[macOS] ChatGPT 26.901.20858 permanently freezes at startup with CrBrowserMain at 100% CPU

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

ChatGPT 26.901.20858 (build 7658). The same failure also occurred on 26.831.21537 (build 7579).

What subscription do you have?

ChatGPT Pro 20x — highest individual subscription tier

What platform is your computer?

Darwin 25.6.0 arm64 arm macOS 26.6.2 (build 25G83) Apple Silicon

What issue are you seeing?

ChatGPT Desktop becomes permanently unresponsive shortly after every launch.
The window stops accepting mouse and keyboard input, Cmd-Q does not work, and
Force Quit is required.

Activity Monitor and Apple diagnostic reports show the ChatGPT Electron main
process (CrBrowserMain) consuming approximately 94–100% of one CPU core
continuously.

macOS generated 13 diagnostic reports on September 2, 2026: nine application-
hang reports and four excessive-CPU reports. One recorded hang lasted
approximately 2 hours and 56 minutes.

The sampled main thread remains inside a CPU-bound V8/Node JavaScript
callback. This is not a network wait or ordinary macOS deadlock.

Authentication succeeds, the local Codex app server initializes successfully,
and the renderer routes mount before the freeze. On recent launches, the last
relevant event is:

bundled_plugins_reconcile_started

There is no subsequent bundled_plugins_reconcile_completed or
bundled_plugins_reconcile_failed event.

This completely blocks the desktop local-repository workflow. ChatGPT on the
web is not an equivalent workaround because it cannot provide the same direct
local-repository workflow.

What steps can reproduce the bug?

1. Install or update ChatGPT Desktop to 26.901.20858 (build 7658) on macOS.
2. Launch /Applications/ChatGPT.app.
3. Wait approximately 1–3 seconds for the window and application routes to
   appear.
4. Attempt to click, type, navigate, or quit normally.
5. The entire window becomes permanently unresponsive.
6. Activity Monitor shows the ChatGPT main process using approximately one
   full CPU core.
7. Force Quit ChatGPT.
8. Relaunch it. The same freeze occurs again.

The problem reproduces without opening or submitting a conversation, so no
session ID, token-limit usage, or context-window usage is applicable.

What is the expected behavior?

ChatGPT Desktop should launch and remain responsive.

Bundled-plugin reconciliation and conversation restoration should complete
asynchronously—or fail safely—without blocking the Electron main thread. A
plugin, feature flag, or persisted-state problem should not make the entire
application permanently unusable.

Additional information

Troubleshooting already performed:

• Force Quit and repeated relaunches
• Updated from build 7579 to build 7658
• Disabled remote auto-connect behavior
• Reset desktop UI/window state and renderer caches
• Reset transient bundled-plugin reconciliation state
• Launched with a completely clean Chromium/application profile
• Confirmed the known stale heartbeat-thread-permissions-by-id key is absent
• Confirmed authentication and local app-server initialization succeed

None of these restored a usable application.

The problem spans two app builds and survives a clean profile. The separately
installed Codex CLI 0.152.1 works, further indicating that the failure is in
the desktop Electron shell rather than the account, network, repository, or
underlying Codex service.

Related public reports include:

• https://github.com/openai/codex/issues/27298
• https://github.com/openai/codex/issues/28502
• https://github.com/openai/codex/issues/36117
• https://github.com/openai/codex/issues/36290
• https://github.com/openai/codex/issues/38096
• https://github.com/openai/codex/issues/39548

Sanitized diagnostic summaries and the original Apple hang/CPU reports are
available upon request. I have not uploaded raw application logs publicly
because they may contain local repository paths and session identifiers.

Start by reproducing the freeze in /Applications/ChatGPT.app on macOS and inspect the Electron main-process diagnostics and CPU samples. Trace the bundled_plugins_reconcile_started event and determine why no completed or failed event follows. Done means the app launches, remains responsive, and bundled-plugin reconciliation or failure does not block the Electron main thread.