Codex session corrupted or cannot resume?

If Codex resume fails, hangs, or loses the old task, recover from disk truth first. The old transcript may help, but the repository decides what actually happened.

Do this first: do not delete session files. Capture git status --short, git diff --stat, the current branch, recent commits, and the exact resume error before starting a new Codex task.

Recent messages missing after Codex resume?

Source checked 13 September 2026. Report #43142, opened 6 September, describes Windows Desktop 26.901.6511.0 with CLI 0.153.4 reopening older history although newer messages remained in local JSONL records. This reported display/history failure is not proof that your files or messages were deleted. We have not independently reproduced it.

Record your version, the last visible message and the time the discrepancy began. Confirm you opened the intended task and project.
Before another agent edits, confirm the previous writer has stopped. Inspect changed files, staged changes and untracked files; distinguish completed work from chat claims.
Preserve available session records and logs before troubleshooting. Inspect copies read-only; do not renumber records, delete the session database or overwrite the active transcript.
Continue from verified project state with one unfinished action. A transcript may recover context, but it does not prove a command succeeded.

Missing locally persisted data cannot be reconstructed with certainty. Redact credentials and private conversation content from any support report. For a process that is actually unresponsive, see Codex CLI stuck or frozen.

Is the session or the repository broken?

Resume hangs before output

Treat the saved conversation path as suspect. Start a fresh read-only Codex task that only inspects the current diff.

Resume loads but repeats old work

The session memory is stale. Preserve the transcript, but make the repository state the source of truth.

Session picker cannot find the task

Use the current repository, branch, diff, and local notes to rebuild a continuation packet instead of chasing the missing session.

Files changed but chat is gone

That is recoverable. The useful state is on disk, not only in the old chat.

Recover without trusting the corrupted session.

Snapshot the working tree. Record changed files, untracked files, recent commits, and failed commands.

Open a fresh Codex task read-only. Ask it to inspect the diff and report what appears completed. Do not allow edits yet.

Create a continuation packet. Include the goal, verified changes, unknowns, failed attempts, risks, and one next command.

Continue from evidence. Let the new task make one bounded change after it confirms the current state.

What ShardStitch adds.

ShardStitch can rebuild the handoff from local repository evidence, persisted session fragments, and disk-backed facts. It labels what is verified and what is inferred, so a fresh Codex task does not accidentally trust a broken resume path.

Use this continuation format.

Goal:
Current branch:
Files changed:
Verified completed work:
Failed resume symptom:
Unknowns:
Next safe action:
Verification command: