Feature request: Compact long ChatGPT conversations into a clean new thread
OpenAI Developer Community
May 30, 2026
One important requirement: relevant files and artifacts should be carried over as well.
Long-running ChatGPT workflows are often not just text conversations. They may include uploaded PDFs, screenshots, spreadsheets, code files, generated documents, images, canvases, or intermediate outputs.
If a compacted new chat only carries over the summary but loses the relevant files/artifacts, the user has to manually re-upload or reconstruct the working context, which weakens the value of the feature.
Suggested behavior:
* identify files/artifacts still relevant to the active source of truth
* let the user choose which ones to carry over
* exclude files tied only to discarded or invalidated directions
* preserve file names and provenance
* optionally include a note explaining why each file was carried over
* keep a link back to the original conversation
The ideal flow would be:
Compact into new chat
→ generate editable handoff summary
→ show active / superseded / invalidated context
→ show relevant files and artifacts to carry over
→ user confirms
→ create clean new thread with both the summary and selected files attached
This matters because the new thread should not just preserve a text summary. It should preserve the usable working state.
Discussion in the ATmosphere