A ChatGPT and Codex user asks OpenAI to let people hide sidebar sections
A forum post asks for a reversible way to hide crowded sidebar sections in ChatGPT and Codex. It is only a request, but it shows how busy these apps are getting.
The short version
- The post asks for a 'Hide from Sidebar' action that keeps all content intact, with no deleting or archiving.
- Hidden sections would come back from a 'Hidden Sections' menu whenever the user wants them.
- Collapsing sections does not help, the author says, because they stay visible.
- The example is a user with 50 customer sections, only 9 of them active, who would hide the other 41.
- Status: a user request only. Nothing in the source says OpenAI has replied.
Why it matters
As chat, voice, agents and coding tools share one app, the sidebar is where the clutter shows up first. If you run many projects, this is the kind of small friction that adds up. A request like this does not change anything yet, but it hints at what heavy users want next.
What the user is asking for
A post on OpenAI's community forum, as community.openai.com reported, asks for a simple tidy-up tool in both ChatGPT and Codex, OpenAI's coding agent. The author says that as the number of projects and sections grows, the sidebar gets more and more cluttered.
Collapsing a section does not fix this, the post argues, because the collapsed section is still sitting there in the list.
The two proposed actions
The proposal has two parts. The first is Hide from Sidebar, which would take a section out of view without deleting or archiving anything inside it.
The second is Restore. Hidden sections would be listed in a 'Hidden Sections' menu, and you could bring one back at any time.
A concrete example
The post imagines someone who manages 50 customers. Each customer has its own section with its own conversations. Only 9 of those customers are active right now.
That person would hide the other 41 sections and restore each one individually when the customer needs attention again. The author compares this to saved tab groups in Firefox and Microsoft Edge: hide now, restore later, with all content preserved.
How much weight to give it
This is one user's suggestion on a public forum. The source gives no sign that OpenAI has responded, planned the feature or tested it.
Still, the request points at something real. The more kinds of work one app holds, the more people want to control what they see without losing anything. The emphasis on restore shows that people want hiding to be reversible, not a delete.
What to watch
- Whether OpenAI responds to the post or adds any sidebar hiding option to ChatGPT or Codex.
- Whether other users back the request, which would show how widespread the clutter problem is.
Try it
Until anything like this exists, check your app's settings for current sidebar options. Then rename or archive old chats and keep a short list of the ones you reuse.
Sources and links
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Listen to the daily showsFirst reported by community.openai.com · Read the original. Written by the SI Agent News Desk from the reporting above.Written with AI from the source above. Every number is checked against the source. Spot a mistake? Corrections.