# The AI Chat workspace

> Folders, branches, multi-selection, chat settings and recoverable deletion.

**AI Chat** opens a separate window for conversations you want to keep. The left sidebar organizes chats, the middle shows the conversation, and the right **Chat Settings** sidebar holds the active chat's controls.

## Organize chats in folders

Create a folder with **New Folder**. Its menu can rename it, pick a color and icon, open Folder Settings or delete it. Changes save as you make them.

Move a chat by dragging it onto a folder, using **Move to Folder**, or pressing **⌃⌘M**. Drag it onto a day header or choose **Recent** to take it out. Filing a chat unpins it; pinned chats appear in Pinned rather than being listed twice.

Deleting a folder sends its chats back to Recent. It does not delete their conversations.

### Instructions and a default agent

**Folder Settings** can include instructions and an agent for new chats. Folder instructions apply to chats filed there, after the general system prompt and before a chat's Additional Instructions. Starting **New Chat in Folder** selects the folder's agent.

A folder is an organizational group. It does not create a second filesystem working directory: the selected agent owns that. ACP agents receive their own session briefing rather than these native-chat instructions.

Example folder instructions:

```markdown
This folder is for the Atlas documentation project.
Use the terminology in the repository's glossary.
When proposing edits, include the affected file paths.
```

## Chat Settings

Open the right sidebar from the toolbar, the model chip, or **⇧⌘I**.

| Control | Scope |
| --- | --- |
| Title | This chat |
| Agent | The agent bound to this chat |
| Model and Reasoning | The selected route; picks also update the app's model default |
| Creativity | This chat, on API routes that accept it |
| Folder | Where this chat is listed |
| Additional Instructions | This chat, after folder instructions |
| Web Search | The app-wide search switch |
| MCP tools | Servers available to this chat |
| Context and cost | Information reported for this conversation |

An ACP agent shows its own model, reasoning, mode and other controls as advertised by that agent. Installed tools, ACP agents and the ChatGPT-plan route do not take the chat's Creativity temperature. Gemini keeps its route-specific temperature behavior.

## Edit, regenerate and branch

Use **Edit** on a sent question, or press **↑** in an empty composer to edit the last question. Up and Down step through questions. Escape restores your draft without changing the chat.

**Sending an edit removes that question and all later messages**, then sends the replacement. Branch first if you need to keep the original conversation. Regenerate asks for another response; Branch Chat creates a separate conversation from the selected point.

### Branches in the sidebar

A branch nests under its parent while both are in the same section: Pinned, a folder, Recent or Archived. Fold or unfold the branch group with the arrow beside its parent. Branching a folded chat opens the group.

Moving, archiving or deleting a parent affects only that chat. Its branches remain independent. If a branch and parent belong to different sections, the branch appears as a top-level row with a branch indicator. Search results are flat. Older branches created before relationship tracking stay flat too.

## Select several chats

- **⌘-click** toggles a chat in the selection.
- **⇧-click** selects the visible range from the anchor.
- **⌘A**, with keyboard focus in the list, selects the chats currently shown.
- A plain click or **Escape** clears the selection.

Folded chats are not included. With multiple chats selected, the action bar and context menu offer Move to Folder, Pin or Unpin, Archive or Unarchive, Delete and Copy Chats. Dragging a selected row moves the whole selection. **⌃⌘M** acts on the selection as well.

Delete asks once with the selected count. In Recently Deleted the same selection gestures offer Restore or Delete Permanently. Deletion keys do not act on the chat list while you are typing in a text field.

## Archive and Recently Deleted

Archive takes a chat out of the active lists without deleting it. Optional automatic archive can archive inactive chats after a week, a month or three months; it is off by default.

Delete moves a chat to **Recently Deleted** for **60 days**. Restore returns it to the lists. Delete Permanently and Empty Recently Deleted erase it after confirmation. The general conversation-retention setting and Delete All Chats can also remove conversations, including deleted ones.

## Search and keyboard navigation

Sidebar search matches titles and message text. **⌘1–⌘9** switches among visible chats; **⌘0** addresses the tenth. Folded rows are skipped. **Keep on Top** keeps the window above other windows. Completion notifications are optional and can tell you when a reply finishes while you are elsewhere.

## While a reply runs

Return queues another message. **Send Now (⌘Return)** steers a native agent at its next step; on other routes it stops the reply and sends immediately. Stop cancels the current operation, including a native agent's command, retry wait or delegated work.

## Storage and backup

Chats live locally in `ai-chats.sqlite3`; folder and chat settings live beside it. Closing the window releases idle conversation content from memory and reloads it when reopened.

[Full backup](/docs/reference/backup) includes folder configuration under AI Connections. **AI Chat History** is a separate opt-in for transcripts, attachments and per-chat workspace state. A settings-only export is not a copy of your conversations.