Codex Desktop Windows: archive fails with os error 2 when state_5.sqlite rollout_path uses \\?\ prefix

Summary

On Windows, local Codex Desktop thread archiving can fail with:

failed to archive session: thread-store internal error: failed to archive thread: The system cannot find the file specified. (os error 2)

On my machine this reproduces when state_5.sqlite.threads.rollout_path points at an existing rollout JSONL using a Windows extended-length path prefix (\\?\C:\...). The rollout file exists and is readable. If I back up state_5.sqlite, remove only the leading \\?\ prefix from that thread row's rollout_path (and cwd for consistency), then immediately call archive again, the same thread archives successfully.

This looks related to the existing archive/session path-consistency issue family, but I did not find an exact report for the rollout_path = \\?\... trigger on Windows.

Environment

• Platform: Windows 11 x64
• Codex Desktop client observed in logs: 26.814.41957
• Affected local thread rows include cli_version = 0.148.0-alpha.15 and 0.148.0-alpha.9
• Local state database: %USERPROFILE%\.codex\state_5.sqlite
• Logs database: %USERPROFILE%\.codex\logs_2.sqlite
• Active sessions directory: %USERPROFILE%\.codex\sessions\...
• Archive directory: %USERPROFILE%\.codex\archived_sessions\...

Reproduction From Local State

For a completed/notLoaded local thread:

1. Confirm the thread row is unarchived and the rollout path starts with \\?\:

SELECT
  id,
  archived,
  quote(substr(rollout_path, 1, 6)) AS rollout_prefix,
  quote(substr(cwd, 1, 6)) AS cwd_prefix,
  substr(rollout_path, 1, 100) AS rollout_head,
  cli_version
FROM threads
WHERE id = '<thread-id>';

Observed before repair:

archived       = 0
rollout_prefix = '\\?\C:'
cwd_prefix     = '\\?\C:'
rollout_head   = \\?\C:\Users\<user>\.codex\sessions\YYYY\MM\DD\rollout-...-<thread-id>.jsonl
cli_version    = 0.148.0-alpha.15

1. Confirm the physical rollout JSONL exists and is readable after stripping the \\?\ prefix.
2. Try to archive the thread from Codex Desktop / app thread API.

Observed error:

failed to archive session: thread-store internal error: failed to archive thread: The system cannot find the file specified. (os error 2)

1. Back up state_5.sqlite.
2. Remove only the leading \\?\ prefix for that one notLoaded/idle thread:

UPDATE threads
SET
  rollout_path = CASE
    WHEN substr(rollout_path, 1, 4) = '\\?\' THEN substr(rollout_path, 5)
    ELSE rollout_path
  END,
  cwd = CASE
    WHEN substr(cwd, 1, 4) = '\\?\' THEN substr(cwd, 5)
    ELSE cwd
  END
WHERE id = '<thread-id>' AND archived = 0;

1. Run PRAGMA integrity_check; and confirm ok.
2. Archive the same thread again.

Observed after repair:

archived = 1
rollout_path = C:\Users\<user>\.codex\archived_sessions\rollout-...-<thread-id>.jsonl
source_exists = false
archived_exists = true

Important Observations

• This is not limited to old sessions. On my machine, new/current 0.148.0-alpha.15 rows can also have rollout_path = \\?\....
• A one-time bulk SQL normalization is not durable. Some rows that were normalized earlier later got the \\?\ prefix written back after the thread was resumed or updated.
• cwd = \\?\... alone does not appear to be enough to break archive. In my local DB, many successfully archived rows still had cwd with a \\?\ prefix. The direct failure indicator was rollout_path = \\?\....
• For successfully archived rows in my local DB, archived rollout_path values were normal paths under archived_sessions, not \\?\....
• Recent logs also showed repeated Windows long-path related hook failures:

after_agent hook failed; continuing ... hook_name=legacy_notify error=The filename or extension is too long. (os error 206)

This hook error is not the same as the archive os error 2, but it suggests the current Windows path/string handling path has adjacent long-path issues.

Expected Behavior

Archiving should work when the thread's rollout JSONL exists and is readable, regardless of whether the persisted path uses a normal Windows path or an extended-length \\?\ path.

At minimum, Codex should normalize supported Windows path forms consistently before scope validation / filename extraction / rename, and should avoid persisting a path format that the archive path cannot later handle.

Actual Behavior

The archive operation fails with os error 2 while the rollout file exists. Normalizing the one affected row's rollout_path from \\?\C:\... to C:\... makes the same archive operation succeed immediately.

Why This May Point To Thread Store Path Handling

The current archive implementation resolves a current rollout path, scopes it under sessions, validates the rollout filename, then renames the selected rollout into archived_sessions and updates SQLite metadata:

https://github.com/openai/codex/blob/main/codex-rs/thread-store/src/local/archive_thread.rs

The observed behavior suggests one of those path handling steps is not treating \\?\C:\... and C:\... as equivalent on Windows.

Related Issues

• #26012 - Windows archive/restore path inconsistency with The system cannot find the file. (os error 2)
• #25541 - Windows archive UI / sidebar reconciliation issues
• #36531 - archive depends on filesystem rename and can fail with a low-level OS error
• #20317 - sessions vs archived_sessions path mismatch after archive/restore
• #33860 - unarchive can mutate storage then still return an internal error
• #27202 - archived local thread exists in SQLite but disappears from active and Archived UI

Privacy Note

I intentionally redacted real user names, local project paths, thread titles, and business prompts. I can provide additional redacted SQL/log excerpts if maintainers specify which fields would be useful.