Windows Computer Use intermittently unavailable despite native pipe and cua_repl being ready

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

26.908.4834.0

What subscription do you have?

ChatGPT Plus

What platform is your computer?

Microsoft Windows NT 10.0.26200.0 x64

What issue are you seeing?

Computer Use on the Codex Windows desktop app is intermittently unavailable.

The Computer Use plugin is installed and "Control Windows apps" is enabled. Browser Use works normally.

Sometimes Codex can successfully control native Windows applications (for example, opening Notepad and typing into it), but on other attempts it reports that only browser control is available or that Windows computer control is not connected.

The issue is intermittent and does not appear to be model-specific. I initially observed Luna failing while Sol succeeded, but later native Computer Use became unavailable with both models.

The Desktop logs show that the native Computer Use runtime itself appears healthy:

computer-use native pipe startup ready

server=cua_repl status=ready error=null failureReason=null

The Windows Computer Use executable is also successfully resolved:

codex-computer-use.exe

The logs explicitly show:

browser_use_availability_resolved available=true

However, I could not find an equivalent native Computer Use availability resolution event.

Expected behavior:
When the Computer Use plugin is enabled and "Control Windows apps" is allowed, native Windows Computer Use should consistently be available to Codex.

What steps can reproduce the bug?

1. Open the Codex desktop app on Windows.

2. Make sure the Computer Use plugin is installed and "Control Windows apps" is enabled.

3. Start a new Codex thread.

4. Explicitly invoke @Computer Use and ask:

   Open Windows Notepad and type "Computer Use test successful". Do not save the file.

5. Repeat the test in several new threads.

Actual result:
Sometimes Codex successfully opens and controls Notepad. On other attempts, Codex reports that only browser control is available or that Windows computer control is not connected.

Browser Use continues to work when this happens.

Restarting Codex or creating a new thread may temporarily change the behavior, so the issue is intermittent rather than consistently reproducible.

What is the expected behavior?

When the Computer Use plugin is installed and "Control Windows apps" is enabled, Codex should consistently expose native Windows Computer Use to the active thread.

For example, when asked to open Notepad and type text, Codex should be able to control the native Windows application instead of reporting that only browser control is available.

Native Computer Use should remain available across new threads and should not intermittently disappear while the underlying Computer Use runtime is healthy.

Additional information

Additional diagnostics:

• Codex CLI: 0.154.0
• Codex Desktop App: 26.908.4834.0
• Computer Use plugin: installed
• "Control Windows apps": enabled
• Browser Use: working normally
• Native Windows Computer Use: intermittent

codex doctor reports:

• 21 ok
• 1 idle
• 2 notes
• 2 warnings
• 0 failures

The sandbox is provisioned successfully and OpenAI/WebSocket connectivity is healthy.

Windows Security Protection History does not show Codex or Computer Use being blocked.

Relevant Desktop log observations:

computer-use native pipe startup ready

server=cua_repl status=ready error=null failureReason=null

browser_use_availability_resolved available=true

The native Computer Use executable (codex-computer-use.exe) is also successfully resolved.

The issue appears to occur after the native runtime has already initialized successfully. This may indicate an intermittent problem exposing/registering the native Computer Use capability to individual Codex threads.

I can provide additional sanitized logs or diagnostics if needed.

Start by tracing the Windows native Computer Use availability path around the computer-use native pipe startup ready, cua_repl status=ready, and browser_use_availability_resolved events. Compare how native capability registration is exposed to new threads after the runtime is ready, using the repeated Notepad reproduction and sanitized Desktop logs. Done means native Computer Use remains available across new threads whenever the plugin and Windows-app permission are enabled.