Codex Desktop coordinator loses thread read/send and automation tools after 26.707.91948 update

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

Codex App 26.707.91948 (build 5440), bundling codex-cli 0.144.5.

What subscription do you have?

ChatGPT paid subscription. The exact tier is not exposed in the current Codex task.

What platform is your computer?

Darwin 25.5.0 arm64 arm (macOS 26.5.2, build 25F84; Apple Silicon).

What issue are you seeing?

After updating to the unified Codex/ChatGPT Desktop app, a coordinator task lost the complete first-party control surface required to manage existing user-owned Codex tasks and heartbeat automations.

This is broader than a failure to create a new task. The affected gpt-5.6-sol task cannot read existing tasks, send instructions to them, inspect their latest status, receive/manage native task handoffs through the intended APIs, or migrate an existing heartbeat automation.

The model-visible codex_app namespace contains only:

• load_workspace_dependencies
• navigate_to_codex_page
• read_thread_terminal

The following first-party tools are missing or unreachable:

• create_thread
• fork_thread
• list_threads
• read_thread
• send_message_to_thread
• handoff_thread
• set_thread_title
• set_thread_pinned
• set_thread_archived
• automation_update

There is no usable tool_search path to discover these deferred tools. The underlying app-server schemas for the thread operations still exist, and the Desktop task guidance still describes the task-management capabilities, but the tools are not present in the callable manifest.

This prevents a real Desktop project-coordinator workflow from operating. It is not equivalent to a generic subagent workflow: the target tasks are existing user-owned tasks visible in the Desktop sidebar, with their own state and direct-report expectations.

What steps can reproduce the bug?

1. Update the Codex/ChatGPT Desktop app to 26.707.91948 (build 5440, bundled CLI 0.144.5).
2. Fully quit the Desktop app.
3. Relaunch the app.
4. Create a brand-new local task after the relaunch.
5. Select gpt-5.6-sol with xhigh reasoning.
6. Ask the task to perform any of the following native Desktop operations:

• read the latest state of an existing sidebar task;
• send a message to an existing sidebar task;
• list or inspect existing tasks;
• update an existing heartbeat automation so it targets the current task.

1. Observe that read_thread, send_message_to_thread, list_threads, and automation_update are unavailable.
2. Inspect the available codex_app tools and observe that only load_workspace_dependencies, navigate_to_codex_page, and read_thread_terminal are exposed.

The problem survives a complete app restart and creation of a new task. It is therefore not limited to an old resumed task.

Affected task/session ID: 019f6abd-aea9-7092-af62-d6a5232d76e9.

What is the expected behavior?

A fresh local Desktop task that is eligible to coordinate other user-owned tasks should receive a consistent, callable first-party task-management surface.

At minimum, the model should be able to discover and invoke:

• list_threads
• read_thread
• send_message_to_thread
• create_thread
• set_thread_title
• set_thread_archived
• automation_update

If the tools are intentionally deferred, tool_search must be available and capable of discovering them. If the product no longer permits these operations, the app should expose an explicit capability/policy message instead of silently removing tools that were previously available.

Using codex exec, codex exec resume, moving the Codex window, or spawning background subagents is not an equivalent workaround. Those paths do not restore normal sidebar task ownership, cross-task status reads, direct message delivery, or native heartbeat management.

Additional information

The same coordinator workflow worked before the unified Desktop update and failed after the update/relaunch. This points to a tool exposure/discovery regression rather than a repository, project, or account configuration problem.

Related issues:

• #33585 reports the same app/model update path, with emphasis on create_thread and the direct + Responses Lite deferred-tool discovery problem.
• #29223 covers fresh local sessions losing the broader codex_app thread-management surface.
• #29128 covers inconsistent automation_update exposure across local Desktop tasks.

This issue is being filed separately because the user-visible failure is the loss of the complete existing-task coordination and automation-management control plane, not only task creation or third-party MCP tools.

An English in-product feedback report was also submitted: 019f6acb-93db-7cd3-a646-0f2b16ecf82a.