Codex Desktop: accidental Archive hides chats like deletion, with no obvious undo or delete distinction

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

Desktop app version: not collected from About dialog.
Bundled/available CLI observed locally: codex-cli 0.142.1.

What subscription do you have?

Not specified.

What platform is your computer?

Windows 10.0.26200.

What issue are you seeing?

A user accidentally clicked Archive on a chat in Codex Desktop, did not clearly see what happened, and believed the chat may have been deleted. The chat disappeared from the normal thread list and recovery was not discoverable from the main UI.

In this case the underlying chat was not deleted; it had been archived and could be recovered by using an internal/thread-management unarchive action. But from the user's perspective, the experience felt like accidental data loss:

• Archive is easy to trigger accidentally.
• The meaning of Archive is not obvious in the moment.
• The chat disappears from the normal list, which feels similar to deletion.
• There is no obvious immediate Undo archive affordance.
• There is no obvious Archived chats entry in the primary sidebar/main chat UI for browsing/recovery.
• The user also wanted a real Delete workflow, and Archive did not satisfy that need.

The resulting user reaction was essentially: "What does archive mean? How do I de-archive? I wanted to delete; I do not understand the use of archive."

Steps to reproduce

1. Open Codex Desktop on Windows.
2. In the normal chat/thread list, use the thread menu or visible action for a chat.
3. Click Archive accidentally or while expecting it to behave like a remove/delete action.
4. Observe that the chat disappears from the normal list.
5. Try to recover it without already knowing where archived chats live or that an unarchive action exists.

Expected behavior

Archive should be safer and more understandable as a reversible hide action, distinct from deletion.

Possible UX improvements:

• Show a toast after archive: Archived chat with an immediate Undo button.
• Add an obvious Archived view/section in the main sidebar or command palette.
• In search results, include archived chats or provide a clear archived filter/badge.
• Make archived chats easy to unarchive from the UI.
• Clarify menu wording, e.g. Archive / Hide from sidebar if the action is not deletion.
• Keep Delete as a separate explicit action with confirmation, so users who actually want removal do not use Archive as a confusing substitute.
• Consider confirmation or safer placement if Archive currently sits where users can hit it accidentally.

Actual behavior

The archived chat disappears from the normal thread list, and the recovery path is not obvious enough. A technically recoverable chat still feels deleted to the user until an assistant or internal tool finds and unarchives it.

Why this matters

Codex chats often contain important project context, code decisions, file paths, task history, and research/workflow notes. Accidentally hiding a chat without a clear undo creates a data-loss-class scare even when the data is technically still present.

The UX should make the distinction clear:

• Archive = reversible hide / reduce clutter.
• Delete = intentional removal, with confirmation and clear local-data implications.

Related issues

• #27207: Restore archived chats access from the main Codex UI.
• #20732: Show archived chats in the normal chat list as greyed-out rows.
• #24417: Add Delete option for Codex desktop threads and archived threads.
• #28095: Archived chats show a Delete button, but deletion does not work.
• #28187: Clarify tracking for Codex local session deletion, retention, and cleanup UX.