Fixes

Codex Chrome extension: “missing required path resourcesPath” (Windows)

Verified 2026-10-05 · Windows 11 · Codex desktop app

I hit this error on my own PC, and reinstalling the extension and the app did not fix it. The cause turned out to be a stale path, and it took two small edits to clear. Reports are scattered across forum threads and GitHub issues, so here is the short version of what I saw and what worked.

The Chrome side panel will not start and shows:

Unable to start ChatGPT
Codex app-server manifest entry is missing required path resourcesPath

Reinstalling the extension or the app does not clear it. The usual cause is a stale path: after the Codex app updated, two saved registration files still point to the previous version’s folder, which no longer exists.

Easiest way

If the Codex desktop app itself still opens, you can ask it to repair this: “Compare resourcesPath in my two chrome-native-hosts-v2.json files with the installed Codex folder and fix any stale path. Back up first.” That is how I fixed mine. The manual steps below do the same thing.

The fix

1. Find the folder the app is really installed in. In PowerShell:

   $pkg = Get-AppxPackage -Name 'OpenAI.Codex'
   Join-Path $pkg.InstallLocation 'app\resources'
   Test-Path (Join-Path $pkg.InstallLocation 'app\resources')

   Copy the printed path. Test-Path should print True.
2. Back up, then open both registration files (copy each file next to itself first, for example with .bak added to the name):

   %USERPROFILE%\.codex\chrome-native-hosts-v2.json
   %LOCALAPPDATA%\OpenAI\Codex\chrome-native-hosts-v2.json

3. In each file, find resourcesPath and replace the old value with the path from step 2. Change nothing else. In the cases I checked, the old value contained an older version number than the one the app reports now.
4. Save, then reopen the ChatGPT side panel in Chrome. You don’t need to close Chrome. If the error is still there, restart the Codex app and try again.

If it does not work

• Compare the version in the file with the version from Get-AppxPackage. If they already match, this is a different problem.
• Restore the .bak copies to undo the change.
• Do not paste version numbers from this page. Always use the path your own PC prints in step 2.

Why it happens

I confirmed the stale path on my own machine, but not exactly why the update left it behind. Similar reports are open on OpenAI’s tracker: #32706 and #42520. They show other users hitting the same error, some of them after a clean reinstall.

This page may stop applying if OpenAI changes how the extension registers itself. Desk Anvil is an independent project and is not affiliated with OpenAI. Editing these files is at your own risk, so keep the backups. Questions or a correction: deskanvil@gmail.com.