[Codex Desktop Windows Bug] Path normalization error with SUBST mapped drive triggers frequent crashes (no issues on macOS) #37525

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   bugSomething isn't workingSomething isn't working

   appIssues related to the Codex desktop appIssues related to the Codex desktop app

   windows-osIssues related to Codex on Windows systemsIssues related to Codex on Windows systems

   on Aug 8, 2026
2. github-actions commented on Aug 8, 2026

   

   github-actionsBot

   on Aug 8, 2026 – with GitHub Actions

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   Potential duplicates detected. Please review them and close your issue if it is a duplicate.

   • [Windows][WSL] Mapped drive to \\wsl.localhost is incorrectly translated to /mnt/<drive>, making valid WSL workspaces inaccessible #36850
   • Switching Codex from Windows-native to WSL breaks existing project chats and preserves invalid Windows path bindings #36608

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3. schnodo commented on Aug 8, 2026

   

   schnodo

   on Aug 8, 2026

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   Independent confirmation, with an additional reproducible Workspace/Open file browser symptom.

   Environment

   • Codex App: 26.803.5235.0
   • Bundled Codex CLI: 0.147.0-alpha.6.5
   • Subscription: Max 20x
   • Platform: Microsoft Windows NT 10.0.26200.0 x64
   • Persistent mapping originally created with PSubst3; it uses the standard Windows SUBST/DOS-device mechanism

   Sanitized mapping and workspace

   R:  -> D:\codex-subst
   UI workspace root: R:\workspace\repo
   Canonical/thread cwd: \\?\D:\codex-subst\workspace\repo
   

   The Desktop UI/state retains the R:\... alias, while the thread database and native realpath use the backing D:\... path. The malformed combined path is not persisted; it is generated at runtime.

   Opening Workspace → Open file leaves the tree empty and reports:

   ENOENT: no such file or directory, stat
   'D:\codex-subst\workspace\repo\R:\workspace\repo'
   

   Desktop logs repeatedly contain the same composition in the watcher:

   [git-init-watcher] Failed to watch workspace root for git init
   cwd=D:\codex-subst\workspace\repo\R:\workspace\repo
   errorCode=ENOENT
   

   This reproduced across multiple repositories under the aliased drive, so it is not repository-specific. Git, the terminal, and agent filesystem access otherwise work.

   The exact malformed path can be reconstructed with Node's Windows path behavior:

   const path = require("path").win32;
   
   const physical = "D:\\codex-subst\\workspace\\repo";
   const alias = "R:\\workspace\\repo";
   
   const relative = path.relative(physical, alias);
   // "R:\\workspace\\repo" because the roots are on different drive letters
   
   path.join(physical, relative);
   // "D:\\codex-subst\\workspace\\repo\\R:\\workspace\\repo"

   fs.realpathSync.native("R:\\workspace\\repo") returns the physical D:\... path, which explains how the app can end up holding both spellings.

   Opening the repository using the physical path avoids the immediate browser failure, but it changes the persisted workspace identity and is not a general solution when the same Codex state is used on machines with different device-local backing paths.

   This strongly supports a path-normalization bug where a drive-qualified result from resolving/relativizing different roots is later treated as a relative segment and joined to the canonical cwd.