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Feature Request: [App] Make the "Chats" project directory configurable #19909
Description
What variant of Codex are you using?
App
What feature would you like to see?
Issue
Codex App currently uses the ~/Documents/Codex folder as the home for chat-related storage. For many people, ~/Documents is synced by iCloud drive.
iCloud Drive is a bad place to store any coding-related outputs:
- Apple tends to aggressively offload documents unless you set that folder to "Keep Downloaded"
- Local environments pollute sync history
- If you decide to track the files in the chat with git, conventional wisdom is to not store git repos in cloud-synced folders because it leads to many unintended consequences.
Desired outcome
Allow users to configure their chat directory in Codex App settings.
Additional information
No response
Activity
github-actions commentedon Apr 28, 2026
Potential duplicates detected. Please review them and close your issue if it is a duplicate.
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miraclebakelaser commentedon Apr 28, 2026
not a dupe
sickn33 commentedon Apr 29, 2026
Adding another data point from macOS/Codex Desktop.
The hardcoded projectless/chat directory at
~/Documents/Codexis a real problem when Desktop & Documents is backed by iCloud Drive. In that setup, every new "Start from scratch" chat creates local workspace files under an iCloud-managed area, which can trigger File Provider sync churn and puts transient agent work in cloud sync by default.Workarounds are limited because Codex Desktop appears to require this exact location and rejects a symlink:
I tried moving the folder to
~/.codex/projectless-chatsand symlinking~/Documents/Codexback to it, but new chats fail with the error above. Updating local state/config paths also does not solve new projectless chat creation, because the Desktop app recreates/uses~/Documents/Codex.What would fix this cleanly:
projectless_workspace_root = "/Users/<user>/.codex/projectless-chats";Related: #19913 asks for the same default-parent-folder behavior from a slightly different angle.
BigMoonTech commentedon May 4, 2026
Please fix this embarrassing oversight openai. What the hell is Sam Altman and friends doing releasing an application that forces data into a user's documents folder with no option to configure otherwise. I watched a video and got super stoked for the New Codex release but then spent 2 hours thinking I was insane because I couldn't configure where the default save location setting was for "project from scratch", come to find out you guys didn't even program in this most basic of all basic functionalities. Pathetic. Great first experience. Fucking pissed off and crashing out.
Xp2510 commentedon May 7, 2026
Same from a Windows perspective - a hardcoded %USERPROFILE%/Documents/Codex, which is especially egregious since that is not necessarily even the location of the actual (movable) Documents folder and a place many users will never look.
Workaround - just starting all chats inside a "chats" project - is clumsy and provides simple chats with cluttered and irrelevant project context.
JoeyTeng commentedon May 10, 2026
Personally I've already used ~/Documents/Codex as a workspace for Codex so chat features is unusable, as it will dump garbage there :(
jyxjjj commentedon May 12, 2026
Hello, I recently encountered the same issue, but my focus is not on creating this directory — rather, I want to understand why this directory can bypass TCC.
Since this appears to be some kind of special handling by Apple, I do not consider it a bug, abuse, or malware-like behavior. Therefore, instead of submitting an Issue, I created a Discussion for it. Here is the link: #22247.
Additionally, I would also like to be able to define this directory myself. I usually create the
/Volumes/TMPfolder using thehdiutiltogether withdiskutil.MisterRound commentedon May 14, 2026
My issue is related #22532 (comment)
Using Codex inside OneDrive mapped Documents is a nightmare because the .git objects never fully sync and the churn is endless. It’s surprising this wasn’t obvious from onset, Documents is the most synced by default folder on any modern OS. Curious as to how this design decision was made.
Kl-11 commentedon May 15, 2026
this is still an issues in the latest version. This makes using chats outside projects unusable, if it means it would save BS files into icloud Documents folder. Please fix.
mikeysouthwell commentedon May 27, 2026
Please allow us to either set this in the Codex app UI or the config.toml as a global variable.
mambalong commentedon May 28, 2026
Really need this feature, please, get it done
miraclebakelaser commentedon May 29, 2026
@mambalong then please thumb it up. That's the metric the OAI team looks at.
nos1609 commentedon Jun 2, 2026
Same problem as there #20880
looks like definitely an architectural design flaw, starting to annoying already on daily basis manually cleaning up those undesirables residues leftovers
andkondev commentedon Jun 12, 2026
Cosigned... so much is in C:\Users\user.codex, why not by default put Chats there as well? Or at least allow users to select something else. Documents is where I store my stuff, I don't like apps using a default dump.
wbopan commentedon Jul 17, 2026
Adding a quantified data point from a current macOS installation; this is still present in a newer release:
26.715.21425(build5488)27.0(arm64)~/Documents/Codexsnapshot: 5.25 GiB, 43,786 files, 6,757 directories, and 425 symlinksThe Git metadata itself is not the main cost (about 32 MiB total). The larger problem is task-created dependency and build trees. One Codex-created site task alone installed a
node_modulestree containing 29,604 files / 758 MiB inside~/Documents/Codex.Retained task records confirm that Codex executed four
git cloneoperations into projectless-taskwork/directories, while another task ran a site initializer that performsgit initfollowed bynpm ci. This means the impact is not just an unwanted empty folder: projectless tasks can turn an iCloud-backed Documents folder into an active package/build workspace and automatically create tens of thousands of transient sync items.There is still no supported Desktop setting or documented config key for changing this root, and replacing
~/Documents/Codexwith a symlink is rejected because the projectless root must be a real directory.A good solution would be:
projectless_workspace_root.work/, dependency, virtual-environment, and build directories.All paths and project names in this report are intentionally anonymized.
andrewosipenko commentedon Jul 21, 2026
Today spend the morning trying to figure out what's the heck my MacOS became so slow suddenly. I have narrowed down the issue to the file sync pretty quickly but it was much harder to understand what it is syncing. Finally found codex project (site with massive node modules dir and .git directory).
gasperbr commentedon Aug 13, 2026
Confirmed this is still present in the current macOS app, now under the renamed ChatGPT parent directory.
Reproduction:
stable-pair-liquidity-ui.~/Documents/ChatGPT/stable-pair-liquidity-uiwithout asking for a location.Environment:
26.803.41515(build6321)15.5(arm64)I keep development projects under a custom project root and do not use
~/Documentsfor source repositories. There is no visible Desktop setting orconfig.tomlkey for changing this default.The installed app implementation also confirms the location is not merely inherited from the macOS file picker: its
createDefaultWorkspaceRoot()builds the path by joining Electron'sapp.getPath("documents")with the literal"ChatGPT", then creates the named repository beneath it.Requested behavior:
This issue therefore still applies after the Codex → ChatGPT app/path rename.
arussin commentedon Sep 21, 2026
Totally crazy that this simple feature is still not implemented.
ibmcate commentedon Sep 24, 2026
I'd like to add a Windows-focused use case to this request.
On Windows, Codex currently creates its app-owned/projectless chat workspace under a fixed location such as:
C:\Users\<user>\Documents\Codex\...This is distinct from both the user's actual project/repository directories and
CODEX_HOME. Even whenCODEX_HOMEis moved to another drive, the Codex app-owned workspace can remain tied toDocuments\Codex.Please add a first-class setting for the Codex App's own default/projectless workspace root, ideally in both:
config.toml, e.g.:Important expected behavior:
CODEX_HOMEand from normal user-selected project/repository folders.Why this matters: many developer machines intentionally keep large or frequently-written development data off the system drive for capacity, backup policy, SSD wear, performance, or filesystem-organization reasons. Requiring the app-owned workspace to live under the system user's Documents folder is unnecessarily restrictive. A configurable agent workspace/data root is already a basic capability in a number of other agent frameworks, including open-source tools such as Hermes Agent.
This is a relatively small configuration surface, but it removes the need for fragile filesystem redirection workarounds and makes Codex much easier to integrate into real developer workstation layouts.