Chat Interface & Conversations

The chat interface is the primary way to interact with Thallus. This guide covers how to compose messages, understand responses, and work with conversations.

Interface layout

The chat page is split into two areas: a conversation list in the sidebar and the main chat area. The sidebar shows your recent conversations, and clicking one loads its history into the main view.

Your messages appear on the right in blue. Thallus responses appear on the left in gray, with a label and any citations attached below.

Starting a conversation

When you open the chat page with no active conversation, you'll see an empty state with suggestion prompts. Clicking one fills the message input with that text.

A conversation is automatically created when you send your first message — you don't need to create one beforehand.

Composing messages

The message input is an auto-expanding textarea at the bottom of the chat area.

• Send — Press Enter to send your message
• New line — Press Shift+Enter to add a line break without sending
• Mode selector — Use the dropdown next to the input to choose a chat mode before sending

The default mode is Auto, which analyzes your query and selects the best mode automatically. See Chat Modes for details on each option.

How messages are processed

When you send a message, here's what happens behind the scenes:

1. Task created — Your message is received and a background task is created
2. Mode detection — If you're using Auto mode, Thallus analyzes your query to pick the best execution path
3. Context loaded — Your connected data sources, documents, and conversation history are gathered
4. Agents work — One or more agents execute the plan — searching documents, querying databases, or calling external tools. If an agent needs to perform a destructive action — like sending a message or deleting a record — you'll see a confirmation prompt in the chat. The agent pauses until you approve or deny the action.
5. Response streams — As the final answer is generated, it streams to your screen in real time with citations attached

You'll see live progress indicators while agents are working, so you always know what's happening.

Real-time progress

While Thallus is processing your message, you'll see real-time updates streamed via Server-Sent Events (SSE). These show which agents are running, what tools they're using, and how far along the execution is.

For a full breakdown of progress indicators and what they mean, see Progress Tracking.

Conversation history

Your conversations persist in the browser's local storage. When you return to the chat page, your recent conversations appear in the sidebar.

If a conversation has been inactive for a while, Thallus detects it as stale. Stale conversations still load normally, but the board context (data schemas, document catalog) will be refreshed on your next message to ensure you're working with current information.

Board context

Each conversation has a board — a shared context space that gives Thallus awareness of your data within the conversation. The board is loaded before any planning happens and includes:

• Table schemas — Structure of your connected databases (columns, types, relationships)
• Join maps — Known relationships between tables, used for generating multi-table queries
• Document catalog — Metadata about your uploaded documents (titles, types, synopsis summaries)
• Cross-source links — Entity mappings that connect documents to database columns (e.g., a product name in a PDF that matches a column in your sales table)

Board data is refreshed automatically when needed, ensuring Thallus always works with current information. This is why Thallus can reference your specific tables, documents, and data relationships throughout a conversation — the board gives it persistent awareness of your environment.

For technical details on how this context flows through the system, see How Orchestration Works.