A chat is the unit of work. It owns its own model, permission mode, network policy, attached files, connected folders, and the outputs it produced. Nothing is global except your credentials and defaults.
Start one with New chat in the sidebar, or ⌘N.
The composer
The message box is the main surface, and most controls hang off it.
- Tools (the
+button) — Attach files, Attach folder, Reasoning effort, Network policy, and Plugins. - Model pill — the model this chat runs on. See Models and providers.
- Permission selector — Plan, Ask, Auto, or Allow all. See Permission modes.
- Microphone — dictate a message. Transcription runs on a local model, which is not bundled: the first time you use it, Tidebreak sends you to Settings → Voice input to download one. Cloud transcription is available there too, once the provider it belongs to is enabled.
Two typed triggers:
@searches your files and folders and inserts them as attachments. It also offers Browse files… and Connect a folder…./opens the plugin library — skills, plugin bundles, and saved prompts. Picking a skill attaches it to the message as a chip. There are no slash commands beyond this picker.
While a turn is running
The composer stays usable. Typing and sending mid-turn redirects the active response rather than queueing a new one — the send button becomes Redirect. A separate stop button cancels the turn.
The chat header carries a context meter and an activity chip that opens the per-chat panels.
Panels
The right side of a chat holds panels, opened from the activity chip:
| Panel | Contents |
|---|---|
| Document | An attached source, opened for reading. |
| Outputs | Files the agent produced. See Outputs. |
| Folders | Connected folders and their access. |
| Agents | Background agents this chat started. |
Which panels are open is part of the chat's URL, so a layout is stable across reloads.
Background agents
For work that splits — reading twenty files, trying three approaches — the agent can start background agents that run their own sandboxed turns and report back. They appear in the Agents panel with their activity and task plans.
They cannot start further agents of their own; delegation is one level deep. Settings → Agents caps how many may run at once for a single chat.
The inbox
Anything waiting on you across every chat collects in the Inbox in the sidebar: approvals, questions the agent asked, plan reviews, folder access requests, and requests to save a file into a folder. The sidebar badges the count.
Durability
Turns are journaled as they run. Closing the app mid-turn, or losing the window, does not lose the work — reopening reconnects to the running turn and replays what you missed. An approval card left unanswered is still there tomorrow.
Managing chats
The Chats section of the sidebar lists them, with a filter box behind the section menu. Each row's menu has Rename and Delete; the chat header menu adds Copy debug info and Save debug bundle…, which are useful when reporting a problem.
Projects
The data model has an optional project that can own several chats and hold approvals that apply across them. It is not surfaced in the desktop app yet. Everything you do today lives in a chat.