Codex Desktop (Windows): UI-archived conversations reappear in active sidebar after refresh, and archive triggers flashing terminal cleanup

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

Observed on a Windows desktop install whose shipped frontend bundle is:

• openai.chatgpt-26.325.31654-win32-x64

Affected local bundle paths:

• C:\Users\q1371\.antigravity\extensions\openai.chatgpt-26.325.31654-win32-x64\webview\assets\app-server-manager-hooks-XL0eRatK.js
• C:\Users\q1371\.antigravity-ide\extensions\openai.chatgpt-26.325.31654-win32-x64\webview\assets\app-server-manager-hooks-XL0eRatK.js

What subscription do you have?

Pro / paid account context on the reporting machine.

What platform is your computer?

Windows 11 x64

What issue are you seeing?

Archiving conversations from the official Codex Desktop sidebar appears to succeed briefly, but after a later refresh / reconciliation cycle the archived conversations reappear in the active sidebar list.

At the same time, the archive action on Windows frequently causes visible flashing terminal windows, which strongly suggests that the archive UI path is dispatching unnecessary worktree cleanup during archive.

This is not just a one-off local DB inconsistency or a direct-SQL repro. The problem reproduces when the user archives threads through the normal Desktop UI, then waits for the app to refresh/reconcile its recent-thread list.

What steps can reproduce the bug?

1. Open Codex Desktop on Windows with many existing local conversations in the sidebar.
2. Archive multiple conversations from the normal sidebar UI.
3. Confirm they disappear initially.
4. Keep using the app or wait for the next refresh/reconciliation pass.
5. Observe that the previously archived conversations reappear in the active sidebar list.
6. During archive operations, observe frequent short-lived flashing terminal windows on Windows.

What is the expected behavior?

1. A conversation archived from the Desktop UI should remain hidden from the active sidebar list after refresh/reconciliation unless the user explicitly unarchives it.
2. Archiving should not trigger visible terminal flashes or unrelated worktree cleanup on Windows.

Additional information

I inspected the shipped desktop frontend bundle and found two likely client-side causes.

1. Archive UI dispatch defaults cleanupWorktree to true

The shipped bundle contains logic equivalent to:

function gp(e,t={}){return t.cleanupWorktree!==!1&&(e==null||lp(e.source)==null)}
...
dispatchMessage("archive-thread", {
  hostId,
  conversationId,
  cwd,
  cleanupWorktree: r.cleanupWorktree !== false,
})

This matches the Windows symptom where archiving causes visible flashing terminal windows. In a local hotfix, forcing cleanupWorktree: false stopped that flashing behavior.

2. The frontend maintains archive suppression state, but recent-sidebar readers do not consistently honor it after refresh

The same bundle maintains a local set named:

suppressedArchivedConversationIds

However, the recent/sidebar read paths rebuild from recentConversationIds and do not consistently filter archived-suppressed IDs when rendering recent conversations and related derived state.

The most relevant readers are equivalent to:

• getRecentConversations()
• getRecentConversationCwds()
• getUnreadLocalConversationCount()
• getHasInProgressLocalConversation()

In a local hotfix, filtering these readers by suppressedArchivedConversationIds.has(conversationId) prevented archived conversations from reappearing in the active sidebar after refresh.

Why this issue is likely related to, but distinct from, existing reports

• Related to #23851, which reports archive state being reset during reconciliation. That report uses a direct DB repro; this report confirms that the same family of problem is reachable through the official Desktop UI archive flow.
• Related to #20317 and several other archive/session/sidebar bugs, but this specific report adds a deterministic frontend-side explanation for both:
• archived threads reappearing in the active sidebar
• archive causing terminal flashes on Windows

Suggested fix

1. Do not default Desktop UI archive dispatches to cleanupWorktree: true.
2. Ensure all recent/sidebar rendering and derived-state readers consistently exclude locally suppressed archived conversation IDs after archive succeeds.
3. Add regression coverage for:

• archive from Desktop UI, refresh sidebar, archived thread stays hidden
• bulk archive from Desktop UI, refresh sidebar, archived threads stay hidden
• archive on Windows does not trigger visible terminal cleanup windows

This looks like a Desktop frontend reconciliation bug rather than a machine-specific corruption issue.