How to archive and restore outputs and chats in Assist

What you'll learn

Assist doesn't have a delete button — and that's a good thing. Instead, you archive things. Archiving is always reversible, so nothing is ever lost. It's simply how you keep your projects and chat sidebar tidy without permanently removing anything.

By the end of this article you'll know how to:

Archive an output inside a project
Restore an archived output so it's visible again
Archive a chat from your sidebar
Restore an archived chat back into your sidebar
Tell the difference between the two flows — they live in different places

The core idea: archive, not delete

Whenever you want to tidy something away in Assist, you archive it. Archiving hides the item from your normal view so it's out of the way — but it's never gone. You can always bring it back. Think of it like moving something to a drawer rather than throwing it in the bin.

There are two types of things you can archive:

Outputs — documents, briefs, and other assets saved inside a project
Chats — conversations that appear in your left-hand sidebar

The idea is the same for both, but the steps are slightly different because they live in different places. Here's how each one works.

Part 1 — Archiving and restoring outputs (inside a project)

How to archive an output

Go to Projects in the left-hand navigation and open the project that contains the output.
Find the output you want to archive and hover over its row — this reveals the row's controls.
Click the ⋯ (more options) menu that appears on the row.
Select Archive.
A confirmation pop-up will appear with a message along the lines of "Are you sure? You can unarchive later by showing archived outputs." Confirm it.
The output disappears from the main project view and you'll see an "Output archived successfully" notification. Don't worry — it's tucked away safely, not deleted.

How to restore an archived output

At the top of the project's outputs area, flip on the Show archived toggle. Your archived outputs reappear in the list.
Hover over the archived output to reveal its controls.
Click Unarchive (confirm if prompted).
You'll see an "Output unarchived successfully" notification. The output is back in your project.
Toggle Show archived back off to return to the normal view. Turning the toggle off doesn't delete anything — it just hides the archived items again.

How to archive a chat

In the left-hand sidebar under Recent Chats, hover over the chat you want to archive. An archive icon appears on that chat row.
Click the archive icon.
A confirmation pop-up appears with a message along the lines of "Archiving a chat will remove it from your sidebar. No data will be lost." Confirm it.
The chat disappears from your sidebar and you'll see a "Chat archived" notification. Everything in that conversation is still there — it's just been moved out of view.

How to restore an archived chat

At the top of the sidebar (near the New Chat button), click Archived chats.
An Archived Chats pop-up opens with the message "Restore archived chats to bring them back into your sidebar."
Find the chat you want and click Restore.
You'll see a "Chat restored successfully" notification and the chat reappears in your sidebar.

The key difference at a glance

Both flows follow the same principle — archive to tidy away, restore to bring back — but they live in different parts of the interface:

Outputs → archived from inside a project (⋯ menu → Archive); restored using the Show archived toggle and the Unarchive action
Chats → archived from the sidebar (hover → archive icon); restored via the Archived chats button and the Restore action

Worked example

Meet Priya. She's been running a Q3 Campaign project in Assist and her project page is getting cluttered with old drafts. Her sidebar is filling up too. Here's how she tidies things up — and gets them back when she needs them.

Archiving an old output

Priya's project has an output called "Campaign Brief — Draft v1". It's been superseded by a final version, but she doesn't want to lose it entirely.

She opens the Q3 Campaign project from the left-hand nav.
She hovers over the "Campaign Brief — Draft v1" row — the row controls appear.
She clicks the ⋯ menu and selects Archive.
The confirmation pop-up appears. She clicks to confirm.
The draft disappears from the project view. She sees "Output archived successfully". Her project page is now much cleaner.

Restoring the output later

A week later, Priya's manager asks to see the original draft for comparison.

Priya opens the Q3 Campaign project and flips on the Show archived toggle at the top of the outputs area.
"Campaign Brief — Draft v1" reappears in the list.
She hovers over it and clicks Unarchive. She sees "Output unarchived successfully".
She toggles Show archived back off. The draft is now back in the main project view, right where it was before.

Archiving a finished chat

Priya also has a chat in her sidebar called "Product launch creative brief". The work is done and she doesn't need it cluttering her recent chats anymore.

She hovers over the chat in the sidebar — the archive icon appears.
She clicks the archive icon and confirms the pop-up.
The chat disappears from the sidebar. She sees "Chat archived". Her sidebar is tidy again.

Restoring the chat later

A colleague asks Priya to share some context from that conversation.

Priya clicks Archived chats at the top of the sidebar.
The Archived Chats pop-up opens. She finds the "Product launch creative brief" chat.
She clicks Restore. She sees "Chat restored successfully" and the chat is back in her sidebar, exactly as she left it.

Tips & common pitfalls

Archiving is not deleting.

Nothing is ever permanently removed when you archive. Everything is reversible, always. If you're worried about losing work, don't be — archive freely.

Can't find an output you archived?

Flip on the Show archived toggle at the top of the project's outputs area. Archived outputs are hidden by default, but they're all still there.

Can't find a chat you archived?

Click Archived chats at the top of the sidebar (near the New Chat button). All your archived chats are listed there, ready to restore.

Remember: two different places.

Outputs are archived and restored from inside a project. Chats are archived and restored from the sidebar. The concept is the same — the location is different.

Turning off "Show archived" doesn't delete anything.

Toggling Show archived back off simply returns you to the normal project view. Any archived outputs stay archived; any restored outputs stay restored. The toggle only controls what you see, not what exists.

Accidentally archived something?

That's fine — just follow the restore steps above. There's no time limit on restoring archived items.

A tidy project and a clean sidebar make it much easier to focus on the work that matters — and now you know nothing has to be lost to get there.