Codex Desktop on Windows shows duplicate project entries and “No chats” despite history visible in CLI

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

Version 26.609.41114

What subscription do you have?

Plus

What platform is your computer?

Microsoft Windows NT 10.0.26200.0 x64

What issue are you seeing?

Codex Desktop on Windows appears to have a project/sidebar history mapping issue. Local session history is present and readable by the CLI, but the Desktop sidebar shows duplicate project entries, many of which show “No chats,” even though codex resume --all lists the expected historical sessions.

This appears to be a Desktop UI/app-state mapping issue rather than local history loss.

Environment

• OS: Windows 11
• Shell: Windows PowerShell 5.1
• PowerShell execution policy: Restricted
• Codex App: Version 26.609.41114
• Codex CLI: codex-cli 0.139.0
• Node: v24.14.1
• npm: 11.11.0
• Codex mode: native Windows mode
• CODEX_CLI_PATH: not set

Relevant config.toml settings:

integratedTerminalShell = "powershell"
runCodexInWindowsSubsystemForLinux = false

Canonical local repo roots use Windows-style paths, for example:

C:\dev\ProjectA
C:\dev\ProjectB
C:\dev\ProjectC\Subproject

Observed behavior

The Desktop app shows multiple duplicate project entries, for example:

ProjectB      No chats
ProjectA      No chats
ProjectB      No chats
ProjectC      No chats
ProjectD      No chats
ProjectA      [some chats visible]

Some project buckets show historical chats, while other entries with the same project name show “No chats.”

Evidence that history is not lost

The local Codex history files are present:

ActiveSessionsCount: 148
ActiveArchivedCount: 65
SessionIndexBytes:   17629
HistoryJsonlBytes:   167

The CLI can see the restored history:

cd C:\dev\ProjectB
C:\Users\<USER>\AppData\Roaming\npm\codex.cmd resume --all

This displays many historical sessions across multiple projects. So the local session history is readable by the CLI, but the Desktop sidebar does not consistently map/display it under the expected projects.

Path/history fragmentation observed

Read-only inspection found indexed session cwd buckets using a mix of Windows-style and WSL-style paths, such as:

/mnt/c/dev/ProjectB
C:\dev\ProjectA
/mnt/c/dev/ProjectA
C:\mnt\c\dev\ProjectB
/mnt/c/dev/ProjectC
/mnt/c/Users/<USER>/.codex/worktrees/<ID>/ProjectB

This may be related to Windows vs WSL-style path normalization. The app appears to treat some equivalent or stale project roots as distinct sidebar entries.

Additional confirmation

I temporarily moved and restored the local history files to confirm this was not data loss. Restoring the following files/folders brought the CLI history back:

C:\Users\<USER>\.codex\sessions
C:\Users\<USER>\.codex\archived_sessions
C:\Users\<USER>\.codex\session_index.jsonl
C:\Users\<USER>\.codex\history.jsonl

After restoration, codex resume --all can see the history, but the Desktop sidebar remains inconsistent.

This suggests the issue may be in Desktop project/sidebar metadata or path normalization rather than transcript storage.

Please advise whether there is a supported way to rebuild or refresh Desktop project/sidebar metadata without deleting local session history.

What steps can reproduce the bug?

1. Use Codex Desktop/CLI on Windows across several local repositories over time.
2. Have local session history containing both Windows-style and WSL-style cwd paths, such as:

C:\dev\ProjectName
/mnt/c/dev/ProjectName

1. Update Codex CLI/App.
2. Launch Codex Desktop from a canonical Windows repo path:

cd C:\dev\ProjectA
C:\Users\<USER>\AppData\Roaming\npm\codex.cmd app

1. Observe that Desktop shows duplicate project entries and that some show “No chats.”
2. Run:

C:\Users\<USER>\AppData\Roaming\npm\codex.cmd resume --all

1. Observe that the CLI lists historical sessions that the Desktop sidebar does not consistently map/display.

I do not have a minimal fresh-install reproduction yet. This was observed on an existing Windows Codex installation with local history spanning both Windows-style and WSL-style cwd paths.

Session IDs, token-limit usage, and context-window usage are not applicable to the issue as observed.

What is the expected behavior?

Codex Desktop should either:

• Normalize equivalent Windows/WSL paths into one project identity, or
• Clearly separate them while still showing their associated chats, or
• Provide a safe UI action to hide/merge stale project entries without deleting local session history.

A project entry should not show “No chats” if matching local sessions exist and are visible via codex resume --all.

Additional information

The issue appears limited to Desktop project/sidebar mapping. The underlying local transcript history appears intact and is visible through the CLI.

ActiveSessionsCount: 148
ActiveArchivedCount: 65
SessionIndexBytes:   17629
HistoryJsonlBytes:   167

I also temporarily moved and restored the local history files to confirm this was not data loss. After restoration, codex resume --all could see the history, but the Desktop sidebar remained inconsistent.

Please advise whether there is a supported way to rebuild or refresh Desktop project/sidebar metadata without deleting local session history.