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The AI Assistant chat is a conversational interface built directly into Layest, giving you a live channel to interact with any agent your workspace has configured. Whether you need a quick answer, want to kick off a multi-step workflow, or are iterating on a prompt in real time, the chat panel keeps everything in one place — no context switching required.

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Opening the Chat Panel

The chat panel is accessible from anywhere inside Layest. Click the Assistant icon in the left navigation bar, or press Cmd+K (Mac) / Ctrl+K (Windows/Linux) to open it as an overlay. The panel slides in from the right and stays docked until you close it, so you can chat while viewing dashboards, agent configs, or logs at the same time. To expand the chat to full-screen mode, click the Expand icon in the top-right corner of the panel. Press Esc or click Collapse to return to the docked view.

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Starting a New Conversation

Each conversation is an independent session with a single agent. To begin:
1

Open the chat panel

Click the Assistant icon in the left nav or press Cmd+K / Ctrl+K.
2

Select an agent

Use the agent picker at the top of the panel to choose which agent you want to talk to. Your pinned agents appear first.
3

Type your first message

Click the input field at the bottom of the panel, type your message, and press Enter to send. Press Shift+Enter to add a line break without sending.
Each new session is saved automatically to your conversation history so you can revisit it later.

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Chat Features

The chat input supports rich formatting, attachments, and structured output — making it easy to work with complex information without leaving the conversation.

Message Formatting

Use Markdown in your messages: bold, italic, inline code, and bulleted lists are all rendered in the response pane. This is especially useful when asking the agent to produce structured output.

Code Blocks

Wrap code in triple backticks (```) with a language tag for syntax highlighting. Agents recognise fenced code and will respond with properly formatted code blocks of their own.

File Attachments

Click the Attach icon (paperclip) or drag and drop a file into the input area to upload documents, CSVs, or images. The agent uses the attached file as context for its response.

Citations

When an agent draws from a connected knowledge source, it appends inline citation markers to its response. Hover over a citation to preview the source, or click it to open the full document.

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Supported Attachment Types

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Switching Between Agents

You can change the active agent mid-session without losing your current conversation thread. Click the agent name in the header of the chat panel to open the agent picker, then select a different agent. Layest creates a new conversation branch with the selected agent while keeping the original session intact in your history.
Switching agents does not carry over the conversation context automatically. If you want the new agent to have context from your previous messages, copy and paste the relevant excerpts into your first message to the new agent.

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@-Mentions and Slash Commands

You can invoke specific behaviours without navigating away from the chat using @-mentions and slash commands. @-mentions reference a named agent, integration, or data source inline:
Slash commands trigger built-in actions in the current conversation: Type / in the input field to see the full list of available commands for the active agent.

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Keyboard Shortcuts

Work faster without reaching for the mouse:
Pin your most-used agents for instant access. Open the agent picker, hover over any agent, and click the Pin icon (📌). Pinned agents appear at the top of the picker and in the quick-launch bar at the bottom of the chat panel — saving you several clicks every session.