Codex Desktop Windows: browser route can disappear mid-workflow and cannot be recovered

Summary

Codex Desktop on Windows lost browser-control routes during a live workflow. The agent could initially operate an in-app browser, prepare a Zazzle product listing, and reach the final publication form, but browser control then became unrecoverable.

This prevented completion of a time-sensitive external workflow and led to repeated attempts that risked creating extra browser-use tabs.

Expected behavior

• An existing in-app browser tab should remain controllable across turns in the same task.
• If a route is lost, the agent should be able to create or reconnect to one in-app browser tab and continue.
• Choosing Chrome as an alternate browser should produce a usable, URL-verifiable browser session.

Actual behavior

• In-app browser calls such as state retrieval, browser selection, and tab creation timed out.
• Desktop logs recorded: No ChatGPT browser route is available for browser session ….
• A delayed hidden browser-use tab could be created under a temporary conversation route, but the active task could not reconnect to it.
• Retrying could create additional hidden browser-use tabs without restoring control.
• Chrome fallback also timed out, and the Windows computer-use fallback was stopped because it could not determine the current Chrome URL with enough confidence.

Reproduction outline

1. Open an authenticated website in Codex Desktop's in-app browser.
2. Work through a multi-step form until the final publish/submission step.
3. On a later turn, retrieve browser state or reconnect to the same tab.
4. Observe the missing browser route, timeout, and inability to recover a single controllable tab.

Impact

The agent reached the final publication form but could not submit or even continue interacting. The user had to be asked to take over despite explicitly requesting end-to-end browser automation.

Environment

• Codex Desktop for Windows
• 2026-09-08 JST
• In-app browser and Chrome fallback both affected

Privacy

This report intentionally omits account details, personal data, local paths, and full logs.

Start by reproducing the workflow on Codex Desktop for Windows and inspect logs for “No ChatGPT browser route is available for browser session …”. Trace the browser-state retrieval, browser-selection, and tab-creation entry points mentioned in the report. Done means an existing tab remains controllable, a lost route reconnects to one tab without duplicates, and Chrome fallback provides a URL-verifiable session.