Threads
A thread is one conversation with an agent, working in one folder on your Mac. You say what you want done, the agent does it (reading files, running commands, making changes) and replies. You can have as many threads going as you like, and each one remembers its whole conversation, so you can come back to it days later and carry on.
The list
The threads view has five sections. Inbox holds the threads for you, with the ones that need you at the top. The number on the Threads icon in the left-hand rail is how many are in it. The arrows at the end of its heading sort it newest first or oldest first instead, which is handy for working through a long inbox from the bottom up. Running holds threads whose agent is working now. Waiting holds threads that have booked a message to themselves for later (an agent saying "I'll check again in 20 minutes") and have nothing for you until then: each says when it wakes, soonest first. When the time comes it runs again, and lands in the inbox when it's done. A thread that asks you something keeps its place in the inbox, wake-up or not. Hibernating and Archived, at the foot, hold the threads you've put away (see Hibernate and archive). They start folded, showing only how many; click a heading to open or fold it.
The search box at the top, beside the New thread button, looks through every thread, the put-away ones too. Type part of a title, or of a thread's last reply, and each section shows only the threads that match, with folded ones opened. The x clears it.
What a row tells you
Each row has the thread's title, with its project or folder under it. A title in bold needs you or has a reply you haven't read.
Before the title, in the gap at the left:
- A blue dot: the thread has finished and is waiting on you, with a reply you haven't read yet. It stays near the top of the inbox.
- A tick: the thread has finished and said there's nothing needed from you. It shows until you open the thread, so you can see at a glance what got done while you were away.
At the right of the row:
- Working, with a spinner and a timer: the agent is busy. In the Running section the spinner and timer are enough, so the word is left off.
- A grey spinner with something like "2 sub-agents": the turn has ended but helpers or jobs it started are still going.
- Needs you, in orange: the agent has stopped partway through to ask you something, to get your OK for a command or an edit, or for you to pick between some designs it showed you. Open the thread to answer.
- A time: the thread is idle. After a while Threadbear stops an idle thread's agent to save memory, and your next message starts it again where it left off.
- Failed: the last turn ended with an error. Read the thread to see why, and send a message to try again.
- Stopped: the runner restarted while the thread was busy.
- Waiting for room, with a time: every login it could use has hit its limit (see Accounts, pools and Usage). It carries on by itself when one has room again.
Reading a reply
When an agent finishes a piece of work, its reply is a few short bullets of what it did, with what it needs from you (or "Nothing needed from you") under them. When its last message says more than the bullets (an explanation you asked for, a report), that message is the reply instead, and the bullets fold away with the work. Everything it did to get there, its notes, thinking, commands and edits, is one line above the reply, "Worked for 2m 13s": click it to open it. Pictures it made stay out, as they're often the answer. When the agent carries on by itself after that (to check its change once the app restarts, say), the follow-up joins the same line and its bullets replace the earlier ones, so there's still one reply to read. A link with ↑ after it goes to the step it's about: click it and the work opens there, with that step lit up. A link to another thread opens that thread.
A reply that needs nothing from you ends with a "Nothing needed from you" card, with an Archive thread button to put it away. When something it talked about is still worth doing (a piece it didn't get to, a check that's due), the card has a button for each, and clicking one puts it in the message box to send or change. When the reply does need you, the card lists what to do, with a box to tick off beside each one; the same list is near the top of the thread's Highlights.
Inside a thread, rest the pointer on a link for a moment, in a reply or on a Needs you card's buttons, to see where it goes: a picture of the file, or the page's address. Click it to open it.
To share a file somewhere else, drag it out of the app: a file link in a reply, a picture in the transcript, a file in Highlights, or the picture or video showing in the side pane. It drops as the file itself, so you can drag a clip straight into a post on X, or onto the Finder. A web link drags out as its address.