Codex Chat Vault

Desktop application for Windows 11 built with Rust to inspect, back up, and clean local Codex conversation/session files.

Important: this tool works with local files. Before deleting conversations, close Codex Desktop, Codex CLI, VS Code, or any other process that might still be using those files.

Included Features

• Detects CODEX_HOME automatically when available.
• Falls back to the default Windows path %USERPROFILE%\.codex when CODEX_HOME is not set.
• Scans sessions/ and .jsonl files such as rollout-*.jsonl.
• Lets you select chat files individually or select every visible result.
• Filters by workspace, title, file name, or relative path.
• Groups files by workspace when it can detect the working directory from JSONL content.
• Creates .zip backups with:
  • manifest.json
  • copies of the selected files while preserving their relative structure.
• Deletes selected files.
• Backs up files before deletion by default.
• Moves deleted files to the Recycle Bin by default instead of removing them permanently.

Requirements

• Windows 11
• Stable Rust installed with rustup
• PowerShell 7 or Windows PowerShell
• OpenGL 2.0-compatible graphics driver available to the interactive user session

Recommended Rust installation:

winget install Rustlang.Rustup
rustup default stable
rustc --version
cargo --version

Build and Run in Development

From the project folder:

cargo run

Build Release Artifacts

.\build-release.ps1

The script generates:

target\release\codex-chat-vault.exe
target\wix\codex-chat-vault-1.0.2-x86_64.msi
target\release-artifacts\codex-chat-vault-1.0.2-x86_64.exe
target\release-artifacts\codex-chat-vault-1.0.2-x86_64.msi
target\release-artifacts\SHA256SUMS.txt

If you prefer to run the steps manually:

cargo build --release
cargo wix

MSI Installation

• The installer places the application in Program Files\Codex Chat Vault.
• It creates Start Menu and Desktop shortcuts.
• It publishes the product icon to Add/Remove Programs.

Expected Local Codex Path on Windows

Codex documentation indicates that local state is stored under CODEX_HOME and falls back to ~/.codex when the variable is not defined. On Windows, that typically resolves to:

C:\Users\YOUR_USER\.codex

Files commonly found inside that folder include:

config.toml
history.jsonl
sessions\YYYY\MM\DD\rollout-*.jsonl

References:

https://developers.openai.com/codex/config-advanced
https://developers.openai.com/codex/cli/features
https://github.com/openai/codex/issues/20165
https://github.com/openai/codex/issues/20493

Safe Usage Recommendation

1. Open the application.
2. Confirm that the path is %USERPROFILE%\.codex or manually select the correct folder.
3. Press Rescan.
4. Filter by workspace if you are looking for something specific.
5. Select one or more chat files.
6. Create a ZIP backup first.
7. Delete using the Recycle Bin option.

Known Limitations

• Codex may change the internal JSONL format in future versions.
• Workspace detection relies on common keys such as cwd, working_dir, workspace, project_path, or path inside JSONL data.
• If a JSONL file does not contain those keys, it falls back to grouping by folder/date.
• This project does not use private Codex APIs; it only operates on local files.