Codex Desktop 26.609.71450 on macOS triggers syspolicyd FD/CPU runaway
OpenAI Developer Community
June 16, 2026
Codex Desktop started triggering a severe macOS syspolicyd runaway after the latest update. This is the desktop app, not the CLI.
Environment:
* macOS on Apple Silicon
* Codex Desktop: 26.609.71450
* CFBundleVersion: 3965
* App path: /Applications/Codex.app
* Gatekeeper assessments: enabled
* SIP/Gatekeeper were not disabled
Symptoms:
* Launching Codex Desktop causes syspolicyd to climb to 120% to 250% CPU.
* Codex itself also spikes CPU while this is happening.
* spctl --assess --type execute --verbose=4 /Applications/Codex.app returns:
/Applications/Codex.app: Too many open files
* lsof shows thousands of syspolicyd file descriptors pointing to the same Codex executable:
/Applications/Codex.app/Contents/MacOS/Codex
Observed counts:
* syspolicyd FD count for the Codex executable: approximately 2538 to 2540
* launchctl maxfiles was raised to 65536 / unlimited and persisted through /Library/LaunchDaemons/local.maxfiles.plist
* Raising maxfiles reduces the immediate FD-limit failure mode, but syspolicyd still returns to high CPU after Codex is launched.
* Rebooting macOS does not resolve the issue once Codex Desktop is opened again.
Things already tried:
sudo xattr -cr /Applications/Codex.app
sudo killall syspolicyd
sudo kill -9 $(pgrep -x syspolicyd)
sudo launchctl limit maxfiles 65536 184320
Current result:
* syspolicyd is relaunched by macOS and resumes the evaluation loop.
* The repeated FD target is still /Applications/Codex.app/Contents/MacOS/Codex.
* I do not want to disable SIP or globally disable Gatekeeper for this.
This looks like Codex Desktop is repeatedly triggering Gatekeeper / syspolicy executable assessment and leaking or retaining FDs in syspolicyd. Please route this to the Desktop App team if this forum is the right place; if there is a better Desktop-specific issue tracker, please point me there.
Discussion in the ATmosphere