Chat

Chat is the primary way you work with Kiro Crew. Type a message, and the agent responds with streaming text, live tool calls, and results — all in real time. Attach files, dictate prompts, interact with widgets, or let it run tools autonomously. The same core flow runs in the desktop app, web dashboard, Slack, and the CLI; the controls on this page describe the dashboard, and each channel page lists what that channel adds or lacks.

1. You send a message — text, a file attachment (@filename), or a voice memo
2. The agent responds — streaming text with live tool calls as they execute
3. You guide the work — approve or reject tools, edit and resend, fork into a new direction, or let Autopilot handle everything

Each chat tab is its own independent session. Sessions share your long-term memory (preferences, lessons, project context) but have their own conversation history and tool-approval state.

Use Settings → Chat → Selectable Models to decide which models appear in the picker. Auto and the model active in the current session remain available.

The composer warns when a prompt nears or passes the model's context window. A send over the limit is held; press send again to send it anyway. Holding the key down does not count as the second send. The hold gives you a chance to trim the prompt; sending again only bypasses the hold.

Settings → Chat → Composer → Style Markdown While Typing shows bold, italic, strikethrough, and inline code as you type. The markers stay visible and the message you send is unchanged. It is off by default because it switches the input to a rich-text editor that is still in beta; turn it off to return to the plain input.

The plain input continues a Markdown list when you start a new line, whether or not this setting is on.

Drag a file or folder row from the Files tab onto the composer. The mention (@path or @folder/) is inserted where you drop it, the same as choosing Add to chat from the row's menu.

With the composer empty, press Cmd+Up (macOS) or Ctrl+Up to edit your last message. The shortcut does nothing while a picker menu is open or an IME composition is in progress.

Type !, a space, and a command, such as ! git status, to run it in the session's project terminal. Kiro Crew shows the command for review before it runs. The handoff is refused when the session runs on a remote crew, when the message has attachments, or when the terminal dock is unavailable or turned off. A ! with no space after it, such as a Markdown image, is sent as ordinary chat.

Use Settings → Chat → Transcript → Message Font Size to scale message text, code, diffs, tables, follow-up chips, and the composer together. The sidebar and other dashboard controls keep their normal size. The Compact content width grows with the text so line length stays usable.

Long desktop chats show a proportional minimap in the gutter. Each marker represents one loaded turn. Select or drag along the rail to scrub the conversation, and hover to preview that turn and its neighbors. Minimap location places it on the left or right edge. The rail stays hidden on phones and coarse touch pointers.

When a turn is running, the send button offers two actions:

• Steer sends the new message into the current turn
• Queue waits until the current turn finishes

Kiro Crew remembers the choice for that session. While the split button is visible and Enter is your send shortcut, Cmd+Enter (macOS) or Ctrl+Enter performs the other action once. See Message controls for the complete send and interrupt behavior.

Open Side Chat from the Activity panel or type /side or /btw in the composer. It is a scratch conversation beside the main thread: it reads a frozen snapshot of the parent context, keeps its own isolated model session, and writes neither transcript history nor memory.

For a parent session using the Kiro CLI backend, Side Chat can run file reads, searches, fetches, and read-only shell commands without an approval prompt. Everything outside that built-in set is refused, including MCP tools that only read, because a Side Chat turn has no approval card. Use the main conversation when the answer needs an action.

Alongside the conversation, a side panel hosts context for the work at hand. It docks to the right or the bottom (toggle from the panel header); docking to the bottom suits a tall or narrow monitor.

• Files: browse and edit the project. Switch between Name and Content search; a content result opens at the matching line. A file menu can download the file, and the Project menu can open a terminal in the project directory.
• Git panel: inspect repository status and commit history.
• Browser: watch or take over the agent's live browser. See Browser.
• Session summary: review why a session started, what happened, and what remains. See Sessions.
• App tabs: enabled apps can contribute their own side-panel tabs.

Opening a Jira link shows the issue in the side panel. GitHub, GitLab, and Jira issue, pull request, and merge request links render in chat as compact chips.

• Folded diffs: a change starts as a chip with its file name and +N/-M count. Select it to expand the patch. An oversized simplified diff offers Show line-by-line diff, which computes the full patch in the background and folds unchanged ranges. Turn on Settings → Chat → Plain diffs for raw monospace patches.
• Readable tool titles: tool rows say what the call does, such as Read file, Search, or Git, instead of leading with a raw command or tool identifier. Unclassified calls keep the raw command available.
• Table actions: every Markdown table can be copied as Markdown or CSV. A table in a reply can also be widened and its columns resized; see Reply tables.
• Code block actions: long blocks repeat their copy and edit actions at the bottom.
• File previews: video, audio, XLSX, DOCX, PowerPoint, .drawio, notebooks, and Mermaid diagrams render in place. Mermaid diagrams can export as SVG or PNG. A PowerPoint deck renders as slides when LibreOffice is installed on the machine the Gateway runs on; otherwise the panel shows the text outline.
• Images: the image viewer offers Copy image (press c) to copy the image to the clipboard. In the desktop app, right-click an image and choose Copy Image.

Use Settings → Chat → Text Link Patterns to turn plain transcript text into links at display time. Each rule pairs a JavaScript regular expression with an absolute HTTP or HTTPS URL template. {match} inserts the matched text, percent-encoded.

For example, \\bPROJ-\\d+\\b with https://tracker.example.com/browse/{match} links ticket IDs without changing the stored message. Existing links and code blocks are skipped; an inline-code span becomes a link chip only when its whole content matches.

• Choose Sketch from the + menu to draw and attach an image.
• The footer shows the project's branch and changed-file count. The Auto-compact threshold applies only to this session.
• Show Pasted Text in Full keeps a long paste editable instead of collapsing it. It is off by default.
• Spell Check Message Input controls the browser's spelling underlines and is on by default.
• Collapse the message input gives more room to the transcript while leaving a labeled restore bar.
• Share as image exports an assistant reply as a branded PNG or prepares an X or LinkedIn post.

When a dashboard view cannot read or save its data, it shows a notice instead of an empty state. Use Retry for a transient problem or Ask the agent to hand the diagnosis to chat.

Open the Command Bar with Cmd+K or Ctrl+K to find sessions, folders, files, artifacts, and actions. On desktop, Back and Forward buttons in the top bar navigate Kiro Crew's page history; Cmd+Left / Cmd+Right on macOS or Ctrl+Left / Ctrl+Right elsewhere provide the keyboard equivalent.

For a full inventory that does not select or create a conversation, open the bookmarkable /sessions page. See Sessions.