[Windows][26.908.3777.0] Primary renderer crashes on startup with `r is not a function`; rollback to 26.903.9818.0 fixes it

What version of the Codex App are you using?

26.908.3777.0

Previous working version: 26.903.9818.0

Platform

Windows 11 Pro x64

Issue

Immediately after updating Codex Desktop from 26.903.9818.0 to 26.908.3777.0, the app became unusable on startup. The main window shows the generic “ChatGPT has encountered a problem” error screen every time.

This is not isolated to the Pet/avatar overlay. The primary renderer itself crashes.

Relevant log sequence:

[AppServerConnection] ... next=connected ... initialized=true
[electron-message-handler] Initial route prefetch failed; rendering will retry errorMessage="r is not a function" errorName=Error errorStack="Error: r is not a function" rendererWindowAppearance=primary route=primary windowType=electron
[chatgpt-account-lookup] ... authenticatedAccountPresent=true authMethod=chatgpt ... result=succeeded
[electron-message-handler] error boundary ... errorMessage="r is not a function" errorName=Error errorStack="Error: r is not a function" name=AppRoutes rendererWindowAppearance=primary rendererWindowVisible=true

So the local app-server connects successfully and ChatGPT authentication succeeds, then the React/Electron primary route enters an error boundary.

Reproduction

1. Start from working Codex Desktop 26.903.9818.0 on Windows 11.
2. Update to 26.908.3777.0.
3. Launch Codex.
4. Main window consistently shows the generic “ChatGPT has encountered a problem” screen.

Reproduction frequency: 100% on this machine.

Troubleshooting already performed

The following did not fix the issue:

• Fully terminated all ChatGPT.exe processes and restarted.
• Windows Settings → App → Repair.
• Repair verified 5,511 package files and re-registered the package successfully.
• Removed/recreated renderer caches (Cache, Code Cache, GPUCache, Dawn caches, Shader caches, etc.).
• Moved the entire Codex web profile aside and launched with a fresh profile.

The crash remained identical.

Windows AppXDeploymentServer logs confirm the update path:

OpenAI.Codex_26.903.9818.0_x64__2p2nqsd0c76g0
is updating to
OpenAI.Codex_26.908.3777.0_x64__2p2nqsd0c76g0

Strong regression confirmation

I rolled back the exact app package from 26.908.3777.0 to 26.903.9818.0 using a valid Microsoft Marketplace-signed MSIX and:

Add-AppxPackage -Path <26.903.9818.0.msix> -ForceUpdateFromAnyVersion -ForceApplicationShutdown

After rollback:

Version : 26.903.9818.0
Status  : Ok

Codex launched normally again immediately, with the same user data and Windows environment.

This strongly suggests a regression introduced in 26.908.3777.0 rather than local cache/profile corruption.

Related issue

Possibly related to #44739, which reports the same r is not a function / AppRoutes error on 26.908.3777.0 in the avatarOverlay renderer. In this case, however, rendererWindowAppearance=primary, so the entire app startup UI is affected.

Additional log noise observed

A later warning also appears:

plugin `sites` was not found in marketplace `openai-bundled`

However, this happens after the primary renderer has already failed, so it does not appear to be the initiating failure.

Reproduce the startup failure on Windows 11 with Codex Desktop 26.908.3777.0, then compare it with 26.903.9818.0. Start at the primary renderer's AppRoutes error boundary and the logged "r is not a function" failure; done means the primary window launches normally on the affected version without the regression.