iOS Codex remote project picker does not mirror Desktop Codex projects

What version of the Codex App are you using?

• Codex App: 26.519.41501 (build 3044)
• Bundled Codex CLI in app: 0.133.0-alpha.1
• Standalone Codex CLI / app-server daemon: 0.133.0
• Host OS: macOS 26.5 (25F71), arm64
• Mobile client: ChatGPT iOS app using Codex remote connections, observed through iPhone Mirroring

What subscription do you have?

ChatGPT Pro

What platform is your computer?

macOS arm64 host connected to ChatGPT iOS through Codex remote access.

What issue are you seeing?

When using ChatGPT on iOS to connect to a Mac running Codex Desktop, the mobile Codex project picker does not appear to mirror the projects saved in the Mac Codex Desktop app.

In my repro, a local project saved in Codex Desktop was missing from the iOS project picker, while another project shown on iOS was not present in Desktop Codex's saved project order. This makes the mobile project picker feel like it is using a separate source of truth from the desktop app.

This also appears to block a common Mac mini remote-agent setup: use the Mac mini as the always-on Codex host, then have that Mac connect onward to SSH remote projects that only the Mac can reach. The iOS app asks for a local path instead of exposing the Mac-managed remote project, so there is no usable path to select for a remote project that exists only through the Mac host.

In other words, this workflow does not work reliably:

iPhone ChatGPT app -> Mac mini Codex host -> SSH/VPN/private remote project

The phone should not need direct SSH/VPN access or a local path for the remote project. The Mac host already has the Codex Desktop state, SSH config, keys, network access, and/or VPN access.

What steps can reproduce the bug?

1. On the Mac, open Codex Desktop.
2. Add/save one or more local projects in Codex Desktop.
3. Pair ChatGPT iOS Codex remote connections to that Mac.
4. Open the Codex project picker in the iOS app.
5. Compare the projects visible in iOS with the projects saved in Codex Desktop.
6. Separately, configure a Mac-managed SSH remote connection/project in Codex Desktop, where the Mac can reach the SSH host but the phone may not be able to.
7. Try to start or resume that Mac-managed SSH remote project from the iOS app.

I validated the iOS side through iPhone Mirroring. The iOS Codex screen showed the Mac host connected and listed only a subset/different set of projects.

I could not use Computer Use to directly inspect/click inside the Codex Desktop app because the automation layer refused access to com.openai.codex for safety reasons, so I validated the desktop side by reading Codex's local host state instead.

The host state showed saved desktop projects like this, with project names redacted:

{
  "project-order": [
    "/Users/<user>/Documents/<desktop-only-project>",
    "/Users/<user>/Documents/<shared-project>"
  ],
  "electron-saved-workspace-roots": [
    "/Users/<user>/Documents/<desktop-only-project>",
    "/Users/<user>/Documents/<shared-project>"
  ],
  "codex-managed-remote-connections": [
    {
      "hostId": "remote-ssh-discovered:<ssh-host>",
      "displayName": "<ssh-host>",
      "source": "discovered"
    }
  ],
  "selected-remote-host-id": "remote-ssh-discovered:<ssh-host>"
}

The iOS project picker for the connected Mac host showed:

<mobile-visible-project>
<shared-project>

So the desktop-saved project was missing from iOS, and the mobile-visible project was not part of Desktop Codex's saved project list.

What is the expected behavior?

The iOS Codex project picker should use the Mac Codex host's project state as the source of truth, or the UI should clearly explain that it is not showing Desktop Codex projects.

For local projects saved in Codex Desktop, the iOS project picker should show the same saved projects when connected to that Mac host.

For Mac-managed SSH remote projects, the iOS app should expose those projects as host-backed remote projects instead of requiring the phone to enter a local filesystem path. The phone should be able to say, effectively, "start this project through the connected Mac host," while the Mac handles the SSH connection and filesystem access.

Additional information

This seems related to:

• https://github.com/openai/codex/issues/23062
• https://github.com/openai/codex/issues/23527
• https://github.com/openai/codex/issues/23466

Those issues discuss SSH remote projects not appearing in mobile remote control / mobile needing to configure SSH directly. This issue adds a concrete local-project mismatch: even before SSH remote project routing, the iOS project picker does not appear to mirror Desktop Codex's saved local projects for the connected Mac host.

Possible fix:

• Use the connected Mac Codex host as the authoritative project source for iOS remote connections.
• Include Desktop Codex saved local projects in the host app-server/project discovery response used by mobile.
• Include Mac-managed SSH remote projects as first-class project entries, not as paths the phone has to resolve.
• Preserve project identity across project list, thread list, thread resume, and turn start APIs.
• Render local projects and SSH remote projects distinctly in the mobile picker.
• If Mac-managed SSH remote projects are intentionally unsupported, show that explicitly in the mobile UI instead of presenting a path-entry flow that cannot work for them.

Workarounds:

• For local Mac projects, manually adding a path from the iOS app may make a project appear, but that creates a separate/mobile-origin project entry and does not reliably mirror Desktop Codex's saved projects.
• For SSH remote projects, the current workarounds are using Codex Desktop directly on the Mac, screen sharing into the Mac, configuring direct SSH from the phone if the phone can reach the host and has the right keys/VPN, or cloning/mounting the remote project onto the Mac as a local path.