[macOS][Chat] Composer disappears after first message until new window or app relaunch

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

ChatGPT/Codex Desktop 26.901.20858 (CFBundleVersion 7658; bundle identifier com.openai.codex)

What subscription do you have?

ChatGPT Pro

What platform is your computer?

Darwin 25.6.0 arm64 arm (macOS 26.6.2, build 25G83)

What issue are you seeing?

In the unified ChatGPT desktop app, the message composer disappears from the bottom of the conversation after I start a new conversation in Chat mode and send the first message. This affects Chat mode, not Codex mode.

The assistant response still renders and the app otherwise remains responsive, but the composer is completely absent after the turn, so there is no way to send a follow-up message in that conversation.

A newly created ChatGPT window opens on Home with a working composer. To recover the affected conversation itself, I must fully quit and relaunch ChatGPT, then reopen that conversation.

What steps can reproduce the bug?

1. Launch the unified ChatGPT desktop app on macOS.
2. Select Chat mode (not Codex mode).
3. Start a new conversation from the Home composer.
4. Send any message and wait for the assistant response to finish.
5. Observe that the composer/input field is no longer present at the bottom of the conversation.
6. Try to continue the conversation: there is no input field to focus or type into.
7. Create another ChatGPT window: the new window opens on Home with a working composer.
8. Fully quit and relaunch ChatGPT, then reopen the affected conversation: its composer is visible again.

The issue is reproducible in normal Chat mode. No session ID is exposed for this Chat conversation.

What is the expected behavior?

The composer should remain visible and usable after sending a message and after every assistant response, so the same Chat conversation can continue normally without opening another window or restarting the app.

Additional information

Related issue search:

• #33753 reports the same high-level failure (no follow-up after the initial response) on an older app build. It was closed as “not planned” by its author, with no documented fix. This report reproduces the behavior on 26.901.20858 and adds the specific symptom that the entire composer disappears plus the recovery conditions.
• #37572 is different: it concerns sending while a response is still generating. Here the composer remains absent after the response has completed.
• #25321 is different: its composer remains visible but loses caret/input focus. Here the composer is not rendered at all.

A screenshot was captured with conversation content redacted; the visible symptom is an empty bottom area where the composer should be. It is not uploaded here to avoid publishing conversation content.

Disclosure: This issue was organized and submitted with the assistance of OpenAI gpt-5.6-Sol/ExtraHigh, at the reporter’s request.

No source file, test, or entry point is named. First reproduce the failure in Chat mode on macOS using the listed steps, then trace the desktop conversation view and composer lifecycle; done means the composer remains visible and usable after the first response and subsequent turns without a new window or relaunch.