[macOS] Chrome extension control times out before navigation, even after reinstall and app restart

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

26.903.71938 build 8576 installed as ChatGPT.app read from app bundle metadata

What subscription do you have?

prolite (planType reported by the app usage tool)

What platform is your computer?

Darwin 25.5.0 arm64 arm

What issue are you seeing?

Chrome browser automation repeatedly times out before navigation. Browser discovery and documentation succeed, but browser.nameSession(...) and browser.tabs.list() do not respond.

Exact error:

js execution timed out; kernel reset, rerun your request

The problem persisted after reinstalling the extension/plugin, opening a new Chrome window for the selected profile, and fully restarting the desktop app. The root cause has not been identified.

What steps can reproduce the bug?

1. Open a desktop task and explicitly select the Chrome plugin.
2. Ask: "Open example.com and tell me the page title."
3. The agent loads the bundled Chrome browser runtime and selects agent.browsers.get("chrome"). Discovery/documentation succeeds.
4. Calling chrome.nameSession(...) times out. A separate chrome.tabs.list() attempt also times out.
5. Reinstall the extension/plugin and restart the desktop app; retry the same request. The failure persists.

Observed execution limits included 15, 20, and 30 seconds. Navigation and title retrieval were not reached in the isolated verification attempts.

What is the expected behavior?

The Chrome control session should respond, open https://example.com, and return the page title. If communication fails, show an actionable connection error rather than repeatedly timing out.

Additional information

In-app feedback was submitted successfully. Feedback ID: 01a08fec-f563-7f53-9d07-966f37d2cbaf

Environment observed during troubleshooting:

• Chrome: 152.0.7977.83
• ChatGPT Chrome extension: 1.26.901.11451
• Bundled Chrome plugin: 26.903.71938

Checks performed:

• Chrome running check passed.
• Extension installed/enabled check passed for the selected profile.
• Native Messaging manifest name and allowed extension origins passed the bundled diagnostic check. This does not establish that runtime communication works.
• Reinstallation, opening a new Chrome window, and restarting the desktop app did not resolve the timeout.
• Full CDP access remained disabled; browsing permission was set to require approval.

The separately available Computer Use tool can read and fill this GitHub form in Chrome. The failure described here concerns the Chrome browser-client control path. No root cause is confirmed.

Potentially related: #43385 (macOS, an earlier app build, includes a native-host signature inconsistency) and #44697 (Windows, discovery succeeds but tab RPC fails). These may share symptoms, but the same root cause has not been established for this report. Native-host signing was not modified in this reproduction.

Reproduce the failure using the bundled Chrome browser runtime, agent.browsers.get("chrome"), chrome.nameSession(...), and chrome.tabs.list(). Start with the native messaging and extension diagnostics described in the report, then compare the failing control path with the successful discovery and documentation calls. Done means the Chrome session responds, navigates to example.com, returns its title, or reports an actionable connection error.