Windows Desktop: list_projects omits user-confirmed saved WSL UNC project

Environment

• Codex Desktop for Windows: Microsoft Store package OpenAI.Codex 26.911.7940.0 (read via Get-AppxPackage; not independently checked in About dialog).
• Windows: 10.0.26200.0.
• WSL distribution: Ubuntu. Repository stored in its Linux filesystem.
• Subscription: not collected.
• Caller: a normal text task on the local Windows host using the first-party mcp__codex_app__list_projects tool, not an external MCP client or standalone App Server.

Problem

The user confirms that a WSL repository is already registered in Codex Desktop using a Windows UNC path, but repeated calls to mcp__codex_app__list_projects({}) omit it. No local project entry with a WSL UNC root is present in the returned catalog.

Sanitized target path (placeholders, not the customer's real name):

\\wsl.localhost\Ubuntu\home\<user>\projects\<existing-kirby-project>

The actual project directory name contains Japanese characters; whether that matters is unknown.

The same responses do include ordinary Windows-local projects and two SSH-host projects whose roots use Linux paths. Thus this is not a total inability to list WSL-related projects: SSH registrations are visible, while the expected local UNC registration is missing.

Observations and limits

• Repeated tool calls in the same task returned schemaVersion: 2 and a projects array successfully, with no error or pagination cursor.
• The expected local UNC project is absent from that array.
• The user explicitly confirmed that the project is registered. The agent did not independently inspect the project selector UI or private project database; successful persistence of that registration is therefore not established by this report.
• The repository exists. In the same session, WSL Git successfully inspected and committed its instruction files through wsl.exe. Some sandboxed UNC reads were denied; WSL operations with the appropriate execution permission succeeded. This does not establish why project enumeration omits the entry.
• No create_thread attempt was made for the missing entry, because there was no returned project ID to supply. The workaround was to let the user open the project task manually and paste a PL handoff prompt.
• No conclusion is drawn that every UNC project is affected, or that path normalization is definitely the cause.

Reproduction / investigation steps

1. On Windows Codex Desktop, register/select a repository in Ubuntu through \\wsl.localhost\Ubuntu\home\<user>\projects\<repo> and confirm it appears in the UI.
2. From a separate local Windows Codex task, ask the assistant to create a task for that saved project.
3. Call the built-in mcp__codex_app__list_projects with {}.
4. Compare the returned projects with the saved-project selector, including ordinary Windows roots and SSH/Linux registrations.
5. Repeat the list call. In this session the expected local UNC entry remained absent.

Step 1's registration is user-confirmed in this report; a maintainer reproduction should independently confirm persistence and UI visibility.

Expected behavior

The first-party project catalog should expose saved local projects rooted at WSL UNC paths with a usable project ID, host, root, and repository flag, consistent with the UI. If these entries are intentionally unsupported or filtered, return an explicit diagnostic rather than silently omitting them.

Impact

The assistant cannot create a task in the user's intended existing checkout using the supported project tool, and may incorrectly tell the user to register an already registered project. Manual task creation and prompt transfer are needed.

Related reports

• #41746 concerns silent failure to persist a newly created WSL UNC project. This may be related, but the symptom here is a user-confirmed registered project missing from the first-party catalog; root cause is unconfirmed.
• #40535 concerns a separate plugin/App Server's access to Desktop capabilities. This report uses the built-in Desktop tool directly.

Customer names, actual local paths, project IDs, task IDs, and full project inventories have intentionally been omitted. No credentials or private logs are attached.

Start by reproducing the saved-project selector versus mcp__codex_app__list_projects({}) comparison on Windows with a WSL UNC repository, including repeated calls and the related persistence case in #41746. Done means the registered project appears with a usable project ID, host, root, and repository flag, or the tool returns an explicit diagnostic instead of silently omitting it.