Chats

Every bot has one direct chat with you. It is always that bot that answers there. For several bots in one conversation, see Group chats.

Sending messages

Type and press Return. While a bot works, its avatar shows a breathing green dot in the sidebar and the chat shows what it is doing in a shimmering line: "Thinking…", "Running command: Install dependencies…", "Searching the web…", "Using GitHub…". Replies arrive a paragraph at a time.

Send another message while the bot works to steer it. Its current model step and tools—including a running command—finish first; then the bot sees your new instruction before its next step. To interrupt immediately in the desktop app, press Stop.

You do not see tool calls in the transcript. You see what the bot says before and after its work.

If a provider is overloaded or rate limited, the bot retries up to three times and the working row says so.

Attachments

Click +, drop files on the composer, or paste an image. A message can be attachments alone. Images show as thumbnails, other files as cards; click to open.

The bot gets each file in its working directory, so it can open it with its tools. Models that see images also get the image itself.

Dictation

Click the microphone to dictate. The composer shows the elapsed time and the input level. Click the stop square to drop the words into the field, or Send to send them right away. Escape discards the recording in the desktop app.

Lorca listens in the language of your current keyboard. Choose another in Settings › General, or from the microphone's right-click menu (a long press on the phone).

Mentions

Type @ and a bot's name. In a direct chat a mention is a reference the bot acts on: "Ask @Scout whether the leak is fixed" makes this bot message Scout.

Bots that message each other

A bot can message any bot outside the current chat. When it does:

• The chat you are in shows a Messaged ◉ Scout marker.
• Scout's own direct chat with you shows Message from ◉ Chef, and Scout answers there.

So every handoff is visible in a chat you can read. After eight bot-to-bot hops with no message from you, bots stop messaging, so two of them cannot loop.

Unread counts and notifications

The sidebar shows an unread pill for replies you have not seen. Reading a chat on one device clears it on the others.

When a bot finishes a reply in a chat you are not looking at, the desktop app posts a notification and your phone gets a push. Push contents are encrypted; Apple and Google only see "New reply".

Organize chats

Right-click a chat in the sidebar to pin, rename, or delete it. Deleting a chat removes its messages and attachments from the relay and from every device.