# Chats and projects

URL: https://aycode.ai/docs/chats/

Everything in AyCode is a chat inside a project. Here is how to start one, steer it, find it again and keep the list tidy.

## The start screen

The start screen asks what you want to build today. Above the field you choose the mode: **Code** for software, **Work** for documents and reports, **Design** for posters, slides and pages. Below it are suggestions and, if you like, **Dein Tag** (your day): deadlines, follow-ups and open tasks from your vault, gathered without any model call.

In the field you pick the project and branch, and whether the agent works **Lokal** (in your folder) or in its own **Worktree**.

## A chat at work

*Screenshot: A running chat: every step of the agent is a line you can open, with live +/− counts.*

- Each answer shows the provider, model, time and the steps it took. A step opens to show what was read, searched or run.
- While the agent works you can keep typing. `⌥Enter` queues your message for after the current step, `Esc` stops the agent.
- Under each answer: copy, save as a note, regenerate, or **Hier abzweigen** (branch off here) to try something else from that point.
- Pick how much you see via the chat’s **…** menu: **Normal**, **Denken** (with thinking) or **Ausführlich** (everything).

## The input field

- **@** finds chats, files in the project, vault notes, skills and MCP servers in one menu. Files are found by their letters too: “usrsvc” finds `UserService.ts`.
- **$** finds only skills, **/** shows commands like `/goal` and `/btw`.
- Paste images or drop files. Text longer than 32 KB becomes an attached file (**Doch als Text** undoes that).
- The **Brain** switch turns the automatic notes off for one message.
- The microphone dictates at the cursor (`⌘⇧D`). On the Mac it uses Apple’s live speech recognition; the audio is never kept.
- Drafts stay with their chat, including images, model and account. A pencil in the sidebar marks chats with a draft.

## Projects

Every chat belongs to a project folder, and the agent works inside it. There is also your vault as a project and **Chat** for talks without a folder.

*Screenshot: Projects: activity per project, filters by status and provider, and all chats by day.*

- Each project card shows chats, what is running and waiting, and 14 days of activity. A selected project also shows cost and tokens of the last seven days.
- A project can set the model and effort new chats start with.
- Drag a chat onto a project card to move it there.

## Sidebar, search and tidying up

- **Chats durchsuchen** (search chats) finds titles and, from two letters on, the content of messages. A click opens the chat at that very spot.
- Pin chats you need often (**Angeheftet**).
- **Später** (later) puts a chat away for an hour, until tonight, tomorrow morning or Monday. It comes back earlier if something happens in it.
- Archive what is done. Deleted chats stay restorable for 30 days.
- Right-click or **…** on a chat: open in a new tab, rename, move, share, export as Markdown.

## The command palette

`⌘K` opens one box for everything: new chat, any chat or project, settings, colour themes, the graph, joining a team session and more. Waiting and failed chats carry a small label.

*Screenshot: ⌘K: actions first, then your chats.*

## The right sidebar

The right sidebar (`⌘⌥B`) holds panels for the open chat: **Aylinge**, **Browser**, **Canvas**, **Änderungen** (changes) and **Dateien** (files). `Ctrl`` opens a terminal in the project.