Work in a chat

A chat is where you ask Haarness for something and watch it work. This page covers everything from the first message to undoing a turn you did not like.

You need: Desktop installed, a project open and a model connected.

Start a chat

Click New chat at the top of the sidebar (⌘N on macOS, Ctrl+N elsewhere). An empty chat asks What should we work on in <project>? and offers four starters: Explore code, Build a feature, Review changes and Fix a problem. A starter fills in the message box for you to finish. It does not send anything.

Type your request and press Enter to send. Shift+Enter starts a new line. To send with ⌘Enter or Ctrl+Enter instead, change Settings → General → Send message with.

The chat is named after your request once Haarness has a title for it; until then the sidebar shows Untitled chat.

Add files and context

• Mention a file or agent: type @ and pick from the list. Choosing an agent hands that part of the work to it. When the project has connected MCP servers that offer resources, the list shows those too; a resource you pick is read into the message when you send it. Dropping a text file from the project onto the chat adds it as an @ mention.
• Attach images, PDFs, audio or video: click + (Attach) and choose Attach files, or drop the files on the chat. Up to 20 files and 20 MiB in total.
• Attach a screenshot: + → Attach screenshots lists your recent screenshots; pick the ones you want. On macOS it finds your screenshots folder by itself; on Linux, and to use another folder, click Choose folder….
• Paste something long: a long paste becomes a Pasted text · N lines chip, so the message box stays readable. Click it to preview, or choose Edit as text to edit it in place. It is sent whole.
• From the Files panel: Add file to context or Add selection to context puts a file, or the lines you selected, into your message.

Dictate a message (macOS)

Click the microphone button in the message box (Start dictation), or press ⌘⇧M, and speak. The words appear at the cursor, or replace the text you selected, and are corrected as you go. Click the button again or press ⌘⇧M to stop. Dictation never sends the message for you; read it and press Enter.

• Recognition runs on your Mac with Apple's speech engine. The first time, macOS asks for microphone access and may download a speech model for your language.
• Before macOS 26, system dictation must be turned on, and macOS may use Apple's speech service when your language cannot be recognised on the Mac.
• The audio is not saved to a file and is not sent to the model; only the text you send is.
• Typing, switching chats, opening settings or closing the window stops dictation.

Dictation is not available on Windows and Linux.

Choose the agent and the model

The controls along the bottom of the message box set how the next message runs:

In the message box, ⌘. and ⌘⇧. on macOS (Ctrl+. and Ctrl+Shift+. elsewhere) switch to the next or previous agent; while a reply runs, ⌘. stops it instead. Tab moves keyboard focus as usual. If the model control reads Connect a provider, nothing can answer yet: click it to connect a model.

Follow what it is doing

Haarness answers in plain text. Each step it takes shows as one line, such as Ran npm test, Read src/server.ts or Edited src/app.tsx. Click a step to see the full command and its output; an edit's step shows the change, and Show in Review opens it in Review. To keep steps open by default, turn off Settings → General → Compact tool activity.

• The model's thinking shows as one line that ticks while it thinks, then a Thought for 12s step you can open. Settings → General → Thinking display switches between Compact (the default), Show and Hide.
• Images: a picture from your project that a reply shows, or that the agent read, appears in the chat. Click an image shown smaller than it is to see it full size.
• Plan: when the agent works from a checklist, a Plan tray above the message box shows its steps and updates as it goes. Click the tray's header to collapse it, or Dismiss plan to hide it until a new plan starts.
• Command answers: a slash command that answers with text, such as /workflow or /goal status, shows its answer in a tray above the message box. /workflow run <name> follows the run until it ends and shows the run ID that /workflow cancel, pause and resume take. The answer stays until you dismiss it or send your next message.

Short notices, such as a provider that connected or an error, appear just above the message box, clear of any approval that is waiting.

Approve or deny a request

By default, Haarness edits files and runs commands in your project without asking. It asks before things like working in a folder outside the project or reading a .env file. Permissions shows how to make it ask more, or less.

When it asks, a card appears above the message box. Its title says what Haarness wants to do, such as Access a folder outside this project, and it shows the exact command or change. For a command that runs a script file, View script shows the start of that script. The card never takes the keyboard from the message box, so you can keep typing.

The card shows Deny, Allow once and, between them, Always for this folder or, when there is more than one way to allow more, an Always allow menu with the other three choices. Hover it to read the rule an "always" answer saves, such as Commands starting with git push.

• Denying one request also denies the others waiting in the same chat.
• A request raised by a helper agent has View agent chat, which opens that agent's chat.
• A request that must always be asked, such as a Haarness Cloud action that spends money, offers only Deny and Allow once.
• A website in your Chrome shows Allow in Chrome, with Deny, Allow once and Allow in this chat.
• If the request was answered somewhere else meanwhile, the buttons give way to Already answered.

Review, Auto or Yolo

The button at the left of the message box shows the chat's approval mode. Click it to choose Review, Auto or Yolo, press ⌘⇧A (Ctrl+Shift+A elsewhere) to step through them, or search for Switch approvals to Review, Switch approvals to Auto or Switch approvals to Yolo (⌘K or Ctrl+K). New chats start in Auto.

• Review: edits and commands inside the project run without asking. Requests outside that, such as using files outside the project, reading secrets such as .env, switching agents or generating paid media, wait for you. The browser asks about a site only when Settings → Browser sets it to Requires approval.
• Auto: a reviewer model answers those requests for this chat and its helper agents, even while Desktop is closed. It approves routine requests once, blocks risky ones with a reason the agent reads, and leaves the rest to you with a short note on the card. It never saves an "always" rule. A step it blocked reads Stopped by Auto's reviewer; a review that takes a moment shows Reviewing….
• Yolo: every request that would wait for you or the reviewer is approved once, without asking. The button turns red while the chat is in Yolo. Deny rules still hold, and so do the requests below that always wait for you.

Some requests always wait for you, even in Auto and Yolo: Haarness Cloud actions that spend money or delete something, edits to Haarness's own configuration, a website in your Chrome, and a site in Desktop's browser set to Requires approval unless Remember site approvals is on. Unless you configure another reviewer model, what the review reads stays with the chat's own provider. Permissions explains what the reviewer sees and how to tune it.

The mode belongs to the chat and is kept by the Haarness server, so the terminal UI and your phone see the same one, and closing Desktop does not turn Auto off. Before a chat exists, on a new chat, the button sets the mode for new chats Desktop starts in this project or worktree. Chats started from the terminal UI or your phone keep their own mode.

Why does it keep asking?

Each Allow once covers one request. To stop being asked about the same kind of request, use Always for this folder, or switch the chat to Auto. If Desktop is in the background, Settings → General → Permission notifications tells you when a request is waiting.

Answer a question

Sometimes Haarness needs a decision. A card titled A question for you shows the choices, and the message box says a question is waiting. Click a choice to answer it, or type in Or write your answer… and click Reply. When you may pick several, mark them and click Reply. ⌘Enter or Ctrl+Enter answers from anywhere in the card.

Send more while it works

You can keep typing while Haarness works. By default a new message steers: it joins the work at the next step. Change it to Queue to hold messages until the current work finishes, in Settings → General → Messages sent while working (all projects, or Override for this project) or by typing /input-mode queue. To queue a single message whatever the setting, press Option+Enter (Alt+Enter elsewhere).

Queued messages wait above the message box. You can edit, reorder or remove them, or push one into the current work with Steer now.

Ask a side question

Type /btw and a question, such as /btw why did we pick a transaction here?. The answer opens in a Side chat column beside the chat. It knows the whole chat, but it uses no tools and adds nothing to the chat, so the work carries on undisturbed.

• Ask follow-ups in the side chat's own box; + starts another thread.
• Open or hide it with ⇧⌘J (Ctrl+Shift+J elsewhere), Open side chat in the Chat actions menu (⋯), or View → Side chat.
• Threads are kept per chat, and an answer keeps streaming while you look at another chat.

A side chat needs a chat to ask about: send a first message, then use /btw. In the terminal UI and the CLI, see Ask a side question.

Stop a response

While Haarness works and the message box is empty, the send button turns into Stop response. Click it, press Esc in the empty message box, press ⌘. (Ctrl+. on Windows and Linux), or choose File → Stop response. The chat shows Stopped and stays open for your next message.

Undo a turn

Open the Chat actions menu (⋯) beside the chat title and choose Undo last turn, or type /undo. Haarness puts the files that turn changed back as they were, and puts your message back in the message box. Redo turn (or /redo) brings the turn back. If you send a new message instead, it replaces the undone turn.

If you edited the same files after that turn, the undo stops and reports a conflict rather than overwrite your edits. Undo and redo are unavailable while a turn is running.

Compact chat, in the same menu, or /compact summarises a long chat so it takes less room in the model's context.

Find in a chat

Press ⌘F or Ctrl+F (Find in chat) to search the messages and tool output in this chat, including older messages further up. Enter and Shift+Enter move between matches, and Esc closes the search.

To find anything else, such as another chat, a file, a setting or a command, press ⌘K or Ctrl+K.

Jump through a long chat

Once a chat has two of your prompts, a short stack of dashes appears at the top edge of the transcript: the Chat outline, one dash per prompt, with a longer, brighter dash for the one you are reading. Hover over it to list every prompt by its first line, and click one to jump to it. In a narrow window the outline is hidden.

From the keyboard, ⌘↑ and ⌘↓ (Ctrl+↑ and Ctrl+↓ elsewhere) move to the previous or next prompt, and ⌘⇧↓ jumps to the latest message. In the message box these work while it is empty.

Fork, rename and archive

• Fork: hover over an answer and click Fork from message, or choose Fork in the Chat actions menu. The new chat starts with a Continued from <title> marker that opens the original.
• Rename: double-click the chat title, or choose Rename in the Chat actions menu.
• Archive: choose Archive in the Chat actions menu, use the archive button on the chat's row in the sidebar, or press Delete on the selected row. Archived chats leave the sidebar, but search still finds them and you can restore them.

Continue on your phone

Type /remote-control (or /rc) in a chat to continue it from your phone or any browser signed in to Haarness Cloud. Scan the QR code it shows, or open its link. The chat keeps running on this computer, with its files and model keys, and a Remote chip appears beside the message box while it is shared. Click it for the link again, or to Stop sharing. With Haarness for iPhone or Haarness for Android installed, the code opens the chat in the app, which can notify you when the chat needs you and lets you answer from the notification. See Remote control.

Close the window

Closing Desktop does not stop running work. Reopen the project and the chat is still there, with any work that finished while you were away.

Next

• Review changes, files and terminals
• Permissions: what Haarness may do without asking