[Windows][26.908.40834] Computer Use exposes missing cua app APIs and browser request-header policy fails

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

26.908.40834

Release date shown in the About dialog: 2026-09-12.

What subscription do you have?

Not included in this public report.

What platform is your computer?

Windows x64. The exact Windows build was not captured in this reproduction.

What issue are you seeing?

After updating to Codex / ChatGPT Desktop 26.908.40834 ("Powered by Codex & OWL"), Computer Use is enabled in Settings, including Any app native control. Microsoft Edge has the ChatGPT browser extension installed and enabled. Google Chrome does not have the extension installed in this setup.

A simple native-app task fails before Codex can enumerate or control Windows applications. The Computer Use skill/runtime exposes documentation or routing that attempts to use cua.listApps() and cua.getApp(), but both are missing at runtime:

cua.listApps is not a function
cua.getApp is not a function

The same session also reports a browser-policy initialization failure:

Error: Unable to load browser request-header policy. Retry the browser command.

The stack originates from temporary CUA runtime files such as kernel.js and worker-runtime.js under the user's local Temp directory.

Because native app discovery is unavailable, Codex cannot obtain a controllable Windows application/window and cannot complete the requested desktop action.

What steps can reproduce the bug?

1. Open Codex / ChatGPT Desktop on Windows, version 26.908.40834.
2. Open Settings → Computer Control / Computer Use.
3. Confirm Any app native control is enabled.
4. Start a fresh task and ask the computer-use skill to perform a minimal native Windows action, for example:
   • open Notepad or another native application;
   • create a temporary text file on the desktop;
   • type hello world.
5. Computer Use initializes but native app discovery fails.
6. The task reports:

cua.listApps is not a function
cua.getApp is not a function

7. Retrying/resetting the Computer Use/browser session does not restore the missing functions.
8. Browser state initialization may also fail with:

Unable to load browser request-header policy. Retry the browser command.

What is the expected behavior?

When Computer Use is enabled for native applications, Codex should be able to enumerate Windows applications/windows and control an authorized native app such as Notepad.

The runtime API exposed to the task should match the actual implementation. If cua.listApps() / cua.getApp() are documented or selected by the skill/router, those functions should exist, or the task should be routed to the supported native Windows implementation automatically.

A browser request-header policy initialization failure should also not prevent native Windows app discovery/control when the requested operation does not require browser interaction.

Additional information

This looks like two related-but-not-proven-identical failures in the same Computer Use session:

1. Native application-control API/routing mismatch — the task is directed to cua.listApps() / cua.getApp(), but those functions are absent at runtime.
2. Browser request-header policy bootstrap failure — browser inventory/policy initialization fails before browser discovery completes.

There are existing reports with closely matching individual symptoms:

• #42214 — Windows Computer Use cannot control native Windows apps; cua.getApp is not a function.
• #44169 — Windows Edge tab discovery fails with Unable to load browser request-header policy.
• #44140 — Windows update regression where Chrome/Edge control fails with the request-header policy error.

The useful new data point here is that both symptoms are still reproducible together on Windows Desktop 26.908.40834, released 2026-09-12.

A comment on #42214 also reports that some affected sessions can work when explicitly routed through the bundled native @oai/sky runtime using trusted node_repl, suggesting a possible routing/bootstrap mismatch between the cua_repl API surface and the currently supported native Windows implementation. That is only a hypothesis; the root cause is not confirmed.

Another plausible area to investigate is version skew between the Desktop/Codex & OWL shell and the bundled Computer Use runtime/plugin after update, but this has not been independently verified.

Troubleshooting performed in the reproduced session:

• Computer Use was enabled in Settings.
• Native Any app control was enabled.
• Microsoft Edge extension was installed and enabled.
• Computer Use/browser session was reset/retried.
• The same missing-function and/or request-header-policy failures persisted.

No credentials, cookies, tokens, private page content, or unredacted user-specific paths are included in this report.

Reproduce on Windows x64 with Desktop 26.908.40834 using the Computer Use Any app path and capture the failures from the temporary kernel.js and worker-runtime.js files. Compare the routing/API symptoms with #42214 and the browser-policy failures in #44169 and #44140 without assuming they share a cause. Done means supported native app discovery and control work, and a browser-policy failure does not block a native-only task.