Codex Crashpad Pending Dumps Taking Disk Space

If Codex Desktop keeps creating .dmp and _sidecar.json files under Crashpad, the disk growth can look like generic System Data. Measure the pending crash-report queue first, avoid sharing dump files publicly, and preserve app state before deleting anything broader.

paths=(
  "$HOME/Library/Application Support/com.openai.codex/web/Crashpad"
  "$HOME/Library/Application Support/Codex/Crashpad"
)

for crash in "${paths[@]}"; do
  echo "== $crash =="
  [ -d "$crash" ] || { echo "missing"; continue; }
  du -sh "$crash" "$crash/pending" 2>/dev/null
  find "$crash/pending" -maxdepth 1 -type f 2>/dev/null | wc -l
  find "$crash/pending" -maxdepth 1 -type f -name '*.dmp' 2>/dev/null | wc -l
  find "$crash/pending" -maxdepth 1 -type f -name '*_sidecar.json' 2>/dev/null | wc -l
  find "$crash/pending" -maxdepth 1 -type f -print0 2>/dev/null \
    | xargs -0 stat -f '%Sm %z %N' -t '%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S' 2>/dev/null \
    | sort | sed -n '1p;$p'
done

What Is Usually Safe To Remove?

Crashpad pending files are crash reports waiting to be processed or uploaded. They are usually recoverable disk space, but dump files may contain private memory, local paths, prompts, or project data. Do not attach .dmp files to a public issue.

1. Quit Codex first.
2. Confirm which Crashpad path is growing.
3. Move only pending, new, completed, and attachments crash-report files to Trash.
4. Restart Codex and watch whether the file count grows again.
5. If it grows immediately, treat it as an active Crashpad loop, not a one-time cleanup.

osascript -e 'quit app "Codex"' 2>/dev/null || true
pkill -f "browser_crashpad_handler.*codex.*/Crashpad" 2>/dev/null || true

for crash in \
  "$HOME/Library/Application Support/com.openai.codex/web/Crashpad" \
  "$HOME/Library/Application Support/Codex/Crashpad"; do
  [ -d "$crash" ] || continue
  mkdir -p "$HOME/.Trash/SafeDisk-Codex-Crashpad"
  for bucket in pending new completed attachments; do
    [ -d "$crash/$bucket" ] || continue
    find "$crash/$bucket" -mindepth 1 -maxdepth 1 -exec mv {} "$HOME/.Trash/SafeDisk-Codex-Crashpad/" \;
  done
done

Do Not Delete First

• The whole ~/Library/Application Support/Codex folder, unless you intend to reset local app state.
• Conversation/session files before you have backed up anything you need.
• Crash dumps uploaded publicly. Share only metadata unless maintainers provide a private upload path.
• Immutable or permission-blocking workarounds unless you accept that crash reporting may stop working.

About Read-only Workarounds

Making Crashpad/pending read-only or immutable can stop disk growth during an active dump loop, but it also prevents Codex from writing crash reports. Treat it as an emergency workaround only, not a normal cleanup step. The safer default is Trash-only cleanup, then watch whether the pending count starts growing again after restart.

If you do use a read-only workaround, keep the scope narrow: only the specific Crashpad/pending folder that is actively refilling. Do not make the whole ~/Library/Application Support/Codex folder, ~/Library/Application Support/com.openai.codex, or temporary code-sign clone directories permanently read-only unless you are prepared to debug app update, crash reporting, and relaunch failures later.

# Undo a temporary read-only workaround after the loop is fixed.
for pending in \
  "$HOME/Library/Application Support/com.openai.codex/web/Crashpad/pending" \
  "$HOME/Library/Application Support/Codex/Crashpad/pending"; do
  [ -d "$pending" ] || continue
  chmod u+w "$pending" 2>/dev/null || true
done