Chat
Chat is where you talk to Nexus. It can answer questions, search your memory and knowledge bases, use tools and skills, produce files and documents, and ask you before it acts on outside systems.
In this section:
- Tool and skill modes: control what the assistant may use
- Approvals: review actions before they run
- Artifacts and files: attach files, receive documents
- Search and history: find past chats
- Sharing chats: give colleagues access
- Memory in chat: what Nexus remembers
Open Chat
Click Chat in the left sidebar. You need Nexus chat access to see it. The address is /nexus/chat, and it changes to /nexus/chat/(id) as you open chats, so you can copy the link or reload the page.
The layout
The page has three columns.
Left rail
- New Chat starts a conversation.
- Search opens search across your chats (
Ctrl+K, or⌘Kon Mac). - Artifacts & Files opens your library.
- Pinned lists artifacts you pinned.
- Chats (N) lists your 50 most recent chats, grouped as Personal, Shared with me, and then one group per project, each with a count. Each row shows the title (or Untitled), how long ago it changed, a pin icon if pinned, and on project chats a memory icon: a lock for private, people for team, a globe for org-wide.
- Projects (N) lists your projects. Open one to see its chats and a New chat row.
Conversation (centre): the header, the messages, and the message box.
Context panel (right): what is active for this chat. It is hidden at first. Use Show context panel in the header, and your choice is remembered. It holds Active attachments, Files, Memory, Knowledge, Scheduled (only if the chat has scheduled tasks) and Deck theme.
Header
The header shows a breadcrumb such as Nexus › Q3 Sales Review · Budget questions, then these controls:
- Share (owner only), see Sharing chats.
- A memory badge on project chats: Private, Team or Org. Click it to cycle. See Memory in chat.
- A width toggle: Comfortable width or Full width.
- The ⋯ menu (Chat actions): Copy chat ID, Copy link, Compact now…, Fork, Rename, Archive, Delete.
People you shared a chat with see a badge Shared · Editor or Shared · Viewer instead.
Start a chat
Click New Chat
Click New Chat in the left rail, or New chat under a project. The New Chat dialog opens.
Screenshot placeholderScreenshot to add: The New Chat dialog with Chat type, Project and Memory visibility. Choose the chat type
Pick Personal ("Saved to your private workspace. Only visible to you.") or Project. The dialog opens on Project.
Choose a project
For a project chat, pick one under Project ("Select a project…"). If none exist you see "No projects yet. Create one first." See Projects.
Choose memory visibility
For a project chat, choose Private ("Memories from this chat and the conversation itself are visible only to you.") or Team ("…visible to your project's team."). The default is Private.
Start
Click Start Chat (Starting…). It stays disabled until a project is chosen. New chats begin with the model and approval mode you used last.
If it fails
| Message | What to do |
|---|---|
| A red message about a missing or invalid AI key, with a Settings link | Add or fix your provider key under Settings → AI Model Keys |
| "Failed to start chat. Please try again." | Try again |
You can also start a chat from a project's page. See Projects.
Work with your chats
- Continue. Click a row in the left rail.
- Rename. If you own the chat, click its title in the header (Rename chat), or use ⋯ → Rename. Enter saves and Esc cancels. A chat with no title is named automatically.
- Archive. ⋯ → Archive. A toast says "Chat archived — It no longer shows in your chat list."
- Fork. ⋯ → Fork, or branch on an assistant message, creates a copy named
(title) (branch)that you can take in a new direction. - Delete. The trash icon on a row, or ⋯ → Delete. You are asked Delete this chat? ("This conversation will be permanently removed."). Only the owner can delete.
- Empty states. With no chat open you see "What do you need to know?" and a New chat button. A new empty chat offers three starter prompts you can click: "Summarize what you know about my recent activity.", "What was decided in the last conversation here?" and "Pull the most relevant memories for this project."
Write a message
The message box is labelled Message Nexus with the placeholder "Message Nexus…". Under it a line reads "Nexus can make mistakes."
Left of the toolbar
| Control | What it does |
|---|---|
| + (Add files and more) | Attach file, Paste image, Skills (/), Agents (@), Attach artifact, Keyboard shortcuts |
| View | Choose how much of the assistant's work to show (see below) |
| Approvals | Manual or Bypass. See Approvals |
| Desktop | Appears only when a desktop is connected. Choose Connect a desktop or Don't use a desktop |
| Tools chip | Appears for the Selected and Essential tool modes. Click to manage. See Tool and skill modes |
Right of the toolbar
- Model. Shows Select model or the current model. Type to search. Models without a key are greyed out with a reason such as "No API key configured".
- Context ring. Hover to see how much of the model's memory is used, for example "42% of context used".
- Microphone. Start dictation or Stop dictation. If your browser can't do it, it says "Voice input not supported in this browser (try Chrome or Edge)".
- Send (Enter). While a reply is being written it becomes Stop generating.
Skills and agents
Open the list
Type
/at the start of a word to list skills, or@to list agents. Up to 10 are shown. Typing narrows them by name or description.Pick one
Use ↑ ↓ and Enter or Tab, or click.
/Nameor@Nameis inserted and a chip appears above the box.
A picked skill or agent stays on for the whole chat until you remove its chip. If nothing matches you see No skills match "…". or No agents match "…".
Attach files
Drag files onto the message box or the context panel, click + → Attach file, or paste an image with Ctrl+V. Pasted text over 4,000 characters becomes a pasted_(time).txt file. You can send files without any text.
- Limits: 50 MB per file, and 5 GB total storage per user. Empty files are refused.
- Uploads are all or nothing. If any file fails, the message is not sent and your text and files stay in the box so you can retry. A toast such as "Upload failed" or "Some attachments failed to upload" names the files.
Details are in Artifacts and files.
Choose how much you see: View
| View | Shows |
|---|---|
| Normal | Final response only |
| Thinking | Reasoning, then the response |
| Verbose | Every step, fully expanded |
| Summary | A condensed response |
Keyboard shortcuts
Press ? outside a text box, or Ctrl+/, to see the list.
| Keys | Action |
|---|---|
| Enter | Send |
| Shift+Enter | New line |
/ | Pick a skill |
@ | Pick an agent |
| Ctrl/⌘+V | Paste an image or file |
| Esc | Close a menu or picker |
| Ctrl/⌘+K | Search chats |
| Ctrl/⌘+Shift+F | Find in this chat |
? or Ctrl/⌘+/ | Show shortcuts |
Read a reply
- While Nexus writes, three dots show until text arrives, with a status line such as "Executing (tool name)…".
- Tool calls show a type (Skill, Builtin or Tool), a name, a status (writing, running, error, done) and expandable Input and Output. You see them in Verbose view.
- A Plan card ("Plan · N steps") lists the steps Nexus intends to take.
- Sources appear under an answer as numbered chips: Memory, Web, Chat or KB chunk, each with a match percentage. Memory and knowledge chips open the item, web chips open in a new tab, and chat chips open that chat.
- A line "Earlier conversation summarised" marks where older messages were condensed. Click it to see the summary.
- Files Nexus makes appear as download cards, and documents or presentations appear as an artifact card. See Artifacts and files.
- Hover a message for copy, read (text to speech) and, on replies, branch.
- Older messages load as you scroll up. If you scroll up while a reply is streaming, a Jump to latest button appears.
When something goes wrong
| What you see | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Red banner "The request failed. Retry or switch models." | The turn failed. Try again or pick another model |
| "Stream interrupted — no content was finalized." | The reply stopped before finishing |
| "Still working…" | The turn is still running, for example after you reopened the chat |
| Set your AI model default dialog | No model is set up. Click Open AI Credentials → to add a key and choose a default |
| "Someone else is running a turn in this chat. Try again when it finishes." | Only one reply can run at a time in a chat |
| "You can view this chat but not post in it." | You only have viewer access |
| "This chat didn't load" with Try again | Loading the conversation failed. Nothing is lost |
When Nexus asks you something
Questions. Nexus can ask a multiple-choice question. It replaces the message box with a card of buttons. You can pick one answer, tick several ("Pick all that apply" then Send answer), rank them ("Pick in order of preference"), or choose Other and type your own (up to 2,000 characters). Click ✕ (Dismiss — type a reply instead) to go back to the message box. The question stays in the thread as "Waiting for your answer" with an Answer button, and afterwards reads "Answered: (choice)". Viewers see "View only — the owner or an editor can answer this."
Paused turns. A long job that reaches a spend or time budget pauses and shows a card: "Paused after N steps · $X.XX · M min". Choose:
- Continue to carry on.
- Continue, don't ask again to stop pausing until your next new message.
- Stop here to end it.
Override the next message
Use Override · auto in the context panel to force a behavior for one message. Everything returns to Auto afterwards.
| Field | Type | Required | Default | What it does |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Retrieval | Auto / Force RAG / Skip RAG | No | Auto | Force RAG always searches the active knowledge bases. Skip RAG does not search them. |
| Tools this turn | Auto / All tools / Essential only | No | Auto | Essential only gives the leanest set of core tools. |
| Skills this turn | Auto / Off | No | Auto | Off offers no skills for that message. |
| Memory recall scope | This project / Personal | No | This project | This project is disabled in a personal chat. Your choice is remembered. |
Click Apply for next turn.
Compact a long chat
Choose ⋯ → Compact now… (owner or editor) to summarise older messages and free up room. A popover asks "What should the summary keep?", then a confirmation Compact this conversation? with Compact now. It is disabled while a reply is running ("Wait for the current reply to finish."). Toasts report "Compacted N messages" or "Nothing to compact yet".