Chat walkthroughs

Five short sessions in the terminal chat: a first conversation, picking one up again, switching models, notes, and files and pictures.

Chat walkthroughs

Five short sessions, each about two minutes. They assume an agent you have already built; if you have not, start with the quick start. Every key and command used here is listed in The terminal UI and Slash commands.

1. Your first conversation

bxAgents build
bxAgents chat

1. Type a question and press Enter. The answer streams in; any tool the agent calls is shown with its arguments and how long it took.
2. Press Alt+Enter for a second line before sending.
3. Type / and look at the menu, or ? for the keys. Type /tools to see what the agent can call.
4. Press Esc while the agent is working to stop it at its next step. Type while it works to steer it: your message is added to the run.
5. /exit, or Ctrl+C on an empty box, to leave.

Scroll up afterwards: the conversation is ordinary terminal text.

2. Pick a conversation up again

bxAgents chat --continue          # the latest one, with its history

Inside a chat:

1. /name Quarterly plan names this conversation.
2. /fork Other approach copies it, messages and all, and carries on in the copy. The original stays as it was.
3. /sessions lists your conversations, numbered. /resume 2 goes back to number 2 and shows what was said.
4. /export plan.html saves the conversation as a page. A .md name saves Markdown.

Messages are kept in the agent's memory, so a conversation can be picked up again only as far as that memory lasts. The default cache memory is lost when the process ends; a file or jdbc memory is not.

3. Try another model

Needs more than one profile in the project.

1. /model shows the model in use.
2. /profile lists the profiles; pick one with the arrows. Or /profile fast goes straight to it. The conversation, tools and instructions stay; only the model changes.
3. /ping checks the model answers, and says how long it took or why it did not.
4. /default goes back to the app's default.

4. Notes the agent keeps

Needs a notes block in Agent.yaml.

1. /remember I prefer short answers keeps a note about you. The agent sees it in every conversation.
2. /notes opens the notes screen. a adds, e edits, d removes (after a yes), Tab switches between your notes and the agent's, Esc goes back.
3. /notes stats shows how many characters you use of the limit and the rough tokens they add to every conversation.

5. Show it a file or a picture

1. Type @ and a list of files under your folder opens. Keep typing to narrow it; Tab takes one. The file's content goes with your message.
2. @diagram.png sends a picture. The profile needs vision: true, or the chat refuses it with a message instead of a provider error.
3. Ctrl+V pastes a picture from the clipboard.
4. !git diff --stat runs a command on your machine and sends what it printed along with your next message. !! shows it without sending.
5. /context shows what is attached and how big the context is.

The wizard in the same style

bxAgents new my-agent is the other screen. Arrow keys or j/k move, Space ticks, Enter confirms, Esc goes back one question and Ctrl+C cancels without creating anything. The last screen prints the one-line command that would build the same project with no questions. The full tour is in the new wizard.