Windows desktop Summary tab shows false GitHub CLI / PR status errors for WSL repos and logs git watcher ENOENT on .git paths

[tompw89]

Draft prepared with Codex assistance; details verified by me.

I searched existing issues first. The closest matches I found were #13689 and #14182, but neither seemed to fully cover this specific Summary-tab failure mode.

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

Version shown in the About Codex screen:
26.409.61251

I also observed the Windows Store package path:
OpenAI.Codex_26.409.7971.0_x64__2p2nqsd0c76g0

Rollout/session metadata on this machine also shows:
cli_version: 0.119.0-alpha.28

What subscription do you have?

ChatGPT Pro

What platform is your computer?

Windows host with a WSL workspace

What issue are you seeing?

In the Windows Codex desktop app, the Summary tab in the right-hand panel shows misleading GitHub/PR status errors for a valid WSL-hosted Git repo.

The messages include:

• GitHub CLI unavailable
• Pull request status unavailable

However, GitHub CLI is not actually unavailable.

What I verified:

• Linux gh in WSL works
• Windows gh.exe works
• gh auth status succeeds
• after adding the repo as a Windows Git safe.directory, Windows gh.exe repo view and gh.exe pr status also worked normally against the checkout

So the Summary tab message appears to be a generic fallback rather than a literal statement that gh is missing.

What steps can reproduce the bug?

1. Use the Codex Windows desktop app with a repo hosted in WSL, for example /home/...
2. Open a thread for that repo
3. Open the Summary tab on the right-hand side
4. Observe GitHub CLI unavailable or Pull request status unavailable

What is the expected behaviour?

The Summary tab should correctly detect GitHub/PR state for the repo, or at least show a specific error that reflects the real failure.

It should not claim GitHub CLI is unavailable when gh is installed, authenticated, and working.

What is the actual behaviour?

The Summary tab shows misleading GitHub/PR status messages even though GitHub CLI works in both WSL and Windows contexts.

Additional information

I ruled out several simpler explanations:

• Windows Git safe.directory trust was initially missing for the WSL checkout, but fixing that did not fix the Summary tab.
• I also found and repaired a separate local SQLite state DB issue (state_5.sqlite migration mismatch). That fixed thread metadata updates, but the Summary tab problem still remained.

The strongest evidence now points to a WSL git-path watcher problem in the desktop app itself.

In the desktop logs, the app’s git repo watcher fails with ENOENT on WSL .git paths such as:

• /home/<redacted>/projects/codex/.git/HEAD
• /home/<redacted>/projects/codex/.git/FETCH_HEAD
• /home/<redacted>/projects/codex/.git/packed-refs

Related git commands are then aborted before start.

So this looks less like a real gh problem and more like a Windows desktop app bug in WSL git-path watching / repo-state detection.

Potentially related issues:

• Windows app PR button falsely says GitHub CLI is not installed #13689 for the false GitHub CLI is not installed message
• Windows app shows "Create git repository" for valid WSL worktrees and does not show branch in thread #14182 for Windows app misreading valid WSL git state

[github-actions]

Potential duplicates detected. Please review them and close your issue if it is a duplicate.

• Codex App refuses to see GitHub CLI - shows "Install GitHub CLI (gh) to create PRs #16778
• Desktop "Create branch" fails with Wsl/Service/E_UNEXPECTED on Windows/WSL even though git succeeds #17961

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[tompw89]

Draft prepared with Codex assistance; details verified by me.

I reviewed the duplicate suggestions from the bot.

• Codex App refuses to see GitHub CLI - shows "Install GitHub CLI (gh) to create PRs #16778 looks related to the false GitHub CLI detection family, but it is a different surface and different environment (macOS PR creation flow rather than Windows/WSL Summary tab state).
• Desktop "Create branch" fails with Wsl/Service/E_UNEXPECTED on Windows/WSL even though git succeeds #17961 looks related to Windows/WSL desktop integration failures, but it is about branch creation (Wsl/Service/E_UNEXPECTED), not the Summary tab GitHub/PR-status path.

So I do not believe this issue is a duplicate of either one.