Agent sessions vs the shell app: what should survive refresh
· 6 min read
Users expect ChatGPT rules: close the tab, come back, the thread is still there. Platform agent services often have their own conversation store. Your shell is a third thing.
If those three disagree, you get untitled threads from the portal, agents that look "stopped" after refresh, and incomplete chats that vanish after a new sign-in.
Figure 1. The shell acquires tokens and calls APIs. Conversation durability is a separate design. Source: Microsoft Learn: authentication flows.