[Windows][26.803.5235.0] Image-heavy chat history grows codex.exe above 16 GB and crashes code-mode host

Start by reproducing restoration of the image-heavy chats described in the issue, then inspect the desktop log excerpts around the 49–62 second thread/resume calls and the Windows Error Reporting record. Compare behavior with related issues #37541 and #37584. Done means historical image data no longer causes unbounded memory growth, conversation restoration remains stable, and the code-mode host does not crash.

Summary

Opening several Codex Desktop chats containing very large numbers of generated images causes unbounded memory growth during chat restoration. codex.exe grew from approximately 14.9 GB to 16.2 GB private memory, and codex-code-mode-host.exe later crashed.

This is reproducible after restarting the app and reopening image-heavy local chat history.

Environment

• Product: Codex Desktop for Windows
• App/package version: 26.803.5235.0
• Package: OpenAI.Codex_26.803.5235.0_x64__2p2nqsd0c76g0
• OS: Windows 11 x64, build 26100.8973
• Physical RAM: approximately 47.91 GiB

Reproduction

1. Generate hundreds or thousands of images in one or more Codex chats.
2. Restart the Windows desktop app.
3. Open the image-heavy chats from the sidebar.
4. Wait several minutes while the histories are restored.
5. Observe that memory usage continues increasing and the app eventually becomes unstable or crashes.

Observed data

Four affected session transcripts totaled approximately 4.74 GiB:

• 1.53 GB
• 417 MB
• 341 MB
• 2.56 GB

The transcripts contained approximately 2,797 image_generation_end records. The largest transcript contained approximately 1,547 such records.

During the same diagnostic session:

• codex.exe private memory increased from approximately 14.9 GB to 16.2 GB.
• ChatGPT/Electron processes used approximately another 2.1 GB private memory.
• Windows Error Reporting recorded RADAR_PRE_LEAK_64 for codex-code-mode-host.exe.
• codex-code-mode-host.exe later crashed with exception code 0x80000003.

WER details:

• Crash time: 2026-08-08 22:43:33 Asia/Tokyo
• Faulting module: codex-code-mode-host.exe
• Exception code: 0x80000003
• Fault offset: 0x0000000000437892
• WER bucket: 0cacb1e52a308c1a69a9633b7409b3b2

The desktop log excerpts also show thread/resume calls taking approximately 49–62 seconds, followed by Conversation state not found for affected conversations.

Expected behavior

Historical image results should be loaded lazily, virtualized, externalized, or represented by compact references. Opening a chat should not materialize all historical image payloads into memory, and memory should remain bounded.

Actual behavior

Restoring image-heavy chat history materializes enough state to push Codex above 16 GB private memory. The app becomes unstable, records a Windows leak warning, and the code-mode host crashes.

Privacy

No full session transcripts, generated images, logs_2.sqlite, or full desktop logs are included in this report. A locally prepared, privacy-reviewed 11 KB archive is available for private upload if maintainers provide a secure channel. It contains only a diagnostic summary, selected log excerpts, and the WER record.

Related issues

• #37541 — Windows 26.803.5235.0 renderer OOM and image-heavy histories
• #37584 — Windows 26.803.5235.0 memory leak and silent desktop exits

This report is narrower and provides a separate failure signature: codex-code-mode-host.exe WER crash after RADAR_PRE_LEAK_64, with codex.exe exceeding 16 GB while restoring image-generation-heavy transcripts.