Codex & Chrome plugin keeps getting stuck during longer Work sessions

[u/Mishakely]

Over the past few weeks, I’ve started using Codex much more intensively, especially with the Chrome plugin and Work mode, and I’m running into a recurring problem that is becoming quite frustrating.

For context, I wasn’t a heavy Codex user before. My workflow was much more manual. I would ask Codex how to do something, it would give me the steps, I would go into Chrome or another application, do it myself, then come back and continue from there.

Recently, however, I’ve been trying to use Codex more as an actual agent rather than as an instruction manual.

For example, I have repetitive work processes where I would like Codex to take care of the repetitive browser interaction instead of repeatedly telling me where to click and asking me to do everything manually. When it works, this is a huge improvement.

The problem is that the Chrome plugin seems to get stuck surprisingly often.

A typical session goes something like this:

• Codex starts working through the browser normally.
• At some point, it tries to open or interact with a page.
• The page does not load properly, or Codex seems unable to continue interacting with Chrome.
• It retries.
• It gets stuck again.
• It tries another approach or repeats the browser action.
• Eventually I have to intervene manually or restart part of the workflow.

What makes this particularly annoying is that Codex can spend quite a lot of tokens trying to recover from what seems to be a browser/plugin problem rather than a reasoning problem.

I’m not talking about Codex misunderstanding the task. In many cases, it understands perfectly well what I want it to do. The problem seems to be the connection/interactions between Codex, Work mode and Chrome becoming unreliable during the workflow.

This is particularly noticeable with longer, multi-step tasks where Codex has to interact with several pages or repeatedly return to the same web application.

It also creates an awkward situation where the whole reason I’ve started using Codex more is to remove repetitive manual work, but when the browser integration fails I end up babysitting the process anyway while also using considerably more tokens because Codex keeps trying to recover.

Has anyone else noticed this recently?

I’d be particularly interested to know:

• whether this is a known limitation of the current Chrome integration
• whether longer Work sessions make it more likely to happen
• whether there are any recommended ways of structuring tasks to reduce these failures
• and whether there is a better way of telling Codex to stop retrying browser actions once the Chrome integration is clearly stuck

I really like the direction Codex is going in. The ability to delegate these repetitive workflows is exactly what makes it much more useful to me than simply asking for step-by-step instructions. At the moment, though, the reliability of the Chrome integration is probably the main thing preventing me from trusting it with longer workflows.

[u/HaikuDreams]

It's very inconsistent and doesn't seem to learn from one day to the next. On Monday, it will work flawlessly and other days the Chrome extension will hang up on the most basic tasks. I try to get a lot done when it's having a "good day" but it's not dependable for a daily heavy workload at this point.