Windows Computer Use fails to connect although native pipe and local runtime start successfully #48079

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

26.917.71314

What subscription do you have?

ChatGPT Plus

What platform is your computer?

Windows 10 x64

What issue are you seeing?

Title:
Windows Computer Use fails to connect although native pipe and local runtime start successfully

Description:

Computer Use does not work in the ChatGPT/Codex Windows desktop app on my system.

The UI reports that the Computer Use connection could not be established.

I have tested multiple available models and reasoning levels, including Luna, Sol and Astra. The behavior is identical with all of them.

The issue also occurs on completely different networks, including my normal home internet connection and a mobile hotspot with Wi-Fi disabled on the phone.

The local Computer Use runtime itself appears to start successfully.

Environment:

Windows 11
ChatGPT/Codex Desktop App version shown in configuration: 26.917.71314
Architecture: x64
Computer Use enabled
'Any App' control enabled
Google Chrome integration enabled
Microsoft Excel integration enabled
computer-use plugin enabled
unified-computer-use plugin enabled

Important additional observation:

The desktop configuration reports version 26.917.71314, while some log entries reference the installed Windows package path:

OpenAI.Codex_26.917.9434.0_x64__2p2nqsd0c76g0

This version discrepancy may be relevant.

Steps to reproduce:

1. Start the ChatGPT/Codex Windows desktop app.
2. Make sure Computer Use is enabled under Settings > Computer Use.
3. Start a new conversation.
4. Select the Computer Use plugin using @computer.
5. Ask it to perform a basic Windows action, for example:
   'Open Notepad and type TEST.'
6. Computer Use fails and reports that the connection could not be established.

Expected behavior:

The Computer Use agent should connect to the local Windows Computer Use backend and control the requested application.

Actual behavior:

Computer Use fails to connect even though the local runtime, helper processes and native pipe appear to start successfully.

Troubleshooting already performed:

• Restarted the desktop app
• Reinstalled the Codex Workspace dependencies
• Workspace diagnostics report that Codex dependencies are healthy
• Tested multiple models/reasoning levels
• Tested with home internet
• Tested with a completely separate mobile hotspot
• Confirmed that no global CODEX_* environment variables are set
• Checked ~/.codex/config.toml
• Confirmed that computer-use and unified-computer-use are enabled
• Confirmed that the local Computer Use native pipe exists
• Confirmed that the live native pipe ID exactly matches SKY_CUA_NATIVE_PIPE_DIRECTORY in config.toml
• Reinstalling the workspace did not resolve the issue

Native pipe verification:

Live pipe:

codex-computer-use-aa6e2973-9766-475f-81a8-9879c141c4a4

Configured pipe:

SKY_CUA_NATIVE_PIPE_DIRECTORY = '\.\pipe\codex-computer-use-aa6e2973-9766-475f-81a8-9879c141c4a4'

The IDs match exactly.

Relevant configuration:

[plugins.'unified-computer-use@openai-bundled']
enabled = true

[plugins.'computer-use@openai-bundled']
enabled = true

SKY_CUA_NATIVE_PIPE = '1'

CODEX_CLI_PATH points to the bundled Codex executable.

The node, node_repl and CUA runtime paths also point to the bundled runtime.

Relevant log messages:

The Computer Use native pipe starts successfully:

[computer-use-native-pipe]
computer-use native pipe startup ready
platform=win32

The browser-use native pipe also starts successfully:

[browser-use-native-pipe-server]
browser-use native pipe listening

The bundled Computer Use plugins are detected:

pluginNames=[
'codex-app-tools',
'browser',
'unified-computer-use',
'chrome',
'computer-use',
'latex',
'visualize'
]

However, shortly afterwards the Codex Apps MCP connection fails:

MCP server startup failed
server_name='codex_apps'

handshaking with MCP server failed

Client error:
HTTP request failed:
error decoding response body

The log also reports:

worker quit with fatal:
Transport channel closed

and:

ignoring invalid experimental feature enablement keys:
apps_mcp_path_override

The application then reports:

remote_connections.connection_state_changed
error.code='connection-failed'

Other log messages:

There is also a warning:

Failed to start the Artifact Session host

Artifact Session host Unix-socket transport is not available on Windows.

However, the Computer Use native pipe starts successfully afterwards, so this may be unrelated.

There are also occasional filesystem errors:

The system cannot find the path specified.
os error 3

Summary:

The local Windows Computer Use runtime appears healthy:

• CUA helper resolves successfully
• Node runtime resolves successfully
• node_repl resolves successfully
• Computer Use native pipe starts
• Native pipe exists in Windows
• Live pipe ID matches the config
• Computer Use plugins are enabled

The failure appears to happen later during the Codex Apps/MCP initialization or when the Computer Use capability is attached to the active agent session.

The most suspicious errors are:

'MCP server startup failed'
'server_name=codex_apps'
'handshaking with MCP server failed'
'HTTP request failed: error decoding response body'
'Transport channel closed'
'ignoring invalid experimental feature enablement keys: apps_mcp_path_override'

The issue is reproducible across different networks and multiple models.

Please let me know if additional logs or diagnostics are required.

What steps can reproduce the bug?

1. Start the ChatGPT/Codex Windows desktop app.
2. Make sure Computer Use is enabled under Settings > Computer Use.
3. Start a new conversation.
4. Select the Computer Use plugin using @computer.
5. Ask it to perform a simple Windows action, for example:
   'Open Notepad and type TEST.'
6. The app fails to establish the Computer Use connection and shows a connection error.
7. The issue is reproducible across multiple models/reasoning levels and also occurs on a completely separate mobile hotspot connection.

What is the expected behavior?

Computer Use should successfully connect to the local Windows Computer Use backend and then control the requested application. For example, when I ask it to open Notepad and type TEST, it should open Notepad and perform the action without showing a connection error.

Additional information

Additional information:

The issue occurs on Windows 10 x64.

ChatGPT/Codex desktop app version: 26.917.71314

Troubleshooting already performed:

• Tested multiple models/reasoning levels, including Luna, Sol and Astra.
• Reinstalled Codex Workspace dependencies.
• Workspace diagnostics report that dependencies are healthy.
• Tested both my normal home internet connection and a completely separate mobile hotspot.
• Confirmed that Computer Use and Unified Computer Use plugins are enabled.
• Confirmed that the local Computer Use native pipe exists.
• Confirmed that the live native pipe ID exactly matches SKY_CUA_NATIVE_PIPE_DIRECTORY in config.toml.
• No global CODEX_* environment variables are set.

Relevant log entries show that the local Computer Use runtime starts successfully:

computer-use native pipe startup ready

However, shortly afterwards the Codex Apps MCP connection fails with:

MCP server startup failed
server_name='codex_apps'
handshaking with MCP server failed
HTTP request failed: error decoding response body
Transport channel closed

The logs also contain:

ignoring invalid experimental feature enablement keys: apps_mcp_path_override

So the local Computer Use runtime appears to start correctly, but the capability is not successfully attached to the active session.