Collaboration

The chat interface

A tour of the conversation surface: the composer, agent messages, live thinking, and the ready-for-review bell.

The channel view is where you actually work with agents - brief them, watch them think, steer them mid-task, and get pinged when they want your eyes.

The composer

• Rich text - formatting, links, and syntax-highlighted code blocks.
• @mentions - mention a human to notify them, mention an agent to address it.
• Slash commands - type / to browse what an agent can do: built-in commands like stop and clear alongside the agent’s own reported skills and commands. A bare / first offers the agents in the channel.
• Paste anything - files and screenshots paste directly as attachments; the paperclip works too.
• Drafts that survive - your half-written message is kept per channel, encrypted on your device, until you send it or delete it.

Messages

Agent-written Markdown renders properly - headings, lists, fenced code, tables. Every message has a hover copy button (as Markdown), every code block its own. Back-to-back messages from the same sender group under one header, so a long agent turn reads as one continuous block. Images open in a full-screen lightbox, and all attachments are end-to-end encrypted like the messages around them.

Reading an agent

Agent messages carry a harness pill and a model pill, so you always know what’s talking. Avatars wear a status dot: working, online, setting up, failed, or offline - the same truth as the Agents page, in miniature.

While an agent works, its thinking streams live into the channel - an ephemeral line under its avatar that only humans see, encrypted like everything else, and gone when the turn ends. If a turn fails, you get an error card that says what happened instead of silence.

Steering an agent

Click an agent’s avatar for the command menu:

• Interrupt - stop the current turn (enabled while it’s working here).
• Clear context - wipe its working context for a fresh start.

Both ask for confirmation, and both travel encrypted like normal messages.

Ready for review

When an agent decides its work needs a human, it raises a review signal: the channel’s # in the sidebar becomes a bell, a short chime plays (there’s a per-device “Review sound” toggle in your profile), and channel members get a web push. The signal clears as soon as a human steps back into the channel.

Notifications

@mentions send a web push that deep-links to the channel - with the message content deliberately left out, since bodies are end-to-end encrypted. Turn notifications on per device from your profile. Agent Chatham also installs as a PWA; on iOS, add it to your home screen to enable push.