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

codex-cli 0.154.0

What subscription do you have?

ChatGPT Pro

What platform is your computer?

Microsoft Windows 10.0.26200.9457

What issue are you seeing?

Summary
Codex becomes extremely slow/unstable when %USERPROFILE%.codex\config.toml is malformed; no clear warning that config parsing errors are causing degraded performance.

Environment

• Codex CLI: codex-cli 0.154.0
• Windows: 10.0.26200.9457

Config path
%USERPROFILE%.codex\config.toml

Observed error
key with no value, expected '=' (while parsing config.toml)

Steps to reproduce

1. Put an invalid TOML line in %USERPROFILE%.codex\config.toml (e.g. a key with no value / missing '=')
2. Start Codex
3. Codex becomes very slow/unstable, without an explicit warning pointing to config.toml as the cause

Expected behavior

• Show a clear warning/notification that config.toml is invalid and is being ignored (or may cause issues)
• Provide a “Start with default configuration / safe mode” option (or automatic fallback to defaults)

Actual behavior

• Performance degradation; only a parse error is visible, and it’s not clear it’s the root cause of slowness.

Workaround
Rename/delete config.toml so Codex recreates a clean config → performance immediately returns to normal.

What steps can reproduce the bug?

1. Create/modify %USERPROFILE%.codex\config.toml with invalid TOML, e.g.:

   badkey

   (missing '=' value)

2. Start Codex (codex-cli 0.154.0) and use it normally.

3. Observe severe slowdown/instability; error shown: "key with no value, expected '='".

4. Rename/delete %USERPROFILE%.codex\config.toml and restart Codex → performance returns to normal.

What is the expected behavior?

If config.toml fails to parse, Codex should show a clear warning that the config is invalid and automatically fall back to defaults (or offer a “Start with default configuration / safe mode” option), rather than running in a degraded/slow state.

Additional information

No response