Windows CLI updater offers 0.151.0 but npm latest resolves to 0.149.0

Summary

The in-product updater advertises 0.149.0 -> 0.151.0 on Windows, but its npm command resolves back to 0.149.0. The update then reports success and the same prompt appears again on the next launch.

Reproduction

1. Install/run Codex CLI 0.149.0 globally with npm on Windows.
2. Accept the in-product update prompt for 0.151.0.
3. The updater runs npm install -g @openai/codex.
4. Restart Codex.

Actual result

• codex --version remains codex-cli 0.149.0.
• npm ls -g @openai/codex --depth=0 reports @openai/codex@0.149.0.
• npm's debug log shows the updater requested @openai/codex@* and resolved/downloaded 0.149.0 from the cache/registry.
• npm view @openai/codex@0.151.0 version returns E404 No match found for version 0.151.0.
• npm view @openai/codex dist-tags --json reports latest: 0.149.0; there is no Windows 0.151 tag.

A secondary Windows cleanup warning is also emitted:

EPERM: operation not permitted, unlink ...codex-code-mode-host.exe

The updater still prints Update ran successfully! Please restart Codex.

Expected result

Do not offer 0.151.0 through the CLI updater until its npm package/tag is installable, or make the updater use a release channel that actually resolves the advertised version. On Windows, a cleanup failure should not be presented as a successful update when the active package version did not change.

Environment

• Windows 11
• npm 11.16.0
• Node.js 24.18.0
• Codex CLI installed globally with npm

Start at the Windows CLI updater entry point and trace how it selects the advertised version and invokes npm. Reproduce the issue with the listed npm commands and inspect the release metadata and Windows cleanup path. Done means an unavailable npm version is not offered, and a failed or unchanged update is not reported as successful.