Chatting with Agents

The chat interface is where you talk to the agents in your deployment. You send a message, the agent works on it, and the response streams back as the agent produces it. This page covers selecting an agent, sending messages, managing your sessions, attaching files, and working with the artifacts an agent produces. For an overview of the other activities in the application, see Using Agent Mesh.

Selecting an Agent

The agent selector is the Agent drop-down list in the toolbar below the message box. Open it and select the agent you want to talk to. The list shows the display name of each agent in the deployment, so you can browse the available agents and pick the one whose skills match your task.

Switching agents starts a new chat. If the current chat already has messages, the Agent Mesh UI prompts you to confirm with the Switch Agent dialog before clearing the message history and any attached files.

Sending a Message

Type your message in the box at the bottom of the chat and click the Send message button, or press Enter. To add a line break without sending, press Shift+Enter.

While the agent is working, the Send message button becomes a Stop button. Click Stop to cancel the running task. The agent stops producing output, and you can send a new message.

Depending on how your deployment is configured, the message box supports two shortcuts:

Start a message with / to insert a saved prompt from the prompt library. For more information about creating saved prompts, see Managing Projects.
Type @ anywhere in the message to mention a person.

Working with Sessions

Each conversation is saved as a session so you can return to it later. For more information, see Sessions. Your sessions appear in the Recent Chats list in the side panel, most recent first. Select a session in the list to reopen it and continue where you left off.

To start a fresh conversation, click the Start New Chat Session button. A new, empty session opens, and the previous one stays in Recent Chats.

Each session in the list has an actions menu with the following options:

Rename—Edit the session title inline.
Rename with AI—Generate a title from the conversation content.
Move to Project—Move the session into a project to group it with related work. For more information, see Managing Projects.
Delete—Remove the session. The Agent Mesh UI prompts you to confirm with the Delete Chat dialog, because deleting a session also permanently removes the artifacts associated with it.

Branching a Conversation

When you open a session that someone has shared with you, or a session you collaborate on with others, you can save your own copy and continue privately. Click Continue in New Chat in the chat header. The Agent Mesh UI copies the conversation, including its history, into a new session in your own Recent Chats, where you can keep working without changing the original.

Attaching Files

To give an agent a file to work with, click the Attach button next to the message box. Depending on your configuration, you can either upload a file from your computer or attach an existing artifact from the deployment:

Upload from computer—Select one or more files from your device.
Attach existing artifact—Select an artifact that an agent produced earlier.

You can also drag files onto the message box, or paste a file or a large block of text directly into it. Attached files appear as cards above the message box; remove one before sending if you change your mind. Send the message to make the files available to the agent.

Working with Artifacts

An artifact is a file an agent produces, such as a generated document, image, or dataset. For more information, see Artifacts. Artifacts for the current session appear in the Files tab of the side panel.

Select a file in the Files tab to open a preview. The preview renders common formats inline, including images, PDFs, CSV data, and Markdown. To save a copy to your device, click the Download button.

When an agent updates an artifact, the Agent Mesh UI keeps each version. If a file has more than one version, a version drop-down list appears in the preview; select a version to view it. Click Download to save the version you are viewing.

Sharing a Session

You can share a read-only view of a session with other people. Click the Share button in the chat header to open the Manage Access dialog. From there you have two ways to share:

Select Copy Sharing Link to create a link that anyone in your organization can use to view the conversation in a read-only mode, including its files and history.
Enter a person's email address to grant them access directly. Shared access is read-only: recipients can view the conversation but cannot send messages in it.

People who view a shared session can save their own copy to continue the conversation, as described in Branching a Conversation.

Giving Feedback

When feedback collection is enabled for your deployment, each agent response has a Like and a Dislike button. Select one to rate the response. The Agent Mesh UI then asks what you liked or disliked, and you choose whether to let administrators view the conversation content along with your feedback.

You can also click the Copy to clipboard button on any message to copy its text.