Codex Desktop: Git/Changes panel intermittently disappears in the right sidebar

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

Codex Desktop 26.803.61601

What subscription do you have?

ChatGPT Plus

What platform is your computer?

macOS, Apple Silicon (arm64)

What issue are you seeing?

The Git/Changes UI in the upper-right/right-side area of Codex Desktop is intermittent.

When working in a local Git repository, the right-side panel normally shows Git-related information such as the current changes, commit/branch context, and Git actions. However, sometimes this entire Git/Changes area is not displayed at all, even though the workspace is still a valid Git repository and there are local changes and/or commits.

The confusing part is that the behavior is not permanent: in some tasks/sessions the Git panel appears normally, while in others it disappears. This makes it look like repository state or the current modifications have been lost from the UI, even though Git itself still has the correct state.

This appears to be a Codex Desktop UI/state synchronization issue rather than a Git repository problem.

What steps can reproduce the bug?

The issue is intermittent, but the observed pattern is:

1. Open Codex Desktop on macOS.
2. Open a local workspace backed by a valid Git repository.
3. Make one or more file changes and/or create Git commits.
4. Use Codex normally and switch between tasks/sessions or reopen the workspace.
5. In some sessions, observe the expected Git/Changes panel in the upper-right/right sidebar.
6. In other sessions, observe that the Git/Changes panel is completely missing even though the repository still contains the same branch, commits, and/or working-tree changes.
7. Confirm from a terminal that git status and Git history still show the repository state correctly.

I do not yet have a deterministic minimal trigger; the main defect is that the panel visibility is inconsistent for the same kind of Git-backed work.

What is the expected behavior?

For a workspace that Codex recognizes as a Git repository, the Git/Changes UI should be consistently available whenever there is Git context to display.

At minimum:

• Current working-tree changes should remain accessible.
• Branch/commit context should remain accessible.
• Git actions should not disappear because of task/session UI state.
• If the panel is intentionally hidden, there should be an explicit, discoverable control to reopen it.
• Switching tasks/sessions or reopening a workspace should not cause the Git panel to silently disappear.

Additional information

This seems related to existing Git UI regressions, but the behavior here is specifically intermittent visibility, rather than the Git UI being permanently unavailable:

• #30484 — Codex Desktop no longer shows file tree, review pane, or branch UI despite Git being detected.
• #31197 — Git UI missing despite repo being detected by doctor (closed).

Because the Git/Changes panel sometimes renders correctly in the same general environment, this may involve persisted UI state, task/session hydration, repository-context synchronization, or conditional rendering of the right-side panel.