Cmd+N new chat should support a fixed default workspace instead of reusing the last/current project

[zhyuzhyu]

Summary

In Codex Desktop App, creating a new chat with Cmd+N currently reuses the last selected or current project/workspace. I would like Cmd+N to always start from a fixed default workspace, for example the home directory (~), while preserving the existing behavior for project-specific "new chat" buttons.

Current behavior

If I create a chat under a subdirectory/project such as ~/kk, the next Cmd+N new chat may also start in ~/kk. This makes it easy to accidentally start general chats in the wrong workspace.

Desired behavior

• Global Cmd+N / File > New Chat should use a configurable default workspace, ideally ~.
• New chat buttons inside a specific project/subdirectory should still create the chat in that selected project/subdirectory.
• This could be a setting such as "Default workspace for global new chat".

Environment

• Codex Desktop App: 26.519.81530
• Codex CLI: 0.133.0
• macOS: 26.5

[github-actions]

Potential duplicates detected. Please review them and close your issue if it is a duplicate.

• Default global new chats to No Project instead of the last active project #24731
• Clarify new-thread context and support moving threads between General and Projects #24222
• Codex Desktop: allow users to configure the default projectless workspace root #24883

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[zhyuzhyu]

I missed the duplicate search before filing this; sorry for the noise.

After checking the related issues, this overlaps with #24731 and the broader workflow discussion in #24222, and is adjacent to the projectless workspace-root requests in #22875 / #24883.

The narrower distinction I intended to capture here is: I do not necessarily want global Cmd+N to default to No Project; I want it to be able to default to a configured neutral workspace such as ~, while project-scoped new-chat buttons continue to use the selected project/subdirectory. If maintainers consider that covered by #24731, this can be closed as a duplicate.