Closed side chats cannot be reopened, making side-chat history effectively unrecoverable

Potential duplicates detected. Please review them and close your issue if it is a duplicate.

• #26227
• #26658

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Adding another reproduction for the same issue.

Observed behavior:

• A temporary side task was visible in the side-task panel.
• The side-task panel entry was dismissed with the X button.
• After that, the entry disappeared from the side-task panel and there was no visible UI path to restore or reopen that same side-task entry.

Additional detail:

• The underlying ephemeral conversation still appeared to exist and could be opened directly by its internal thread identifier.
• However, it did not appear in the normal thread list or search results.
• Pinning the ephemeral thread did not make it appear as a normal task.
• Forking it failed because there was no normal persisted rollout for that thread.
• There was no obvious persisted local state such as a "closed side tasks" or "dismissed side tasks" list that could be safely restored.

This makes the issue slightly different from total content deletion: the conversation may still exist internally, but once the side-panel entry is closed, the app provides no discoverable or safe way to reattach or reopen it in the original side-task list.

Expected behavior:

• Closing a side task should either be clearly temporary and reversible, or the app should provide a way to restore recently closed side tasks for the parent conversation.
• A useful fix would be an Undo action, a "Recently closed side tasks" menu, or a way to reattach an existing ephemeral side task to the side-task panel.

Additional Windows metadata-only reproduction for this issue.

Environment:

• Codex Desktop Windows package 26.707.3748.0
• Codex CLI 0.143.0
• Windows 11 Pro for Workstations, build 26200, x64

The observed workflow included an App Server restart. After that transition, these four side-chat IDs were no longer discoverable or recoverable through persisted local state:

• 019f4cb8-eb3c-7422-85ad-b9e5547e3c2c
• 019f4cc1-6f9b-7581-8554-b7764a2449ae
• 019f4ce9-956d-7b21-8a91-ebbd4b0991ef
• 019f4ced-ad95-7cb2-97b7-b907c0b7d98d

Metadata-only checks found, for every ID: 0 matching row in state_5.sqlite threads, 0 session_index.jsonl entries, 0 rollout files under sessions, and 0 rollout files under archived_sessions. The local inventory otherwise contained 301 sessions rollouts and 84 archived rollouts.

No database, rollout, auth file, prompt, response, project path, or account identifier is attached. The Cockpit request statistics used during the investigation contain only request/model/status/token/cost metadata, not request or response bodies.

This is the Windows counterpart to the persisted-state mismatch discussed in #22001: the UX discoverability problem is tracked here, while live ephemeral promotion is discussed there.

I reproduced this on macOS with the current Codex Desktop environment (CLI/app-server version 0.144.2).

Additional impact observed:

1. Open a side chat from an existing parent task.
2. Use it for a multi-turn architecture/design discussion.
3. Leave a follow-up question unresolved, then close the side chat.
4. Search recent tasks, archived tasks, and the parent task for a way to reopen it.

The closed side chat could not be found or reopened. The parent task retained only content that had been explicitly pasted/attached to it; the side-chat transcript and the unfinished question were inaccessible. The side chat also did not appear as a recoverable standalone thread in the normal task listing.

This makes the behavior a data-loss risk rather than only a discoverability issue. Closing should archive or hide the side chat, not make its history unreachable.

Suggested acceptance criteria:

• Persist every side chat with a durable child-thread ID.
• Keep the parent/child association.
• Provide a side-chat history/reopen entry on the parent task.
• Make Close non-destructive; require an explicit Delete action for permanent removal.
• Autosave unsent drafts.
• Warn before closing when there is an unfinished response or unsent text.

No project names, local paths, prompts, or conversation contents are included in this report.

I too believe this needs to be addressed, it's frustrating to say the least.

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