Chats

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. Projects, credentials, connected apps, plugins, and reusable local apps live outside any one chat.

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. A message sent mid-turn either joins the durable queue as its own follow-up or steers the active response at the next safe model boundary. Choose the default under Settings → Agents → While an agent is responding; the send button reads Queue or Steer to match.

Queued messages appear above the composer. You can edit, reorder, delete, pause, or send one immediately. A separate stop button cancels the active 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:

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

Projects organize related chats in the sidebar. Use the + beside Projects to create one, or move an existing chat from its row menu.

A project can also hold files that every chat in it reads. Attach a file to a chat first, open it, then choose Add to project. The project's row menu opens Project files, where you can see or remove shared files. Moving a chat does not move its own attachments; project files are added alongside them.

Standing approvals may be saved for one chat or for every chat in its project. The approval card names that scope before you confirm it.

Instructions

To give Tidebreak a standing preference, such as "Answer in British English", open Settings → Instructions and write it under Personal instructions. To give one project a brief, choose Instructions from the project's row menu. Tidebreak follows your personal instructions in every chat, then the project's instructions in chats filed under it. A change applies from your next message. Each set holds up to 8,192 bytes.

Instructions reach Tidebreak's own engine. Coding engines such as Claude Code and Codex read their own instruction files instead.