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. Until then your message waits, dimmed, with Send now under it: click it to have the bot read it right away. A command the bot is running moves to the background and keeps going, and the bot can check on it or stop it. To end the bot's work instead, press Stop in the desktop app.

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

In the Mac app and on the phone, 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 on the Mac.

Beans 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.

Replies

To answer a particular message, right-click its bubble and choose Reply, or swipe it to the left on your phone. The composer shows what you are replying to; press Escape or its × to drop it. Your message carries a quote of the original, and the bot reads it. In a group, the bot you reply to speaks first, after any bot you mention. Click a quote to jump back to the message it came from.

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.