread state #26362
• codex-cli app-server (Linux) leaks chrome-devtools-mcp child trees on JSON-RPC transport close #24347
• Codex Desktop Computer Use can fail when SkyComputerUseClient lacks CODEX_HOME/CODEX_SQLITE_HOME #28479
• Codex Desktop meta-bug: unbounded session/turn state causes freezes, context bloat, and lost active-turn control #25779