Codex App repeatedly spawns ChatGPT Computer Use processes when ~/.codex is symlinked to an external drive

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

26.814.41957 (build 6744)

What subscription do you have?

Unknown

What platform is your computer?

Darwin 25.5.0 arm64 arm

What issue are you seeing?

When the ~/.codex directory is a symbolic link to a .codex directory on an external drive, launching the Codex App continuously creates new ChatGPT Computer Use processes. The process count and memory usage keep increasing until all available system memory is exhausted, after which the app crashes or quits unexpectedly.

This is a severe resource-exhaustion issue and can make the system unresponsive.

What steps can reproduce the bug?

Feedback ID: 01a01894-21f1-7b73-923d-a45bb4b8a1e8

What is the expected behavior?

The Codex App should correctly resolve and use the symlinked ~/.codex directory. It should create only the required Computer Use process(es), keep resource usage bounded, and remain stable.

Additional information

The symlink target is located on a mounted external drive. Removing the symlink setup avoids the runaway process creation.

Codex App version: 26.814.41957 (build 6744)
Platform: Darwin 25.5.0 arm64

Reproduce on Darwin with ~/.codex symlinked to a .codex directory on an external drive, using the reported Codex App version and Feedback ID as context. Trace how the app resolves the symlink and creates ChatGPT Computer Use processes. Done means the symlinked directory works without repeated process creation, unbounded memory growth, or a crash.