[app] Document manual project ordering and add project-folder sort controls

What variant of Codex are you using?

App — 26.803.81509 (build 6415), macOS Darwin 25.6.1 arm64, ChatGPT Pro 20x

Summary

Project folders/groups in the desktop sidebar can already be reordered manually by dragging them, and the custom order works.

However, this behavior is not documented, and the surrounding UI is confusing:

• Under Organize sidebar → By project, the menu says Sort chats by.
• Its options are Priority, Last updated, and Manual order.
• Manual drag-ordering of the project folders works, despite the control being labeled Sort chats by.
• Priority and Last updated do not provide equivalent automatic sorting of the project folders/groups.

This makes it unclear whether Manual order applies to chats, projects, or both, and it encourages users to expect the other sorting modes to reorder project groups too.

What feature would you like to see?

Please separate project-folder sorting from chat sorting.

Sort projects by

• Priority
• Last updated
• Manual order — preserve the existing drag-and-drop project ordering
• Name — alphabetical by the visible project name

Sort chats within projects by

• Priority
• Last updated
• Manual order

The existing Sort chats by label should be changed to Sort chats within projects by, or the project and chat controls should be visually separated.

Expected behavior

• Project Manual order: users can drag project folders into a custom order, that order persists, and the behavior is documented.
• Project Last updated: unpinned projects are ordered by the latest activity of their contained chats.
• Project Priority: projects containing chats that need attention are prioritized.
• Project Name: unpinned projects are sorted alphabetically by their displayed name.
• Chat sorting: remains independent and affects chats inside project groups.
• Pinned projects: remain handled explicitly and predictably.

Documentation gap

Current official documentation describes pinning projects and sorting chats/Recents, but I could not find documentation for:

• manually dragging project folders to reorder them;
• when Manual order applies to project groups;
• whether the project order persists;
• how project-folder order relates to Sort chats by.

Relevant official pages:

• Projects and chats
• Moving to the new ChatGPT desktop app
• ChatGPT release notes

Why clarification is needed

The current behavior has produced repeated reports from users who reasonably expected Priority or Last updated to reorder project groups. Some reports characterize it as a regression; others request explicit project-level sorting.

Related reports and requests:

• #27753 — alphabetical project sorting
• #31836 — Last updated sorts chats/tasks within groups but not the project groups
• #31964 — projects and chats not sorting by last updated
• #33077 — project sorting controls do not change project order
• #33523 — recently used project sorting
• #35124 — improved organization for many projects
• #37733 — project sorting options do not reorder project groups

Clarification of this request

This issue is not requesting manual project ordering from scratch. Manual drag-ordering already works. The request is to:

1. document that existing behavior;
2. label its scope clearly;
3. provide separate automatic project-folder sorting by Priority, Last updated, and Name.

No private paths, task IDs, project IDs, feedback IDs, logs, or account details are included.