codex - 💡(How to fix) Fix Codex Desktop left sidebar only shows ~50 conversations, making older project chats disappear

What version of the Codex App are you using?

26.527.60818 (3437)

What platform is your computer?

• macOS Tahoe 26.5
• Apple Silicon MacBook Pro

What issue are you seeing?

Codex Desktop's left sidebar appears to have a hard visibility limit of about 50 chat/conversation entries. Once more conversations are created, older conversations disappear from the sidebar, especially under projects that have not been used for a while.

I discovered this because several of my long-running projects started showing fewer and fewer conversations over time. At first it looked like project chat history was being lost or removed. After counting the visible entries in the left sidebar, it appears that the sidebar can only display around 50 conversations total.

This issue has existed for a very long time across Codex Desktop versions and still appears to be reproducible on my current build.

Why this is a serious problem

This is a major workflow bug, not just a cosmetic UI problem. Codex project conversations are often used as the working memory for long-running development tasks. They contain debugging history, implementation decisions, prior instructions, and context needed to continue work.

When older conversations silently disappear from the project sidebar, it creates the impression that previous work history has been deleted or lost. It also makes older conversations very difficult or impossible to find from the Desktop UI. This causes serious disruption to my workflow because past project context becomes unavailable after enough newer conversations are created.

Steps to reproduce

1. Use Codex Desktop with multiple projects and many conversations.
2. Create more than about 50 conversations over time.
3. Stop using one or more projects for a while.
4. Open Codex Desktop and inspect the left sidebar/project conversation list.
5. Older project conversations are no longer visible, and project history appears to shrink or disappear.

Expected behavior

• The project sidebar should not hide older valid conversations just because they are outside a global recent-chat window.
• Expanding/opening a project should load or paginate that project's full saved conversation history.
• Sidebar search should be able to find older saved conversations, not only the currently visible/recent subset.
• The UI should clearly distinguish between "no chats" and "older chats not loaded yet".
• If there is a temporary performance limit, there should be a visible "Load more" or pagination mechanism.

Actual behavior

• The left sidebar appears to only show around 50 conversations.
• Older project conversations silently disappear from the UI as newer conversations are created.
• Projects that have not been used recently gradually appear to lose their conversation history.
• Users may believe their historical Codex work has been lost.

Please prioritize a real fix for the sidebar/project history loading logic. Simply increasing the fixed number from 50 to another small limit would not fully solve the issue; the Desktop UI needs a reliable way to load and search persisted project conversation history.