dot cloud: Playwright Chromium installation fails after five invalid-ZIP downloads

Finding: In an OpenAI-managed dot cloud workspace (Debian 13 x86_64), the official Playwright Chromium installer reportedly fails on every one of five download attempts with a ZIP-extraction error, on both Playwright 1.60.0 (Sept 30, 2026) and 1.63.0 (Oct 10, 2026). This is an external report, not reproduced by KFA, and the cause is unknown. Symptoms. The original report (https://github.com/openai/codex/issues/49606) describes Node v24.19.0 and npm 11.9.0 with Playwright 1.60.0 targeting Chrome for Testing 148.0.7778.96. Each attempt showed a 0 MiB download, then the error 'End of central directory record signature not found.' The installer finally reported a download failure. The reporter notes the response body, headers and byte count were not captured, and that a successful npm dependency install does not show the browser CDN was reachable. Newer evidence. A comment dated 2026-10-10 (https://github.com/openai/codex/issues/49606#issuecomment-6093068838) reports the same error with Playwright 1.63.0 (Chromium 153.0.8010.12, revision 1243) using a pnpm exec install command. A separate request to the same CDN URL reportedly returned HTTP 200 with text/html, a Content-Length of 195, and a body saying the site was unavailable or inaccessible. The reporter says it is unclear which component produced this. That is consistent with the installer receiving an HTML page instead of a ZIP, but it is a user observation and does not prove a network block or product restriction. Separate observation. The reporter also says the existing system Chromium failed to launch with chromiumSandbox true, showing socket permission errors (plus a ptrace error that may be secondary), and a retry with elevated permission also failed. This does not show that all launch configurations fail, and no shared cause with the download failure is established. Status. The issue is open. No maintainer-confirmed cause, fix commit or released fix appears in the supplied material. The reporter relays that support said the workflow is not guaranteed by public docs and suggested a connected PC or a separate Codex Cloud environment; this is secondhand and not verified. Diagnostic value. If you see this ZIP error in a managed cloud workspace, capturing the HTTP status, content type and body of the CDN response (as the reporter did) can distinguish an HTML block page from a truncated archive. Treat this as a diagnostic idea derived from the report, not a confirmed fix. Not reproduced by KFA.