[macOS][26.814.41407] In-app Browser runtime exits during initialization; rollback restores it

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

Regression: 26.814.41407 (build 6720).

Last known working version on the same machine: 26.810.52044 (build 6662).

What subscription do you have?

Authenticated ChatGPT desktop session (exact subscription tier not relevant to the reproduction).

What platform is your computer?

Darwin 25.5.0 arm64 arm (macOS 26.5.1, Apple Silicon).

What issue are you seeing?

After updating the macOS Codex/ChatGPT desktop app to 26.814.41407, the bundled in-app Browser cannot initialize. The Browser UI itself opens and the app can report the current tab URL through ambient state, but every attempt to use Browser control fails before a browser binding is returned.

The full observed error is:

trusted Node process exited unexpectedly; kernel reset, rerun your request

The failure occurs while initializing the bundled Browser client at:

~/.codex/plugins/cache/openai-bundled/browser/26.814.41407/scripts/browser-client.mjs

Retrying produces the same error. Opening the in-app Browser and navigating to a page manually does not help.

This appears to be a desktop/runtime regression rather than a website or prompt problem: after downgrading the app on the same machine to 26.810.52044, Browser initialized immediately, returned an iab binding, opened a GitHub page, and read its DOM successfully. No project, browser-profile, or account changes were made, and no manual plugin-cache deletion was required.

What steps can reproduce the bug?

1. Install or update the macOS Apple Silicon desktop app to 26.814.41407.
2. Open the built-in Browser and navigate to any page.
3. Ask Codex to inspect the open page using @Browser / the bundled Browser tool.
4. Observe that Browser runtime initialization exits before returning a binding, with:
   trusted Node process exited unexpectedly; kernel reset, rerun your request
5. Retry the request; the same failure occurs.
6. Quit the app, replace it with official version 26.810.52044, reopen it, and repeat the same Browser request.
7. Observe that Browser control works on the same machine and session.

What is the expected behavior?

The bundled Browser runtime should initialize, connect to the built-in Browser, return a binding, and allow Codex to inspect and interact with the active tab, as it does in 26.810.52044.

Additional information

Temporary rollback workaround for affected Apple Silicon users:

1. Quit the desktop app completely.
2. Keep a copy of the current app if needed.
3. Download the previous build from the official OpenAI update host:
   https://persistent.oaistatic.com/codex-app-prod/ChatGPT-darwin-arm64-26.810.52044.zip
4. Replace the current app in /Applications with the extracted app and reopen it.
5. Confirm that About shows 26.810.52044 (build 6662).

Official Sparkle appcast used to identify the previous build:
https://persistent.oaistatic.com/codex-app-prod/appcast.xml

Automatic updates may reinstall the affected build, so this is only a temporary workaround, not a fix.

Related issue: #39136 reports Browser initialization failures on Windows for the same plugin version, but with a different Trusted RPC dependency is not within a trusted code path error. This macOS report is specifically about the trusted Node process exiting unexpectedly.

Reproduce the failure on Apple Silicon with app version 26.814.41407 and compare it with 26.810.52044. Start with ~/.codex/plugins/cache/openai-bundled/browser/26.814.41407/scripts/browser-client.mjs; done means the trusted Node process initializes, returns an iab binding, and permits Browser page inspection without the kernel-reset error.