[macOS] Statsig bootstrap connection reset followed by Browser disabled and automatic bundled-plugin removal on unchanged build

Browser becomes statsig-disabled on unchanged macOS build; bundled sync uninstalls Browser

Environment and impact

• macOS desktop app, release 26.903.71938 (ChatGPT.app / Codex desktop surface).
• Browser previously worked. The in-app browser pane still opens, but Browser control is disabled and no browser-control tools are exposed to the current task.
• Settings displays: Disabled by your organization or unavailable in your region.
• Browser-dependent diagnostic work is blocked.

Observed timeline (UTC)

These are selected, sanitized fields from desktop logs, not a full session upload.

2026-09-10T16:11:31.582Z browser_use_availability_resolved available=true browserPane=true platform=macOS reason=available release=26.903.71938
2026-09-11T02:06:39.171Z [electron-message-handler] Statsig: error while bootstrapping post-login client attemptNumber=1 errorMessage=net::ERR_CONNECTION_RESET errorName=Error
2026-09-11T02:06:54.123Z browser_use_availability_resolved available=false browserPane=true platform=macOS reason=statsig-disabled release=26.903.71938
2026-09-11T02:07:14.621Z [BundledPluginsMarketplace] bundled_plugins_runtime_marketplace_written pluginCount=3 pluginNames=["codex-app-tools","latex","visualize"]
2026-09-11T02:07:14.654Z [BundledPluginsMarketplace] bundled_plugin_uninstall_requested pluginId=browser@openai-bundled reason=not_in_bundled_marketplace_plugin_names
2026-09-11T02:07:14.743Z [AppServerConnection] plugin_uninstall_succeeded pluginId=browser@openai-bundled
2026-09-11T02:16:53.907Z browser_use_availability_resolved available=false browserPane=true platform=macOS reason=statsig-disabled release=26.903.71938

The same synchronization also removed unified-computer-use, chrome and computer-use plugins.

What is and is not established

• The last observed working and first observed failing entries show the same release. This is not sufficient evidence of an app-upgrade regression.
• Availability was already false before plugin removal. The uninstall therefore does not establish the cause of the initial gate change.
• A post-login Statsig bootstrap connection reset precedes the first disabled entry by about 15 seconds. This suggests a possible initialization/fallback problem, but does not prove causality or exclude intended policy.
• The installed application passes codesign --verify --deep --strict; its signing authority is OpenAI OpCo, LLC. No ad-hoc signature was found.
• The inspected local /etc/codex/requirements.toml only enables hooks; no Browser restriction was found there. This does not rule out remote workspace policy or other managed settings.
• A legacy local cua_repl MCP entry is disabled; its change provenance and relationship to the current Browser gate are unknown.
• No feature-gate override, app patch, manual plugin reinstall, or cache deletion was performed during this investigation.
• There is no deterministic reproduction beyond the observed startup transition yet.

Request

Please clarify why this availability decision becomes statsig-disabled on an unchanged build, and whether it reflects intended entitlement/region/workspace policy, rollout changes, or an initialization/config-fetch failure. If it is unintended, please provide a supported recovery path that restores the Browser plugin and actual browser-control access. Please distinguish these causes in the UI instead of using the combined organization/region message.

Related but not identical: #21440 (missing Browser tools), #24969 (combined organization/region message on Windows), and #26780 (Statsig bootstrap failure with a workspace_type validation error, unlike the connection reset observed here).

Success criterion: Browser is enabled, a fresh task receives the supported Browser tools, and it can read an ordinary page through the built-in browser. Merely opening a browser pane is not recovery.

Start with the post-login Statsig bootstrap, browser_use_availability_resolved transitions, and BundledPluginsMarketplace uninstall events in the supplied logs. Determine whether the unchanged-build transition is caused by policy, rollout, or initialization failure, then verify recovery by enabling Browser, exposing its tools to a fresh task, and reading an ordinary page through the built-in browser.