Browser Use fails on Windows Codex Desktop: failed to start codex app-server (os error 3) #20206

Summary

On Codex Desktop for Windows, the Browser Use / in-app browser integration can detect the selected in-app browser tab, but real browser operations fail with:

failed to start codex app-server: Das System kann den angegebenen Pfad nicht finden. (os error 3)

Environment

• OS: Windows
• Codex Desktop
• App version seen in logs: 0.125.0-alpha.3
• Installed package path/version seen locally: OpenAI.Codex_26.422.8496.0_x64__2p2nqsd0c76g0
• Browser Use plugin: openai-bundled/browser-use/0.1.0-alpha1

What works

• Basic node_repl execution works.
• browser-client.mjs exists and imports successfully.
• setupAtlasRuntime({ globals: globalThis, backend: "iab" }) succeeds.
• agent.browser.tabs.selected() can read the current in-app browser tab title/url.

Example successful selected-tab read:

{"title":"Example Domain","url":"https://example.com/"}

What fails

The following fail with the codex app-server path error:

• agent.browser.tabs.new()
• tab.goto(...)
• tab.playwright.domSnapshot()

Minimal repro

const { setupAtlasRuntime } = await import('file:///<redacted-user-home>/.codex/plugins/cache/openai-bundled/browser-use/0.1.0-alpha1/scripts/browser-client.mjs');
await setupAtlasRuntime({ globals: globalThis, backend: 'iab' });
const tab = await agent.browser.tabs.selected();
await tab.playwright.domSnapshot();

Expected behavior

Browser Use should be able to inspect and control the selected in-app browser tab.

Actual behavior

failed to start codex app-server: Das System kann den angegebenen Pfad nicht finden. (os error 3)

Notes

A full Codex Desktop restart did not resolve the issue. After restart, PATH appeared to point to the current package version only (OpenAI.Codex_26.422.8496.0_x64__2p2nqsd0c76g0). Before restart, there appeared to be an older package version in PATH as well, but the error persisted after that was cleaned up by restart.

This reproduces on https://example.com/, so it is not site-specific.