Chat and the Message Composer

Open Chat — Conversations from the sidebar. A new conversation begins with
Start a conversation with Geist. at the center of the transcript.

Send a message

1. Enter text in Type your message....
2. Select Send, or press Enter.
3. Use Shift+Enter when you want a new line without sending.

Your text appears under User and the response appears under Geist. The
animated response indicator remains visible while Geist is generating.

Select Stop to request cancellation of an active response. The button
briefly changes to Stopping… while the server accepts the request. Text
already generated may remain in the transcript.

Read generation status

Several temporary messages can appear below a turn:

• Turn status: ... reports a non-final run state.
• A model-loading card names the local model and explains whether loading is in
  progress or failed.
• Error: ... reports a chat or file-reference failure.
• Processing file references... appears while referenced file text is
  being prepared.

The first request after selecting a local model can take longer because the
model is loaded only when Chat first needs it.

Reference an uploaded file

Type @ to open suggestions for processed files. Use the arrow keys, then Tab
or Enter, to accept a highlighted suggestion. The supported forms are:

• @report.pdf
• @"quarterly report.pdf" for a name containing spaces
• @file:123 when you know the local file ID

The composer shows File references (N). Each entry is marked Resolved
or Missing. After a resolved message is sent, Chat shows
Files referenced: ....

Only files marked processed appear in suggestions, and the list is limited to
ten matches. That flag means the processing attempt ended; an extraction
failure can still show Processed, remain in suggestions, and resolve with
no useful text. On Files, require both no red processing-error badge and a
nonempty View Content preview before relying on a file.

Chat inserts at most the first 2,000 characters of each resolved file into that
request and marks longer text as truncated. A Missing reference does not
add file context; the reference marker itself is removed before the remaining
message is sent. Check the banner and the file preview before sending if the
file matters to the answer.

Upload and manage documents on the
Files and RAG page.

Use the microphone

The microphone button uses these tooltips:

• Click to start voice chat
• Click to stop recording
• Processing...
• Voice chat disabled when the composer is unavailable

The first use asks for browser microphone permission. While speech is being
recognized, the composer shows Listening... and a partial transcript. A
final transcript replaces the current composer text, so copy any unfinished
draft before starting voice input. At a detected phrase boundary, the voice
connection automatically sends the recognized speech to its separate online
agent and can play the spoken answer. The voice user turn and assistant answer
are saved to the selected chat, but they are not drawn into the currently open
transcript live. Reopen or reload the chat to see that saved pair.

Do not select Send merely to make that voice turn appear—the button starts
a separate normal Chat request and may ask the same question twice. Voice uses
the online-agent path even when the top bar says local, so it can fail when
no online provider credential is configured. Errors appear in a Voice error:
... dialog; Microphone access denied or unavailable means permission or
an audio device is missing.

Understand tool and artifact cards

When a capable model requests a reviewed tool, Chat can show a card with the
tool name, its status, expandable Arguments, a result summary, or an error.
The usual built-in tools are bounded public web search and read-only search
across your uploaded documents. Tool support depends on the active model and
backend. The curated Windows/Linux Qwen model supports native tool calls; the
current curated macOS MLX model does not advertise them. Capable online models
can use the same catalog.

An Approval required card is informational in v1.0. There is no
approve/reject-and-resume control in the customer UI, and file-writing, email,
and SMS tool actions are unavailable. Do not wait for such a card to continue
on its own; start a new request that does not require the blocked action.

Generated images appear directly in the transcript. Other results appear as
Artifact: ...; when a URL is available, selecting it opens a new browser
tab.

For past conversations, names, and private folders, read
Chat Library and Private Folders.