codex - 💡(How to fix) Fix Codex Desktop macOS: archiving the currently viewed chat leaves right pane on archived thread and triggers `session is archived`

Summary

On Codex Desktop for macOS, archiving the currently viewed chat appears to succeed on the backend, but the Desktop UI does not navigate away from that chat. The right-side viewer remains bound to the just-archived thread, then the app immediately shows a red error/toast:

Failed to resume chat
session <thread_id> is archived. Run `codex unarchive <thread_id>` to unarchive it first.

This looks like an active-thread navigation/state bug after thread/archive: the archived thread is still treated as the current resumable thread instead of the UI clearing the active route, switching to another non-archived thread, or showing a new-chat empty state.

This seems closely related to #25713, which reports the same active-thread-after-archive resume loop on Windows. This issue is for the same/similar behavior confirmed on macOS, with the visible symptom that the right pane/viewer stays on the archived chat.

Environment

• Product: Codex Desktop
• Platform: macOS / Darwin
• Chat type observed: projectless/local chat
• Exact Codex Desktop version: not collected yet
• Bundled CLI version: not collected yet

Version can be collected with:

/Applications/Codex.app/Contents/Resources/codex --version

Steps to reproduce

1. Open Codex Desktop on macOS.
2. Open a local/projectless chat so it is the currently viewed active chat in the right-side viewer.
3. Click Archive on that same currently viewed chat.
4. Observe that the archive action appears to complete, but the right-side viewer remains on the same chat instead of navigating away.
5. A red error/toast appears saying the same thread is archived and suggesting codex unarchive <thread_id>.

Expected behavior

After archiving the currently viewed/active chat, Codex Desktop should do one of the following:

• clear the active conversation/viewer route and show a new-chat empty state;
• navigate to the next available non-archived thread;
• if the user is intentionally viewing an archived thread, show an archived/read-only/unarchive recovery state.

It should not call thread/resume or goal hydration on the thread it just archived.

Actual behavior

The archive itself appears to succeed, but the renderer/viewer remains bound to the archived thread. The app then tries to resume the same archived thread and shows:

session <thread_id> is archived. Run `codex unarchive <thread_id>` to unarchive it first.

This makes the archive action look like it failed, even though the underlying state is likely already archived.

Notes / likely cause

The important detail is that the thread id in the error is exactly the thread that was just archived. That suggests the issue is not a corrupt session and not a failed archive; rather, the active conversationId / route / viewer state is not cleared after a successful archive.

Potential client-side fix:

• On successful thread/archive, if the archived thread id matches the currently active conversation id, immediately clear the active conversation id or navigate away.
• Re-query/select only non-archived threads for the next active thread.
• Guard thread/resume / thread/goal/get so they are not called for archived threads.
• If no non-archived thread exists, display a new-chat empty state.

Workaround currently used

Avoid archiving the chat that is currently open in the right pane. Instead, first switch to a different/new chat, then archive the target chat from the sidebar. If already stuck, restarting the app or clearing UI/session storage can clear the stale active route; codex unarchive <thread_id> only restores the archived chat and is not desired when the user actually intended to archive it.

Related issues

• #25713 — Same active-thread archive/resume loop reported on Windows.
• #20317 — Archived local thread cannot be resumed after restore due to sessions/archived_sessions path mismatch.
• #18216 — Archived thread route/deep-link lacks recovery UI.
• #11907 — macOS app has archive/unarchive refresh gap.