Archiving a task can silently remove or orphan its recurring automations

What version of the Codex App are you using?

ChatGPT/Codex Desktop 26.814.41407 (build 6720).

What platform is your computer?

macOS 26.6.2 (Apple Silicon, arm64).

What issue are you seeing?

Archiving a task/chat or its project can silently remove or break recurring automations that depend on it.

Today I archived old Lotus project chats while reorganizing the sidebar. A recurring Lotus verification automation disappeared without any warning. A second Lotus Experience automation still appeared as ACTIVE, but its target project had been archived and the scheduled Wednesday run did not produce a report. I only discovered both problems later because the expected reports were missing.

For a user, the relationship between a task/project and its automations is not visible enough. It is unreasonable to expect people to remember every scheduled dependency before archiving chats, especially when archiving is the normal way to manage a large or unstable sidebar.

Steps to reproduce

1. Create a recurring automation linked to a task or project.
2. Confirm that the automation is active.
3. Archive the linked task/chat or archive/remove the project containing it.
4. Observe that the archive flow does not warn that an automation depends on that destination.
5. Depending on the path, the automation may disappear or remain marked ACTIVE while no longer delivering its scheduled result.

Expected behavior

Before a task, chat, or project is archived, Codex should detect every linked automation and show a clear warning such as:

This task/project has active scheduled automations.

The dialog should list each automation and offer explicit choices:

• Transfer it to another task or project.
• Convert it to a standalone automation.
• Keep it active with a valid replacement destination.
• Pause it.
• Delete it intentionally.
• Cancel the archive.

Codex should never silently delete an automation or leave it marked ACTIVE with an invalid archived destination. If a scheduled run cannot execute because its destination was archived, the user should receive a visible failure notification.

The Automations page should also show broken destinations and provide a one-click repair or transfer action.

User impact

Scheduled reports and operational checks can disappear without the user knowing. This breaks trust in automations and can cause missed security, backup, financial, or project-health checks. Users who rely on Codex as a daily assistant should not need to maintain a separate mental map of hidden automation dependencies.

Related issues

This is related to automation organization and delivery requests such as #30515 and #29184, but it is a distinct data-loss/reliability problem: archiving can silently remove or orphan an active schedule.

Additional product feedback

I use Codex heavily in real daily workflows across multiple projects, computers, recurring reports, organization, and business operations. This feedback comes from sustained practical use rather than a one-off test.

If the OpenAI/Codex team would like to speak with me, have me test workflow improvements, or consider hiring me to help evaluate and improve this type of user experience, I am available through this GitHub account.

Start by tracing the archive flow for tasks, chats, and projects, then follow how linked recurring automations retain and validate their destinations. Reproduce both the disappearing automation and the ACTIVE automation with an archived destination. Done means archiving warns about every linked automation and no automation is silently removed or left active with an invalid destination.