Chat mode automatically switches to Work mode and consumes Work tokens

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

26.810.52044

What subscription do you have?

Version 26.810.52044

What platform is your computer?

Windows 11

What issue are you seeing?

Chat mode unexpectedly switched to Work mode

I ran into some unexpected behavior in the Windows desktop app.

I had intentionally started a conversation in Chat mode because I only wanted to discuss and plan the next steps of a project.

During the conversation, the app automatically switched the conversation to Work mode, even though I never chose Continue in Work mode or any similar action.

The biggest problem is that this consumed Work/Codex tokens without my knowledge or consent.

I would expect Chat mode to remain Chat mode unless I explicitly decide to switch. If the application believes Work mode would be beneficial, it should simply ask first or offer a Continue in Work mode button instead of switching automatically.

Unexpectedly consuming Work tokens because of an automatic mode change is frustrating and makes it difficult to control when those resources are used.

What steps can reproduce the bug?

1. startup the unified windows desktop chatgpt app
2. switch from codex to "chatgpt" in the upper left area
3. Go to the projects section - using the old style projects which was automagically imported from the ChatGPT WebApp projects section
4. Start a new conversation - I asked it to lookup the next step to implement as agreed upon, assuming it will behave like classic web app chatgpt and simply look in the conversation history, look-up uploaded sources as well.
5. But then it decided to switch to work mode to assess the repository
6. I interrupted and gave it the current status of the coding project by uploading a text file
7. While it was parsing and thinking, it kept in working mode, using Sol and consuming tokens

What is the expected behavior?

I simply expected it to behave like good old chatgpt: accessing uploaded files in "sources" of that project and looking up chat history and memory for other instructions. It should not switch to work-mode.

Additional information

_No response_