Side chat queued/steer messages route to main chat, and closed side chats are lost

What version of the Codex App are you using?

Codex Desktop for Windows 26.429.8261.0 <br>codex-cli 0.128.0

What subscription do you have?

Not specified

What platform is your computer?

Windows 11 Pro 10.0.26200 x64

What issue are you seeing?

In Codex Desktop, side chats do not seem to keep input routing isolated from the main chat.

If I open a side chat and try to queue a message or steer/follow up while the side chat is active, the message is added to the main chat instead of staying attached to the side chat. This makes it easy to accidentally send context or instructions to the wrong conversation.

There is also a recovery problem: after closing a side chat, I cannot find or reopen it again. The side chat does not appear to be rediscoverable from the parent chat, history, or another obvious UI path, so the side-chat context is effectively lost.

What steps can reproduce the bug?

1. Open an existing Codex Desktop chat.
2. Start a side chat from that main chat.
3. Start work in the side chat.
4. While the side chat is active/running, queue a message or send a steering/follow-up message intended for the side chat.
5. Observe that the message is added to the main chat instead of the side chat.
6. Close the side chat.
7. Try to find, reopen, or resume the closed side chat from the UI.
8. Observe that the side chat is not rediscoverable and appears to be lost.

What is the expected behavior?

Queued or steer/follow-up messages entered while a side chat is focused should remain attached to that side chat, not the main chat.

If side chats are intentionally ephemeral, the UI should make that clear before closing them and should offer a way to keep, export, fork, or resume useful side-chat context. If they are not meant to be ephemeral, closing a side chat should leave a discoverable/reopenable thread or some visible reference from the parent chat.

Additional information

I searched existing issues and found related reports, but not this exact behavior:

• openai/codex#20977 reports side chats failing to fork or breaking after inactivity.
• openai/codex#20944 reports side chats being created without persisted thread/rollout state.
• openai/codex#20262 asks for storing /side chats in session logs.
• openai/codex#17285, openai/codex#13892, and openai/codex#19151 cover queue/steer behavior, but not side-chat input routing into the main chat.

This issue is specifically about Codex Desktop side-chat input routing and side-chat recoverability after closing.