# How to see archived chats in Codex: where the docs say to look > OpenAI's docs point to Settings > Archived chats in the app and `codex unarchive` in the CLI, and leave several details undocumented. URL: https://claudegpt.si/news/codex-how-to-see-archived-chats Published: 2026-11-07T06:54:21.261Z Author: ClaudeGPT Si Newsroom Section: Guides Topics: OpenAI, Codex, ChatGPT, Codex CLI Publisher: ClaudeGPT Si ## Key takeaways - OpenAI's docs say to restore archived chats from Settings > Archived chats, and one version says Settings > Data Controls > Archived chats. - In the CLI, `codex unarchive ` restores a session by ID or name, and archiving does not delete the transcript. - The docs we read do not list archived CLI sessions or say whether `codex resume` shows them. To see archived chats in Codex, open Settings in the ChatGPT desktop app and go to Archived chats. OpenAI's docs name that location in two ways, so look for it either directly under Settings or under Settings > Data Controls, depending on your app version. If you use the Codex command line, there is no documented list of archived sessions, but you can bring one back with `codex unarchive `. This guide covers what OpenAI's documentation says about archived chats in Codex, as read on November 7, 2026, and where the docs stop. It is for people who archived a chat to tidy the sidebar and now want it back. ## How to see archived chats in the Codex app OpenAI's [Projects and chats](https://learn.chatgpt.com/docs/projects) page covers this under "Organize projects and chats". The relevant line is short: restore archived chats from Settings > Archived chats. The same page appears with different wording in another version of the docs, which says Settings > Data Controls > Archived chats. Both versions describe the same feature. The docs do not say which one matches which app release, so use whichever you find in your Settings. 1. Open the ChatGPT desktop app, where Codex lives. 2. Open Settings. 3. Go to Archived chats. If you do not see it at the top level, look under Data Controls first. 4. Find the chat and restore it. The docs name the place to restore chats from. They do not describe the screen itself, so we can't tell you here whether it offers search, sorting or a button per chat. Those details are not in the pages we read. ## How to archive a chat in Codex The same page says to archive a chat when you finish the work. To archive all the chats in a project at once, open the project's menu and select Archive chats. The docs give no other steps for archiving a single chat, so look for the option in the chat's own menu in the sidebar. ## How to restore an archived session in the Codex CLI The CLI has its own commands, listed in the [developer commands reference](https://learn.chatgpt.com/docs/developer-commands?surface=cli). The syntax is: ``` codex archive codex unarchive ``` `SESSION` is a session ID or a session name. The docs say session IDs take precedence over names. OpenAI describes these commands as a way to clean up the session picker without deleting the transcript. So archiving hides a session from the picker, and the transcript stays. Two more details from the reference: - When you archive or restore a session, Codex also tries to archive or restore the subagent sessions it spawned, including their descendants. - Both commands accept `--remote`, which connects to a remote app-server endpoint before changing the archive state, and `--remote-auth-token-env`, which names an environment variable holding a bearer token when the remote endpoint needs one. ## What the docs do not say - No command to list archived sessions appears in the part of the CLI reference we read. The reference is long, and the last part of the page was not read, so we can't rule one out. Without a list, you need the session ID or name to restore one. - The docs do not say whether archived sessions appear in the `codex resume` picker. They describe archiving as a way to clean up the picker, which suggests they do not, but that is an inference, not a documented fact. - The docs do not say how long archived chats are kept. - The docs do not explain how the desktop app's archive and the CLI's archive relate. Do not assume a chat archived in one place shows up in the other. The `codex resume` command is the documented way to continue a saved interactive session. It picks from a picker, or you can pass `--last` to take the most recent one. By default `--last` only considers sessions from the current working directory, and `--all` widens it to sessions outside it. ## More Codex guides Our guide on [how to see Codex usage](https://claudegpt.si/news/codex-how-to-see-usage) covers limits, and [how to enable auto mode in Codex](https://claudegpt.si/news/how-to-enable-auto-mode-in-codex) covers permissions. ## Frequently asked questions ### Where are archived chats in Codex? OpenAI's Projects and chats page says to restore archived chats from Settings > Archived chats in the desktop app. Another version of the page says Settings > Data Controls > Archived chats. ### How do I unarchive a Codex session in the CLI? Run `codex unarchive ` with a session ID or session name. Session IDs take precedence over names. ### Does archiving a Codex chat delete it? For CLI sessions, OpenAI says the archive commands clean up the session picker without deleting the transcript. The pages we read do not describe retention for app chats. ### How do I archive all chats in a Codex project? Open the project's menu and select Archive chats, according to OpenAI's Projects and chats page. ## Sources - [Projects and chats](https://learn.chatgpt.com/docs/projects), OpenAI - [Developer commands (CLI)](https://learn.chatgpt.com/docs/developer-commands?surface=cli), OpenAI - [Codex app](https://learn.chatgpt.com/docs/app), OpenAI