[macOS] Tasks created through app-server are searchable but missing from their assigned projects #48728

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

ChatGPT/Codex desktop app 26.924.22138, build 11645 (installed bundle metadata).
Bundled CLI: codex-cli 0.158.0-alpha.2.1.

What subscription do you have?

Not included in this report.

What platform is your computer?

macOS 26.5.1 (25F80), Apple Silicon / arm64.

What issue are you seeing?

Persistent tasks created programmatically through the Codex app-server API have valid saved project assignments but do not appear under those projects in the desktop sidebar.

Desktop Search finds the affected tasks, and opening them displays their conversation history normally. The projects themselves exist and are visible. The inconsistency is between the saved task-to-project assignment and Desktop's project task list.

This was observed on four existing tasks across three saved local projects during a read-only investigation on September 26, 2026. None of the four tasks is archived.

What steps can reproduce the bug?

The affected tasks were created using this app-server flow:

1. Initialize an app-server connection with capabilities.experimentalApi: true, using the same local Codex home as Desktop.
2. Resolve an existing saved project's ID through project/list.
3. Create a persistent task with thread/start, ephemeral: false, and a task-specific cwd that differs from the project's root directory.
4. Assign the task to that existing project through thread/metadata/update.
5. Run the task normally with turn/start.
6. In Desktop, find and open the task through Search.
7. Open the assigned project's task list: the task is absent.

Relevant parameters, with placeholder paths and IDs:

{"method":"thread/start","params":{"cwd":"/path/to/task-workspace","ephemeral":false}}
{"method":"thread/metadata/update","params":{"threadId":"<created-thread-id>","projectId":"<existing-project-id>"}}
{"method":"turn/start","params":{"threadId":"<created-thread-id>","input":[{"type":"text","text":"Reply with OK."}]}}

These illustrate the observed creation and assignment sequence; they are not a complete standalone reproduction script. The failure was verified on four existing tasks. A fresh, isolated reproduction of the reduced sequence above has not yet been run.

What is the expected behavior?

A task with a valid saved project assignment should appear under that project in Desktop, including when the task was created through the app-server API and its working directory differs from the project root.

Search and project views should consistently expose the same persisted task membership.

Additional information

Read-only local checks found:

• All four affected threads.project_id values in state_5.sqlite resolve to existing entries in the projects table.
• All four have archived = 0 and stored source vscode.
• Desktop's thread-project-assignments and thread-project-membership-host-ids maps contain no entries for these tasks.
• The tasks are also absent from projectless-thread-ids.
• Desktop's list_threads tool reports projectId: null for the affected tasks despite the non-null backend assignments.
• Local migration state contains projectsMigrated: true and threadAssignmentsMigrated: false; threadAssignmentsReadMigrated is absent.
• An older task that is visible under a project has a Desktop membership entry even though its backend project_id is null.

This suggests a mismatch between backend project assignments and Desktop membership synchronization. The migration state is evidence, not proof of the exact reason synchronization is inactive.

No task records, assignments, or desktop settings were modified during the investigation. Private task contents, project names, absolute user paths, and thread IDs are omitted.

Related reports:

• Chats not displaying under project in sidebar #18187 — same visible symptom: a task is searchable but absent under its project.
• Bug report: Local projects disappear from sidebar after Windows desktop update #42739 — related backend/Desktop assignment and migration mismatch, reported on Windows.
• Feature request: show local Codex CLI sessions in the desktop app #24197 — broader request to expose locally created sessions in Desktop.

This report adds the app-server creation/assignment sequence and verified non-null backend project IDs for affected tasks on macOS.