---
title: "Chat: Features"
description: "Every feature that ships with Chat, including conversations, connecting a model, the example action, agent settings, teams, and the admin pages, with setup steps for each."
---

# Features

Every feature that ships with Chat: how it works, and how to set it up. See
[Chat](/docs/template-chat) for the overview and
[Talk to the Agent](/docs/template-chat-agent) for prompts to try.

## Conversations

After you sign in, Chat opens on the **Get started** page, which has a message box and a few links. Send a message there and the conversation opens full page. **New Chat** starts a fresh conversation under the heading "How can I help?" The box stays centered until you send your first message, then moves to the bottom as the conversation grows.

The sidebar lists your conversations in two groups. **Pinned** chats stay at
the top, and **Recents** shows everything else, newest first. A chat that's
still working shows a spinner next to its title, so you can start another
conversation without losing track of the first.

- **Start a new chat** with **New Chat** at the top of the sidebar.
- **Reopen** any chat by selecting it in the list.
- **Rename, pin, or archive** a chat from the options menu on its row.
  Archiving removes it from the list.
- **Collapse the sidebar** when you want more room for the conversation.

<Steps>

### Rename a chat

Open the options menu on the chat's row and choose **Rename Chat**. Type the
new title and press Enter. Titles can be up to 160 characters.

### Pin a chat you come back to

Choose **Pin Chat** from the same menu. The chat moves to **Pinned** until
you choose **Unpin Chat**.

### Archive a chat you're done with

Choose **Archive Chat**. If the archive fails, a message appears and the chat
stays where it is.

</Steps>

## Connect a model

The agent needs a model to answer. Until one is connected, a **Connect AI**
card sits above the message box, and the box can't be typed into. Choose
**Use Builder.io** for free credits, or **Custom keys** to use a provider key
of your own. The message box then opens and the agent can answer right away.

To change the model later, open **Settings** and choose **Model**. That page
sets the default model and the providers the app can use.

<Callout tone="info">

Chat doesn't pick a model for you. Which models you can choose from depends
on the provider you connect.

</Callout>

## Voice input

The message box includes a microphone button. Select it to dictate a message
instead of typing, then send it like any other. Language and dictation
options live under **Settings → Preferences**.

## The example action

Chat includes one example action called **hello**. An action is a single
thing the app can do, like greeting someone, creating a note, or looking up a
record. Each action has a name, a description of what it does, and the details
it needs to run. The agent reads those descriptions to decide which action to
use for your request.

Ask the agent to greet someone, such as "Call the hello action for Alex", and
it runs hello with that name and shows the result. It exists so you can see
the full loop once, from your message to the agent running an action and
showing what came back, before you write your own.

Actions are the shared surface of an agent-native app. The agent uses them,
and so can the app's own screens, so a new action works in both places with
no extra setup. Developers add their own actions as the app grows. See
[Actions](/docs/actions-overview) for how they work and
[Defining Actions](/docs/actions-defining) to write one.

## Shape the agent in Settings

Open **Settings** and look under the **Agent** group. These pages control how
the agent behaves in every chat.

| Page                | What it controls                                              |
| ------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------- |
| **Model**           | The default model and provider keys.                          |
| **Instructions**    | Standing guidance the agent follows in every chat.            |
| **Personalization** | Your own custom instructions and memory preferences.          |
| **Memory**          | Things the agent has learned and remembers across chats.      |
| **Skills**          | Reusable how-to guides the agent can load for a kind of task. |
| **Files**           | Reference files the agent can read.                           |
| **Sub-agents**      | Helper agents the main agent can hand work to.                |

The **Connections** group holds **Integrations** and **API keys**, and the
**Account** group holds **Profile**, **Preferences**, and **Security**.

<Steps>

### Open Settings

Select the search button at the bottom of the sidebar and choose
**Settings**.

### Pick a page

Choose a page from the list on the left. Changes apply to your next message.

</Steps>

## Sign-in and teams

Chat requires sign-in. Login, signup, and sessions are set up from the first
run, and sign-in methods, members, and roles are managed under the
**Organization** group in Settings.

The organization switcher at the bottom of the sidebar shows which
organization you're working in and lets you switch. Keep a single
organization per workspace and add people to it as members. Credentials you
connect are saved per organization, so a second organization doesn't see the
keys connected under the first.

## Database and Observability

Two admin pages ship with Chat. They aren't linked from the sidebar, so open
them by address.

- **Database** at `/database` shows the app's tables and lets you browse the
  rows the agent and the app have saved.
- **Observability** at `/observability` shows what the agent has been doing,
  with tabs for an overview, conversations, evals, experiments, and feedback.

Both are for the person running the app. They're mounted whether or not you
ever open them.

## Mini-apps

Chat can run **Extensions**, small sandboxed tools like a calculator or a
checklist. They're switched off in Chat. There's no Extensions page in
Settings, and the agent can't build them. A developer turns them on in two
places. See [Extensions](/docs/extensions) for what they are and how to enable
them.

## What's next

- [**Talk to the Agent**](/docs/template-chat-agent) — what the agent can see, and prompts to try
- [**Chat in a Multi-App Workspace**](/docs/template-chat-integrations) — connecting Chat to Dispatch and other apps
- [**Developer Guide**](/docs/template-chat-developers) — quick start, actions, the chat route, and adding your first feature
- [**Chat**](/docs/template-chat) — the overview
- [**Extensions**](/docs/extensions) — how mini-apps are built and shared