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[macOS] Chrome extension control times out before navigation, even after reinstall and app restart #44794
Description
What version of the Codex App are you using (From “About Codex” dialog)?
26.903.71938 build 8576 installed as ChatGPT.app read from app bundle metadata
What subscription do you have?
prolite (planType reported by the app usage tool)
What platform is your computer?
Darwin 25.5.0 arm64 arm
What issue are you seeing?
Chrome browser automation repeatedly times out before navigation. Browser discovery and documentation succeed, but browser.nameSession(...) and browser.tabs.list() do not respond.
Exact error:
js execution timed out; kernel reset, rerun your request
The problem persisted after reinstalling the extension/plugin, opening a new Chrome window for the selected profile, and fully restarting the desktop app. The root cause has not been identified.
What steps can reproduce the bug?
- Open a desktop task and explicitly select the Chrome plugin.
- Ask: "Open example.com and tell me the page title."
- The agent loads the bundled Chrome browser runtime and selects agent.browsers.get("chrome"). Discovery/documentation succeeds.
- Calling chrome.nameSession(...) times out. A separate chrome.tabs.list() attempt also times out.
- Reinstall the extension/plugin and restart the desktop app; retry the same request. The failure persists.
Observed execution limits included 15, 20, and 30 seconds. Navigation and title retrieval were not reached in the isolated verification attempts.
What is the expected behavior?
The Chrome control session should respond, open https://example.com, and return the page title. If communication fails, show an actionable connection error rather than repeatedly timing out.
Additional information
In-app feedback was submitted successfully. Feedback ID: 01a08fec-f563-7f53-9d07-966f37d2cbaf
Environment observed during troubleshooting:
- Chrome: 152.0.7977.83
- ChatGPT Chrome extension: 1.26.901.11451
- Bundled Chrome plugin: 26.903.71938
Checks performed:
- Chrome running check passed.
- Extension installed/enabled check passed for the selected profile.
- Native Messaging manifest name and allowed extension origins passed the bundled diagnostic check. This does not establish that runtime communication works.
- Reinstallation, opening a new Chrome window, and restarting the desktop app did not resolve the timeout.
- Full CDP access remained disabled; browsing permission was set to require approval.
The separately available Computer Use tool can read and fill this GitHub form in Chrome. The failure described here concerns the Chrome browser-client control path. No root cause is confirmed.
Potentially related: #43385 (macOS, an earlier app build, includes a native-host signature inconsistency) and #44697 (Windows, discovery succeeds but tab RPC fails). These may share symptoms, but the same root cause has not been established for this report. Native-host signing was not modified in this reproduction.
Activity
github-actions commentedon Sep 11, 2026
Potential duplicates detected. Please review them and close your issue if it is a duplicate.
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wqw751626726-star commentedon Sep 11, 2026
Additional observation and retest (2026-09-11):
The ChatGPT side panel inside Chrome is able to respond to chat messages. When asked whether it could connect, it reported that it had connected and read the current Chrome tab, identifying it as the ChatGPT Chrome extension settings page. This response was observed in a screenshot and in the visible side-panel UI. The underlying tab-read tool result was not independently verified, so this should not be treated as proof that every browser-control operation works.
After this observation, the same desktop task was explicitly asked again to use the Chrome plugin to open example.com and return its title. Runtime setup and agent.browsers.get("chrome")/documentation succeeded, but chrome.nameSession(...) again timed out with a 20-second execution limit:
Navigation and title retrieval were not reached in that retest.
This distinguishes a functioning Chrome-side chat UI (which reports successful tab access) from the failing control calls initiated by this desktop task through the bundled Chrome browser-client. It may help narrow investigation to that connection/session path, but does not establish the root cause or rule out a shared transport problem.
Existing in-app feedback ID: 01a08fec-f563-7f53-9d07-966f37d2cbaf
wqw751626726-star commentedon Sep 23, 2026
Additional diagnostics (Sep 23, 2026): With desktop/Chrome plugin 26.917.51856, Chrome 153.0.8010.53, and extension 1.26.901.11451, the Chrome extension is discovered, but listing tabs still times out before navigation. This reproduces in two Codex tasks and two Chrome profiles.
An extension helper from the previous plugin version remained running after the app update. I stopped only that stale helper, and Chrome automatically started the current one; the timeout persisted. The current helper and desktop app pass code-signature verification, and the extension Service Worker console showed no new errors during reproduction. The in-app Browser can open example.com in a new task. The exact failing point in the Chrome control path remains unknown; please advise which diagnostics would isolate it.