[Windows][Desktop 26.814.5167] Composer and app RPC actions intermittently fail with opaque {"source":"owned"} error

What version of the Codex App are you using?

Codex Desktop for Windows:

OpenAI.Codex_26.814.5167.0_x64__2p2nqsd0c76g0

The regression began immediately after updating from 26.810.7004.0.

What platform is your computer?

Windows 11 Pro x64
10.0.26200

What issue are you seeing?

After updating Codex Desktop from 26.810.7004.0 to 26.814.5167.0, the renderer intermittently enters a state where composer submissions and several unrelated local app RPC actions fail with the same opaque serialized error:

{"value":{},"source":"owned","hooks":[],"promises":[]}

This affects both:

• a follow-up submitted while a local turn is running; and
• creation of a new local task.

Once the state appears, config reads, permission-mode updates, thread synchronization, prewarming, and conversation resume/history actions can also fail with the same value. The app-server process remains alive and continues responding to some requests.

The failure reproduced in two separate Desktop process lifetimes after normal quit/reopen. A third fresh process has not failed yet, so the trigger is intermittent.

Steps to reproduce

The exact timing trigger is not yet deterministic, but the observed sequence is:

1. Update Codex Desktop for Windows from 26.810.7004.0 to 26.814.5167.0.
2. Open an existing local task and let a turn run.
3. Submit an additional message while the turn is running.
4. The composer sometimes rejects it with an “Error creating chat/task” toast whose details are the JSON value above.
5. Try creating a new local task or opening settings. These operations may then fail with the same error.
6. Quit Codex normally and reopen it. The failure can recur in a later process lifetime.

Expected behavior

• A message submitted during a running local turn should be queued or used to steer the turn according to the selected follow-up behavior.
• A transient failure in one request should not poison unrelated renderer/app RPC operations.
• Errors should be actionable strings or structured error codes, not an internal ownership/promise object.
• The renderer should recover without requiring an application restart.

Actual behavior

Sanitized excerpts from one affected process:

2026-08-18T12:12:55.921Z [Composer] submit failed
error={"value":{},"source":"owned","hooks":[],"promises":[]}
followUp=local mode=local

2026-08-18T12:15:36.001Z Error creating local task
error={"value":{},"source":"owned","hooks":[],"promises":[]}

2026-08-18T12:15:43.818Z Error creating local task
error={"value":{},"source":"owned","hooks":[],"promises":[]}

Before and between these failures, the same app-server connection still routed successful responses for other requests. The identical error also appeared on config requirements, layered config, pinned-thread synchronization, permission mode, prewarm, and resume/history paths.

A previous affected process produced the same error cluster beginning at 2026-08-18T11:05:19Z, so this is not a single stale renderer instance.

Runtime disclosure / control variable

This installation launches Desktop with a process-local CODEX_CLI_PATH override pointing to a locally built codex-cli 0.148.0-alpha.9 based on upstream source, with a focused direct-child delegation/join patch. The same pinned CLI and configuration worked before the Desktop update to 26.814.5167.0; the regression appeared only after the Desktop update.

A bundled-CLI A/B run has not yet been completed, so the override is disclosed as a possible compatibility variable. However, the observed failure is broader than the patched collaboration path: it affects new-task creation, config, permissions, thread sync, and resume/history in the Desktop renderer.

Additional information

• No raw logs, local paths, thread IDs, or user content are included.
• A screenshot and a larger sanitized timeline can be supplied if useful.
• The public ChatGPT/Codex changelog currently has no entry for Desktop 26.814.5167.0.

Start with the reported Windows update sequence, reproducing follow-up submission and new local task creation across separate Desktop process lifetimes. Run the missing bundled-CLI A/B comparison, then trace the composer, local-task, config, permission, synchronization, and resume/history app RPC entry points. Done means transient failures no longer poison unrelated operations and errors are actionable or structured without requiring an app restart.