Chats

Chats are the primary surface in BetterClaw. Each chat is a real-time conversation with an agent: your messages stream a reply back as the agent thinks and works, and any files it produces show up inline as deliverables you can preview and download.

The left rail is your home base. From top to bottom it holds the workspace switcher, the Getting Started checklist, the Chats, Workflows (see Workflows), Scheduled tasks, Connectors and Settings links (Settings opens on Agents), the New chat button and chat search, All chats / Active / Archive filters, your Pinned and Recent chats, Support, and your user menu.

Start a new chat

The home screen (/) is where you start. Describe a task in plain language, pick which agent should handle it, and send.

1. Click New chat in the left rail (or open /).
2. Type your request, for example "Research the top 5 vendors and compare their pricing."
3. Use the agent picker to choose which agent runs it.
4. Press Start task or hit ⌘/Ctrl + Enter.

The chat opens immediately at /chats/:id and the agent begins streaming its reply.

The conversation

• Streaming replies — the agent's response appears token by token as it's generated.
• Thinking indicator — while the agent reasons, a Thinking line shows its live reasoning in full (the thread scrolls to follow it) and the elapsed time. After it finishes you can expand Thought for Xs to review the steps it took.
• Plan checklist — for multi-step work, a live Plan list appears under the thinking indicator and checks items off (Plan · 2/5) as the agent completes them, so you can follow what it's doing in real time.
• Queue a follow-up — you don't have to wait for a reply to finish. Send another message mid-turn and it queues (the send button reads Queue) to be answered right after the current reply, instead of being blocked.
• Stop — click the stop button in the composer (or press Esc) to halt a streaming reply.
• Questions from your agent — when the agent needs input before it continues, a Question from your agent card appears under its message (sometimes with a suggested answer). Reply in the composer to answer it.
• Copy & retry — hover any agent message to copy it or retry the previous request.
• Prompt history — with the message box empty, press the Up / Down arrows to recall and tweak your earlier prompts.

Attachments & file viewers

• Add files by drag-and-drop anywhere, paste from the clipboard, or the paperclip picker in the composer.
• Files the agent returns appear as deliverable cards. Click one to open it in a resizable side viewer (a bottom sheet on phones) that previews PDF, DOCX, images, spreadsheets (XLSX/CSV), audio, video, Markdown, and plain text inline — without leaving the chat.
• Download any file with the download button on its card or in the viewer.

See Results & deliverables for more on the file viewer and downloads.

Manage a chat

Click the chat title to rename it, or use the … menu in the chat header:

• Rename chat
• Share chat — generate a read-only public link.
• Save as a reusable skill — turn the workflow into a skill.
• Turn into a recurring task — run this chat's ask on a schedule (see Recurring tasks).
• Archive chat / Unarchive chat — hide the chat from the main list; find it under the Archive filter in the rail.
• Delete chat

Use the pin button to keep important chats at the top of the rail. Pins are personal — they don't change your teammates' rails — and they follow you across devices and browsers.

The Summary panel

On wider screens, the Summary toggle in the chat header shows or hides an at-a-glance panel beside the thread:

• Status card — the chat's Agent, its Status (running, failed, or idle), and Last activity.
• Key results — a short list of what the chat has achieved. While the agent is working, the step it's on right now appears here live; once the turn finishes, the list settles into the outcomes and files produced.
• Files · all downloadable — every file produced in the chat, to open or download.

The panel keeps itself up to date as the conversation moves on — there's nothing to refresh.

Sharing

Share a read-only link to any chat. See Sharing chats.

Turn a chat into a skill

A useful chat can be saved as a reusable skill so your agents can repeat the workflow later. Open the ⋯ menu in the chat header and choose Save as a reusable skill. See Save a chat as a skill for the full flow.

History & retention

Chat history is retained by plan: 7 days on Free and Starter, 90 days on Pro, and kept indefinitely on Business and Enterprise. See Plans.