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[Windows] CLI 0.157.1 elevated sandbox provisioning fails with helper_unknown_error and creates no sandbox.log #48517
Description
What version of Codex CLI is running?
0.157.1
What subscription do you have?
ChatGPT Plus
Which model were you using?
No response
What platform is your computer?
Windows 11 Professional Version/build: 10.0.26200 x64
What terminal emulator and version are you using (if applicable)?
Microsoft.WindowsTerminal 1.24.11911.0
PSVersion
Major 5 Minor 1 Build 26100 Revision 9549
Codex doctor report
What issue are you seeing?
The elevated Windows sandbox should provision successfully and allow basic local commands such as:
cmd /c echo OK
to start normally.
If provisioning fails, Codex should expose the underlying Windows/Win32 error and create the documented sandbox diagnostic log instead of returning only:
helper_unknown_error: setup refresh had errors
Additional information
No response
Activity
github-actions commentedon Sep 26, 2026
Potential duplicates detected. Please review them and close your issue if it is a duplicate.
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smrtlb commentedon Sep 26, 2026
Potential duplicate #48479 was reviewed.
I do not believe this is the same issue.
#48479 is primarily about model-dependent retry/recovery behavior after a Windows sandbox setup refresh failure.
This report is about the underlying elevated sandbox provisioning failure itself in Codex CLI 0.157.1, specifically:
Feedback/thread ID:
01a0df23-9d9b-7940-ac78-dd715aef9938
smrtlb commentedon Sep 28, 2026
Update after upgrading to OpenAI Codex v0.158.0:
The issue is still reproducible.
I fully closed the previous Codex session/application, upgraded to v0.158.0, reopened Codex in the affected working project, and ran:
cmd /c echo OK
Result:
Failed to create unified exec process:
helper_unknown_error: setup refresh had errors
The command does not start.
So the elevated Windows sandbox provisioning failure persists in v0.158.0 as well.
This is not specific to CLI 0.157.1 anymore.
smrtlb commentedon Sep 30, 2026
Resolved locally.
After about a week of troubleshooting this issue with ChatGPT without finding a working fix, I tried the same problem with Claude. Claude suggested a recovery sequence that restored the Windows elevated sandbox.
What worked for me:
Get-Process codex* -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue | Stop-Process -Force
Get-Process codex -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue | Stop-Process -Force
npm uninstall -g @openai/codex
Remove-Item -Path "$env:USERPROFILE.codex" -Recurse -Force
npm install -g @openai/codex@latest
Launched the Codex Windows Desktop/Chat application before running the CLI again.
The Desktop app then initialized/reprovisioned the elevated Windows sandbox environment.
After that,
codex doctorreported the sandbox as healthy.CLI command execution started working again, including Git operations from the project directory.
The key observation is that reinstalling the npm CLI and running
codex doctorimmediately had not fixed the issue before. The recovery only succeeded after the Desktop app was launched and allowed to initialize/recreate the sandbox state.Current working version: Codex CLI v0.159.2.
I cannot confirm whether launching the Desktop app first is an intentional requirement or simply the recovery path for a corrupted/incomplete sandbox state, so I would treat the steps above as a workaround/recovery procedure rather than a universal installation requirement.
Also note that deleting
%USERPROFILE%\.codexis destructive to local Codex state/config/history, so this should be done only with that consequence understood.Thanks to Claude for identifying the recovery path after the previous troubleshooting attempts had not resolved it.