In-app Browser intermittently fails on Windows with “Trusted RPC dependency must resolve within a configured trusted code path” #39302

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

Codex CLI/runtime: 0.148.0-alpha.15

What subscription do you have?

Plus

What platform is your computer?

Windows11 Pro actual patch level

What issue are you seeing?

Title: In-app Browser intermittently fails on Windows with “Trusted RPC dependency must resolve within a configured trusted code path”
Environment:
• Windows 11
• ChatGPT/Codex Desktop App: 26.814.5167.0
• Browser plugin: 26.814.41407
• Codex CLI/runtime: 0.148.0-alpha.15
• Node REPL runtime:
C:\Users\raeto\AppData\Local\OpenAI\Codex\runtimes\cua_node\2fb562745e6d66f0\bin\node_repl.exe
Problem:
The built-in ChatGPT/Codex browser on Windows fails during browser runtime initialization.
The error is consistently:
Trusted RPC dependency must resolve within a configured trusted code path: file:///C:/Users/raeto/.codex/plugins/cache/openai-bundled/browser/26.814.41407/scripts/browser-service.mjs
The issue affects the in-app browser and prevents normal browser automation. The browser occasionally works once after a reset or configuration change, but subsequent attempts fail again.
Expected behavior:
The built-in browser should initialize normally and allow pages such as https://example.com/ to be opened and inspected.
Actual behavior:
browser-client.mjs can be imported, but setupBrowserRuntime() fails when it attempts to initialize the trusted browser service.
The Browser plugin itself is present and loaded from:
C:\Users\raeto.codex\plugins\cache\openai-bundled\browser\26.814.41407
The runtime repeatedly fails specifically when resolving:
...\scripts\browser-service.mjs
Relevant configuration:
The generated C:\Users\raeto.codex\config.toml contains:
NODE_REPL_TRUSTED_CODE_PATHS = 'C:\Users\raeto.codex;C:\Users\raeto\AppData\Local\OpenAI\Codex\runtimes\cua_node\2fb562745e6d66f0\bin\node_modules'
BROWSER_USE_AVAILABLE_BACKENDS = "chrome,iab"
BROWSER_USE_CODEX_APP_VERSION = "26.814.41407"
NODE_REPL_TRUSTED_SERVICES = '{"browser":"C:/Users/raeto/.codex/plugins/cache/openai-bundled/browser/26.814.41407/scripts/browser-service.mjs","sky":"@oai/sky/service"}'
NODE_REPL_TRUSTED_BROWSER_CLIENT_SHA256S = "8e172ec9f458f2e636fc69a1b8c68c217f6bb8d10c41f70a05a0878b73863701"
The configuration therefore explicitly declares the browser service as trusted and points to the same browser plugin version that is being loaded.
Runtime observation:
The Codex sandbox process also receives filesystem read permission for:
C:/Users/raeto/.codex/plugins/cache/openai-bundled/browser/26.814.41407/scripts
so this does not appear to be a normal filesystem sandbox permission failure.
However, when inspecting the environment available inside a running node_repl, the following values were observed:
process.env.NODE_REPL_TRUSTED_CODE_PATHS → undefined
process.env.NODE_REPL_TRUSTED_SERVICES → undefined
process.env.BROWSER_USE_AVAILABLE_BACKENDS → undefined
process.env.BROWSER_USE_CODEX_APP_VERSION → undefined
while:
process.env.NODE_REPL_TRUSTED_BROWSER_CLIENT_SHA256S
was correctly populated with:
8e172ec9f458f2e636fc69a1b8c68c217f6bb8d10c41f70a05a0878b73863701
This suggests that only part of the browser/trust environment is reaching the active Node REPL runtime.
Reproduction:

1. Start ChatGPT/Codex Desktop on Windows.
2. Start a local Codex/Work session.
3. Ask:
   Open the built-in browser. Open example.com and return only the page title.
4. Browser initialization fails with:
   Trusted RPC dependency must resolve within a configured trusted code path ... browser-service.mjs
5. Repeating the operation in another window or session produces the same failure.
   Intermittent behavior:
   After performing a full ChatGPT Desktop reset, the browser worked once and successfully returned the title Example Domain.
   Shortly afterwards the failure returned.
   A later manual configuration test also resulted in one successful browser initialization followed by repeated failures.
   This makes the issue appear related to per-session or per-node_repl initialization rather than the browser files themselves.
   Troubleshooting already performed:
   • Windows App “Repair”
   • Full ChatGPT Desktop Reset
   • Complete ChatGPT Desktop uninstall/reinstall
   • Browser plugin cache removed/renamed and automatically regenerated
   • Verified browser plugin files exist
   • Verified browser-service.mjs exists
   • Verified multiple ChatGPT/Codex processes are responsive
   • Disabled/removed external ChatGPT/Codex Chrome/Edge/Brave browser extensions to exclude interference
   • Verified the built-in Codex process is started by the ChatGPT Desktop app
   • Verified sandbox filesystem permission includes the Browser plugin scripts directory
   • Temporarily added the exact browser scripts directory to NODE_REPL_TRUSTED_CODE_PATHS
   • Temporarily made config.toml read-only to prevent automatic rewriting
   None of these changes produced a stable fix.
   Important finding:
   Even though config.toml contains the Browser trusted-service and trusted-path configuration, several corresponding environment values are undefined inside the running node_repl.
   The failure therefore appears to occur between:
   ChatGPT/Codex app-server
   → node_repl initialization
   → trusted RPC service registration
   rather than in Chrome, Edge, networking, page access, or the Browser plugin files themselves.
   Possible root cause:
   There may be a bug in the Windows ChatGPT/Codex Desktop runtime where the browser/trusted-service environment is not consistently propagated into newly created node_repl instances.
   This would explain:
   • why the browser can occasionally work once,
   • why later sessions fail,
   • why browser-service.mjs is readable but still rejected by the trusted RPC validator,
   • and why only NODE_REPL_TRUSTED_BROWSER_CLIENT_SHA256S appears inside the active REPL while the other Browser/Trust variables are missing.
   Requested investigation:
   Please verify how these values are propagated from config.toml / app-server into the Windows node_repl runtime:
   • NODE_REPL_TRUSTED_CODE_PATHS
   • NODE_REPL_TRUSTED_SERVICES
   • NODE_REPL_TRUSTED_BROWSER_CLIENT_SHA256S
   • BROWSER_USE_AVAILABLE_BACKENDS
   • BROWSER_USE_CODEX_APP_VERSION
   Please also check whether ChatGPT Desktop 26.814.5167.0 and Browser plugin 26.814.41407 are expected to operate together and whether there is a known issue with trusted RPC path initialization across multiple Node REPL sessions on Windows.

Bei Fragen bitte fragen.

Mit freundlichen Grüßen
Tobias Rätz

Fon: +4915233621391
Web: https://www.raeto.com/

What steps can reproduce the bug?

Feedback ID: no-active-thread-01a016fb-ccd1-7173-b772-3e897c9a58b2

What is the expected behavior?

Browsing with cahtgpt desktop app works and grabbing information from chrome shown wesites is possible

Additional information

No response